Dan Abnett is pretty good! Good thing I love me some 40k. It's a wonderfully dark and gritty future. I could actually see the human race ending up there one day. Oddly enough.
Ed Greenwood's Elminster series anygood? We should just ask @elminster. I assume he's read the books about himself? (Put you on the spot a bit?)
Hahaha!! "Lhaeo! Write some nice things about me, then read them back. Make them sharp and snappy... You remember what happened to the last people who had to leave my employ..."
Lhaeo no longer works for Elminster. He was a missing Prince who wound up going back to his country to be King. He was the last living Prince of Tethyr and went back to marry Zaranda Star (who was the main character of the book "War in Tethyr") and took the throne as King Haedrak III (with Zaranda as his new Queen).
Lhaeo no longer works for Elminster. He was a missing Prince who wound up going back to his country to be King. He was the last living Prince of Tethyr and went back to marry Zaranda Star (who was the main character of the book "War in Tethyr") and took the throne as King Haedrak III (with Zaranda as his new Queen).
Oh my my! I really must read these! I do so love Elminster. Do they have to keep finding cheesy ways to interfere with his magic? Raymond E. Feist had this problem when his main character just become so powerful he could simply melt everything. He had to keep finding ways to either keep him busy elsewhere to explain why he wasn't helping the rest of the character blast the be-jesus out of their troubles or have something either disable him outright or make casting difficult.
@CaloNord I never saw him as "The Be-All and End-All" of the Forgotten Realms, so I am probably less tired of the character himself. However, I am *so* tired of the fanwank of his character. Everybody either loves him or hates him, usually obsessively in either case. I liked Arilyn Moonblade and Danilo Thann. I liked Alias and Dragonbait. Ruha, the Bedine Witch from "The Harpers" series. Even Shamur Uskevren, the Matriarch of the Uskevren Family (an Adventurer who gave up being an adventurer when she was sent forwards in time and her look-alike near-descendant died in order to save her own family).
@LadyRhian For me it's more an over saturation thing, like when you hear a song on the radio over and over and over again and everyone's talking about it until all you want is for it to go away. Far away.
Arilyn Moonblade was awesome! I also have a certain fondness for both Artemis Entreri and Jarlaxle Baenre. But I think Drizzt is a little over celebrated.
Shamur Uskevren I'm not familiar with but that sounds like a much better story :P ahaha It could also be suffering from the fact I'm getting older and more cynical with each passing day and Drizzt was really designed for more of a teenage audience.
@CaloNord Read "Halls of Stormweather". She shows up in there, but her "origin story" was in Dragon Magazine. She didn't get a book of her own, but her husband, Thamalon Uskevren, did. Her daughter, Thazienne, aka "Tazi", shows up both in the Stormweather series and in "The Golden Silk" in the "Thieves" trilogy/series. Erevis Cale is another character, the Butler of the Uskevren family, who is approaching "over saturated" for me.
@LadyRhian I shall order it from the Library tomorrow I also want to read the Elminster series, which one is the first in that one? It's been so long since I touched any of these!
Erevis Cale. Oh god no not him. :P Everywhere I look I see his face. God damn it. This is why I love Raymond E. Feist because he was good at having several characters running at once but not doing TO much with any of them at one time. So you never got sick of them because you'd get a perfect amount of time with each! Very good
One of us. One of us. One of us! :P Nerd is where it's at! :P We have all the best fun, all the best books and all the best movies! Why wouldn't you want to be a nerd?
@CaloNord Um, I mean CaloNerd… Wasn't it obvious I am a huge nerd without pointing this out? Seriously, though, I also liked Martine, another lady from the Harpers series, one of whose companions was a gnoll cleric. She meets him during the course of the book. If you like Artemis Entreri, you should read the Double Diamond Triangle Saga, as he shows up in it (he's in disguise for most of the book, and you don't learn it's him until the 8th (or so) book in the series. They were originally published as small chapter book type things, and have since been reprinted as one single large book. Jarlaxle does not appear, however.
@Squire make sure you give Thieves World a shot before giving up on fantasy novels. Series of novellas and short stories by many authors in a shared enviroment. The series gets going in book 2, but book 1 is still excellent. Pretty gritty (grittiest fantasy setting I've read), pretty low magic, and pretty fast paced as the stories are short. It does have peculiar humour, but its like nothing else I've read. Morality is pretty gray though. None of the uber characters sre boringly overpowered, maybe Tempus, but hes a miserable drug and sex addict as well avatar of the god of war and a world weary philosopher forced to test his every pronouncement of his 'wise' youth, when words were cheap. If THAT didnt pique your interests... well, it'd mean you're better adjusted than me.
There have been DnD products made from Thieves' World, so its LIKE a DnD setting. Without most of the, well, unrealistic stuff.
@CaloNord Sun Tzu would probably say the opposite, that many Princes thst know nothing of War feel inexplicably qualified to offer input to their Generals. Its an instructive read, and meant to be reread periodicly. The original text foes benefit from extrapolation, Master Sun used a penknife to do the job of a sword, very concise.
@LadyRhian tell me you managed to avoid the Tribe of One Dark Sun books? A part of me died everyone (EVERYONE) knew his racial bsckground, despite it being totally unheard of and impossible. I feel bad for the author, but he at least got paid to write it, so not that bad.
@one of whose companions was a gnoll cleric. She meets him during the course of the book.
A gnoll cleric? MAD! I once played a PnP game where I was a Drow and I had traveled with a Kobold Dragon Disciple and a raging homophobic half-orc Barbarian with a tick... was an interesting game...
I wouldn't be at all opposed to a Jarlaxle main character series. He's an interesting character who I prefer over Drizzt because he isn't the goody goody hero type, he can DO good, when it suits him but he's primarily out for himself. I like this and think it's far more within the Drow's realm of possibility.
@CaloNord Sun Tzu would probably say the opposite, that many Princes thst know nothing of War feel inexplicably qualified to offer input to their Generals. Its an instructive read, and meant to be reread periodicly. The original text foes benefit from extrapolation, Master Sun used a penknife to do the job of a sword, very concise.
Princes and politician's should stay out of war. It pisses off those who do the fighting. I will have to get my hands on this I think! Should be quite fascinating by the sounds!
@DreadKhan Yes, I read those books. They were pretty ridiculous, even if you *weren't* into Dark Sun. I did like that he ended up working for a person in the process of becoming an Avangion, though. That part was interesting to me. Much more than Kalak becoming a Dragon.
Comments
Ed Greenwood's Elminster series anygood? We should just ask @elminster. I assume he's read the books about himself?
(Put you on the spot a bit?)
Aww god damn it. Don't you hate it when your scribe runs off to become a god damn king. >:/
It's no fun to write about yourself!!
And it's probably pronounced "Dritst". Wiki "Drizzt Do'Urden /ˈdrɪtst doʊˈɜrdɪn/["
Arilyn Moonblade was awesome! I also have a certain fondness for both Artemis Entreri and Jarlaxle Baenre. But I think Drizzt is a little over celebrated.
Shamur Uskevren I'm not familiar with but that sounds like a much better story :P ahaha
It could also be suffering from the fact I'm getting older and more cynical with each passing day and Drizzt was really designed for more of a teenage audience.
Erevis Cale. Oh god no not him. :P Everywhere I look I see his face. God damn it. This is why I love Raymond E. Feist because he was good at having several characters running at once but not doing TO much with any of them at one time. So you never got sick of them because you'd get a perfect amount of time with each! Very good
Nerd is where it's at! :P We have all the best fun, all the best books and all the best movies! Why wouldn't you want to be a nerd?
Along with my sanity. He says, while chatting to a giant mushroom. :P
(Grrr. Some days I HATE autocorrect.)
There have been DnD products made from Thieves' World, so its LIKE a DnD setting. Without most of the, well, unrealistic stuff.
@CaloNord Sun Tzu would probably say the opposite, that many Princes thst know nothing of War feel inexplicably qualified to offer input to their Generals. Its an instructive read, and meant to be reread periodicly. The original text foes benefit from extrapolation, Master Sun used a penknife to do the job of a sword, very concise.
@LadyRhian tell me you managed to avoid the Tribe of One Dark Sun books? A part of me died everyone (EVERYONE) knew his racial bsckground, despite it being totally unheard of and impossible. I feel bad for the author, but he at least got paid to write it, so not that bad.
A gnoll cleric? MAD! I once played a PnP game where I was a Drow and I had traveled with a Kobold Dragon Disciple and a raging homophobic half-orc Barbarian with a tick... was an interesting game...
I wouldn't be at all opposed to a Jarlaxle main character series. He's an interesting character who I prefer over Drizzt because he isn't the goody goody hero type, he can DO good, when it suits him but he's primarily out for himself. I like this and think it's far more within the Drow's realm of possibility.