Just wanted to give my $.02 on Tolkin. He was a great author and pretty much invented moddern fantasy. His books have some of the best immagry of any books I have ever read, but there are better books out there in my humble opion. I dont realy have an all time favortie fantasy series/author, but I agree with brian fackler that The Deeds of Paksernarion is verry good and The Wheel of Time is waaaaay to long. Id have to go with Issac Asamov for my favorite author of all time.

Another Hitch Hiker reference: "Quadrophonic Sound Rock" (Entertainment Network)

-> The Vogons used a quadrophonic PA to adress the people of Earth in the beginning of the first book.

~SDC~

I wonder if we'll get a tech to build hyperspace bypasses through destroyed systems in the expansion.

~SDC~

"The Vogons used a quadrophonic PA to adress the people of Earth"

Didn't that work by making all of the glass objects on Earth into speakers? I don't remember because its been 6 years since I've read the book.

It made *everything* into speakers.

~SDC~

LOTR was written solely to net be read by the masses. Tolkein wrote it so he could enjoy its writing. Originally it was written as one huge book, with smaller "books" inside of it. Its the greatest Fantasy of all time because it inspired a generation in the 60's but is still a great read today. Amazon called it the best book of all time, let alone the best fantasy. I think its the best fantasy because it combines all those elements from english and norse mythology to create Middle Earth, a veritable "melting pot" of all fantasy. Also, today alot of books and movies throw alot of gray at us, while tolkein just through black and white. You knew who was good and who was evil. I guess, bottom line, its often imitated but never duplicated.

I think Tolkien's lasting legacy is the concept of the "adventuring party".

Mimicked by RPGs forever more.

Wow nice thread.. my .02

1) Betelgeuse. Its also a real star name for what its worth, on Orion's belt (no MiB rimshots please :))

2) Tolkien. he may have not been the first to create some of the ideas but he was imho the first to synthesize the idea of pseudo medieval world out all the disparate elements into what we commonly refer to as high fantasy -- our and its derived achetypes (from novels, D&D to cheesy films). What is most imporatant is that his writing made the idea of a fantasy world accessible to both adult and (by extension) mainstream audiences. Prior to that the worlds of dwarves, elves, pixes and dragons was considered largely children's fare. One thing that Tolkien did not do (more the invention of later authors) was to define what exactly was the essence. liturgy and function of magic (you notice tolkien really doesnt define the idea of magic (Gandalf is Istari) to him its is more of a controlled ether which those creatures which are considered magical and are capable using for very limited means (clairvoyance, healing). Modern magic (literary) is more in line with notions formalism derived from witchcraft (spellcasting) and alchemy rather than sprirtualism existential substance few authors try to avoid this formalism (think the Force, of the Source (Jordan)).

On Martin's work. very interesting. Very high epic feel. I tend to view it more of as "War of the Roses" in a fantasy setting (far too many parallels). Tyrion is an interesting character; he is perhaps teh most pragmatic. I agree, except for Jon and Arya the Straks have fallen to the background. The one major grip i have with the work is that there seems to be such an "ordinary" feel to the story. Let me explain. I feel there doesnt seem to be (well maybe future books willa dd to this) a centripetal force to the story yet and the characters for the most part are bit bland. It gets hard to be drawn in and keep things into focus. There are sometimes far too many tangents without a compelling subplot. In essence the work is really DRY for much of the plot and most of the characters. Its well written mind you and by no means bad; its just seems to lack the sense of emotion or colour. YMMV

On a related note. Are there any Turtledove fans on here. (yes he has become repetitive. ) but i'd love to discuss his Videssos work. Now there were some memorable characters and plots. heh heh. Eevn after years the Names balsamon, Viridovix, Phillipus and Avshar evoke as much meaning as Bilbo, Aragorn and Sauron for me. (hmm yes i do have a degree in ancient history )

"By Jove's hairy balls, that boy doesnt't think small does he.." -Phillipus on Viridovix's daring affair

dawg

One reference I noticed wsa the Cherryh system, no doubt named for the SF writer C.J. Cherryh.

Wrath of Dog said: "1) Betelgeuse. Its also a real star name for what its worth, on Orion's belt"

[nitpick mode on]
it's actually his shoulder, not on his belt.
[nitpick mode off]

You all got ya towels handy?

~SDC~

Astromarine:

I believe what you're thinking of is Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin, Assassin's Quest, by Robin Hobb. Her Liveship Trader's triology (Ship of Magic, etc) is even better! There's some older stuff of hers under the name Megan Lindholm which i've heard is good, but it's all out of print so i haven't been able to see for myself.

Wrath of Dog:

Yeah, I liked Turtledove's earlier stuff, but i haven't read Videssos. Have you read S. M. Stirling's books? Not too many of them out yet, but they're all of superior quality. Start with "Island in the Sea of Time."

And just to continue the off-topicness, some other very good authors:

Jane Lindskold
C. S. Friedman
David Brin
Stephen Baxter
Roger Zelazny
Sheri S. Tepper (if you don't mind feminism with your SF)
and for cheezy goodness, Mercedes Lackey

of course, that's just a sampling, i could go on all day about favorite authors

ive noticed sevral gods and godesses from greek and roman times in the game along with the heros.Sol is the perfect example of it.he is a sun god in roman lore and Hestia is godess of the hearth and home.oh yea and if u see one named Vulcan its in refrence to the god of the forge not star trek

Daetrin

Try the videssos series; it was among his first (and arguably his best work- Start with the Misplaced Legion). I will look into Stirling Thanx. yes Baxter, Brin and Zelany are very good. Also worth reading a K S Robinson's mars trilogy (not high sci-fi but great depth)

coffee
The deities from the ancient times have always been associate dwith the stars in one way or another. No surprises there

re betelgeuse (Skink). OOps you're right. Serves me right for sitting around pouring over deep space surveys and wave functions and spectral emmissions (NOT girlfriend/ghost farts LOL ) vs. basic astronomy in college (now let's see Vega, Deneb, Altair.....moving north .. Heh heh

Isn't Midgaurd the capital city in Final Fantasy 7? I mean Square probably stole it from somewhere else, but I was just thinking about it.

Midgard is a bad translation of a bad spelling of Midgaar (or more accurately, Midgär), the Norse mythological name for the world.

~SDC~

Re: Robin Hobb, books under the Lindholm name are available in the UK with 'aka Robin Hobb' stickers or may even be printed on the cover, I guess the publishers cashing in. There's a second set of books following on from the Farseers with Fitz and the Fool, 2 out so far and both very good. Hobb has some of the best realised characters in the genre.
My fave authors at the moment though are Michael Marshall Smith and Peter F Hamilton.

Peter F Hamilton, Night's Dawn trillogy. Bought the first book becuase I had a 22hour bus journey and needed a brick to read. First book was so good I had to buy the other books straight away.

Some of the ideas in the book were great.

I found a system named "Yggdrasil" if I remember correctly this was they way it was spelled.

Yggdrasil is from Norse mythology and is the great ash tree that holds together earth, heaven, and hell by its roots and branches.

I felt Night's Dawn dragged for the first half or so. Then it got a bit interesting... then a quite a bit more interesting... and then it went berserk (in a good way).

Hamilton has a tendency to cram a bit too much detail in - I always felt he was showing off how "deep" his universe was - but once the story really kicked in I couldn't put it down. Novel concepts, great characters, exciting plot. Hard combination to beat.

Vexx: "Masses?" Wow, elite much? Any entertainment that cannot be effectively communicated to the so-called "masses" isn't entertainment, it's self-indulgence. That aside, Tolkien's work is clearly comprehensible to the so-called "masses."

Hawaii: The adventuring party is only partly that, and partly the legacy from Chainmail (squad-level fantasy tactical combat). Aside from that, if you really want to look for early adventuring parties, there's always the Argonauts.

Wrath of Dog: Gandalf does some fairly impressive tricks beyond clairvoyance and healing. He violently disarmed a particular steward of Gondor in Return of the King, and I seem to recall some flashy results with lightning bolts. The magic isn't emphasized, but it's not all low-key.

I like Night's Dawn. If I could figure out a way to do what happened as an event in GalCiv, I would.

~SDC~

>I like Night's Dawn. If I could figure out a way to do what happened as an event in GalCiv, I would.

I haven't seen the event yet but when I heard about the "a great evil (Draginol??)" event I immediately thought of The Reality Dysfunction.

I can't be the only one who noticed Planet Wardell. The Stardock designers don't have egos, nosiree Bob!

And Tolkien is, imho, one of the most overrated authors of all time. Then again, I never got past the first chapter of Dune, either, and was really turned off Asimov by Foundation. I prefer books that concentrate on the characters and story (in that order) rather than ones who's main purpose is to provide countless superfluous details about a fictional setting.

Phaed: I doubt a typo was really worth your nitpicking. 2, its "Vex" not "Vexx" (Hypocracy). 3. I was merely saying that although it was greatly comunicable to the "masses" Tolkein never meant it to be.

Hehe, look at me, I can't spell.