Posted by Nepenthe(IMM) on August 2, 2000 at 17:13:11:
In Reply to: CF 'tips' Books posted by Someone, A Phantom's Menace on August 1, 2000 at 19:39:47:
A few more book ideas I haven't seen yet. . . and please, can we not get into the literary criticism/bashing? I think it's pretty safe to say that no one here is a professional fiction author. . .and individual tastes vary. Just about everything mentioned so far is worth a look. Pick it up, read a little bit of it, see if you like it. If you don't, put it down and pick something else up. Anything by Weis & Hickman (e.g. the first six DragonLance books, Darksword, Rose of the Prophet, Death Gate): Yeah, there were things I didn't like about some of these. . .but for the most part I enjoyed reading them and they were all full of some really neat ideas. Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos novels (Jhereg et al): Short and kind of light reading, but I found them entertaining. The main character is an assassin in a magical world. Probably, these are what got me started on the idea that would become the current version of the assassinate skill. Michael Stackpole's Once a Hero: Stand alone novel (as far as I know). . .neat story told in an interesting way, and one of the better views in fantasy I've seen of elves as a truly different race and not just humans in funny suits. His Talion: Revenant is also stand-alone and also pretty good. Any of David Eddings' series (though I recommend starting with Pawn of Prophecy): Yeah, the characters are all pretty one-dimensional, but I enjoyed reading them. Anything by Terry Brooks (though I admit I haven't picked up anything he's written in around five years) Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings Yagyu Muneori's Family Traditions on the Art of War Dante Aligheri's Divine Comedy (especially Inferno) Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince I'll add more if I think of more.
Fantasy:
Not fantasy but still potentially of interest to the CFer (I may be butchering slightly the names, I'm going from memory here):