book recommendations

[lindil]

And what about Tad Williams's Otherland books?

I thoght those were absolutly stunning. I even put a link to them in my sig for a few weeks after I finshed them.

Looking forward to reading them again.

Really berautiful writing excellent charchters and plot intertwinings, and an absolutly wonderful and cunning use of the LotR. Very moving emotionally.

Along with the Ferny and Bitrdland I must second Once and Future King/Book of Merlyn - Irank them a bit below JRRT as he is clearly not a Christian author and if my memory serves me correctly [ I am due for a re-erad] he treats sexuality too loosely for my taste - of course that may not bother some folks at all.

Leguins books - ditto on all points - She is a superb writer. Who owes alot ot JRRT in a very non-derivative way [unlike the Shannara books - the first one of which was imo a blatant rippoff, though I loved LotR so much at that age, I swallowed it whole with only a few gags at the ripe age of 14 or so when it came out.

The only writer I consider a better writer than JRRT is JohN Croweley. A real genius of a storyteller. I will not at all say his Stories are better, they are not, but he has a command of English that is IMO unequalled.

'Engine Summer' and 'Little, Big' are his best I think. Hopefully you live near a good used Bookstore because that is the only place you are likely to find em [or ebay maybe].

I actually like the Dune prequels [House: Atreides, Harkonnen, Corrino] bettter than the originals. Kind of funny actually. And While I always felt much of Dune MEssiah made for painful reading the Scifi-channel just did a series of books 2 and 3 that were universally given a perfect rating on the Dune sites I peaked at.

Finally I must confess I like the Post Return of the Jedi SW books, especially Tim Zahn's. Nothing too serious, and way below the level of M-E, but it is fun to see how alive characters you have seen many times in movies come alive in Books. A complete reversal of the LotR Movie situation.