I’m not one of those morons who fawns over pirates, but still: Ooooh!

“one of those book that’ll be on the Stack forever and ever, much like Zelazny’s “The Great Book of Amber”.”

Hehe, I’ve got that book on my stack, too. Or more like on a shelf; it’s been so long since I bought it, I still had avaliable shelf space at the time.

Anyhoo, another book I’d thought would end up in this category (eternal stack fillers) was Leibner’s The Books of Lankhmar, but I’m beginning to suspect that two of my favourite characters in The Belgariad (Silk and Barak) are based heavily on Lankhmar’s two mains (the Grer Mouser and Fahrlangh (I’ve probably mixed the name of this latter one with that of the DnD god of travel, by the way)), and so are a lot of others, possibly including even Moorcock’s Moonglum and Elric. So… :\

“Still, for all its faults, I really like The Belgariad.”

I’m beginning to like it, too. Not only does it have some qualities of its own, it also makes me want to read WoT again… :\

But obviously, plot is very important indeed, and The Belgariad certainly struggles a lot on that front (Lamora does not, which makes it a much, much better read). The second and, hm, third, book, I think it was, are a lot better than the first one in that regard, though. But then it gets very bland when it approaches the finale in the last books again.

Still, for all its faults, I really like The Belgariad. It was the first fantasy I read and really liked after I was done with Tolkien (having tried WoT and not really liking it (I’d later re-read it and change my mind) in between the two) and for the age I was in back then, which was eleven or twelve I think, it really was exactly what I wanted, and the enjoyment I got out of it back then is difficult to shake out of the re-reading-experiences as well.

Speaking of Gene Wolfe, I’ve ordered his latest book, “Pirate Freedom”, a book that supposedly is to pirates what “The Wizard Knight” is to knights. Can’t wait to read it ^^

Don’t know when I’ll get around to “Tigana”. I have a feeling that it’s gonna be one of those book that’ll be on the Stack forever and ever, much like Zelazny’s “The Great Book of Amber”. But keep bugging me about it - I’ll most likely love the crap out of it once I get my head out of my ass (hmm… that was a weird sentence…).

Also, Tigana’s not really Epic. It’s kinda High, sure enough, at least in relation to Tolkien’s use of the term, but then again, not really in the “power and flashiness level of the magic”. It has some Epic elements, but it’s really, really, really not Epic in the way that The Lord of the Rings or Narnia or The Wheel of Time are Epic. It’s definitely sentimental, though, but unlike a lot of others, I actually loved that…

I’m glad you feel that way. I’d be glad if I could get a little more variation on the review-thing though. I’m getting a bit locked into this one special kind that you described above, and to be frank, it’s getting kind of old. Especially so with movies - I seldom do those anymore

As for the epic bit, well, I’m currently reading an omnibus version of Daniel Abraham’s The Long Price Quartet, titled “The Long Price: Shadow and Betrayal”, and after that I plan to read another epic, “The Book of Joby”, but neither of them are your normal “kings, princesses, medieval setting etc etc”. I have had about enough of those, and won’t try another one ’till I get around to “Tigana”.

(Of course, with my own lousy reviews, the writing of which I usually consider a chore, I’m hardly one whose praise should be appreciated. )

Oh, and “The Tooth Fairy” sounds like another book one ought to have read. At least if one (i.e. me) wasn’t pining almost exclusively for epic these days… :\

@Brian: Yep, that you should