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glenatronI'm very sleepy and I'm blaming books. I just finished Reaper's Gale, the seventh of Steven Erikson's Malazan Book Of The Fallen sequence. I would say these are probably the best traditional fantasy being written at the moment- traditional in that they are epic sweeping stories but the setting is original and very detailed, the plotting is smart, the characters are interesting and well-drawn, they can swing from humour to pathos without either losing it's impact and (unlike certain other writers in a similar area) he's managing to write books at a half-decent rate. So fast, in fact (it must be only about a year since the previous volume, The Bonehunters and each one is upwards of 900 pages) that I'm amazed he manages to keep the quality so high.
I think my point here is that if you're into your fantasy literature and you've not got started with these you probably need to find yourself a copy of the first one The Gardens Of The Moon (I ignored it for ages cos it sounded a bit sci-fi, but it totally is not) and have a bit of a read. Don't be put off by the fact that you get dropped straight into the action without a whole lot of idea about what's going on- once you start to follow it you'll be hooked- and increasingly so as you follow through the next few books and start to understand the scale of the world, the depth of it's history, the cunning web of background plot and how unafraid Erikson is to totally wail on his characters, especially the ones you really care about.
Seriously good reading. I guess it's obvious to reference GRRRR Martin, but if you've enjoyed his books I think this series would probably appeal- it has a lot more magic and the world is bigger by an order of magnitude but they are barking up relatively similar trees.
I think my point here is that if you're into your fantasy literature and you've not got started with these you probably need to find yourself a copy of the first one The Gardens Of The Moon (I ignored it for ages cos it sounded a bit sci-fi, but it totally is not) and have a bit of a read. Don't be put off by the fact that you get dropped straight into the action without a whole lot of idea about what's going on- once you start to follow it you'll be hooked- and increasingly so as you follow through the next few books and start to understand the scale of the world, the depth of it's history, the cunning web of background plot and how unafraid Erikson is to totally wail on his characters, especially the ones you really care about.
Seriously good reading. I guess it's obvious to reference GRRRR Martin, but if you've enjoyed his books I think this series would probably appeal- it has a lot more magic and the world is bigger by an order of magnitude but they are barking up relatively similar trees.
