Abercrombie/Lynch/Rothfuss/Abraham/Ruckley

[Jaxom 1974]

Interesting how some of these comments and rankings can be so topsy turvy without any clear concensus. That's gotta be a good thing, right?

1a. Lynch

1b. Ambercrombie

3. Rothfuss

4. Rcukley

Haven't read Abraham and haven't been compelled to seek him out yet, despite some of the praise I've seen here. His stuff just didn't jump out at me.

[kcf]

I'll add my voice here...

1. Abercrombie

2. Rothfuss

3. Lynch

4. Ruckley

I haven't read Abraham yet.

[Lord Baelish]

1) Abercrombie - such a fun read with so many engaging characters. Love the series.

.

.

.

2) Lynch - pretty good books, but rather predictable. Hopefully once the over-arching storyline becomes apparent it will pick up.

3) Ruckley - only finished reading Winterbirth a couple of days. It was OK, but nothing special. Again, it was predictable, and Orisian is a walking cliché machine. But at least Aeglyss is quite an interesting character. I'm interested enough to want to read the next book.

Haven't read the other two, though Rothfuss is on my To Read pile.

[kcf]

I got bored so I wrote this blog post. I made up a quick graph of the results here (thanks to whoever it was who added things up for a majority of the thread).

[RedEyedGhost]

[hijack]

My rounded out list of five of high fantasy new authors would be:

4.Sarah Micklem -- following the one book out and more on the way, she packs a punch that puts her on par with Ruckley if not Rothfuss. Of course as she has a vagina she probably scares every readeer whose testicles haven't quite descended yet and still hit falsetto when startled.

5.Lane Robins. dOes what Abercrombie and Lynch like to think they do. Actually create a character whose is morally ambiguous at best and severely flawed in a way that is interesting and compelling and at time sjust plain fun.

I checked these both out on amazon and they look pretty good (both are now on the wishlist). The Micklem book is listed as the first of a trilogy, but it came out in '04 and there are no other listings for her... do you know if the series will be finished any time soon?

And is the Robins book part of a series?

Thanks for any info you have.

[/hijack]

[Joe Abercrombie]

Joe's head is going to get even bigger when he reads this thread. What have we all done? What have we done!!?

You heartless bastards! Don't you know I already have serious neck problems from trying to hold up the colossal weight? I'm going to need to get all the doorways in my house widened again. What the hell are you doing to me?

Thank the merciful heavens for gyrehead, always willing to apply some soothing ice to my swelling cranium.

Timing's important with this kind of thing, I think, and I feel like we're all at different points in terms of releases, which makes it hard to compare and definitely favours me right now (although obviously my incandescent brilliance is another big factor). Rothfuss and Ruckley only have one book out so far, and there's a big difference in terms of exposure and reader confidence between being one book in and being two (kind of three in my case, since a few people have already read my third). It'll be interesting to see how Ruckley's second book goes down later this year. Rothfuss is perhaps a tad on the commercial side for some of the highly developed tastes of this board, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's shifted more units in the US than the rest of us put together. I must say I'm surprised to score over Scott, though, especially here where he's always seemed a firm favourite. Abraham I somehow think of as part of a different group - maybe because he's been around a while in the states but only just getting published in the UK.

Just my thoughts. Not that anyone asked.

I'll go, shall I?

[The Iceman of the North]

Where's your ranking, Joe? If you want to contribute to this thread, do so.

[Joe Abercrombie]

Where's your ranking, Joe? If you want to contribute to this thread, do so.

Well, I've read all of Abercrombie's books several times, and I thought they were flipping excellent. Strangest thing - he writes just exactly the way that I like, and something about it all just speaks to me personally in a way that no other author can. I warmly recommend his work to all and sundry and am really stoked about Last Argument of Kings, which I understand will be in all good UK bookstores from March 20th. A roughly simultaneous release with the US edition of Before They are Hanged, as it happens.

Of the others, I haven't read enough to have a significant opinion. I don't like commenting on other people's books in any case. Bit close to the bone. I will say there seems to be a lot of interesting stuff going on in epic fantasy, though, you lucky, lucky people.

[Lawrence]

Interrupting before Joe converts every last mammal on earth to his new found religion Abercrombianity;

I'd rate the four (haven't read Abraham efforts not yet) thus:

1. Lynch -- RSUS was a bit disappointing, but still wasn't a bad sequel. I mean, it could have been much worse. The reason why the book generated less enthusiatic reactions than its precedessor is because of the high expectations after Lies. As for Lynch's debut, I think it is hands down the best of the pack (from what I have read of course).

2. Abercrombie -- Only read The Blade Itself so far, so I'm hesitating a bit to give my opinion here. But based solely on The Blade Itself, I'd say Abercrombie is slightly overrated. The first one was solid, but as someone earlier rightfully pointed out 'twisted cliches are still cliches'. Then again, when I finish Before They Are Hanged I might have to change my opinion. I don't mind, surprise me.

3. Ruckley -- yet another "solid" one (but a bit bland as well), yet Ruckley didn't even try to twist cliches as he wrote a pretty standard fantasy novel that doesn't bring anything new to the genre. Maybe if Bloodheir is a huge step up from Winterbirth, I'd give it a go. Otherwise I will not even bother about it.

4. Rothfuss -- Imo, The Name of the Wind is the primary candidate for the most Overrated Fantasy Novel of 2007. Rothfuss' indulges in fantasy tropes it almost seems and the inconsistencies did not make it any better. I'm leaning heavily towards the point of view Happy Ent was advocating in the Rothfuss' thread.

[Larry.]

I figure this might boost Joe's ego even more

The Blade Itself and Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie (heroic fantasy, gritty–I kinda sped through the first one and then had to read the second quickly, too, and I want to be more leisurely and savor the really cool stuff about both)

[The Wolf Maid]

Interrupting before Joe converts every last mammal on earth to his new found religion Abercrombianity;

Wait, there's a religion like that? Where do people sign up?

[Larry.]

I think it's linked to on Tom Cruise's website

[Shryke]

I figured I'd get in one this action:

1. Lynch

2. <blank>

Haven't read any of the other 4 guys. I'll get around to it eventually.

Way to go Scott, you win by default.

[Mauvka]

1. Lynch--I loved wit in the Gentlmen Bastards sequence

2. Abraham--just recently read his stuf; I really enjoyed the eastern flair to his worldbuilding

3. Rothfuss--entertaining read, generic world

I haven't read Abercrombie or Ruckley yet

[Dakkon Blackblade]

1. Lynch

2. Abercrombie

[gyrehead]

[hijack]

I checked these both out on amazon and they look pretty good (both are now on the wishlist). The Micklem book is listed as the first of a trilogy, but it came out in '04 and there are no other listings for her... do you know if the series will be finished any time soon?

And is the Robins book part of a series?

Thanks for any info you have.

[/hijack]

The Robins book is a stand alone but written in a way that she could do more. With the main character or the world. she definitely leaves it open but not unfinished.

Micklem just announced the other day that she has finally finished Wildfire though I'm not sure if she has done so in time for the still listed August release date. I'm thinking it might make early 2009 isntead. But would welcome it much earlier.

[RedEyedGhost]

The Robins book is a stand alone but written in a way that she could do more. With the main character or the world. she definitely leaves it open but not unfinished.

Micklem just announced the other day that she has finally finished Wildfire though I'm not sure if she has done so in time for the still listed August release date. I'm thinking it might make early 2009 isntead. But would welcome it much earlier.

Excellent! Thanks for the info, and I'll definitely check both of these out.

[Lawrence]

Wait, there's a religion like that? Where do people sign up?

No need to sign up anywhere. Just hang around on this board most of your time (you seem to be doing okay ) and thy will be converted through the sermons- eh the plugging of the One Priest of Abercrombianity. Really beautiful system come to think of it, you just hang back passively and you're being converted before you even consciously realise it. Strange powers at work here, though...

Then again, the religion might fail because its name could so easily be corrupted to Abercromb-insanity.

I think it's linked to on Tom Cruise's website

Don't steal my thunder! Although I admit it's good one.

[Calibandar]

Well, assuming the thread has run it's course, more or less, the final tallied results are:

1) Joe Abercrombie.

2) Scott Lynch

3) Rothfuss, Ruckley and Abraham.

The difference between Abercrombie and Lynch is quite substantial, but the gap between Lynch and the others is huge, comparatively.

Of the authors mentioned here, Daniel Abraham is by quite a margin the least read. At the same time he has scored more no. 1 spots than either Rothfuss or Ruckley. Also, Rothfuss, Ruckley and Abraham are so close together there's almost no difference so they all end up third. Ruckley is consistently rated as midlist.

[Happy Ent]

Another way to tally is: who do people most dislike? Rothfuss by far is the author who takes bottom spot most often.

# times an author is ranked last (excluding lists that rank only one or two):

Abercrombie: 1

Lynch: 5

Abraham: 6

Ruckley: 10

Rothfuss: 19

So in almost half of the rankings, Rothfuss takes bottom spot.

Of course, some people have "I loved them all", and others have placed "gap" in their rankings, and this tally doesn't differentiate between those. This is further skewed by the fact that a lot of people have actually read Rothfuss, so he's bound to turn up more.

I haven't tallied the number of times a book is "actively disliked" (like "I won't read the sequel" or "bored me to death" or "didn't have sentient trees in it"), but my feeling is that Ruckley and Rothfuss win that contest.