12/24/2023 0 Comments Fabled lands online![]() There are other things Tolkien does superbly too. The Moria sequence - Balin's tomb, "we cannot get out", "drums in the deep", orcs, glimpses of trolls, the Balrog - is a far superior action sequence than anything either of those authors ever wrote (and I have plenty of time for Moorcock's fiction). And the Bombadillian god on the crane is the sort of cosy comfort that becomes increasingly scarce as the story goes on.įor me, Tolkien far surpasses Howard and indeed Moorcock as a writer of *action*. Yes, the Fellowship of the Ring starts as a cosier cousin of The Wind in the Willows, but it grows steadily darker. Moorcock's essays (polemics!) are great fun, but while I chuckle at his attack on Tolkien, I'm not sure that his argument stands up. They're great fuel for games - I recently ran a one-shot based on Tower of the Elephant that went very well - but I struggle to enjoy them as stories. I like the idea of a cheerfully anachronistic mash-up held together by a central character, but I find those that I've read rather clumsy. I've always struggled with the Conan stories. "No it isn't," said the other person, and walked off. "That's one of mine as well," he replied. "Why don't you write something uplifting, like The Shawshank Redemption," they said. I also agree for the most part with your supernatural/lazy ending/cut 20% points.Īlso in Stephen King's defence, he once made a point that someone had a go at him at a book signing about his work being so nasty. I do concede some of his later stuff isn't so good, he seems to be descending into Dean Koontz territory with some of his most recent work. Some of this early works I also rate very highly (Salem's Lot, The Shining) and the first four books of his Dark Tower were good. There's only John Whitbourn's that I enjoy as much. You'll be unsurprised to learn I'm going to defend Stephen King most robustly, Dave! His short stories are excellent. ![]() ![]() Being a completist I finished them, a few days out of my life I'm never getting back (well, the first and second chronicles, I didn't realise he'd released a third until now). Funnily enough I had just started responding The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant when Baron's Lord Foul's Bane comment popped up. ![]()
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