The Campaign Builder's Guild

Quote from: IshmaylThere are several "big deals" in this list that I won't rank quite as high as what I imagine other people would, and I'll be happy to explain my reasoning if anyone is interested.

Go for it man. I thought you were big WoT fan?

And 3 for Mistborn  :cry: I loved it from page 1.

A copy of what I posted in the other thread should help explain my reasons for voting what I did. I'll try to clean this up in both threads, so that this thread has the reasons and the other has the votes. Organization FTW!

American Gods/Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman - perfect! Flawless storytelling, combined with a captivating story! Honestly, there's only a few, very minor cases where I don't like something by Gaiman. Even in those cases, it's usually a small portion of a much larger story, and the rest of the story almost always outweighs the weaker parts. American Gods is my favorite book by him, I think. Stardust is a very close second. His poem Instructions is probably in my top 3 works of his.

Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis - I've only read a couple books, and none in a long time. I might revise my vote if I ever get the chance to read the entire series, in order. Honestly, I'm not sure how my childhood love for these books will hold up upon reflection.

Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling - A great series that matures very well. My only complaint is that the first few books seem much more child-oriented, and the overarching plot seems to take a back seat to the escapade of the year. I'm not sure I'd compare them to Scooby Doo mysteries, but I can see where others would.

His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman - Yes, there is religious commentary in this, no, it does not affect my rating; this is a genuinely good series, not a thesis disguised as fiction. Read Dan Brown for that.

The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R Tolkien - Great series, a classic, but WAY too slow for me; I can never get much further then the Prancing Pony. The only reason I know anything that happened after that is just public consciousness. Especially after the movies came out.

Vampire Chronicles - Okay, so this had some fairly decent stories, from what I read, but it constantly read too much like erotica, even in inappropriate situations. I started this series with The Tale of the Body Snatcher, which was a great story, but honestly, I'm not really sure I'm comfortable with the way Lestat was describing that dog he ran into. I don't think I read much more then that.

If Robert Jordan had actually stuck to the plan, and written a well-crafted story that had spanned 5-7 books, I imagine he would have blown me away.  The fact that he needed to milk the series has bothered me.  Don't get me wrong, I think it's a really good series, and really well-written, but I would have been happier if he had stuck to his plans.

I couldn't even finish Mistborn, and honestly, there aren't many books that I can say that about...I don't know if it was the (poor) writing, the (lack of) story, or the (one dimensional) characters, but I do not feel that it bodes well for the ending to WoT.

I could probably manage to up WoT by at least one point, because it is re-readable, and I had internally planned on saying that anything that I could re-read I would rank at 7.

Eye of the World blew me away when I first read it, but the series just kept going downhill afterward. By the 7th book, I was just reading to "get it over with" so I decided to stop.

EDIT:

Quote from: polycarpThe first book was good, but I'm rating the series, which falls precipitously in quality as it goes on.

Quote from: IshmaylI could probably manage to up WoT by at least one point, because it is re-readable, and I had internally planned on saying that anything that I could re-read I would rank at 7.

Honestly, I think that's overrating the value of re-readability. I think any book rated over 3, with enough time, develops some re-readability value, even if only because it's been years since the last reading, and there's nothing else to read. All the books I rated, I think, have re-readability value, although I'm not going to rush out to re-read some of them. Not yet, anyway.

I guess I should have specified that I was talking about "re-readability" for me, and not for everyone else in the world ;)

I'm not sure Beowulf really belongs on this list.  I mean, are the Poetic Eddas "fantasy," or some other ancient mythological work?  I thought the author had to be writing it as fantasy for it to be fantasy.

Quote from: RaelifinEye of the World blew me away when I first read it, but the series just kept going downhill afterward. By the 7th book, I was just reading to "get it over with" so I decided to stop.

You and me, man

In theory I would re-read anything I enjoyed, probably 5-6+ given enough time. In practice, it would take something extraordinary for me to do this, only because I have a finite amount of time and there is always something I else I want to read. Just look at the number of books on the list I wasn't able to vote on (I've read Anansi Boys, but not American Gods, so I didn't vote there).

If a series is good enough I'd actually re-read it (possibly as a means of studying the author's craft) it'd probably be an 8+ rank for me.

Quote from: IshmaylI guess I should have specified that I was talking about "re-readability" for me, and not for everyone else in the world ;)

I guess I probably should have clarified the subjectivity of my post, as well ;)

I thought that LotR was very boring.  Good story, I guess, but presented in a terrible way.

Harry Potter was entertaining for a while but got old.  I think it was more the hype (and the &%#^ stupid (&^@s that were causing it) that killed it for me.  And the first movie was so &$#^ awful it ensured I could never watch another one or read another one of the books.  On another amusing note, at a con last weekend I met a man who claimed to be cosplaying Hagrid.  He wasn't in any kind of costume at all, he was just really tall, fat, and hairy.

Ninja: Harry Potter 1 and to a lesser extent, 2 were bad. #3 was the best movie they have produced by far. I suggest you see it and skip the rest.

Lord of the Rings was exciting and cool but definitely written for a different literary era. The Hobbit was my favorite book Tolkien wrote but that's probably because my version of the Hobbit had pictures! :)

i think Old Epics, like Beowulf and Gilgamesh, as well as modern plays like the Tempest are all fair game since they are in and of themselve de facto fantasy; Fickle Gods, Epic heroes, World Saving Events, Suspense, Action, Mystical Races, etc. Its all there, lets count them!

[blockquote=Higgs]I'm curious at why people dislike The Lord of the Rings...[/blockquote]
Count me surprised as well.  I read it at 9 the first time, and waded through just fine.  I find the prose and writing purely magnificent, and the scope and world-building in a class by themselves.  Few books can move me at all, but this one can move me greatly decades later. And where many of my earlier favorites are made more mundane by my exposure to other works of literature, I find my appreciation of Tolkien's work only grows as time makes its enexorable march and have more to compare it to.

Tolkien's ability to create his world and effortlessly express it are nonpareil.  The different styles of verse and song he crafts to bring us into his world and immerse the reader are also in their own class.  The language and the use of language, while certainly subject to personal review, is one of the reasons the books have endured at such a high level of profile.  Some reviewers might question the characterizations or the racial overtones or the underpinning 'Rule Brittania' inherent, but as to the literary value, to say that the reviews of the writing itself are strongly favorable by the most discerning of critics is a vast understatement.  While certainly open to personal preference (much like the highest rated wines taste can be disgusting to an uninitiated palate), demonizing the literary style or merits therein is tantamount to
telling James Suckling or Hugh Johnson that they don't know wine.

I actually did see #3.  I had to for a friend's birthday.  It was better but not good enough to redeem them.

Beowulf was an even better story than LotR...but is was proportionately more boringly presented as well.

QuoteLord of the Rings - 2
Harry Potter - 5
Drizzt Saga - 8
Cthulhu Mythos - 8
Discworld - 10
The Hobbit - 9

These are the only series' I've actually read from that list (I am working my way through Beowulf and am trying to get some such as Frankenstein and Dracula).

LotR - It got a 2 from me instead of a 1 because of its influence and significance to the fantasy genre - I read it once, and despite liking some parts that weren't in the movie, I liked the movie far better. The books were long, wordy, and uninteresting compared to the Hobbit. I have a hard time reading things that ramble when they can get the same point across with a lot less.

Harry Potter - I liked it when I was younger, and I'd still like Prisoner of Azkaban. I stopped reading after #3 because #4 (Goblet) went right over my head as I read it. Plus, the movie rendition and the hype kind of ruined things for me.

Drizzt - I've only actually read The Dark Elf Trilogy, Sea of Swords, Spine of the World, Servant of the Shard, and the Hunter's Blades Trilogy. The Dark Elf Trilogy was really my favorite - Drizzt was alone a lot of the time, and I always liked him better when it was just him and Guen or him and some temporary friends. Sea of Swords is an important part of the series for the story afterwards, and Spine of the World and Servant of the Shard didn't actually include Drizzt, but really it's just The Dark Elf Trilogy and the new series' that are any good. Exile and Sojourn (Books 2 and 3 of TDET) especially.

Cthulhu Mythos - It is more horror than fantasy and he wasn't that great a writer, but the setting and the themes are hugely inspirational for the darker side of fantasy.

Discworld - I've only read the Death series so far, but this stuff is GREAT. I didn't get half of the humor and I was laughing the entire time. Of the Death books, Soul Music and Hogfather are probably the best, although my favorites are Reaper Man and Hogfather. Give them a read if you haven't. Seriously.

The Hobbit - Unlike LotR, the Hobbit was fantastic. This was one of my first exposures to fantasy when I actually was aware what the genre was (read: after I had watched a lot of Disney and read a lot of fairy tales). The Hobbit opened up the door for real fantasy with a grasp of fantasy worlds (most other stories made you assume it was somewhere on Earth) with their own rules and histories. It had a good mix of everything - magic that was rare but significant, fantastic races, noteworthy legions of enemies, and main characters that were one-sided in the right way and complex in the right as well.

Has anyone read the Dragonlance books, or The Circle of Magic series?