Well...not trying to open a major debate here, but yeah...I grew cold on Jordan's series too. Book One, I thought, was just great, but not long after that the plot seemed to just screech to a halt. I got the impression that we went from a three-novel pace to a ten-novel pace. I don't necessarily have objections to that, but I didn't have the patience for it either--I have a lot of patience, but I felt a bit more like (again...sorry for saying it this way, but it's true) Jordan was inflating his original story to sell more books.
Martin's Game of Thrones series is some of the most unusual and interesting fantasy I've read in some time. I started out liking it a great deal, but started to cool off a bit as I neared the end of book Three. Very heavy emphasis on political intrigue, possibly more than I want...but also what seems to be a deliberate effort at shocking the reader. At first it was "a gritty and brutally honest portrayal of the lives and behavior of people in these times and positions" but now...I'm starting to think he just likes the shock factor. So I'll probably read the fourth book when it hits, but if the trend continues I may stop there. That disappoints me a bit...I read some earlier Martin stuff and enjoyed it.
Honestly...why would anyone even think of not following my recommendation of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn? CLEARY those are the only books worth reading!
Ahem.
Yeah, yeah. I know. Actually, HAS anyone else here read them? Oh, and if anyone's a sci-fi fan and has been considering the Otherland series, Tad Williams' latest...well...I liked it, but I was disappointed. Very interesting story, patented Williams style throughout, but Tad's need for a good editor really showed this time...the 4-book series basically needed one book's worth of extraneous plot trimmed out at various places. It's clear that the nature of Otherland allowed him enormous opportunity for fascinating little short story concepts, and he got a bit carried away.
Nice review page, Silviron!
I will check out your list.
rusty