Abercrombie/Lynch/Rothfuss/Abraham/Ruckley

[Multaniette]

If I were to talk about active dislike then Rothfuss would, err, top that quite easily. The fact that such a shitty story has so many fans is pretty much inexplicable to me. At least Abercrombie writes half-competently and Ruckley sorta knows his limitations.

[The Wolf Maid]

DF,

Why do I get the feeling you'll be seeing Glokta and Practical Frost and Sevrard by your doorstep soon?

Lawrence,

Ah. Thanks for explaining that bit.

Rothfuss I could stand until he arrived at the university. Things went downhill for me after that.

[Larry.]

Who knows? Maybe they'll blast out a chord or two of "Hell's Bells" for me?

[The Wolf Maid]

Who knows? Maybe they'll blast out a chord or two of "Hell's Bells" for me?

It was nice knowing you, DF.

[Larry.]

Bah, they can't do away with Tairy's Antichrist as easily as that...it'd just be a serenade, right? Power ballad, maybe?

[henderson]

I have not read Mr. Abercrombie's books. The ranking of the of four authors are as follows:

1. Lynch -- Even though "Reds Seas Under Red Skies" was not as strong as "The Lies of Locke Lamora." Really looking forward to reading "Reppublic of Thieves."

2. Rothfuss -- Great writer and main character is compelling, but the plot and secondary characters need to fleshed out a bit more.

3. Ruckey -- Not a bad story, but nothing memorable. Still on the fence about reading the next book in the series.

4. Abraham -- Could not finish the first book. Did not like the main character.

[IheartTesla]

I've only read Lynch and Abercrombie (although I did place an order for Ruckley because I had to get my amazon cart above $25...but I digress). I feel Abe is ahead of Lynch a fair bit, but let's face it, neither of them is subverting or turning fantasy cliches on their head. Some of Abercrombie's characters are much more fleshed out and memorable in my opinion (Glotka and Logen). I couldnt say the same for Lynch.

Anyone else visualize Lamora as Scott Lynch - a long haired rake with a devil-may-care attitude? Just me then?

Edit: I forgot to mention that the hardcovers for all these new authors are too bloody expensive. And the paperbacks for many of their books are coming out later in the year. Thats why I havent read Lynch II for example.

[The Wolf Maid]

Anyone else visualize Lamora as Scott Lynch - a long haired rake with a devil-may-care attitude? Just me then?

Nope. It's not just you.

[Rhaco]

1) Rothfuss

2) Abercrombie / Ruckley

4) Lynch

5) Abraham

Lynch would probably be higher if I hadn't read Red Seas.

I've only read the first book in each of the other authors' series. I didn't quite like Abercrombie's enough to order the second book from the UK, but I'll definitely buy it, as well as Rothfuss' and Ruckley's follow-ups, when they're published in the US. Abraham's didn't thrill me much at all, so I'm probably done with that series.

[automne]

1. Abercrombie.

.

2. Lynch and Ruckey

I haven't read Rothfuss and Abraham yet.

[oneeye]

/cheer Joe

[romison]

1)Abercrombie

2) Lynch

3) Rothfuss

[Lies And Perfidy]

I haven't read this Abraham fellow, but seeing him (her?) listed with four authors I've enjoyed is intriguing. Tell me more.

Oh, as for the list, if you take Abraham's name out of the title of this thread that's pretty much the order.

Joe's trilogy kinda blew my mind; one of my close friends at work has been reading it and we've basically spent a couple hours of paperwork every morning for the past month discussing her progress (she finally finished, rejoice.) My boss yelled at us for it this week. Joe, please don't get me fired.

And before that, we did the same thing with the Locke books, which are just the most purely enjoyable things I've read for years. Really looking forward to the third. It's hard for me to decide who I like more; Joe only wins cause I'm such a fucking cynic. But Scott has more Crowning Moments of Awesome packed into one book than any author should be able to get away with, and he gets away with it.

I really enjoyed The Name of the Wind and would probably have enjoyed it more if I didn't fucking loathe the female lead. Something about that character sets my teeth on edge. Either way, though, a hell of a read with a very unique magic system. Plus Pat's beard is majestic and a little scary. I'll be picking up the second one so it doesn't eat me.

Mr. Ruckley is a bit further down, sad to say, just because the Godless World series the most straightforward-fantasy of the lot and lacks a certain...humor? But still a worthwhile read. Cool world-building and the primary villain is extremely effective.

[RedEyedGhost]

My order would be:

1a. Abercrombie

1b. Lynch

3. Abraham (almost 1c.)

4. Rothfuss

I haven't read Ruckley, yet.

With this nice little thread necromancy, I went back and found my old list. What a difference a year can make:

1. Abraham - An Autumn War was the best book I read last year.

2. Abercrombie - Last Argument of Kings was very good too.

3. Lynch - hmm... I didn't read a Lynch book last year

4. Rothfuss - nor a Rothfuss...

Still haven't read Ruckley.

[Arthmail]

I too see Lynch within Lamora...but then, i hated the book, so perhaps my bias is coming out. I also didn't like Ruckley, and have yet to tackle Abraham or Roethfuss...soo...

1)Joe

2)Joe

3)Joe

4)Ruckley

5)Lynch

[automne]

With this nice little thread necromancy, I went back and found my old list. What a difference a year can make:

1. Abraham - An Autumn War was the best book I read last year.

[...]

same here.

1. Abercrombie.

.

2. Lynch and Ruckey

I haven't read Rothfuss and Abraham yet.

I have read Mr Abraham he is now on top of my list as I have enormously enjoyed his books and am looking forward to the 4th installment of The Long Prince Quartet.

[irriadin]

1. Rothfuss

2. Lynch

Haven't read the others yet, but I have their books on my stack (apart from Abraham.)

I'm not quite sure why people are convinced that Rothfuss is considerably worse than Lynch. tLoLL, while very entertaining, was fairly derivative and the plot became somewhat nonsensical at the end. I haven't read the sequel, but from what I've heard it's not as good as tLoLL.

[TheEvilKing]

1. Abercrombie

2. Lynch - However these two could switch after Lynch's next book. But then again, Best Served Cold is coming up this year...

GAP

3. Rothfuss - Not too impressed with Name of the Wind but there's a lot of potential there. Give him two more books and I'll see how he ranks against the top two.

4. Ruckley - A similarly average debut like Rothfuss - however, apart from the half-breed character, nothing made me want to read the next book. The main protaganist dude is pretty lame. It's hit or miss whether I'll buy Bloodheir at some point.

Haven't read any Abraham.

[Procrastimancer]

1. Abercrombie, but grudgingly so.

2. Lynch, though I want to place it on top.

3. Way down beyond two comes Rothfuss. The only thing The Name of the Wind really had going for it was its sheer readability, which was helped along by prose that I found overly simple. It was a mediocre story starring Gary Stu in the lead role. And I won't go into the pointless bit towards the end that ground the story to a screeching halt.

Ruckley doesn't even place. I managed to force myself to read sixty pages of it and couldn't go on. There was nothing at all that caught my interest, let alone held it.

I have the first two Long Price books on my shelf, I just haven't gotten around to reading them. I plan on doing so soon though.

[Tom the Merciful]

1. Abercrombie

2. Lynch

3. Rothfus

4. Ruckley

5. Abraham

Abercrombie is first only because he managed to finish his trilogy. And, truth to be told, he did it in a spectacular way.

Lynch is the guy whose writing I really liked. Easy going, witty and originally fantastic (both Tal Verar and Camorr are great settings). He'd easily be my favorite, only if he didn't show some bad signs in his very second book.

Rothfus I liked a lot. He's not the most original writer, but his novel was great fun to read. And I have a feeling we're in for a lot more.

Ruckley's first was so-so. However, he managed to make a big step forward.

Now, I am not really sure I'm ranking authors, here. It's more like I'm ranking their fantasy efforts. For some reason, Betrayal in the Summer didn't sit well with me. Setting, plot...I really didn't like it.