I pulled this when someone told me that Twilight is the best Vampire series ever: "You want Vampire, read Ravenloft!" That's right, I'm the shit. I'm a huge Star Wars nut, know a bit of the Trek, big fan of LOTR, and D&D is part of my family thanks to my dad. I still play Warhammer 40K and Warhammer. Been playing for YEARS!
I thought his Riftwar Saga was incredible up until King's Buccaneer...after that, it began to really flag, I thought. Prior to that, he was great at characterization, dialogue and intrigue. After that, it began to feel a lot like paint-by-the-numbers fantasy. Is Ride A Dread Legion more like his earlier work or later work, if you also see that progression?
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Yes, I see that exact progression. I thought Magician was easily his best work to date. I did notice that several of his books do seem to be done without much thought in characterization and instead focus on getting the next book released. But then again, I did enjoy a couple of books in The Serpentwar Saga (simply for Eric). I really wasn't impressed with the Darkwar Saga as I felt he didn't have as much depth as his previous books and the others were sort of meh. I must say though, I have grown to like a character in every one of his series. Talon, Tomas, Pug/Milamber, Eric, Magnus, Jimmy, and that one hunter in the original book (I forgot his name, the one who was close with the Elves?). To answer your question though, I feel like this book is pretty decent and I'm a big fan of Kaspar who plays a pretty big role. He has introduced a bunch of new characters and a new race (didn't hear it from me!) so it is pretty overwhelming at first. It is nowhere close to the quality of Magician, but how can you eclipse? that?
Thanks for the run-down. Yeah, in the original books, pretty much all the major characters (the hunter you mean is Martin?) are interesting to follow. The way he follows storylines through generations is really impressive. I liked some of the Serpentwar Saga...especially Rise Of A Merchant Prince. The redux of Dutch coffeehouse mercantilism was nicely done in a fantasy setting, I thought. I'll probably check out the book, thanks for mentioning it.
Yeah, Martin was his name. Probably one of my favorite characters. I really enjoyed Rise Of A Merchant Prince which surprised me because I tend to enjoy the more "action-packed' books, but Roo was easy to like.
