Originally posted by: Ispy
Yeah Wuffsunie, I was actually wondering about the series as a whole myself. A few co-workers of mine have read through the whole series except for the one that isn't out yet, and I asked them about the others books and they just reply with "the first one is by far the best, after that it kinda slows down, and in the later books Richard is basically a side-character". But I really can't blame Terry for his mishaps because I can't even begin to fathom what he could do with 8 huge books taking place in the same "world" let alone have the same characters.
Richard isn't so much a side character in the later books (exception is book 7, where everyone we've come to know is a side character and take up roughly 50 pages of text) as he's a one-dimensional character. Instead of exploring the world he begins to pontificate and preach. The subtle couching of morals and ideas that Terry does in the early books is abandoned in favor of flat-out stating them, and building very poor straw-man arguments to support them. As for complexity, wait till you see what he fully opens up in Stone of Tears, there is lots to do. The most amazing/annoying part is that books 7 and 8 accomplish pretty much nothing in terms of moving the overall plot forward. Heck, book 7 could have been 150 pages in a full novel and book 8 could have been pretty much eliminated from what I've heard. I just hope that what I heard is true; that book 9, Chainfire, is going to be the first of a trilogy that will end that series (or at least its major war).
I'm also assuming you've read "Debt of Bones"? I'm thinking about picking it up buts it's extremely small and costs almost $20, just wondering what you think about it.
That's worth picking up. A cheaper way to do it is to get the
Legends Anthology Vol 2 in paperback if you can (ie Amazon). That's in there along with two other stories, one of them by George RR Martin (that one is the best of the trio) and a poor, clichéd offering from Anne McCaffrey in her Pern series.
Originally posted by: FallenHero
You ever read "Calculating God" by Robert J. Sawyer? Check that out...VERY GOOD BOOK.
I read that a while ago. The science is pretty good; not the most solid, but the book's entertaining as hell. Only a Canadian author would even dream of aliens making first contact in Toronto Very cool to see all the landmarks that I actually know in a book, too.
Try reading Sawyer's
The Terminal Experiment if you liked God, that I thought was very cool.