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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by archfeld on Monday January 16 2017, @04:45AM

    by archfeld (4650) <treboreel@live.com> on Monday January 16 2017, @04:45AM (#454264) Journal

    My favorite story arc is definitely The Chronicles of Amber. There are countless excellent series out there from Foundation, to Recluce, and Dune to Thomas Covenant, but I am forever hooked to Corwin of Amber.

    --
    For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
    Starting Score:    1  point
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    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Monday January 16 2017, @06:06AM

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 16 2017, @06:06AM (#454274) Journal

    Yes, this is my "other" as well - Zelazny's Amber. I started reading an ostensibly science fiction story (that's how someone recommended it to me) and ended up reading a story with wyverns and swords that were called by name. I'm not much into fantasy, but this is not only a good read but also a good re-read. Always something new to discover.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 18 2017, @03:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 18 2017, @03:50PM (#455460)

    >Amber

    Anything with bunnies and automatic weapons has my vote !

  • (Score: 2) by termigator on Tuesday January 24 2017, @08:47PM

    by termigator (4271) on Tuesday January 24 2017, @08:47PM (#458256)

    Agreed. Zelazny had a writing style that is fun and with good pace. Much of today's writing is over verbose and bloated, likely due to publishers requiring so many pages per book. I red the Amber series to my son at bedtime, and he really enjoyed it. IIRC, I read the books from grade school to high school.

    I do prefer the books with Corwin as the main protagonist. I thought the quality dropped a bit with Merlin as the main character, but Ghostwheel was interesting since it was a creation of computers and magic.

    It would be completely cool if the Amber universe got translated into a premium TV series like GoT. I think the Amber books provides a richer source of material than the GoT books.

    • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday January 26 2017, @11:52PM

      by bzipitidoo (4388) on Thursday January 26 2017, @11:52PM (#459213) Journal

      I like Amber, but Zelazny wrote so much more than that. He has several Hugo and Nebula Award winners: Lord of Light, This Immortal, and some short stories. A personal favorite is the short story For a Breath I Tarry. Sure, it's a blatant retelling of Faust, with the main character named Frost, but it's still fun all the same. I very much enjoyed the art discussion.

      For those who've read Lord of Light, I have one nagging question. One of the characters picks a fight he knows he can't win, to send a message. To whom and what the message was is not revealed, and I've long wondered what it could be. The other characters can't figure that one out either, and can't ask him because he didn't survive the fight. However they didn't spend much time on that subject. Maybe an astute reader can figure it out? Anyone have any idea? I have several guesses.

      • (Score: 2) by termigator on Friday January 27 2017, @04:47PM

        by termigator (4271) on Friday January 27 2017, @04:47PM (#459543)

        I have Lord of Light, but have yet to read it, so cannot help you on your question. Actually, I think I strated to read it when I was very young, but never finished it. Maybe time to try again ;)

        I know of his other works since I own several of his books. My mom allowed me to join the science fiction book club when I was in grade school, so I amassed a modest science fiction and fantasy collection since the late 70s (she eventually gave me the books she had purchased). At the time, the club was a way to get past works of the classic writers. Have not been part of the club in a long time. Got disinterested in the later offerings and the rise of Internet commerce made it obsolete.

        • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday January 27 2017, @06:23PM

          by bzipitidoo (4388) on Friday January 27 2017, @06:23PM (#459609) Journal

          Lord of Light does have a reputation as a difficult book. At the start, Zelazny dives right into the middle of the story, and for a while the poor reader has little to no idea what's going on. Readers unfamiliar with Zelazny's penchant for telling stories out of chronological order, or awareness of fashionable literary devices, won't know to suspect this is another of those, which it is. Nor will the unfamiliar reader quite be able to tell immediately if this one is hard core fantasy or not. In Zelazny's Creatures of Light and Darkness, the characters are the gods and demigods of the Egyptian pantheon who sometimes use devices that are not clearly wholly magical or wholly scientific. Lord of Light features the Hindu pantheon. There are clues which are much clearer in hindsight, but I'll say no more, don't want to spoil the story for you.

      • (Score: 2) by archfeld on Sunday January 29 2017, @02:16AM

        by archfeld (4650) <treboreel@live.com> on Sunday January 29 2017, @02:16AM (#460048) Journal

        Another favorite is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Hound_and_the_World's_Pain [wikipedia.org] by Michael Moorcock, and
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job:_A_Comedy_of_Justice [wikipedia.org] by Robert Heinlein.

        --
        For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
  • (Score: 2) by Marand on Saturday January 28 2017, @01:35PM

    by Marand (1081) on Saturday January 28 2017, @01:35PM (#459870) Journal

    My favorite story arc is definitely The Chronicles of Amber.

    I came here to mention this one as well. My two favourite stories are Amber and C. J. Cherryh's Morgaine Cycle (four books). I went into both not expecting very much, and by the end of each I was enthralled with the settings and characters. They're completely opposite in style and I hold them both in high regard.

    Runners up would be C. S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy and Eddings' Sparhawk and Belgariad books.

    • (Score: 2) by archfeld on Sunday January 29 2017, @12:58AM

      by archfeld (4650) <treboreel@live.com> on Sunday January 29 2017, @12:58AM (#460000) Journal

      I had forgotten about the Coldfire series, that was dark but a very good read. I was very fond Dave Duncan's A man of his Word series also.

      Another one I'd forgotten was Piers Anthony https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apprentice_Adept [wikipedia.org]
      It crossed the Sci-Fi/Fantasy line quite entertainingly as well.

      --
      For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
      • (Score: 2) by Marand on Sunday January 29 2017, @06:39PM

        by Marand (1081) on Sunday January 29 2017, @06:39PM (#460336) Journal

        Coldfire was great, though I hated the ending, which marred the memories a bit. Still, excellent books up until the finish. I apparently missed Duncan; I did read some of Anthony's Xanth stuff, but preferred Robert Lynn Asprin's MythAdventures and Thieves' World work more.

        I can't suggest Cherryh's Morgaine Cycle strongly enough, however. It seemed like it was going to be generic fantasy novel fluff at the start, but the writer did an excellent job having the complexities of the setting unfold over time, so that the reader learns more as the main character does. I know that's vague, but explaining it better would take away from it.

        I remember the Amber books doing something similar, but in that case the perception of the characters changed more than the setting. Corwin started out seeming like an overpowered Mary Sue to me, but as the story unfolded, I saw that he wasn't especially powerful compared to the other important characters; rather, the perception of his power was intentionally tied to how the story revealed the setting and changed the scope of the plot.

        Thinking about it, Coldfire sort of did a similar play on perception, presenting a fantasy story that was built off a soft sci-fi underpinning and revealing more of it over time. I guess I just find that sort of writing sleight-of-hand intriguing. It's like the storytelling equivalent of an ant learning there's an entire world outside its anthill. It's not an easy way to tell a story, but pays off IMO when it works.

        The Morgaine Cycle books also were memorable to me because the main characters generally tried to avoid trouble. There was a goal to be met, and that drove the progression, and suspense in the story often came from the main characters trying to avoid unnecessary conflict along the way. It gave it a different sort of feel than most sci-fi and fantasy stuff.

        • (Score: 2) by archfeld on Monday January 30 2017, @04:43AM

          by archfeld (4650) <treboreel@live.com> on Monday January 30 2017, @04:43AM (#460517) Journal

          Xanth was not one of my favorite settings, seemed teeny bopper, and relied far to much on puns, Anthony's bio of a space tyrant and the apprentice/adept series were both excellent. I loved Skeeve's adventures and the Thieves world original anthology was excellent.
          I've recently read the Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne, very good, and the Dresden files by Jim Butcher were also excellent reads.
          If you haven't read the Number of the Beast by Robert Heinlein I'd suggest it. As part of the plot huge numbers of worthwhile books and writers universes are mentioned. It is a veritable what's what and whose who in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy world.

          --
          For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
          • (Score: 2) by Marand on Tuesday January 31 2017, @01:27AM

            by Marand (1081) on Tuesday January 31 2017, @01:27AM (#460914) Journal

            Xanth was not one of my favorite settings, seemed teeny bopper, and relied far to much on puns

            The puns were the best part. (I know, I'm a horrible person...) Didn't care so much for the rest of it, but didn't hate it either. I always had mixed emotions about both Anthony's work and Jack L. Chalker's. The latter had some interesting settings and concepts (like The Wonderland Gambit) but it seemed like everything he wrote had to have some sort of unwilling physical character transformations, to the point that it seemed like some kind of author fetish. He was a pretty good author aside from that, though.

            Thieves world original anthology was excellent.

            The one I read was Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn. Never found any of the others, but it was good enough that I still fondly remember the setting and style of it. It's what got me reading RLA; I only later found the MythAdventures stuff.

            Haven't read any of the others named. I had to pack up all my books for a move a while back, don't have space to unpack them still, and it really fucked up my reading habit. Can't check what I already own so it makes me reluctant to get more. I miss my bookshelves. :/

            • (Score: 2) by archfeld on Tuesday January 31 2017, @05:20PM

              by archfeld (4650) <treboreel@live.com> on Tuesday January 31 2017, @05:20PM (#461313) Journal

              I recently sold my house and in the process sold nearly 3000 old colored spine paperbacks, and close to that many newer nearly worthless paperbacks and hardbacks, so I know your pain. I've since acquired a Kindle eReader and have a kindle unlimited subscription which I've grown to absolutely love. Nothing can replace the tactile feel and smell of a book, but my apartment and life simply doesn't have the space for a physical library like I used to.

              --
              For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
              • (Score: 2) by Marand on Wednesday February 01 2017, @02:58AM

                by Marand (1081) on Wednesday February 01 2017, @02:58AM (#461535) Journal

                Oh yeah, that sucks. At least I still have my books, even if I can't get at them right now.

                I looked into going the ebook route for the convenience and space-saving -- plus I find ebooks offer enough advantages over paperbacks to be worth losing the tactile aspect -- but getting older stuff in ebook form can be a pain in the ass, at least legally. Doesn't matter if I'm willing to pay twice for the same book for the convenience, if nobody will make it available :/