Stefan’s Comments (group member since Jan 28, 2013)

Stefan’s comments from the Fantasy Geeks group.

Welcome, Alexandra! Good to have another gamer aboard!

Thanks for the input J! Here's a link to Michael Whelan's Gallery

Another artist that I always liked is Jeff Easley.

Oh, and I didn't really provide a link to Keith Parkinson before.

Welcome back, Luis!

And a hearty welcome to Emily! Good to have you here.

Just double-check to see that what you're posting in this thread is about the dragons, not pushing people to go buy your book and you'll be fine. There's another area of the group set aside for self-promotion that you can use for that sort of thing.

The requirement is whatever we decide it should be. I agree that we probably do need some kind of requirement though. It would help to have some sort of parameters for nominations.

That's good, I like it. I added it to the master list above.

Hi, Rachelle.

Um, yeah. Waffles are good.

Here's a possibility for one category under Nontraditional Fantasy: Dystopian/Urban Fantasy

Welcome, Michael! Good to have you! It's been a little quiet around here of late, so maybe you can help kick it up a notch!

I recently purchased The Last Dragon by Jane Yolen on clearance from SFBC. It's a graphic novel and I haven't read much of it yet, but what I did read of the story seems pretty good and the artwork is very nice also.

I just got Kingsgate: The Art of Keith Parkinson on clearance from SFBC. It's pretty magnificent and has a lot of pics that are either covers of books that I own or pics that I remember from my old Dragonlance/Forgotten Realms calendars!

Hey, all! I thought that it might be interesting for the group to come up with Top 25 lists in different categories of Fantasy. It would be a great resource for group members looking for something new to read and for future group reads and/or discussions.

The first thing that we need to do as a group is decide what categories we'd want to use for these lists and what criteria fit each category. Some ideas that I've had concerning this so far are:

Classic Fantasy (The foundations of the Fantasy genre)

Traditional Fantasy (Knights, Dragons, Wizards and Fair Maidens)

YA Fantasy (Books intended for a Younger Audience)

Children's Fantasy (Books intended for those under 12)

CORE/Must-Read Fantasy (Those special books both classic and contemporary that every Fantasy fan should read)

Sci Fi/Fantasy Mash-up Fantasy setting that incorporates technology or other Science Fiction elements.

Nontraditional Fantasy (This would incorporate all the books out there that aren't in the Traditional mode. This is one area that could be broken down into more specific categories if the group deems it necessary.)

Anyway, let's have some fun with this and some good discussion and see what kind of lists we can come up with as a group.

Hey there, fellow Geeks! I thought that it might be fun to run our own NCAA Tournament-style game matching up Fantasy novels (or series) head-to-head in order to crown our own Fantasy Geeks Champion!

For those who may be unfamiliar with the NCAA Basketball Tournament, how it would work is that I would set up brackets with 64 Fantasy books or series, each one matched up head-to-head with another book or series. Each week, the group would vote for one or the other in each match-up and the field would be divided in half each week until only 1 was left standing.

I have found several Top Fantasy lists that I am combining together into 1 master list with which to select my 64. I'm not sure if this is the best method to use, but it's what I came up with at this point in time anyway.

If this is something that you all think might be fun, I'll get the brackets put together and we'll start the first round on Friday, March 1.

Voting would then take place from Friday to Thursday with the next round being posted on Friday again. SO, the tournament would work out as follows:

Round 1 (64) - March 1-7
Round 2 (32) - March 8-14
Round 3 (Sweet 16) - March 15-21
Round 4 (Elite 8) - March 22-28
Round 5 (Final 4) - March 29-April 4
Round 6 (Championship) - April 5-11

Let me know what you all think and I'll get to work on putting the bracket together.

Sounds good. I'll get to brainstorming.

Hi. I don't see a whole lot of activity going on around here either, but I'd be happy to take on some moderating duties if you need me to. Maybe we could come up with some ideas to get the ball rolling on some activity around here.

Well, like I said, Salvatore and DragonLance aren't for everybody.

I did forget to mention, since you like George R.R. Martin, you might want to give John Marco a try. I haven't read his second series, but Tyrants and Kings which starts with The Jackal of Nar was very good.

J. wrote: "Any recommendations?"

Looks like you've got Tolkien, Jordan, Brooks and some of the other biggies covered already. Have you read Terry Brooks other series starting with Magic Kingdom For Sale/Sold? If you're looking for a little lighter fare, it's a fun series as is the Ethshar series by Lawrence Watt Evans which starts with The Misenchanted Sword.

Other series that I can think of that you might enjoy are Dragonlance and the Drizzt books by R.A. Salvatore (Both of which have mixed reviews by those of us who have read them after high-school, but I enjoy them.) You might also like The Guardians of the Flame by Joel Rosenberg which starts with The Sleeping Dragon.

I have nothing against those other types of "fantasy" and I even read them. However, they're not what I consider fantasy, I guess I put them into a different genre in my head.

I lean more towards traditional medieval-style fantasy when I think of fantasy as a genre. This is not to say that I don't enjoy other types of fantasy, but when I get into a mood for a fantasy novel I like swords & sorcery, dungeons & dragons, tolkieny goodness.