I got a 33, and I've only seen the movies. I half-expected to get at least a 50, considering my innate nerdliness.

I just came back from the hospital. My doctor told me that I have coccydynia, which in my case means that the ligaments between my coccyx and gluteals have torn. In plainer terms, I have a sprained ass.

For fantasy writing, I got Terry Pratchett. I just love his style. He's right up there with Larry Niven. In fact, I'd say that as far as craftmanship goes, his writing is even better.

The ony one of Tad Williams's's books I've read is "Tailchaser's Song." It was a good book, worth the reread now and then. However, it's a bit theatrical, and he made foolish mistakes, such as having every other male cat be tortoiseshell, and saying newborn kittens are hairless. Surely if you're writing a book that will appeal specifically to cat lovers, you should make sure you know your subject matter.

Sprained ass. Ouch.

As to Tailchaser's Song- yeah, that was actually his first book, and it has a lot of problems, as you noticed. I've read most of what he's written, possibly all of it, and my favorite books are still his Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series (consisting of The Dragonbone Chair, The Stone of Farewell, and To Green Angel Tower)... but his Otherland series (City of Golden Shadow, River of Blue Fire, Mountain of Black Glass, Sea of Silver Light) is also awesome.... MS&T is much more classic medieval-based epic fantasy where Otherland is more of a cyber-fantasy, but they're both extremely good books. Unfortunately everything he's written since finishing Otherland is rather... meh.

Hey cool! The Belgariad! I still have those books sitting around here someplace.

I don't think they're $67 worth of cool, though.

Hey cool! The Belgariad

Well the first series qualifies as a "I can't put these books down."
The second series is umm, OK, but it's just the same story with different character names.
Eddings last book is just weird, a cat that is a God, that can be copulated with by mortal man to produce an offspring??? Umm yeah, that happens all the time and does not take giant leaps of logic to believe.

My opinion of Eddings went down hill the more he wrote.

a cat that is a God, that can be copulated with by mortal man to produce an offspring???

Well... it doesn't seem MUCH more far-fetched than Zeus turning into something wierd to molest every second woman in pre-Homeric Greece (I mean-- a swan? How's that gonna work?). Maybe there's a context issue I'm missing. Pratchett is definitely the king of music with rocks in it, and sprained asses lie towards the other end of that spectrum. Yike.

Ooo ooo ooo, I looooooooove Tad Williams. The Otherland series is so good. I think that's actually partially why I don't like Mercedes Lackey; I was waiting for the next Otherland book when I read one of hers. But I only made it half-way through the first Valdemar book, so maybe I shouldn't judge. I've heard that she got better later on.

Ernst - are you perchance adding insult to injury? My ass is not amused.

While we're on the topic of good writers, I'd like to throw in two names: Douglas Adams and John Varley.

I've only read one book by Varley, "Titan," from the Gaea Trilogy. It's your typical "Earthlings wander onto a strange planet story," but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked his style, loved the creatures on the planet, and I loveloveLOVED Cirocco (men can write strong female characters!). Too bad my library's missing the second book, though I may just go ahead and buy all three books from the used bookstore or Amazon.

John Varley

I have all 3 books in that trilogy, and yet I've never read them.

For something different, try "Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell." It's an historical fantasy, set in early 19th century England and also written in the sylte of the time. It's an 800-page slab, but there wasn't a single boring bit in it. I got it for $4.67 used on Amazon.

There's a really lame and boring and lame post on Davey's Wiki, if anyone's interested. I'm a little too braindead right now to decipher it. I'm not sure what he's talking about, something about a fish or something.

Hey Davey, if you have to explain the joke, it's not funny anymore. Oh, wait, it wasn't funny to begin with. I guess you can do whatever you want with it then.

New Scarlett

Just a title page, and thus not as horrible as most of them. I'm really surprized that he didn't give Toni hearts for eyes with "He thinks he's cute!" written next to his head, like he did when Sailor Moon met Davey in SMUSA.

Is it me, or is the earring getting bigger every time he draws it?

Edited by author 03-19-2006 03:54 PM
I'm not sure what he's talking about, something about a fish or something.

Umm...yeah, wtf? He came up with the incredibly original line "Trout of Doom," and he puts a copyright dingus after it when he uses it in a chat? I coined the nonword "InExOb," but I don't expect people to pay me a nickel every time they read it.
(Yes, yes, I know it's Creative Commons, but it's still a pretty vain thing to do)

edit:
Hey, Davey! http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22tr...&btnG=Google+Search
REAL ORIGINAL.

Edited by author 03-20-2006 02:33 AM
Bill: Yeah, Toni's ear-hoop is getting so big I expect him to start going 'ARRRR, me HEARTIES!'

And the Wiki - Wow. He didn't take ten seconds to google it to see how unoriginal it is? I'm gonna guess he's never even seen the Fish-Slapping Dance sketch, either.
I might not know everything about Disney, but what I lack in knowledge, I make up for with the shinanegains, more often than not involving that large trout.
Ooooh, isn't he a little DICKENS? Isn't he just the CYUUUEST wif his widdle online japes and jests at the general populace?
No. Not for a second.
So the Trout of Doom is his oh-so-witty response to things like trolls or when someone doesn't take his work seriously? He mentions it twice here when people make joking replies to 'what's in the box?'
So his attempt to be humourous ironically demonstrates that he has no sense of humour at all when the joke's on him.

I think he's trying to say that he invented it, and ain't it cool, and people think it's so wonderfully amusing. Um... if the only one using your wonderful idea is you, then I don't suppose it's really anything to crow about.

Hey, I'm the one who first called Brak a "Saber-toothed Bubbacat," waaaay back when. I've heard others call Brak that, and I see "Bubbacat" here and there on the web. Why in the world didn't I trademark it? I could be rolling in nickels!

On the second page of the Google results, there's someone else who uses the phrase and puts a copyright mark after it...So he wasn't even original in doing that.