What do you folks think of Steven Erickson's and George R. R. Martin's books

[Shardlet]

Hey everyone.  I always have a rough time picking up a new author.  I tend to find one and if I like them, completely consume all their works and then reread everything I own again before trying out a new author.  My brother-in-law recommended Steven Erickson to me and I have heard good things about George R.R. Martin.  Now, I am LDS and I know this forum has a high density of LDS sci-fi fans.  My brother-in-law is not active LDS and can be sometimes touchy about asking about content. 

 

So, that being said, I am not keen on language (sparse mild language is acceptable, but I put down a book at the first F-bomb).  As far as sexuality goes, Warbreaker was right at my limit.  Yes, I know, there was no sex, but there was enough description of Siri and Susibron's encounters and descriptions of Blushweaver (and her suggestiveness with Lightsong) that I almost put it down. 

 

Whether you disagree or not with my choices and limits is not at issue.  These are just the limits for me not suggestions for everyone else.  I am not judging.  I am just looking for quality authors whom I will enjoy reading. 

 

How do Erickson and Martin (and other authors you've read) compare to my preferences?

[Trizee]

If those are your preferences, don't read either. Martin drops the F- bomb every other page and sex scenes are not uncommon in his books. Erikson isn't nearly as bad as Martin, but he does have a sex scene every once in a while that is worse than Warbreaker.

[Shardlet]

Thanks Trizee, I appreciate the input.  Do you have any alternative suggestions for me?

[Trizee]

I don't really know what you've read and what you like, so I don't really know what to suggest. But if you're looking for a "clean" epic fantasy, you could try David Farland's Runelords, or David Eddings's stuff (though you've probably read that). Oh and if you haven't read the Wheel of Time...

[Yados]

I don't really know what you've read and what you like, so I don't really know what to suggest. But if you're looking for a "clean" epic fantasy, you could try David Farland's Runelords, or David Eddings's stuff (though you've probably read that). Oh and if you haven't read the Wheel of Time...

 

If Warbreaker is the upper limit for sexual encounters, I can't imagine Shardlet is going to be pleased with anything after the first book in Wheel of Time. 

[Shardlet]

I've read thew Malorian, but not the Belgariad (I thought Eddings was ok but kind of meh).  I like Stephen Lawhead.  I've read all of Sir Pterry's Discworld.  I love the first three Dune novels.  The other three by Frank Herbert were good, but not as good as the first three.  I've read all the Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson Dune books as well and thought they were alright (some skipped parts).  I've read some of the Shanara books and thought they were fine in absence of something better.  I read the Mercedes Lackey and Andre Norton dragon books, they were good.  I enjoy Tolkien but I think the Silmarillion is a little thick.  I love the Ender Saga and the Shadow (Bean) series.  I enjoyed Asimov's Foundation books and the Robot books (although the Lige Bailey books has a couple of parts I skipped over).  I also enjoy Kristen Britain's Green Rider books.  That is the bulk of it.  I know, not very well read, but I only really started reading again about 15 years ago and I reread a lot.

 

I'll check out Farland and I will probably get around to the Belgariad.  Thanks again Trizee.

 

I have been contemplating WoT.  Thanks for the heads up Yados.

 

Edit: By way of clarification, I don't mind if sexual encounters occur.  I just don't like it when they are described.

Edited June 10, 2013 by Shardlet

[Jedidiah]

A Song of Ice and Fire is an extremely graphic series, both linguistically and sexually. The scenes are frequent, too. I was actually quite surprised at how much of a dirty old man Martin is haha. That being said, the stories are fantastic. 

 

I'm sure this is a dumb question, but have you ever read Tolkien? And, I don't just mean Lord of the Rings, but his other works like The Silmarillion and The Children of Hurin (both in the Middle Earth mythos). Those two are some of my favorite books of all time.

[Shardlet]

I read the Silmarillion (in fact I have a first edition of the US publication).  I had a hard time getting into it.  too much of it was historical rather than Narrative.  Just didn't do it for me.  I have not read Children of Hurin, though.  I very much enjoy LotR and the Hobbit.

[Jedidiah]

I read the Silmarillion (in fact I have a first edition of the US publication).  I had a hard time getting into it.  too much of it was historical rather than Narrative.  Just didn't do it for me.  I have not read Children of Hurin, though.  I very much enjoy LotR and the Hobbit.

The Children of Hurin is fantastic, and reads more like LoTR than The Silmarillion does. It also incorporates many elements of Greek tragedy, while LoTR is heavily Norse and English.

[TwistedMisting]

Erikson does have some sex, but I can't recall any graphic descriptions of sexual encounters, and sometimes it's downright funny. However, there are occasions when characters are raped. BUT it's not done in a way to be titillating or sensational, a problem I've found in other books. In fact, a lot of the time anything to do with sex happens 'off screen' but is referenced later. All cursing in Malazan books is done with 'in world' curses like 'spirits below' or 'Hood's balls' so I don't recall any serious profanity there that might put you off.

 

Having said that, it seems like your general style is more classic fantasy, and Erikson is very convoluted and unusual. I love the series but can fully understand that it might not be to everyone's taste. The books can at times be dark and gory, plus the lines of good/evil are very blurry so I'm not sure that people more in love with classic fantasy will enjoy them.

 

Have you read Trudi Canavan's books? You might enjoy those, and they're pretty easy to read.

[Trizee]

Erikson does have some sex, but I can't recall any graphic descriptions of sexual encounters, and sometimes it's downright funny. However, there are occasions when characters are raped. BUT it's not done in a way to be titillating or sensational, a problem I've found in other books. In fact, a lot of the time anything to do with sex happens 'off screen' but is referenced later. All cursing in Malazan books is done with 'in world' curses like 'spirits below' or 'Hood's balls' so I don't recall any serious profanity there that might put you off.

 

Having said that, it seems like your general style is more classic fantasy, and Erikson is very convoluted and unusual. I love the series but can fully understand that it might not be to everyone's taste. The books can at times be dark and gory, plus the lines of good/evil are very blurry so I'm not sure that people more in love with classic fantasy will enjoy them.

 

Have you read Trudi Canavan's books? You might enjoy those, and they're pretty easy to read.

 

I've only read the first two books, but some of the Felisin scenes in Deadhouse Gates included sex scenes which were easily far more crude than anything seen in Warbreaker.

[TwistedMisting]

Do you know I'd forgotten the Felisin scenes? you are right, though, my apologies.

[Shardlet]

Thank you both for your comments.  I really appreciate your input.

[Lady_Yasha]

If Warbreaker is the upper limit for sexual encounters, I can't imagine Shardlet is going to be pleased with anything after the first book in Wheel of Time. 

 

There's zero profanity in it that's not engineered by Robert Jordan himself. Lots of "bloody" but I don't consider that profanity anyway. But there is actually no colloquial profanity in the Wheel of Time books.

 

As far as sex goes the scenes are fairly mild, lightly descriptive, and cut short of anything too descriptive, or before intercourse starts. I believe there is one scene, but it was so vague in description I'm doubting if I remembered it correctly. In short, the romance in WoT is done tastefully.

 

Belgariad was Eddings' best series; worth a shot at least if you were already looking into it.

 

And you say you like Dune and Asimov's works, have you tried Phillip K. Dick? Arthur C. Clarke is a paragon of science fiction too. And there's also William Gibson, though his stuff if very heavy on the literature. His prose is very noir, which is either something you'll enjoy, or you won't.

[Shardlet]

Thanks, good tips.  I haven't read any Dick, but I know he has a bit of a dystopian bent that I may enjoy.  I've read a lot of Clarke.  Gibson is new to me, though.

[HearMonicaRoar]

Have you read anything of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series? There's some really good books there that sound like they may be to your tastes. The Joust series was good, but there are definitely better books written by her. 

 

Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is really good and I think it's pretty clean as far as language/sexuality is concerned. 

 

Definitely no A Song of Ice and Fire though. If you want to read something by George R R Martin I think Fevre Dream would be more what you're looking for.

[Shardlet]

Thanks for your input, Hear.

[Senor Feesh]

Admittedly I've yet to read Rothfuss, but I'd heard it had a lot of sex. Is that not the case?

 

Mercedes Lackey is superb; I've only read Zoo City but it was sublime (good enough that I feel confident to recommend her as an author on that alone). Not much sex that I can recall (although there is sexual content in there) and I think a fair amount of language as it's set in an alternate modern Earth. So that one's probably no good for you, but look up her cleaner stuff as HearMonicaRoar suggested.

 

I think Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere should be safe (I've read it often enough that I should be able to say for sure, but memory fails me now). It does have the odd swear, but not a lot, and I'm pretty sure no sex (although there is some sexual tension, no sex scenes on or off screen). DON'T read American Gods. One of my fave books, but definitely falls into the categories you dislike.

 

I keep plugging it everywhere I go, but the Shadows of the Apt series by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a superb alternative fantasy setting. Swearing tends to be limited in-world sayings (Hammer and Tongs! for example). There are some very few sex scenes, far apart and pretty tame. I can think of one or two across the 8 book (so far) series.

 

Hope any of that is useful

[Shardlet]

Excellent, Thank you Feesh.

[HearMonicaRoar]

Now that you mention it Feesh I completely blanked out on the Felurian scenes in the Kingkiller Chronicles. Perhaps Name of the Wind wouldn't be good for you Shard, unless you were willing to pass a few chapters because there is some sex in there. The Felurian scenes really annoy some people anyway, and I think the book would be worthwhile reading regardless. I am, however, admittedly biased there because NotW is one of my favorite books right now. 

[Jackal]

Martin and Erikson both throw around the battlefield dialogue, f-bombs and whatnot, though I think there were more in ASOIAF. In terms of tone, both are epics. Both stories have very detailed settings with lots of history. Martin's tends toward grounded fantasy whereas Erikson's work is more sword and sorcery-esque. If you're big on fantastic elements-dragons, demons, gods, spirits, fantastic races outside the norm of elves, dwarves etc-go with Erikson. If you like a healthy dose of realism or versimilitude, Martin's your author.

[Meg]

Admittedly I've yet to read Rothfuss, but I'd heard it had a lot of sex. Is that not the case?

 

 

Now that you mention it Feesh I completely blanked out on the Felurian scenes in the Kingkiller Chronicles. Perhaps Name of the Wind wouldn't be good for you Shard, unless you were willing to pass a few chapters because there is some sex in there. The Felurian scenes really annoy some people anyway, and I think the book would be worthwhile reading regardless. I am, however, admittedly biased there because NotW is one of my favorite books right now. 

 

 

I've been recommended to read Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles. I've bought the first (The Name of the Wind) and on the second attempt I've read it. It didn't hook me like BS's books but it was interesting and nice to read. So I bought the second book (A Wise Man's Fear), too. 

And, exactly the Felurian scenes made me to stop reading. Not only because of the sex scenes. 

Yet in the first book I've got the impression of Kvothe being a super-mega-imba-uba-hero. Finding Felurian and the following scenes (as far as I've read them before stopping) imply that he gets still more "uba". 

I might start reading it again sometimes but at the moment I'm supersaturated with Kvothe. 

 

 

@topic and GRRM: 

I've read ASoIaF over a long time and I've kind of enjoyed it. Kind of ... it's a long-scale story and itched me to buy the next book when it was available. But there is a lot of violence and force and, too, sex. I've kind of ignored the sex-scenes mostly. What is really too much are the Daenerys-parts. I've got to hate her nearly since her first appearance. 

[TwistedMisting]

I'm not a massive fan of the Kingkiller Chronicles personally. I have read both books, but I've only read them through once. I also found the Felurian scenes intensely annoying, and Kvothe himself really got on my nerves. I also disliked the portrayal of women in the books.

 

I've just read Neverwhere a couple of days ago, and I'll second that recommendation, I really enjoyed it. There are a couple of sweary moments, but they're not excessive. There is no sex in it at all either. I loved the concept of the book with London Above and London Below. Having lived in London myself for a few years, it was also fun to see how he messed around with the names of tube stations in the plot.

[HearMonicaRoar]

I kind of think Kvothe is supposed to get on peoples nerves. Here's this super smart kid doing a bunch of really stupid things that have both positive and negative results without him really learning too much from them. I see this as the author setting Kvothe up for the tragedy to come, and despite his M.S.ish qualities I still really like the character. I can definitely understand why people would be annoyed with him though. 

[IceBaka]

As a teenager, I really enjoyed Eddings' Belgariad.  Not sure if that's much of an endorsement...

 

It's been a bit since I read Rothfuss' Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear, but I recall the first as being free of both swearing and sex.  It was the latter that had an excess of sex.

 

I was about to recommend Anthony Ryan's Blood Song (which I quite liked), but then I remembered that it had some language, especially near the beginning, and mild sex, mostly off-page, near the end. 

 

Most of the stuff I've read in the last year or two I simply can't recommend (bad language, sex, or poorly written), except perhaps Ernest Cline's Ready Player One.  It was a fun little jaunt through an alternate near future that featured a heavy dose of pop culture from the 70s-90s.