Oolite Bulletins

Belgarath.. David Eddings fan out there?

Used to be, but I got bored after the ninth or tenth book.

Lucidor wrote:

Used to be, but I got bored after the ninth or tenth book.

I feel similarly. I think Lady Polgara is still hot though.

I think Lady Polgara is still hot though

Oh Yea, too true.

there were only 5 quite short novels in the Bel series.
It was the Magician series with Pug that got out of hand, I gave up after the first 12, Recon he is still writing more.

I didn't mind the Belgariad and then when I started reading the Diamond Throne, I realised that he was a one trick pony and that all he'd done was change all the names, but the story, characterisations and plot was effectively the same...

(oh and my pet hate about anything Eddings does - "The prophecy said so"

I kind of liked the demon summoning part of the Mallorean, and a little episode where a sailor gets ill and it turns out to be the first victim of a plague.

Alex wrote:

I gave up after the first 12, Recon he is still writing more.

That might be hard, given that he died last year...

Selezen wrote:

Alex wrote:

I gave up after the first 12, Recon he is still writing more.

That might be hard, given that he died last year...

Ghost writer?

Rest in piece mr. D, your books helped at least one dejected teenager through a gloomy summer in the early nineties.

It was the Magician series with Pug that got out of hand

Isn't that Feist? Or are they the same author writing under different names?

Poro wrote:

It was the Magician series with Pug that got out of hand

Isn't that Feist? Or are they the same author writing under different names?

Yep, that's Raymond E Feist all right.

A friend of mine had bought a few of those while in Australia on the recommendation that it was "better than Tolkien".
Knowing I was a huge Tolkien fan, she lent them to me to check out.
Now that's a few hours of my life I'm not getting back.

To put it this way: When the main character of a book is being held captive and horribly tortured, and all I can think while reading the passage is "yeah, yeah, let's get on with the story", it would appear the author has slightly failed to catch my interest...

CheeseRedix wrote:

... on the recommendation that it was "better than Tolkien".

Ouch.

My introduction to Feist was "Talon of the Silver Hawk", a book where he had to start off with a new character. This was a Good Thing, since it meant that he actually had to build up a character from the beginning and catch my interest with him. My mistake was to keep reading the other books that followed this one, because he then introduces his usual line-up of cliches and archetypes characters.

It was like a literary version of Groundhog Day. I honestly think that if he were to submit such work under a random name, it would be dismissed as fan-fiction by most publishers.

DaddyHoggy wrote:

Selezen wrote:

Alex wrote:

I gave up after the first 12, Recon he is still writing more.

That might be hard, given that he died last year...

Ghost writer?

Last time I checked Mr Fiest wasn't dead. Selezen, I think you are referring to Robert Jordan of the "wheel of time" fame, though he died in 2007. I have read most of the Fiest's works and his last trilogy was quite good.

As to Mr Jordan's "wheel of time" series I read up to the middle of book seven and got very bored. I was starting to predict the end of the each book after reading a few pages in and had to read 2 to 300,000 words to get to the end to find I was right. Also his characters were very 1 dimentional. This series will be completed by the writer Brandon Sanderson.

PhantorGorth wrote:

DaddyHoggy wrote:

Selezen wrote:

That might be hard, given that he died last year...

Ghost writer?

Last time I checked Mr Fiest wasn't dead. Selezen, I think you are referring to Robert Jordan of the "wheel of time" fame, though he died in 2007. I have read most of the Fiest's works and his last trilogy was quite good.

As to Mr Jordan's "wheel of time" series I read up to the middle of book seven and got very bored. I was starting to predict the end of the each book after reading a few pages in and had to read 2 to 300,000 words to get to the end to find I was right. Also his characters were very 1 dimentional. This series will be completed by the writer Brandon Sanderson.

Selezen was referring to the death of David Eddings - this thread being the whole Belgarath thing...

DaddyHoggy wrote:

Selezen was referring to the death of David Eddings - this thread being the whole Belgarath thing...

Yeah...wasn't that clear? Had Mr. Feisty been mentioned at that point?