Aside from The Lord of the Rings, what do people think of his other works (like the book of lost tales - part I & II)? I had 20 minutes to burn the other day and managed to find a book store I picked up Belgarath, just cause I knew I would like anything in that series/storyline from Eddings. So far, I am really enjoying it - especially the humor.

I was tempted to get some more Tolkien, but thought I'd like to hear opinions first (and have about 700 pages of Belgarath to work my way through first .

Tools for your Wizardry(r) toolkit

• RE: Tolkien - things other than LotR,myrddin, 03:46 PM, May-27-01
  • Thanks,Llevram, 03:51 PM, May-27-01
    • RE: Thanks,myrddin, 10:20 AM, May-29-01
      • RE: Thanks,dj, 07:54 AM, May-30-01
        • Dune - yes,Llevram, 09:09 AM, May-30-01
          • RE: Dune - yes,myrddin, 03:59 PM, May-31-01
            • RE: Dune - yes,myrddin, 04:02 PM, May-31-01
• The Return of the Shadow,ShadowCrust, 10:28 AM, May-28-01
  • Tolkein's Unsung Masterpiece,Jimbo (Guest), 00:12 AM, Jul-31-01

Book of Lost Tales was ok, but definitely not as great as LotR.
As for other Tolkien books, I HIGHLY recommend the Silmarillion. (sp.?) It takes place a long time before LotR and explains the origins of Middle Earth as well as some the part in the end of LotR about where the elves are all going to and why.

I was taking the deafening silince as a big "thumbs down" As it turns out (I am nearly done with Belgarath) I am sure I made the right choice. Sometimes I feel like Eddings writes just for me - his humor is right on target.

Tools for your Wizardry(r) toolkit

Also, if you're looking for some other great Fantasy books, I would highly recommend that anybody who likes Fantasy and would like a very interesting and thought-provoking book to read, read Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper.

I too, however, read mostly Science Fiction. I have read (and am working on reading all of them) almost all of the Hugo and Nebula Novel winners as well as countless other SF books. If any one wants SF recommendations, I will be glad to give them!

>I too, however, read mostly Science
>Fiction. I have read (and
>am working on reading all
>of them) almost all of
>the Hugo and Nebula Novel
>winners as well as countless
>other SF books. If any
>one wants SF recommendations, I
>will be glad to give
>them!

well give it a shot
do you like the Dune books?
i'm going through them now (whenever my library has them) and they are just getting more and more bizarre heh.
But maybe you can recommned some other gritty style science fiction authors?

on a sidenote id have to give the best gritty style fantasy to feist personally, but i havent read a lot of obscure authors so im making a fairly mainstream judgement

I don't know what would have caused me to do such a stupid thing, but I sold off my set of Dune books. In reading these threads (and at the mention of Sci-Fi) it got me thinking that I need to acquire another copy.

Tools for your Wizardry(r) toolkit

Dune is my absolute favorite book of ALL TIME!! I have read it 6 times and have read the entire series three times! It's so incredibly awesome. It is to Science fiction what LotR is to Fantasy. THE standard! Has same general awesome scope and ideas as well as countless layers of complexity - some of which I'm still trying to unravel.

If you would like an incredibly good book that gives a lot of insight into dune - try to find "Frank Herbert: The maker of Dune" by Timothy O'reilly.

Other SF books I highly recommend:
Series by Dan Simmons: Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, Rise of Endymion.
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K #####
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Ender series by Orson Scott Card (including the new Shadow series!!)
The Diamond Age and Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson
The Forever Machine by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley (aka They'd Rather Be Right)
Babel-17 by Samuel R Delany
Timescape by Gregory Benford
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series by the Late Douglas Adams
and althoug its Fantasy and not SF -
Earthsea series by Ursula K LeGuin

thats all I can think of off the top of my head. If you want more, let me know - I can give you lots more !!

Hey, Llevram, I just noticed in my earlier post it edited out Philips last name - i assume it thought I was using the word in a cuss like manner. Just thought it was kinda funny. For those of you who want to know - that one should be Phillip K "D I C K"

Crust

I've read some of Tolkien's other books and none of them was nearly as epical as The Lord of the Rings. The Silmarillion was okay and also The Return of the Shadow (I don't quite remember the other titles - Tree and Leaf, I think and Unfinished Tales or something) but they're more like (fragments of) legends than novels. If you're interested in mythology though, they are very well written. Second to The Lord of the Rings I enjoyed The Hobbit most, even if it's a children's book

Some years ago I read the truly epical novels by Stephen R. Donaldson and liked them very much. Overall I prefer Science Fiction, especially the books written by Stanislaw Lem - if the English translation is as good as the German translation, I highly recommend his work.

You simply cannot go past Farmer Giles of Ham - a literary classic