Recommend books to a hater

[Rakka]

Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock. Not standard fantasy, not a terribly wide cast of characters per book, but the world is insanely rich and interesting. The books work as standalones, but there are characters who are introduced as background figures in the first novel that come up again later.

Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin is more YA, but pretty damn good.

[Gabriele]

There's an author I haven't heard from in a while. I really liked the Jackal of Nar series, and thought it was pretty good quality for a new author. But his second run at a series was pretty bad as I recall. I read The Eyes of God, and got a couple-hundred pages into The Devil's Armor and set it aside. I just was not feeling that series. And the writing really did not improve as he went, if anything it tapered off in quality. That was really disappointing, because I thought he had a lot of potential after Nar.

Anyone else thinks Jackal of Nar is better? I found Eyes of God and the sequel pretty mediocre with some very stilted prose, which was a pity because the concept as such was interesting. I have Jackal of Nar sitting on my shelves and it even survived the latest purge :) - so maybe I should give it a try?

[ambyr]

Anyone else thinks Jackal of Nar is better? I found Eyes of God and the sequel pretty mediocre with some very stilted prose, which was a pity because the concept as such was interesting. I have Jackal of Nar sitting on my shelves and it even survived the latest purge :) - so maybe I should give it a try?

Never read Eyes of God, but I thought Jackal of Nar verged on unreadable. The main character came across as a total ass--which is forgivable in fiction if the character is also clever, or amusing, or, well, anything else of interest, but, alas, he wasn't.

I did finish it, though, so I guess that says something.

[hadaad]

Jackal of Nar has a lot of problems. But it was readable.

And it had a lot of pages.

But it had a lot of problems.

[wolverine]

I would second Vance to the thread starter. He is very refreshing to read and very different from many other authors.

[Gigei]

That would be Cryptonomicon by him.

If you like that style, try Nick Harkaway's The Gone-away World.

The book that functions either as a mediumish quality book or as a really great 1000 page super nerdy stand up show. (my favorites are either Amys gung-ho, well mannered redneck cousins or the depressed finnish smugglers."Give those finns a grim, stark, bleam moral dillema and a bottle of schnapps and you could pretty much forget about them for 48 hours.")

Thanks, I can never remember the title of that. Overall I got bored by it but there were some moments that were so great that it was worth reading. :)

[Rakka]

Just one bottle of schnapps? For how many Finns exactly? I'm doubtful. :P

[Gabriele]

Just one bottle of schnapps? For how many Finns exactly? I'm doubtful. :P

Yeah, that would more likely be one bottle per Finn involved, and even then I'm doubtful about the 48 hours. :D