I've never read Guy Gavriel Kay, but I'll have to keep an eye out, now. I'm familiar with his books from having worked in bookstores for several years, but I've never picked one up.

I'm a huge Glen Cook fan, so if this is in that vein, it's worth my time. Interesting on the Gaiman comparison, though; I often think Gaiman's strongest suit is his natural storytelling style, and while I love his themes and characterizations and all the rest that goes into his work, it's really his natural raconteur…

Okay, helpful scale, if fairly subjective (some stuff is obvious, some is debatable). Thanks.

I've read (and loved) Glen Cook's Black Company novels, so hopefully the comparison is true; it certainly sounded similar in your description. I'm not a big Donaldson fan, however.

I had a similar problem; when I was reading the first book, I seriously stopped and thought, "Did she put out a Young Adult book and I just didn't know it?", and then it became obvious that she had not, but the book was just really ploddingly paced and simplistically written for Hobb. The second book was much the…

I haven't cracked the spine on the book yet, but now I'm dreading it a bit. My fiancee and her father have sort of been beating me over the head to read it, and I'm trying to read more award-winning sci-fi and fantasy (because I'm usually very satisfied with the books themselves, not because I place a ton of stock in…

I think Criminal is awesome, but I'm saying this having read and loved Sleeper and then having read Criminal: Coward right after and gone, "Well, that was good", and then not pursued the rest of the series for years. Criminal: Lawless was also good, but it wasn't until Criminal: The Dead and the Dying that the series…

Okay, all good to know. It's just been recommended to me so often — and I know nothing about it — that I'm trying to get some sort of sense as to where it fits in modern fantasy.

It's worth it, in the end, but it was a let-down for me. I closed the book and said to my fiancée, "I started reading this in junior high and thinking this is the kind of author I wanted to be some day. I finished it now and I'm thinking I'm glad I didn't end up being this type of author."

I juuuuust finished Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking (funny but insubstantial), following on the heels of Robin Hobb's The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince (pretty weak) and Ursula K. LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness (excellent). I'm also rounding the corner on Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips' Criminal, having…

People keep telling me to read those. How do they compare on the fantasy hierarchy of greatness, vis-a-vis folks like Martin, Jordan, Robin Hobb, Jacqueline Carey, et alia?

Good luck with that. I enjoyed the first two of Sanderson's contributions, but the third really upset me.

I read that book and enjoyed it but didn't love it… until like, a month later, when I was still thinking about it. I really love it when any form of entertainment throws me for enough of a loop that I don't realize how much I enjoyed it until way after the fact.

I'm totally with you on this. Hyperion is magnificent, and I remember beginning Fall of Hyperion and thinking, "Did I miss something vital here?". It took some time for me to regain momentum, and by the time I did, I was ready for the change in gears that was Endymion and Rise of Endymion, which I enjoyed greatly but…

I've read American Gods twice, and enjoyed it immensely both times. Of course, I read it coming off finishing both Sandman and Neverwhere for the first time, so I was pretty high on Gaiman in general. I never could get into Good Omens, though; three attempts, no traction.

There's a follow-up entitled "The New York Five", but don't expect it to redeem the original at all. Local is absolutely better, but I only read it in the trade. Demo is great — great idea, great execution — and I wish it was ongoing.

This has little to do with anything other than the premise, but Brian Wood is the author of the amazing comic book series DMZ (about a modern American civil war that leaves Manhattan as a demilitarized savage land), as well as Northlanders (vikings), and Channel Zero (dystopian story about a counterculture uprising…

Of course, the stripped-down nature of the TV series means that randomly going off on miniseries-length tangents of Westerosi history would just confuse the audience, who have no idea how these events play into the series.

I'm sort of surprised I'm the first to point out that it's "The Mystery Knight" and not "The Mighty Knight". At any rate, I love the Dunk & Egg stories (and the small details from them that creep into the series proper), and look forward to seeing them interpreted on screen and continued in prose.

I'll always remember him from oft-lampooned bits on The Adam Carolla Show (especially Dana Gould's rather fey impression of him), especially the Baghdad Cafe episode with the old dude who collects rocks.