Friday, September 09, 2005 | By: Patrick

New Poll: The Changing of the Guard???

Hi guys!

I've been asked this question throughout the summer, and in all sincerity, I cannot provide an answer or even an opinion. A lot of readers have been asking me who is the heir apparent in the fantasy genre.

With J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series coming to a close in the next volume, no one knows if this writer will ever attain even a fraction of the success that Harry and co. has generated. But Rowling is in a class of her own. . .

Come next month, we will only have a single volume left to complete the titanic The Wheel of Time series. And again, even though Robert Jordan has already signed with Tor Books for his new series, will he ever top the bestseller lists like he's been doing for more than a decade? And with Goodkind's The Sword of Truth (thankfully) coming to an end with the release of the next two volumes, who will be the next big thing???

At the moment, both George R. R. Martin and Robin Hobb seem quite secure in their position. But as with Jordan, can Martin ever hope to create another series like A Song of Ice and Fire?

Can authors like Terry Brooks, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Stephen R. Donaldson, Raymond E. Feist, and David Eddings return to their former glory?

A lot of people would be temped to mention the name of Steven Erikson. But although an extremely gifted author, he has not yet generated an appeal that has reached most fantasy readers. Aficionados venerate his work, but the masses have not yet caught up with the buzz. R. Scott Bakker? China Miéville? Both are very good writers, but are not always accessible for the regular fantasy fan.

Guy Gavriel Kay? Tad Williams? Greg Keyes? J. V. Jones? David Farland?

Who knows??? Do you believe that we will see a changing of the guard, such as the one that took place in the early 90s? Or do you believe that both Jordan and Goodkind will continue to make regular appearances on the NYT bestseller list? Is there an heir apparent, after all?

Let's see what you guys come up with!:-) As always, I will be posting this on the usual message boards. . .

6 commentaires:

Anonymous said...

Permalink
Posted by Laura Barcella at 1:15 PM on September 9, 2005. I'm not going to do anything specifically "9/11"-ey this Sunday.
Hey, you have a great blog here! I'm definitely going to bookmark you!

I have a earn residual income site. It pretty much covers earn residual income related stuff.

Come and check it out if you get time :-)

10:30 PM
Jay Tomio E. said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
11:07 AM
Jay Tomio E. said...

A slight edit of my post, where this poll was also placed


If people asked me that question, especially several times, I would wonder exactly what they are doing with their life to ask such a strange and relatively unimportant question Actually I would probably just back away slowly. The notion that people worry about such things is almost unbelievable.

Franklly, it's a hollow title anyway, the only thing I'm sure of is whoever is #1 most publicaly visible or recognized authors in the genre (currently Rowling now) isn't going to be anywhere near being the author who is writing the best work

I happen to like him (Erikson), however most fantasy 'aficionados' don't recognize his greatness at all - he is much more of a popular author than one that is critically lauded. It's a strong consideration, he has a very maisntream product that I think can draw a lot of readers.

Mieville IMHO is the biggest talent the genre but is over to many people's heads, or just too different to become a mainstream heavyweight no matter how many genre awards he wins for every book he writes.

You mention Keyes, Farland, Jones, Gay, and besides Farland all have talent IMHO, and I'm a fan to some degree of all of them, Kay being the most exceptional of them, but I don't see anything genre leading about any of them.

Regarding Brooks, Eddings, Donaldson, and Weiss and Hickman, I'm sure they can because their former glory IMHO can be described as mediocrity, only Donaldson in that group has written anything worth reading (I have read Feist's but not his 'Empire' work, which many people laud).

Terry Brooks, David Eddings, and Weis and Hickman are IMHO 3 of the worst, and overated authors in the history of fantasy.

These things just happen, Rowling came out of virutally nowhere, as long as there is some quality stuff being written (and most assuredly there will be), it doesn't matter to me to holds the empy title.

Jay
FBS

11:09 AM
Michael said...

We had been blogging trying to find how our world sees the internet commerce business. Residual income has been a lifeline for us. Your site provides some of the best examples of this sort and we will bookmark yours. Another one we found was and appears to be related to yours is ##KEYWORD## site/blog. It pretty much covers ##KEYWORD## related stuff.

11:23 AM
Mango said...

Your views are interesting. Thanks for letting me comment. My own website is about start your own internet business Leave a comment if you like.

11:58 PM
Riz said...

Thanks for sharing. My own website is about how to promote affiliate products Come visit and leave a comment if you like.

2:28 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)