Never read any of his books, but he seems to think highly enough of himself not to need my appreciation.

If I were writing a fantasy book I would probably leave these out as well. I think of them as ""living scenery"" or ""a character who acts like a human but is short/has pointy ears"".

This is pretty much the same drivel L. Ron Hubbard said in his declining years (which began at birth). Should we expect Dianetics 2 by Terry Goodkind in the not too distant future?

I find the books to be a lot like robert Jordan.... they get worse as they go along. And they likly will never end. Just keep turning them out because they sell.
Hell some of the scenes in them are like soft porn. I couldn''t believe reading book 6 I think and it had a scence like a romace novel. Didn''t do anything for the book either.
You''re a pretty crappy writter if you cannot finish a story in 3 or 4 thousand pages.

I read his first couple of books as well, and thought they were pretty good. But they go downhill in a hurry. The guy''s opinion of himself is sure as hell a lot more inflated than it should be.

I''ve read all of them to date... mainly because I read so damn fast, I am constantly running out of fantasy reads.

I would agree that the quality has degraded significantly since the original book. Book 6 (faith of the fallen) is one giant diatribe about how COMMUNISM IS EVIL. [rolls eyes] He''s got a big hammer with the words This Is An Allegory inscribed on it, and he proceeds to BEAT the reader with it for roughly 600 pages. It''s kind of irritating. And yet,I continue to read them. Perhaps I''m just a masochist.

Don''t feel bad man, I''m still reading Jordan even though I no longer enjoy the story. I''ve put so much time into it I want some kind of resolution, damnit!

Since you''re a fan of fantasy Tyrian, allow me to make a recommendation. R.Scott Bakker''s The Darkness that Comes Before is a fantastic entry into the fantasy genre. This is the second Canadian author I''ve discovered this year along with Steven Erickson. I don''t if it''s something in the water up there, but these two guys account for some of the best new fantasy I''ve read in years. Give them a try if you haven''t already.

You know, I love fantasy the most of all the genres out there. I don''t know why; I just do. Tolkien, Eddings, Salvatore, Ursula LeGuin, Tad Williams, Terry Brooks, Weis & Hickman, and many, many more have all written stories that I have enjoyed thoroughly time and again.

I don''t even bother defending my love of the fantasy genre: why the need to defend something for which the love of is entirely subjective?

Terry Goodkind is an author I haven''t had the opportunity to read yet, and given his attitude, I likely never will. Sure, some of my favorite authors have attitudes that could be construed as elitist; for example, David Eddings has said he would never allow his books to be made into movies, as he finds books to be superior.

Hey, he''s an author, that''s his prerogative.

But for someone like Goodkind (ironic last name, eh?) to completely rip apart everyone else in his genre and to spout such elitist and arrogant nonsense as ""if you see a similarity, you''re not old enough to be reading my books"" is simply put, unwarranted.

I won''t read his books now. Period. I''ll go and read everyone else''s instead.

Drunkagain wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions, I''ll check em out.

Farscry wrote:

Yeah, I know what you mean. I have read books by all of the authors you mentioned (often, more than once), and you''re right, there isn''t much point in defending the like of fantasy... It is kind of a guilty pleasure, isn''t it?

Yeah, after reading a really good fantasy novel/series I usually have to shift gears and read something other than fantasy or I realise how bad some of it can be. But the same can be said for any genre. You will always have to wade through a ton of mediocre writers to find the occasional gem. But for the most part I enjoy the wading too so I can''t complain.

I got a little ways into the third Goodkind book and put it down, probably the first book I chose to start and did not finish in a decade or more. He needs to stop rewriting the same book.

I am all with Ral on this one, if you''re going to read a fantasy series, you could do a lot worse than George R. R. Martin''s ''A Song of Ice and Fire''.

Oh and Ral have you ever read any Jack Vance? Specifically the Lyonesse series, it''s pretty good too IMO. Kinda hard to find but worth checking out.

I have always felt that by the time the Mallorean was written every character in the series was the same character. They just plugged in interchangable banter to fill in the pages between actual plot points. I was glad to find out that his wife was helping him write the books because I hated to think he was so confused he mixed up the names of Chaldan and Chamdar in his own mind. They are used interchangably throughout the Mallorean despite the fact that they are vastly different characters.

I hope I haven''t just brutalized someone''s favorite author. I just hate to see such sloppiness.

Sorry if I just jumped on

In a strange coincidence, I started reading Goodkind''s latest literally 5 minutes before seeing this thread. Freaky!

I was hoping that he''d have reformed his ways and returned to the quality of the first four books or so, which were actually quite fun. Too bad it doesn''t look liike that''s happened. He needs to remember that people are reading his books to be ENTERTAINED, not slammed over the head with ''serious'' themes that he doesn''t appear to be able to handle well. Glad I got it free from the library!

Continuing the theme of recommending great fantasy authors: China Mieville (""Perdido Street Station"", ""The Scar""). The world is very original and very, very dark. Definitely far from your typical fantasy.

Hey, shouldn''t there be a must read fantasy/sci-fi thread somewhere?

THERE SHOULD BE

I highly recommend Robert Jordan''s Conan books. I believe a hard cover compilation of them was released a few years ago. They make me wish he would take a break from Wheel of Time series and write a smaller, self-contained story again.

I was trying to stay out of this (my hatred for Goodkind is legendary in this household) but I just can''t. I am both a fantasy reader and writer, and that statement is just so RIFE with intrinsic stupidity that I almost can''t form a response.

I said almost.

The only laws of identity that his ""magic"" follows is that he neglects to give it any laws at all. This serves two functions. 1) It becomes a convienient deus ex machina to extricate Kahlan and Richard (you are a rare person, Richard Rahl!) from whatever sticky situation their horomones have led them into this time. (You can''t have sex! Because then Richard would lose his mind/you''d have to kill the baby/some witch woman would kill you/everyone thinks Kahlan is dead/Mommy said no/unresolved sexual tension sells more books)

2) He doesn''t have to reveal how crappy his worldbuilding skills are. Worldbuilding, which he so snootily disdains, is the backbone of fantasy. You can have dwarves, and elves, and floating buildings made of tapioca, as long as the internal laws of the world are consistent and well defined. Both qualities which he seems to believe would cheapen his ""work."" Poor worldbuilding is occasionally excusable if characterisation and plotting are both strong, but Goodkind has a tin ear for dialogue, plot seems to consist of twists solely designed to keep the two main characters from Doing It (twists that a daytime soap would be ashamed of - c''mon, they''re magically forced to marry other people?), and Richard and Kahlan have turned into caricatures of the people they were in the first book. And they weren''t that interesting to begin with.

I tell ya, for someone who has become rich off of fantasy, he sure seems to hate the genre. Oh wait, he doesn''t write fantasy, he writes about ""important human beings."" I never knew ""important"" meant two dimensional, non-evolving, walking cliches.

You don''t want to be a fantasy writer, Mr. Goodkind? Well at least we agree on something. I don''t want you to be one, either.

P.S. Your dragon is a total rip-off of the one in Terry Brooks''s Landover series.