"Terry" of Fantasy - Goodkind, Brooks, and Pratchett

[J. S. Elliot]

As sad as it is to say, I haven't - yet - had the chance to read any titles by any of these authors. From what I see on these forums, Goodkind is a bit of an underdog in the terms of author endearment. But, as much trouble as I have finding the books, I got lucky and did find one by Goodkind in the college library the other day. The Wizard's First Rule is currently sitting like a brick on my desk while I finish reading another novel, but I had some curiosity questions.

What do you like most, as well as least, about each author?
Which one is your favorite of the three? Why?
How would you describe their main series in terms of quality and character development?

And anything else that comes to mind is good, really. The big-name authors of fantasy tend to be expensive to obtain, so I'm trying to gauge if it's worth my money. Especially since there are such mixed reviews that I've heard through grapevine.

 

[Mindfire]

Goodkind is a bit of an underdog in the terms of author endearment.

*Waiting for the Goodkind haters to show up*

 

[J. S. Elliot]

I'm presuming there is a reason for this sentiment? ^_^"

 

[Mindfire]

I'm presuming there is a reason for this sentiment? ^_^"

It's just fun to watch people hate. I haven't read Goodkind's works, but based on what I've read about them, they deserve the hate they get. At least a little bit.

 

[Steerpike]

I'm presuming there is a reason for this sentiment? ^_^"

He's just not a very good writer. I tried to read The Sword of Truth and found it dull. I didn't think the characters were well developed. It wasn't terribly preachy, but apparently he gets bad about that later on. I'll pass.

Pratchett bores me.

I've been given some good recommendations regarding Brooks, and I intend to check his work out.

 

[ThinkerX]

Terry Pratchet is pretty good in a comedic / satire type way. Very readable, very entertaining, very...light. A lot of it is digs on contemporary foibles like blackberry's (small demons on diskworld), sports, newspapers, police, finance, and more. Special plusses for the integration of minor characters. A slight minus because while the wizard of the Unseen University make frequent appearances, they rarely work much magic.

Terry Brooks...I've read a few of his 'Shanara' books, and one or two of the 'prequels'. My main gripe is how the world is 'static' - same power groups century after century. Usually a druid - but eery time the druid attempts to expand the council, it goes bad. Even with the prequels, I don't think he adequately accounted for the appearance of the elves. Trying to make Shanara a sort of post apocalyptic earth was a mistake, and so is keeping everything 'frozen'.

Terry Goodkind...I've read 'Wizards First Rule' and a couple of way later books in the series. I didn't particularly notice the 'preaching of democracy' bit which sometimes gets brought up, but for me the killer issue was the deliberate creation of these two 'walls of death' across the country. The first, as a desperation war time measure I could see, but the second, to separate an area where a FEW people had magic from another area where NOBODY was supposed to have magic didn't work. I never could get past that.

 

[Sheriff Woody]

I haven't read anything by Goodkind, but all the venom frequently cast in his name makes me quite curious, for better or for worse. I'll probably check out Wizard's First Rule before long, just to see what all the fuss is about.

And I'd like to watch the Legend of the Seeker show that's currently streaming on Netflix. I'm quite a huge Sam Raimi fan. Don't know if his involvement with the show goes any deeper than putting his name in the credits, though. I would have quite liked to see a few episodes directed by him, but sadly, there are none.

 

[J. S. Elliot]

Hmm. Couple things, but I'll have to finish asking them in a day or two. Is "Sword of Truth" the first one? (Meaning I got "Wizard's First Rule" out of order?)

Anything that someone might particularly like about the other two, though?

 

[ThinkerX]

If I remember right, 'Wizards First Rule' is the first Goodkind book. I found it passable, apart from the 'walls of magical death' thing.

And I'd like to watch the Legend of the Seeker show that's currently streaming on Netflix. I'm quite a huge Sam Raimi fan. Don't know if his involvement with the show goes any deeper than putting his name in the credits, though. I would have quite liked to see a few episodes directed by him, but sadly, there are none.

I remember watching a season or two of this a while back. The biggest variance I saw is that in the books, the 'Seeker' becomes a powerful wizard in his own right, which isn't the case in the television series.

 

[Kaellpae]

I'm a fan of Goodkind, but I've gotten stuck halfway through the series. He switches up the viewpoints in a couple books, and it's nice for the pacing of the series, but the second time in just a couple books, Pillars of Creation, makes me not want to read that particular book, but I don't want to skip it in case I'll miss out on something important. So that puts me at a limbo. I've also noticed a few similarities in Sword of Truth and Wheel of Time.

I don't know anything about Pratchett.

Brooks I'm interested in reading because an idea I had for a world is evidently almost exactly the same as his world, but I'm hoping to execute it a little better than I've heard he has. I'm currently trying to figure out the reading order for his books so I don't get spoilers by reading by publication date.

 

[myrddin173]

I have read a number of books by all three and Goodkind is definitely my least favorite. I read him about four years ago so I can't comment on writing style or anything like that but I remember he was very "preachy." It felt like he had a political agenda he was trying to get across to his readers.

I just got into Pratchett towards the end of last year and I have enjoyed everything I have read by him though I tend to prefer his later works. His books are always good if you need a laugh.

Which leaves Brooks. I would be lying if I said he was the best writer I have ever read but he is a great storyteller. He is also one of my all-time favorites, partly because the Shannara series is basically what got me into reading fantasy. His first book (Sword) is definitely "heavily-inspired" by the Lord of the Rings but I feel he has only gotten better with age.

Yes Wizard's First Rule is the first book in the Sword of Truth series.

@Kaellpae Here is a link to Brooks' suggested reading order.

 

[Kaellpae]

Thanks Myrddin.

I may not have noticed the political preaching in the Sword of Truth since I'm not a big politics person. If you can ignore or don't notice the preaching, then they're good books.

 

[J. S. Elliot]

Some interesting posts here.

I'm not against switching viewpoints - I do that often enough in my own work - so that's fine. But considering the first book started so slowly, will the series pick up as I go along? (Since I've only been reading it on break at work, I'm only onto Chapter 5.) So far, though, I haven't picked up on the preachiness yet, but considering the fact that "Wizard's First Rule" is a doorstopper, it's probably further in.

I was hoping to find the Shannara series next, but I'd like to at least read the first book at the library (if they have it), before shelling out quite a bit of money for the entire series. Aside from the reputation of being a lighter Tolkien-ripoff, I've heard that it also blooms into it's own thing. Would you say that's correct?

 

[myrddin173]

Some interesting posts here.

I'm not against switching viewpoints - I do that often enough in my own work - so that's fine. But considering the first book started so slowly, will the series pick up as I go along? (Since I've only been reading it on break at work, I'm only onto Chapter 5.) So far, though, I haven't picked up on the preachiness yet, but considering the fact that "Wizard's First Rule" is a doorstopper, it's probably further in.

I was hoping to find the Shannara series next, but I'd like to at least read the first book at the library (if they have it), before shelling out quite a bit of money for the entire series. Aside from the reputation of being a lighter Tolkien-ripoff, I've heard that it also blooms into it's own thing. Would you say that's correct?

I think the preachy-ness doesn't show up until some of the later books, but it has been so long the entire series is fuzzy. As for Shannara, it definitely becomes its own thing it eventualy gets into a power struggle between magic and science which I think is really cool. Also airships...

 

[ThinkerX]

I was hoping to find the Shannara series next, but I'd like to at least read the first book at the library (if they have it), before shelling out quite a bit of money for the entire series. Aside from the reputation of being a lighter Tolkien-ripoff, I've heard that it also blooms into it's own thing. Would you say that's correct?

I've not read a great deal of Terry Brooks.

However, his novels are spread out over a substantial period of time...as in centuries, with each book or group of books set in a different epoch. From what I remember, there are a few carryovers: main characters from the earlier books might be figures of legend in the later ones, stuff like that, but no serious plot breakers (though its been a while, my knowledge is incomplete, so I could be wrong).

As to the Tolkien ripoff aspect...I believe most of that stems from his inclusion of elves and another race which to all intents and purposes might as well be orcs. That didn't bother me too much.

 

[FatCat]

Goodkind is the only author I've read of the Terrys, and as much (well-deserved) hate Goodkind gets, he introduced me to fantasy. As others have said, Goodkind is preachy, but that's the point. Richard is the epitome of morality so you have to expect being preached to, yet at the same time he has a habit of massive dialogues that tend to run together into the same point. Overall, the series is pretty disappointing, especially the end, and the world is nothing original. I'd say avoid it, as much as it pains me to say so.

Also, the fact that Richard is constantly surrounded by a harem of beautiful women vying for his affections gets rather old after a while, but if you don't mind a character whose only faults suggest deep positive traits then go ahead and give it a read.

And the real 'preachyness' begins around book four if I remember correctly. The first three are alright, then you get into a dull slump in the middle. I must say, Faith of the Fallen is a fantastic book (which oddly enough was one of the most ham-fisted democratic, idealistic, moral chest-thumping books). But for the most part, the series isn't special in any way. I remember the book before it was a massive POV shift to an unrelated character to the plot, was incredibly jarring and dull, and then that character was never really used again. Meh.

 

[Kaellpae]

I enjoyed the first 3 or 4 books of Sword of Truth a lot. And with each book I've read after those till I stopped in the middle of Pillars of Creation was a little less exciting and fairly predictable. I've been told by friends that after Pillars the series picks back up again and I'll finish what's released of the series just so I can have the story completed.

 

[Jes]

I have to admit that I haven't read many of Terry Brooks' or Terry Pratchett's books, but I've read several of Terry Goodkind's books. The first two of the Sword of Truth series were okay, but it seemed like Goodkind couldn't get past his main plot hook: betrayal. It seemed like every book was a repetition of the last, give or take a few interesting turns. It became very dull, very quickly. The same two main characters throughout ten books? That's a little too much - especially when they're just going to go through the same motions.

I love what I've read of Terry Brooks. I would go so far as to say that, after Tolkien, he is absolutely my favorite author. There are times when he can get a little bit too descriptive in the exact shape of a tree limb or go off on a page-long tangent about the smell of the grass, but if you can get around that (I think it was mostly only prevalent in his earlier works) the rest of the story is simply exquisite. I loved the Druid books and I loved that while each of his series were set in different time frames, they were still in the same world and thus vaguely familiar. Familiarity is a wonderful subconscious aid while you're reading.

I have heard good things about Terry Pratchett. I just haven't gotten around to reading what I have of his.

 

[Feo Takahari]

I tried to get into Pratchett's Discworld through Small Gods, since I heard it was mostly a standalone, but there were clearly ideas in it that I was supposed to recognize from earlier books. I've heard the first few Discworld novels kind of sucked, so I'm not sure what else to use as a starting point. (I have read Only You Can Save Mankind, though--it's absolutely brilliant.)

Can't comment on the others; I haven't read anything at all by them.

 

[thedarknessrising]

I just checked out two Terry Brooks novels because of this thread- Magic Kingom for Sale:Sold, and The Black Unicorn. I'll let you guys know what I think of them when I finish them.