I just kept reading because they had this sliver of promise, but it was like luring a kid along with a picture of a candy cane and then beating him with an actual cane if he ever got too close to the picture.
I would not be surprised to see an audiobook of these books featured as a torture dilemma in Saw 8 or whatever they're up to.
@HelloRaptor Man, you're more tolerant that I am. I read 2/3 of the first one when I was 14 and flush from discovering Tolkien. This wasn't Tolkien; it was crap. I think I may have thrown the book away.
Meh, I never cared that stuff wasn't Tolkein, or even that it was bad.
Chronicles of TC basically started with rape and despair and got worse from there.
Yeah, I think I read the first book and was just like... blah. So no, there was no chance of me reading it anyway.
@HelloRaptor Like I said, I thought they were good reads. The first three anyway, I haven't read the rest. Not books I generally recommend to people out of the blue, though.
@HelloRaptor said:
Chronicles of TC basically started with rape and despair and got worse from there.
The first part is true. The second I'd disagree with. I thought they had a lot of hope in them.
I haven't rEad anything yet, but I would like to thank everyone for their suggestions. I have picked up a few of the suggestions, and look forward to giving them all a try. I'm moving to a new city, and having something to read will keep me alive.
Except the Thomas Covenant catfishing attempt. HR. Seriously evil.
Yeah, I've done a lot of things in my life that I should feel bad for, but that's one of the few I really regret. Nobody deserves that. 
I recently discovered Larry Correia. Definite recommendations here for his work.
I've read everything that he has out for the Monster Hunter International Series, and his other series, the Grimnoir Chronicles.
http://www.baenebooks.com/chapters/9781439134580/9781439134580.htm?blurb
As a gamer, and a general lover of Man vs Monster and 'Hard-boiled Private eye' stuff, well. I devoured it all!
/pointlaff.
I never really could get into Game of Thrones -- I have zero interest in the show itself, and really, by the time I got through the third book (which was the last one I bothered to read), it all kind of blurred together and kept having the same pattern of violence, sex and death. It might be more "realistic" for characters to die, but when you reach a point where only the interesting characters die and the crappy characters are generally the ones he keeps around... bleh.
Note that I say "generally": by the end of the third book, the only characters I had any interest in following was Daenerys and Arya, and maybe Bran. The rest of the characters could pretty much die in a fire... and stay dead, this time.
@darksabrz The point being?
@Arkandel I just don't like the series. Which is a shame -- it typically takes a lot to alienate me and make me dislike books. but GRRM managed to do exactly that to me.
Yeah, pretty much how I feel about the books and balking at their appeal to folks.
Then again, I enjoy a lot of shit my friends balk at, so.
Hey, if people like it, more power to them. I dunno, to me... I felt like GRRM was basically switching out names and locations, but otherwise rewriting the same series of events, particularly in the second and third books. That's one of the reasons why it jarred me enough to lose interest in the series.
I'll just stick with my old-school Tolkien and my enjoyment of Eddings, for the most part. Though really, I should get that Darkness series by Harry Turtledove -- a fantasy reimagining of World War Two, replete with a magical version of the Manhattan Project, dragonflights for aerial battles and more. I didn't get to finish that series, alas.
@Arkandel Don't hold your breath on Winds of Winter. It's going to be a while. Sadly. He lost his way after the third book, the fourth book is mostly unnecessary, the fifth book is one big roundabout way of getting back to where he should be, and Winds of Winter should be, to me, the getting back on track.
But getting back on track is hard, so we'll see.
Getting back on track to what? GRRM is basically writing increasingly formulaic softcore violence porn (and porn porn). His books are bodice-rippers for the WoW set.
My take on the Song of Ice and Fire saga is simple; they are far from the worst books one could read. There are quite likely books in this thread which are worse.
Why are no posts about how those other books failed to be enjoyed by everyone? Is none of them a derivative of some other, possibly better original work?
I don't want to sound butthurt just because they're some of my favorite works (good job, eh?) but I am curious. 
@Arkandel GRRM's Song of Ice and Fire have become so big that they pop up in any kind of Fantasy book discussion. If you make a comparason, good or bad, of GRRM, people tend to know what you're talking about.
Anyone who can't enjoy the Powder Mage series should just end themselves now.
I just kept reading because they had this sliver of promise, but it was like luring a kid along with a picture of a candy cane and then beating him with an actual cane if he ever got too close to the picture.
I would not be surprised to see an audiobook of these books featured as a torture dilemma in Saw 8 or whatever they're up to.
