As well as sharing all the good stuff that I love about the genre with you, one of the reasons that I started the blog up was to check out books by authors that I’d never read before to see what I thought. Another reason that doesn’t get talked about so often (but is no less important) is to find out what you guys are into, especially if it’s books that I’ve never read before. I don’t want this blog to be just me talking to myself!
And so the very occasional series of ‘I’ve never read anything by…’ posts were born. There are loads of sci-fi, fantasy and horror books out there that I haven’t read. I’m hoping that some of you have… ;o)
Friday saw a package from Solaris come through the door that included the second and third ‘Falconfar’ books ('Arch Wizard' and 'Falconfar') by Ed Greenwood, an author that I’ve never read before. Not only have I never read any of his books but I’d never heard of him before now, which is surprising seeing how many books he’s written (a whole load of 'Forgotten Realms' stuff).
I’m going to give the two ‘Falconfar’ books a go but in the meantime I was wondering… Have any of you folks read either the ‘Falconfar’ books or any of his other books? What did you think? What am I letting myself in for?
All comments are welcome, they aren’t going to stop me reading the books but I’m interested to know what you all think…
I'm in the same boat as you (haven't read or heard of those books until now), but... just curious, are you going to jump straight into book 2, or will you be starting with book 1?
ReplyDeleteEd Greenwood appears to be widely considered an excellent worldbuilder (he created the hugely popular Forgotten Realms D&D setting) but a terrible writer. Then again, his books apparently sell extremely well, so...
ReplyDeleteI was sent the first book in this series but I've never felt inclined to bother reading it.
Khaled - There's a little 'What has gone before' style passage at the front of Book 2 so I'm just going to jump in there... ;o)
ReplyDeleteJames - This was just what I was after, thanks :o) I haven't read any of his Forgotten Realms stuff so I was interested to find out what other people thought they were like. I'll see how these books go...
When I was much younger and very ignorant of most fantasy authors outside of those writing for TSR (then, now called Wizards) I read dozens and dozens of Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance books. I enjoyed most of them very much but that was according to my lower and rather naive standards at the moment. Greenwood was not one that I was crazily fond of to be honest. His stories used to run a little dry and overly complicated some times.
ReplyDeleteJust off the top of my mind, I must have read most of the Elminster series (those were quite interesting), Cormyr a Novel (bleah, boring and tiring) and some others that I can't remember right now which were not bad. That was many years ago, maybe more than 10 so I don't know neither can imagine if and how much he has evolved and changed as an author.
Seeing that the Falconfar series is from another pub house, it gives me hope that maybe this is at least a notch better reading than his previous works which are not bad at all. I'd be interested to read your reviews on those Graeme!