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notroot

@[email protected]

Artist, writer, and epic fantasy aficionado by night. Code monster by day.

Big-D Democrat, and small-d democrat.

Gen X, somewhere on the interminable crooked road between "cynical" and "bitter".

I'm a classical nerd. I learned Pascal on a Kaypro 4 CP/M box. I once housed a Data General mainframe in the family chicken shack, terminal and all ($60 at a university auction). I have worked on physical Unix terminals, not one of these new-fangled "terminal emulators".

But, I'm also an artist, writer, and musical hobbyist. When I was younger, I was a quester, seeking some higher truth, if it was possible to be found in what remained of the wilds of America. I lived in the woods for years. Years. In tents, or yurts, or under tarps, or under stars and the sigh and susurus of the wind in the trees.

I've got stories, man. Real stories. True stories.

Life can take many shapes, and it can change shape.

These days I program computers. I got a degree in Pure Math and found a niche. You haven't heard of the company I work for, but I help shape an industry that influences your life. You can try to guess if you want. I don't mind. I'll even tell you if you're right. It's a harmless industry, for the most part. Nothing nefarious.

He/him #neverAgain #gunControl #BLM #feministAlly #lgbtqAlly #accessibility #antiFascist #atheist #patriot #democracy #DemocraticParty ​:emacs:​ #emacsRules #snake_case

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catchingshadows , to fantasy
@catchingshadows@mastodon.social avatar

Choose 20 books that greatly influenced you. One book per day, for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
@bookstodon
@fantasy

Day Four: Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings

notroot ,

@catchingshadows @bookstodon @fantasy I finished The Belgariad about a month ago!

It's on my Top 10 Epic Fantasy list... pinned to my profile.

Then I read The Malloreon.

Now I'm almost through The Elenium.

Next up... The Tamuli!

notroot ,

@catchingshadows @bookstodon Yah this is my first re-read in about 10 years... and I have to pretty much agree on his writing. He does get better as he goes, and The Elenium is easily 10x as good as The Belgariad and The Malloreon... but it still has many of the same flaws. Especially his characterization of women and gender.

I didn't know about his conservatism or personal life. Now I might not try to find out heheh.

After this re-read, though, I am probably going to drop him from my Top 10. He's currently at . I'll probably add Guy Gavriel Kay's "Tigana" in that spot, instead. Not a series, but it's just so damn good.

notroot ,

@catchingshadows @bookstodon Yeah... and its something that was imposed by publishers back when Eddings started writing. We can blame Lester Del Rey for a generation of half-baked, mediocre, Tolken-rip-off, good-VS-evil, prophecy-of-the-teenage-boy-chosen-one epic fantasies.

Eddings, like Terry Brooks, helped Del Rey re-imagine the fantasy genre in his image. The plots HAD to revolve around a war between good and evil. Women rolled their eyes and said, "Men!" with a flounce, while men rolled their eyes and said, "Women!"

But it worked! It sold like hot-cakes to teenage boys like me in the 70s and 80s who didn't know any better! And that created more demand for rip-offs of the rip-offs!

Thing is... some of those authors did get better. Eddings drop hints that he and Lester Del Rey had knock-down drag-out fights, which enforced that same saccharine sickness that bogs down the first couple trilogies of Brooks' Shannara, as well. I think they both fought back against Del Rey's restrictions, and in the end they largely won.

I've read all the Shannara books I think 3x now. They really do get better, and yet remain familiar.

Raymond Feist IMO is like this as well. He gets better.

Eddings, too, gets better, but with some of the same familiar flaws like eye-rolling. That's how I justify putting him on my Top 10. Sparhawk is a great character in his later series, and they are truly EPIC... That's important in an epic fantasy!

But other rip-offs like Robert Jordan don't make my Top 10 because they didn't improve. They never break out of those simplistic tropes, but double down, instead -- like Terry Goodkind (barf). Brandon Sanderson probably saved The Wheel of Time, and it was still mediocre. Could've been worse, though. Heheh.

There's a shit-ton of epic fantasy, and most of it is BAD. Even the shining exemplars of the genre are flawed, though.

For the most part, I don't care. I'll read pretty much anything, once, and I have a compulsion to finish a series once started. And I have read a LOT of epic fantasy. My library walls are covered with them.

If that's taught me anything, I think it's just hard as hell to write a proper epic fantasy and get everything right. If you can spend enough time on it, maybe you can get close, but if you've got a publisher like Del Rey breathing down your neck, eventually you just have to say, "Fuck it, I'm done. Publish." Then whatever flaws you have as a writer (or person) will still be there, not polished out by editing.

notroot ,

@catchingshadows @bookstodon All extremely valid criticisms, and all part of why only 2 of the retreads make my top 10. I do have a soft spot for Feist because his collaboration on the Empire trilogy with Janny Wurts sorta introduced her to the world, and she's my #1 favorite author, at the moment.

The best Tolkien homage I've come across so far has to be Alison Croggon's Pellinor series. Just loved everything about it. Almost the perfect epic fantasy.

NickEast , to bookbubble
@NickEast@geekdom.social avatar

Reader questions: What are you currently reading, and would you recommend it?

@reading @bookstodon @bookbubble @books


notroot ,

@NickEast @reading @bookstodon @bookbubble @books Reading The Belgariad by David Eddings... this is my 2nd reading but the last time was close to a decade ago. It's much better than I remember!

jendefer , to bookstodon
@jendefer@dice.camp avatar

@bookstodon

Any recommendations for good SFF/speculative books that are written first person? My wife and I are really enjoying reading the Murderbot books aloud to each other. Part of that is the great writing and sparkling personality of the main character, but I think part of it is also the different vibe of first person writing, where the narrator is telling a story to the audience. I'd like to find more books like that.

notroot ,

@RubyJones @jendefer @bookstodon Ohhhhh you beat me to it!!!!

She's currently #2 on my Top 10 Epic Fantasy list.

The only reason she's #2 is that I read Janny Wurtz' The Wars of Light and Shadow last. While reading Robin Hobb, she's my #1 and there can be no other.

I've read all 16 books in the Elderling saga 3x, now... and I just gotta say...

The ultimate climax in the final book? I can barely read it, because tears are running down my face like my dog just died.

I've read a LOT of Epic Fantasy. It's basically all I read, so when I say the following, you can trust...

Some authors come close to the combination of EPICNESS and sheer emotional catharsis that Hobb achieves in the last few chapters of her saga...

But nobody has reached those heights, yet.

You have multiple epic storylines converging, and Hobb keeps you in suspense until the last possible moment. You can sense the connections, the shape of the epic structure... but you can't KNOW.

Not until she does her thing in that conclusion.

Then it's like a light-bulb went on in your brain. The connections become obvious in retrospect, and you get chills and the hairs on your arms stand up.

Man, that's just the setup for the wicked catharsis. There's a WHOLE OTHER character-based level -- not plot, but character -- that doesn't become apparent until the very end.

And that's what breaks my heart every time. It's the ruthless combo of epic storytelling and unreliable narration, all being neatly resolved in a couple chapters.

Breaks my heart every time. Every time.

notroot ,

@RubyJones @bookstodon @jendefer Me too... at while I'm reading her.

Since you love Hobb... if you aren't familiar with Janny Wurtz, I highly recommend TWOLAS. She's my other #1 heheh.

TWOLAS is technically finished, in that Wurtz has written the last book. But it's not coming out until next month, I think. It's the only unfinished series on my Top 10.

I've been waiting for it for several years... but not as many years as Martin or Rothfuss!

kimlockhartga , to bookstodon
@kimlockhartga@beige.party avatar

@bookstodon There's a reason I don't skip the intro: often they're funny and/or illuminating. Do you read/skim the intro to books?

For example, in Kieron Gillen's intro to THESE SAVAGE SHORES, by Ram V, Kumar, Astone, and Bidikar, he reveals that the original idea for the story was "A white guy seeing something and deciding that maybe if he's sneaky enough, it could be his," which morphed more specifically into "Vampires as a metaphor for colonialism."

I love hearing about the ideas which brought projects to fruition.

notroot ,

@kimlockhartga @bookstodon I almost always read intros. I only skip if they're boring

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