Well, here's an interesting one. Tolkin - dead. Maccaffrey past her prime, Silverberg's Majipoor hardly as powerful as it was( though not without edge) Stephen King's Dark Tower... is, well, Stephen King's, and therefore without any need for critical analysis.
And of Course, the unstoppable Robert Jordan, who's endless books all won the title 'best Fantasy since Tolkin' by thousands of reraders most of whom have never read any Tolkin book.
My favorite is George R R Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, so far two valumes long, a tale of war between houses in a dark and enchanting world of swords, knight... and Dragons.
(sorry if it sounded like a promo. It's just really that good)
How about "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman?
I particularly enjoyed it because it was a
departure from the dragon, knight, quest, Tolkin
wanna-be. Not that I'm insulting those books, they
remain some of my favorites. It was just sort of
refreshing to see somthing that dared to be
different. It's part of a trilogy, the second of
which is called "the subtle knife" and the third
of which is yet to be published. They keep putting
it in the kids sections because it has child
protagonists, but it is complex enough to
entertain all ages.
what's it about?
I've tried several times to write this response and each time it came over more banal than the last. Ah well, please just assume that I am not doing it justice. It's set in an alternate earth, initailly in england, around about 1850. Everybody in this world has a physical manefestation of their soul that is with them everywhere in the form of an animal. The protagonist is a young girl living in Oxford. She realizes that people are dissappearing and being attacked all around her and she travels to various places to find out what is going on. I know that this sort of story intially seems childish but it really isn't presented this way. It develops into a complex fable that has themes on everything from the ethics of nuclear power to Adam and Eve.
I've tried several times to write this response and each time it came over more banal than the last. Ah well, please just assume that I am not doing it justice. It's set in an alternate earth, initailly in england, around about 1850. Everybody in this world has a physical manefestation of their soul that is with them everywhere in the form of an animal. The protagonist is a young girl living in Oxford. She realizes that people are dissappearing and being attacked all around her and she travels to various places to find out what is going on. I know that this sort of story intially seems childish but it really isn't presented this way. It develops into a complex fable that has themes on everything from the ethics of nuclear power to Adam and Eve.
sorry about that, My computer was stuttering
it sounds interesting, I'll keep it in mind
it sounds interesting, I'll keep it in mind
I've been told that Pullman died. Is this true?
he DID? I haven't heard anything to that effect,
and Amazon still says that his newest book will be
published in September. If it's true it's really
tragic, he's a great writer.
BTW:It is spelled Tolkien.
Any way I would have to say that RHAPSODY by
Elizabeth Haydn,DARK LORD OF DERKHOLM by Dianna
Wynne Jones,and THE BARBED COIL by J.V.Jones are
three of the best new fantasy novels that came
out in the Nineties,especially the last.
I have to say, I'm not much for fantasy novels.Usually I'd go for sci-fi, but the Dark Tower series by Stephen King is absolutely amazing. I'm not sure wheyther I am agreeing or disagreeing with Omer at the top of the board....it can be difficult to tell whether someone's being sarcastic when all you have is words on a screen, but,anyway.....It took me a while to get into The Gunslinger, but it really got me hooked, and the series has gotten better with each successive installment. That is of course IMHO, but I'd like to know what anyone else thought of it.
I'm big on Terry Goodkind. Though the 4th and 5th books left some to be desired, the recent 6th one is AMAZING. Certainly my favorite author.
The third book of the Golden Compass trilogy is The Amber Spyglass (Pullman is alive and kicking) and has been published.
I have to say it... Piers Anthony's Xanth series.
I'll add George RR Martins A Song of Ice and Fire series.
Robin Hobb?