Monday, April 09, 2007

Door stopper fantasy novels

The decision to read a fantasy novel is fraught with reading opportunity cost peril. Thanks to Tolkien, nearly every author feels the need to tell their tale in three+ volumes (Ian Graham's Monument is a pleasing single volume exception). And many of them are not worth the time. The Darkness That Comes After mocks one of the greatest offenders, Terry Goodkind, in this lengthy and amusing post. And finally, even in the case of a book worth reading, one can reasonably only a few series per year.

Fully committed, I am now going to complete the Prince of Nothing with the terse by fantasy standards (400 pages!) Thousand Fold Thought. I am also going to try my hand at the hyper-praised Lies of Locke Lamora. This take provides some a nice level headed perspective. Multnomah County Library shelves this in the literature section, so maybe I can count this as a non-fantasy read.

As I ponder my fantasy list, Nerd World brings yet another book to my attention. Fantasy Book Critic comes out on the positive side for this one. And the Darkness That Comes After serves up yet another possibility. What's a fantasy junkie to do?

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