What's your opinion on fantasy novels? What genre of books do you prefer?

I actually have a distaste for fantasy books. I did like Harry Potter but normally, i hate those kinds of books. I think it's because I want to be able to relate to the characters and I want the book to be thought provoking.

denizenofevil wrote:

I actually have a distaste for fantasy books. I did like Harry Potter but normally, i hate those kinds of books. I think it's because I want to be able to relate to the characters and I want the book to be thought provoking.

I usually like fantasy novels such as Harry Potter and the Inkheart series. That's actually almsot all of what I read haha. But I also like fictional autobiographies like when I was little, I loved the American girl series. But, all in all, I'm a fantasy girl.

I'm going to have to agree with Karin-chan here. I love fantasy books. They help me forget everything about the real world, temporarily, then immerse me into a complex world filled with such awesome and independent characters.

This was why I was anticipating Twilight so much. There was SO much that Meyer could have done. Edward could have been anyone. He could have still been hot and amazing, but if he had a flaw. If there had been a quest of some sort. Had the Volturi been more imposing. So many ifs.

Harry Potter was just good. I loved the complexity and magic.

I dislike fantasy, to be honest. That is why I never read Harry Potter. I have no interest for Eragon and The Chronicles of Narnia, those kind of stuff...

Like you, I have no interest in Eragon. I think maybe I'm put off of fantasy books because my cousin keeps showing me the stories she writes and she's inspired by fantasy books such as Twilight. I have the hardest time telling her I don't like the stories so I usually just say it could use some work. Unfortunately, she took this to mean that I would be her editor.

denizenofevil wrote:

Like you, I have no interest in Eragon. I think maybe I'm put off of fantasy books because my cousin keeps showing me the stories she writes and she's inspired by fantasy books such as Twilight. I have the hardest time telling her I don't like the stories so I usually just say it could use some work. Unfortunately, she took this to mean that I would be her editor.

Denizen, just tell her that Fantasy isn't a style that you are very familiar with. Then guide her somewhere that she could show her fantasy scripts to. It should do the trick.

I've never actually read Eragon, but the movie was confusing at best. Is the book anything like the movie?

I used to HATE fantasy. This hate was inspired by reading The Sword of Shannara, the Dark Sword Trilogy and yes, even The Lord of The Rings. I hated it, I found that it was a genre largely filled with people that wanted to write a book but had little talent so they wrote a fantasy. Then...my dad bought The Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind, and my mom, feeling much the same about fantasy as I do, read them simply for lack of anything else to read. She told me I must at least give them a try. They are the single most fantastic fantasy books that I have ever read. Goodkind is a genius.

I guess my biggest problem with a lot of fantasy novels is that there are either blatant discrepancies or that the author has to describe each characther, their abilites, and entire life story before their own story can begin, If you read the Dark Sword Triliogy you would know what I speak of.

I guess why I like TSOT so much is that yeah, it's a fantasy, but there's also beleiveable characters and an absorbing story in there, magic is secondary. He doesn't stop everytime something new is mentioned and give you a three page history and description of it. He is a wonderful writer.

I love fantasy. It's mostly what I write. I've tried writing other genres before, but I don't have as much interest in those stories. I'll read other genres and enjoy them, but I most certainly won't write them.

I actually adore suspense thrillers, obviously considering Dean Koontz is my favorite author. I will read almost anything as long as the writing is good and the story is good. This excludes romance novels, I can't tolerate them. They are the same basic story just with different people and different settings (we need a smiley that barfs so I can insert it here)

BeautyBlitz wrote:

I used to HATE fantasy. This hate was inspired by reading The Sword of Shannara, the Dark Sword Trilogy and yes, even The Lord of The Rings. I hated it, I found that it was a genre largely filled with people that wanted to write a book but had little talent so they wrote a fantasy.

I would have to disagree with you when you said that Fantasy writers are filled with people who just want to write, but couldn't. True, the more recent novels have not deserved the hype they have gotten. However, I would think writers like Tolkien could have tried their hand and succeeded at another genre just as easily. His books are really well-written, his novel filled with complex characters, and the history and geography of Middle Earth are both complete and realistic.

okay, I'll give tolkein credit where credit is due, I probably should not have lumped him in with the others. Still, I think the same of Terry Brooks, Margaret Weis and Tracey Hickman, Robert Jordan and a few others that I just can't think of the names for right now.

I have little respect for a lot of fantasy. Like BeautyBlitz said, it does seem to have many people who tag along purely because fantasy is popular. However, classic (and some, but not many contemporary) fantasy enchants me. I don't know why. To whoever said it's hard to relate, sometimes, yes, but I have found many characters easy to live vicariously through in many fantasy books.
Anyways, I like LOTR, Narnia (NOT the movies ... esp Caspian) and loads others but someone's kicking me off this computer so BYEEEE

Louisa Lynn wrote:

I dislike fantasy, to be honest. That is why I never read Harry Potter. I have no interest for Eragon and The Chronicles of Narnia, those kind of stuff...

I do NOT like Eragon. Probably why you don't have any interest in it is because it's basically a copy of LOTR. It seriously is, I've read all 3 and they're not really good. I can say they're not boring and I'm certainly able to read them easily, but the characters have little to no personality, the plot really isn't that great, and did I mention the characters have NO personalities? There's very poor character development and all of the characters are pretty generic, anyway. One thing I can say for this series is I like the battle scenes. They always remind me of the battle scenes in the LOTR movies, except with dragons. The battles at the end of the books are usually pretty decent, except Brisingr, where the last battle SUCKED.

karin-chan wrote:

Louisa Lynn wrote:

I dislike fantasy, to be honest. That is why I never read Harry Potter. I have no interest for Eragon and The Chronicles of Narnia, those kind of stuff...

I do NOT like Eragon. Probably why you don't have any interest in it is because it's basically a copy of LOTR. It seriously is, I've read all 3 and they're not really good. I can say they're not boring and I'm certainly able to read them easily, but the characters have little to no personality, the plot really isn't that great, and did I mention the characters have NO personalities? There's very poor character development and all of the characters are pretty generic, anyway. One thing I can say for this series is I like the battle scenes. They always remind me of the battle scenes in the LOTR movies, except with dragons. The battles at the end of the books are usually pretty decent, except Brisingr, where the last battle SUCKED.

I heard that in Brisingr, Christopher Paolini broke out the Thesaurus like Steph? Someone on Y!A said that in Brisingr, the vocabulary was pretty hard for her. I'm not really sure, maybe it was just her. Even if SMeyer used a lot of long words, I still think her writing is mediocre.

Louisa Lynn wrote:

karin-chan wrote:

Louisa Lynn wrote:

I dislike fantasy, to be honest. That is why I never read Harry Potter. I have no interest for Eragon and The Chronicles of Narnia, those kind of stuff...

I do NOT like Eragon. Probably why you don't have any interest in it is because it's basically a copy of LOTR. It seriously is, I've read all 3 and they're not really good. I can say they're not boring and I'm certainly able to read them easily, but the characters have little to no personality, the plot really isn't that great, and did I mention the characters have NO personalities? There's very poor character development and all of the characters are pretty generic, anyway. One thing I can say for this series is I like the battle scenes. They always remind me of the battle scenes in the LOTR movies, except with dragons. The battles at the end of the books are usually pretty decent, except Brisingr, where the last battle SUCKED.

I heard that in Brisingr, Christopher Paolini broke out the Thesaurus like Steph? Someone on Y!A said that in Brisingr, the vocabulary was pretty hard for her. I'm not really sure, maybe it was just her. Even if SMeyer used a lot of long words, I still think her writing is mediocre.

Well, some of my friends have trouble with the Eragon, but I never thought it was all too hard. Oh, Meyer's writing is REALLY mediocre. I thought Eragon was a LOT more interesting to read than Twilight. It had more difficult words, too, I guess. Yeah, I think that's what both authors did to make up for their horrible writing, hey used a LOT of adjectives and broke out the thesaurus.

I LOVE fantasy. I hate the cheesy rip-offs, but I really like some.
Harry Potter: Loved the originality and many of the characters. It was really well done.
Narnia: Where would we be without Narnia? It's classic, sweet, and magical, even if it is for children. (I threw a huge hissy fit after the Caspian movie, even if Caspian is kind of cute.)
Eragon: I really liked Eragon before I learned to analyze writing and development a little bit. Eragon was a good concept but the writing is kind of... hollow and the story and characters needed some filling out. I wish Paolini has waited just a little bit before he'd written. His writing could have improved and his development would have gone further. The vocabulary wasn't really hard for me and I read it when I was twelve or so. I read Brisingr in October and I wasn't impressed like I was with the other books that I read earlier. All the books could be boiled down a bit to be less watery and more solid.
LotR: I haven't read them, but I've heard great things. I'm going to try to read them over Christmas Break.
SoT: I haven't read these either, but I might.
Artemis Fowl: I used to adore these books. Due to slowing down of release dates, though, I lost interest over the years. The sixth one came out this year and I just now got it. So far, I'm not awed, but I might be. Eoin might pull another Wow.
Midnighters: I'm not sure if this is fantasy, but I only read the first one. I might read the second, but I'm not incredibly compelled to do so.
Mediator: I picked up the Twilight out of this series when I was looking for Meyer's. I never read any of them.
Inkheart: I read the first one in, like, fifth grade. I never got to finish and I might try to do that this summer... but I don't think I'll read the rest of them because of the things I've heard.

What am I missing?

I became a fan of fantasy after reading Tolkein. Granted, nothing else comes close to LOTR (although not for lack of trying-there are countless imitators), but there is still plenty of well-written fantasy out there. The best one I've run across are the "Song of Fire and Ice" novels by George R. R. Martin. The scope and detail of those novels are incredible, and Martin has created a whole host of characters the reader will never forget. My only problem with Martin is that he is taking so long to come out with the fifth book of the series. The last one came out at least three years ago, and there is no indication of when the next one is going to be released. Come on, George!

Besides fantasy, I enjoy thrillers, especially espionage thrillers. Daniel Silva comes to mind immediately.

I used to love Joseph Wambaugh ("The Choirboys" is one of the first novels I ever read. It still remains one of my all-time favorites), but over the last few years he has just written the same story over and over again.

For all out adventure nobody beats Wilbur Smith. All of his novels, both historical and contemporary fiction, are based in Africa, or on the high seas around that continent. In my opinion he is one of the few true masters of his craft. I very much recommend him if you are looking for some good, swashbuckling adventure.

Mnyeh...

It depends. I do like a lot of fantasy, but a lot of it is...same-ish. After a while, it's all just a big pile of 'chosen one' mush.

Whenever I try to write, it's always what I would class as fantasy. I like to include magic and whatnot. However, one of my most recent stories is about the end of the Universe (mixed with some stuff about impossible utopias). I'm not sure what to class that as.

I like Terry Pratchett. I would say his stuff was fantasy, but, according to Border's book shop, it's sci-fi.

In conclusion...uh...

Is there a good way to conclude weird ramblings?

thegrammarchild wrote:

Mnyeh...

It depends. I do like a lot of fantasy, but a lot of it is...same-ish. After a while, it's all just a big pile of 'chosen one' mush.

Whenever I try to write, it's always what I would class as fantasy. I like to include magic and whatnot. However, one of my most recent stories is about the end of the Universe (mixed with some stuff about impossible utopias). I'm not sure what to class that as.

I like Terry Pratchett. I would say his stuff was fantasy, but, according to Border's book shop, it's sci-fi.

In conclusion...uh...

Is there a good way to conclude weird ramblings?

No. We don't conclude a whole lot here, as quite a lot of what goes on is weird ramblings (at least on my end). That's what's so great.
You don't have to conclude like you would on Answers. It's much more laid back here. You can, in fact, express distaste for something and not get a single thumbs down.

Kelsey: Celadora wrote:

thegrammarchild wrote:

Mnyeh...

It depends. I do like a lot of fantasy, but a lot of it is...same-ish. After a while, it's all just a big pile of 'chosen one' mush.

Whenever I try to write, it's always what I would class as fantasy. I like to include magic and whatnot. However, one of my most recent stories is about the end of the Universe (mixed with some stuff about impossible utopias). I'm not sure what to class that as.

I like Terry Pratchett. I would say his stuff was fantasy, but, according to Border's book shop, it's sci-fi.

In conclusion...uh...

Is there a good way to conclude weird ramblings?

No. We don't conclude a whole lot here, as quite a lot of what goes on is weird ramblings (at least on my end). That's what's so great.
You don't have to conclude like you would on Answers. It's much more laid back here. You can, in fact, express distaste for something and not get a single thumbs down.

Damn it! I, for one, love being booed. When I get a thumbs down, I know that I've made an impact.

Well, at least you can comment on what everyone else says without being reported for 'chatting'...