A Game of Thrones - Interview @ GameBanshee

RA Salvatore, Terry Brooks and Raymond e. Feist are my favorites.

Unlike Martin, they release their books in a timely fashion
 
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RA Salvatore, Terry Brooks and Raymond e. Feist are my favorites.

Unlike Martin, they release their books in a timely fashion

The first two aren't even in the same league as Martin, hard to believe you even mentioned them.

As for stephen king, some of his latest stuff I have really enjoyed..under the dome was a good read and I hear his latest batch of short stories is really good.
 
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As for stephen king, some of his latest stuff I have really enjoyed..under the dome was a good read and I hear his latest batch of short stories is really good.

Because taste is extremely selective thats why I mentioned it and said that they were my favorites.
Martin is so boring and he keeps doing the same thing over and over.
Should be a fantasy soap opera serial if there was such a genre.
 
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Have you read anything by Robin Hobb ? From what I've read so far I like… and she is a much better writer than your typical fantasy author( I must reckon I did not read much fantasy for the last 10 years)

Hobb is one of the best out there (one of the only authors Erikson will admit to liking). I didn't care as much for her Liveship series, but the rest of her works are stellar. I must also agree with Rune: I have not liked Brooks or Salvatore since I was in my early teens, and Feist should have quit while he was ahead, instead of taking the Eddings route of milking a series ad nauseum. As to authors releasing their books in a timely manor, I would much rather wait for perfection than deal with the Salvatore 2-3 books a year drivel: The Name of the Wind took 7 or 8 years to write, which becomes apparent within the first few pages.
 
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I wasn't the one who mentioned them, just surprised someone saw them as great writers.
 
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Well, keep waiting.

As for "The name of the Wind" I have to agree with the previous poster; what an over-hyped,boring book.
 
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While Tolkien inspired the genre, Brooks stated at the Charlotte Literary Festival that he credits the inspiration of his style of writing to William Faulkner's works. With this inspiration, he then made his debut in 1977 with his first novel The Sword of Shannara.[5] This novel became the first fantasy book ever to appear on the New York Times bestseller list, where it stayed for five months.[5]

First fantasy book to appear on the NY Times best seller list? Out of how many before him? Come on, the guys good and has a proven track record.

Martin has received more awards. He has crapped on his fans for years promising to release that next book and keeps postponing. Procrastination is the issue not perfection.
 
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Because taste is extremely selective thats why I mentioned it and said that they were my favorites.
Martin is so boring and he keeps doing the same thing over and over.
Should be a fantasy soap opera serial if there was such a genre.

What has Martin done over and over? I'm really interested in what you think, because I don't see that at all. I think that Martin has turned the High/Epic Fantasy genre on it's head with his focus on developed, multi-layered, non-cliched, character driven narrative. Almost all of the characters that you'd expect to be the "heroes" in his story are dead, one of the most influential (and I suspect most important in coming books) characters is a dwarf, and I don't mean the kind that has a beard and drinks beer. His magic system is understated and subtle, not the lights and fireworks affair you see everywhere else. He's doesn't pull any literary punches, like nearly every other PG-13 fantasy writer out there. Sex, conflict, and death are rendered with a realism and weight that you don't see in many other books of its kind.

Again, assuming he doesn't lose his mind, I don't see any reason why this series couldn't be one of the best fantasy epics ever written.
 
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First fantasy book to appear on the NY Times best seller list? Out of how many before him? Come on, the guys good and has a proven track record.

Martin has received more awards. He has crapped on his fans for years promising to release that next book and keeps postponing. Procrastination is the issue not perfection.

Brooks has an impressive catalog, no doubt, but his Shannara series was as derivative as it comes, as far as fantasy writing is concerned. Just because one of his books was the first fantasy novel on the NYT bestseller list doesn't mean anything. Lots and lots of people in this country watch The Jersey Shore. Doesn't make it the best television program that has ever existed.

Martin has released 4 books in a genre where you can make bank as long as you have a dark, brooding protagonist, a hot chick that impresses people with her hotness (or her dagger fighting skills) and a wisecracking, sagacious, and possibly insane member of the AARP. He could have crapped on his fans by releasing 15 re-treads of stuff that Eddings did 25 years ago, but he's not. He's writing books that, while infuriating in their release frequency, are at least not the same dreck that I see plastering the shelves at B&N.
 
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I'm really looking forward to the mini-series - GoT is a favourite, although it does tend to drag at times. As for a GoT game…it would be easy to screw up. I'm also not clear on *who* you would play? One of the principal characters? The main characters are already too well defined in my mind for me to 'role play' them in a way that suited me.

@Bundyo - yes, Earthsea was (is) great. Haven't read it for years - I read LeGuin's last Earthsea book recently,though, and didn't enjoy that very much. I've read so many books over the years that I really value those which don't respect all the usual tropes. I particularly like Joe Abercrombie's series based on the cynical Inquisitor Glokta - wicked stuff ;-) But again, his latest book, Heroes, just doesn't seem that interesting - almost like he's trying too hard.
 
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The TV series seems to be shaping up into something decent. Even Martin himself likes what he has seen so far. At the very least it'll not be butchered, like the earthsea novels were.
The games hovewer will be a blatant license based moneymilking affair. There was never any doubt about that.

Martin has released 4 books in a genre where you can make bank as long as you have a dark, brooding protagonist, a hot chick that impresses people with her hotness (or her dagger fighting skills) and a wisecracking, sagacious, and possibly insane member of the AARP. He could have crapped on his fans by releasing 15 re-treads of stuff that Eddings did 25 years ago, but he's not. He's writing books that, while infuriating in their release frequency, are at least not the same dreck that I see plastering the shelves at B&N.

QFT. Writer's block is temporary, but bad fantasy is eternal.
 
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Yes, book 4 was a disappointment. Too much meandering around, traveling through grim wilderness, etc. But I am a huge fan of these books.

I hadn't read a single fantasy or sci-fi book in probably 15-20 years, then a few years back I picked up Game of Thrones based on something I read online. Blew me away. Loved it from the start, and read them all voraciously.

Hungering for more, I started looking for other fantasy recommendations. I have been disappointed by every single one I tried. I read all three Abercrombie books, which by the end were extremely tiring. I felt he simply adored and copied Martin's style but just didn't pull off an interesting story, and the brutality and sadism in his books seems like an added on selling point versus a natural part of the book.

I tried reading Lies of Locke Lamora, and just lost interest. The opening parts were pretty good, but it didn't hold up. I tried reading Name of the Wind. I can't believe how much praise that book gets. It was competently written, but so drawn out and tedious in stupid minute details, and the main character is an unrealistic super-human who excels in every aspect of his life. I read Tad Williams Dragonbone Chair which I enjoyed a bit, but after the first book it got less and less interesting. I tried reading a couple Erickson Malazan books and thought they had some interesting ideas, but were a horrible mess of a chaotic jumble. I pretty much hated what I read of him.

I've since accepted that the fantasy genre is just not for me. Outside of GRR Martin, I haven't found a single modern fantasy author whose books I like. MArtin is a great story teller, and is excellent at moving the story along and dragging you in for a good ride, like Stephen King. Neither King nor Martin will ever be considered among the greatest authors ever, but both are extremely skilled at writing and imagination.

In fact, that's where Feast for Crows fell apart for me — the pacing. It didn't have the fun thrill ride pace as the other books with cliffhanger first person chapters making you want more. The fact that he was still introducing new characters out of nowhere that far along in the story makes me think his publishers made him fatten and pad out the books to sell more product. I don't have much faith that the series will ever end very satisfactorily, but I do have hope that it will.

Try J. V. Jones "Sword of Shadows" series and Greg Keyes "Kingdom of Thorn and Bone" series. Amazing stuff. The Keyes series was concluded recently and the Jones stuff is ongoing. If you like Martin you are likely to like these.
 
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The games hovewer will be a blatant license based moneymilking affair. There was never any doubt about that.

Now that seems awfully dismissive. This is the first English-language coverage of the game. What are you basing "blatant license based moneymilking" on? What facts made it so that there was "never any doubt about that"?

I'm also not clear on *who* you would play? One of the principal characters? The main characters are already too well defined in my mind for me to 'role play' them in a way that suited me.

You play two new characters, as far as I understood it.
 
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I hate towering authors which dominate the whole genre because everyone says "they're oh so great you just HAVE to read them and EVERYTHING else is just crap".


Besides, there's also a collecting crd game out there, called "Game Of Two Thrones" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Game_of_Thrones_(card_game)
 
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Now that seems awfully dismissive. This is the first English-language coverage of the game. What are you basing "blatant license based moneymilking" on? What facts made it so that there was "never any doubt about that"?

Well, maybe i was a bit too harsh. My main cause of concern was the fact, that the developer has simply not done proper RPG-s before. Sports sims and soulless Diablo clones can't be a good training ground for a soon-to-be RPG developer.
 
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Try J. V. Jones "Sword of Shadows" series and Greg Keyes "Kingdom of Thorn and Bone" series. Amazing stuff. The Keyes series was concluded recently and the Jones stuff is ongoing. If you like Martin you are likely to like these.

Is JV Jones the series where it's a tribal setting at first in an ice world with lots of dark magic and stuff?

EDIT: looked it up ...OMG it is....thank yous o much wanted to read it again and could not remember the series. Will check them out after finishing martins stuff again.
 
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Yup great series no doubt. Raif and the heart kill, the Dog Lord, Ash, the Rift and poor Tengo Ten Shot. I haven't read the latest one but the first three were pretty amazing.
 
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