Legend of the Seeker

[cookster50]

Not sure if we have many fantasy fans here, but for anyone that has read the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind(first 3-4 great, then got preachy), a tv series loosely based on the books starts November 1st.
http://www.legendoftheseeker.com/

The trailor looks good, but it is a real brief look. The fact that the producers of Hercules and Xena are in on it scares me......

[cookster50]

Originally Posted by Mr Luzcious

What do you consider good fantasy?

Me, Anna Kournikova, Jessica Alba, and Alyssa Milano alone on an island........

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by JD10367

Anyways, back to the series... At first I hated the idea that they played fast and loose with the book storylines. But as the series has gone on they've worked a lot of the book's storylines into the episodes (Rada Han, Sisters of the Light, etc.,.). So it's sort of like a retelling of the Goodkind universe, not just a recreation of the books. I didn't like the casting for Richard or Zedd at first but, as it's gone on, I've gotten used to them.

I read something from Goodkind about the series where he acknowledged that they had to change the storyline from what he had in his books in order to make it work as an episodic TV series but that he was on board with the changes. He said that fans of the books should continue to like the books for what they are and try to see the TV series as a fresh story with many of the same themes.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by Mr Luzcious

What do you consider good fantasy?

Just going off the top of my head, I'd probably say that Joe Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy, along with his 4th novel, Best Served Cold, which was also set in that universe, is a solid (dark) fantasy series. While it's not sword and sorcery in the traditional sense, I'd say Naomi Novik's Temeraire series is very good as well. It's basically what you get when you inject dragons into the middle of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series (which I coincidentally just began reading this year, finally, good stuff in its own right). Both Abercrombie's and Novik's series are very new, relatively speaking, beginning in 2006. Just a shade older than that is Gene Wolfe's Wizard Knight, a pair of novels that's a bit different from traditional fantasy (as one would expect from Wolfe...), but good as well, and a bit more accessible than some of his more popular books of the various Suns.

Going back to older fantasy, Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea series is fantastic, and I think you can see its influence all over modern fantasy. I've also long been a fan of Glen Cook's novels of the Black Company.

I always end up coming back to the old favorites as well, the more standard answers of GRRM's Song of Ice and Fire and Jordan's Wheel of Time, both of which I love, and both of which I've read 3 or 4 times now.

But there's really a lot out there, and I'm sure there are many good series that I've not even heard of yet. Just recently I started reading a series called The Prince of Nothing by R. Scott Bakker that looks like it might be a keeper.

Edit: Just realized I left out the urban fantasy. Big fan of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. I haven't delved into any other urban fantasy settings yet.

[Lurk]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

I watched most of the first season, because there just isn't any fantasy on TV, but never watched the second. Basically, it's a bad series of books, so I'm not surprised that it ended up being a bad TV series.

Thankfully winter is coming, and we get Game of Thrones in a year.

Like the series, though the last book was week, and who knows when the next book will come out. But Martin is a total douche.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by Lurk

Like the series, though the last book was week, and who knows when the next book will come out. But Martin is a total douche.

If the hints he's giving away on his livejournal are at all valid, he's pretty close to finished. But who knows.

[Mr Luzcious]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

Just going off the top of my head, I'd probably say that Joe Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy, along with his 4th novel, Best Served Cold, which was also set in that universe, is a solid (dark) fantasy series. While it's not sword and sorcery in the traditional sense, I'd say Naomi Novik's Temeraire series is very good as well. It's basically what you get when you inject dragons into the middle of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series (which I coincidentally just began reading this year, finally, good stuff in its own right). Both Abercrombie's and Novik's series are very new, relatively speaking, beginning in 2006. Just a shade older than that is Gene Wolfe's Wizard Knight, a pair of novels that's a bit different from traditional fantasy (as one would expect from Wolfe...), but good as well, and a bit more accessible than some of his more popular books of the various Suns.

Going back to older fantasy, Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea series is fantastic, and I think you can see its influence all over modern fantasy. I've also long been a fan of Glen Cook's novels of the Black Company.

I always end up coming back to the old favorites as well, the more standard answers of GRRM's Song of Ice and Fire and Jordan's Wheel of Time, both of which I love, and both of which I've read 3 or 4 times now.

But there's really a lot out there, and I'm sure there are many good series that I've not even heard of yet. Just recently I started reading a series called The Prince of Nothing by R. Scott Bakker that looks like it might be a keeper.

Edit: Just realized I left out the urban fantasy. Big fan of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. I haven't delved into any other urban fantasy settings yet.

Well I've read the Earthsea series but thats it so far..I'll have to look into some of those next. Thanks.

[JD10367]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

Edit: Just realized I left out the urban fantasy. Big fan of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. I haven't delved into any other urban fantasy settings yet.

LOVED the series, LOVE the books. The actor who played Dresden was perfect for that role, IMO. It's such a unique voice: hardboiled pulp detective fiction meeds fantasy/wizardry.

[JD10367]

Originally Posted by patteeu

I read something from Goodkind about the series where he acknowledged that they had to change the storyline from what he had in his books in order to make it work as an episodic TV series but that he was on board with the changes. He said that fans of the books should continue to like the books for what they are and try to see the TV series as a fresh story with many of the same themes.

Here's the thing about Goodkind: his initial vision was excellent. He has a way with the story, the characters of Richard and Kahlan were complicated and multifaceted, the fantasy was deep and intricate, the war scenes well done and with a tone of real-worldliness to them. I distinctly remember an early discussion between Zedd and Richard about good and evil, and Zedd explaining how it's all your point of view, how everyone thinks they're on the "right" side in a war, etc.,. And you can't go wrong with a chick who gets naked and paints herself white to ride into battle, with all her warriors doing the same, and when the general tells her shamefacedly that all the soldiers will have hard-ons if she's naked, she basically says that's even better, that a naked warrior with a hard-on running at the enemy with a sword will scare the shit out of them.

But Goodkind's problem is, like a one-hit wonder in the music industry, he didn't have the ability to flesh out much new territory. Books 2 ("Stone') and 4 ("Temple") were very good, but the rest were just sort of SSDD. In the first book or two, I cared deeply what happened; by the end of my reading them (I think I gave up somewhere around "Chain" or "Soul" or something), I really could give less of a shit about Richard and Kahlan any more 'cause I knew, no matter what, in the NEXT book he'd just figure out some new way to split them up again.