Brian Nehring

I picked up The Dragonbone Chair when I was a kid without knowing anything about Tad Williams (and I still don't). I liked the series, but it didn't stick in my memory. In college there I had a vague recollection of liking it but could not even remember who wrote it or if I was mixing it up in my mind with other series. I dug through my bookshelf and found it for a re-read, and was pleasantly surprised. There isn't much groundbreaking here, but it's fun and well written. I can't say the same about his Otherland series, which started off strong, went downhill, and had an atrocious ending. That series was so bad I haven't touched Tad Williams since. The Green Angel Tower series was a good solid story though, and I recommend it.

If you haven't read Jordan's Wheel of Time (Book 1 on Amazon), and you have time to slog through 14 huge books (or 19+ days of audio books!), then you should do it. You owe it to yourself. Skipping WoT is like not reading Tolkein - I think at this point it's a requirement. I have fond memories of middle/high school and college of anxiously awaiting new releases in the series. The pace starts off strong but definitely starts to taper by Book 7. By book ~10 you're reading 800+ pages and about 3 weeks of time goes by in the book, which is unfortunate. Still, this is an epic series that all fantasy fans should read. It doesn't get weird or get too full of itself. If you're up for a huge series then this is for you.

 Brandon Sanderson is a weird author for me. People love his Mistborn series, but while I agree the story was pretty good, the writing was just too choppy with a lack of character development. I gave him a pass though, because it was his first series. I read his other early stuff and had similar thoughts. Then I read The Way of Kings and his Wheel of Time stand-in novels, and I thought he was really coming into his own as a writer. I've just started reading his Stormlight Archive sequel, Words of Radiance, and to lead into it I re-read The Way of Kings. On a second read, I was underwhelmed by his writing again. There were big chunks of exposition where Sanderson needs an editor to tell him "show, don't tell." The story is really interesting though, and I still recommend the series.

My only other complaint is that Sanderson seems easily distractable. Since writing The Way of Kings, he's written another book in the Mistborn universe, done a few novellas, and started a new YA series (Steelheart). I love that he's so prolific, but since the Stormlight Archive is supposed to be a (massive) 10-book series, it could be decades until he finishes it. After The Wheel of Time, I'm wary of authors taking on such endeavors, especially when they aren't even solely focused on one series. Oh well, Sanderson is still young, and hopefully will finish it all up without getting too distracted.

 Robin Hobb is one of my favorite authors, for a few reasons:

• Like many of my favorite authors, I randomly picked one of her books in a bookstore. I think this is likely true for many people my age or older - I grew up with the internet, but the social aspect wasn't there yet. So book recommendations were few and far between. I enjoy authors that I discovered on my own, especially when, like Robin Hobb, aren't as mainstream as some of the bigger authors.
• She wrote three really solid trilogies. I think things taper off after Fool's Fate (The Tawny Man, Book 3), but I'm fine with that. Three really good trilogies set in the same universe is somewhat of a rarity among modern Fantasy authors.
• Her books are original. Of course they're inspired from Fantasy authors before her, like everyone else, but these series don't read like Tolkein remixes.

I haven't re-read the series' in a couple years, and definitely haven't with a review mindset. But I am pretty sure they still hold their own. At the time they were a little more groundbreaking, because now with George R. R. Martin's A Game of Throne (Song of Ice and Fire series) we are all used to series that lean more towards the tragedy side. Yet there are still some great original concepts here, and the books are well written, which is important to me.

On 5/19/14 the Kindle edition of Assassin's Apprentice was only a buck, which inspired me to link to it. Even if it's not on sale I wholly recommend reading The Farseer Trilogy and seeing if you agree with me.    

I'm starting this blog-thing mostly to be able to jot stuff down that I'll be able to reference later. However, I will put in reviews of things that I like so I can link people to them. I doubt this will ever be a heavily-read site - I don't have that many profound things to say, and I won't be writing here very often. But I think having a site will be useful in a number of ways and this will be one part of it.