Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

First tell us about yours. :P

Gene Wolfe. His writing is dense as hell and rewards multiple readings. He can be very difficult to get into, but if you enjoy working a bit as a reader I think he's worth giving a shot.

R. Scott Bakker's writing can be a bit tough if you don't have at least a casual interest in philosophy. The earlier books were written when he was taking a break from his PhD I believe, and then he took an extended break from the books to focus on his blog and PhD, before finishing up his current series. I'm not saying you need a degree to understand what he's saying, just that it helps to know what sort of position he's writing from.

Steven Erikson. Because I’m supposed to remember any and every minor detail to understand what is going on

Seán wrote: "Gene Wolfe. His writing is dense as hell and rewards multiple readings. He can be very difficult to get into, but if you enjoy working a bit as a reader I think he's worth giving a shot.

R. Scott ..."

I had a really tough time with R. Scott Bakker. The whole time I was reading his work, I really wanted to like it because his writing is beautiful, but I just couldn't get into it. I'd like to try again at some point though. I think this is one book I will dedicate to buying a physical copy and hope that helps.

Margret wrote: "Steven Erikson. Because I’m supposed to remember any and every minor detail to understand what is going on"

I do think as the series goes on this does get easier. It did for me. Mainly as you start to realise why events in previous books occurred.

Patrick Rothfuss. I've never, ever tried so hard to read a fantasy book and like it as I did with The Name of the Wind. His writing was never able to drawn me, so that I cared what was happening in the story. I had to DNF, yet I know so many people who love the book.

I don't think TNotW was difficult to understand. It was just a snorefest.

With Bakker it was the names more than the writing. The names were complicated and a lot of them resembled each other. It made it super hard to keep everything straight and I never had a hard time keep all of Malazan straight.

Scott wrote: "With Bakker it was the names more than the writing. The names were complicated and a lot of them resembled each other. It..."

Agree with this. I actually loved the writing (as mentioned above), but the names were so hard to keep track of that I just gave up eventually.