Favorite Castle Book?

[Damien]

Did you mean The Song of Roland? If so - then you can still find various translations in print. It's one of those famous books that will probably never be "out of print." Like Beowulf.

[Unknown Knight]

The book is titled The Story of Roland. Its is written by James Baldwin. I got the book at a homeschool book sale.

[Formendacil]

The book is titled The Story of Roland. Its is written by James Baldwin. I got the book at a homeschool book sale.

In all probability this is simply one version of the story of Roland, and while that particular edition may not be available anymore, the tale of Roland has been around in many, many forms for a millennium- Roland having originally been a real man, much like King Arthur, who's life's story has been legendized over the centuries.

[Murgen]

My personal favorite for high fantasy is The Black Company series, by Glen Cook:

The Black Company
Shadow's Linger
The White Rose
The Silver Spike
Shadow Games
Dreams of Steel
Bleak Seasons
She is the Darkness
Water Sleeps
Soldiers live


High fantasy which provides the best grunt's-eye view of medieval warfare with powerful magics I have ever read.

The descriptions of the cities, the castles, the fortifications are excellent as well, typically explaing through the eyes of the folks 'digging the ditches'.

[The Hordesman]

My personal favorite for high fantasy is The Black Company series, by Glen Cook

Ive heard alot about it, seems to be a good series, even played a warcraft3 campaign based on it! Hard to find here unfortunatly.

But it does contain very strong languange, though.

[Tole_11]

Yeah, i have one, but it's not english. It's dutch.
"De doge-ring van Venetie" It's about two monks, that are traveling to venice, righ before the year 1400. It's fantastic. (If you understand dutch).

[Damien]

Black Company, rightly, is not High Fantasy. It's low-fantasy. There are no Dwarves, Elves, Orcs, Goblins... and Spellcasters aren't lurking around every corner.

Black Company is a gritty, low-magic, low-fantasy setting. It's actually not a bad setting, though I don't think the author is particularly creative, nor do I enjoy the writing style.

[Lord Nev]

REDWALL all the way!

[Blueandwhite]

Black Company is a gritty, low-magic, low-fantasy setting. It's actually not a bad setting, though I don't think the author is particularly creative, nor do I enjoy the writing style.

I suppose so.

Still, its hard to be creative in a genre as tired as the fantasy genre. I mean, most fantasy these days is little more than pulp, pushed out by publishers who are desparately holding to a dying market (don't worry, the movie industry is heading in the same direction). Good authors are often lost in the shuffle of mediocre writing and predictable plotting. Its unfortunate really. I'm not really familiar with Cook's writing, but I think such a take on fantasy sounds more creative than most fantasy writing I've come across.

I guess the real question is, who writes creative fantasy? I really want to know as I find myself utterly unable to get into fantasy literature. The cliched settings, and races seem positively dull. Its a genre I would really like to get into, however I find myself completely turned off by at the same time. Its funny, as I absolutely love the detail and effort Tolkien applied to Lord of the Rings, but I have never found anything else that even comes close.

So again, what constitutes good or creative fantasy? It is a genre of writing that has frustrated me to no end. Please appreciate, I'm not trying to be confrontational. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Later.

[The Hordesman]

So again, what constitutes good or creative fantasy? It is a genre of writing that has frustrated me to no end. Please appreciate, I'm not trying to be confrontational. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I believe good fantasy is when the writer really takes time creating the cultures for the races and actually takes the time and invents his own species, and good plotting. Now, fantasy plotting is hard since its usually always the same (dragon at some point, save the maiden, fight the orcs, kill the dark lord, some good guy is chosen to be something great dictator-like but good for some reason). Another thing is the main character, who usually is a pretty boring figure who get involved in everything and becomes a hero and saves the day.

Also a reason why I got into anime; the plotting is far better than fantasy usually is.

This is actually a very good question so I believe it needs a new thread (if a mod would be nice to cut it off)

[Ristridin]

Hasse Simonsdochter. By Thea Beckman, a Dutch writer. It tells the story of a girl who meets Jan van Schaffelaar and his bunch of mercenaries. And a little bit about the Dutch war against France.
And ofcaurse The Lord Of The Rings, but some parts of it are prity boring.

[TheOrk]

Another couple books that I would recommend are the Corum books. There are six of them and they're each 150-170 pages long.

I really like these books for a lot of reasons. Number one is, that because of the size and scale. You could walk around with it in your pocket and pull it open on any page and find an action sequence. That and it;s very original. All the races, except humans, are unique.(Corum is something else)

I couldn't call it High/Epic fantasy, but I highly recommend it.



BlueandWhite/Hordesman>

I, like many here I would asume, have some sort of story that spawned out of playing with LEGO. I might actually take a crack at it and take it to a publisher. Simply because of the number of great comments about it and my financial situation, it sounds like a good option.

I'm not really into anime, but the plot is original and has enough LEGO spawned background info to write several Silmirilons.

[TwoTonic Knight]

Another couple books that I would recommend are the Corum books. There are six of them and they're each 150-170 pages long.

I presume you mean the Michael Moorcock books. I recommend the first three books (The Knight of Swords, The Queen of Swords, The King of Swords). Quite an interesting twist on his Eteranl Champion character. I specifically recommend staying far away from the second (and unnecessary) trilogy. It was extremely disappointing.

[Lord Nev]

Can't say I've ever read them, but they sound good.

[The Hag]

So again, what constitutes good or creative fantasy? It is a genre of writing that has frustrated me to no end. Please appreciate, I'm not trying to be confrontational. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I understand your point of view. Of course, anyone, trying to promote their favourite book would say so

So here's the book i still consider very original and creative:
(wellactually its a trilogy)

The Coldfire Trilogy by C.S.Friedman.
The main thing that does is for me is the way magic works.
Magic is always around, but takes shape after the dreams, hopes, believes, and also the fearsof people.
This could mean a diety could be created if enough people believe in it, but demons arise in the dark while you think of them..

Also, certain entities in this world feed upon the same emotions that create things in the magic stream.
There are certain nodes with stronger potetial, etc etc ..

I still concider this one of the best book i have read in a long time. Oh yeah .. the main character is no standard 'hero' .. i'll say no more ..

To give a quick reference: i also enjoy Terry Pratchet for an easy quick read, have read LOTR 5 times, and mostly read DnD books nowadays.