I really liked Tolkien and read the trilogy and the Hobbit as a kid. I agree that it's heavily descriptive of the scenery while the characters are a bit...well...thin personality wise. I still enjoyed them immensely and that was long before they became movies and all the kiddies started wearing cloaks.
Yes, those books are really good, so much that I've read The Fellowship several times (escapist...?...me...?). I have to say that the scenery descriptions are one of the things I enjoy the most, but then I am a very enthusiastic "naturalist". I had a serious crush on Aragorn when I first read the books.......
Andre Norton was my first venture into science fiction. I loved the characters and worlds she based her books on. She started getting published 1934 and I think her last book was published in 2003 (give or take a year). I also identified with her since she had to hide the fact that she was a women when she started. Women just didn't write science fiction back then and she was forced to have a nome de plume before the science fiction journals would take her seriously and publish her. A lot of her stuff seems a bit episodic because it was episodic. Most of her books were compilations of stuff she wrote for monthly publications. Anyway, Moon of Three Rings was my favorite. I think you can still find it used if you look around.
Wow, I've not heard of her, her publication history sounds rather impressive. I will look into her books.
I also love most of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books. She has a whole world with a long long history carefully chronicled. I liked them much more than her Mists of Avalon series. I just couldn't get into them while I couldn't put down any of her various Darkover books.
I have been meaning to read these next, you have certainly encouraged me with your description.
If you can get hold of the English translation of Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset, I think you might enjoy them. It is an epic tale of a young woman's life, growing up in middle age Norway. The character descriptions are so in depth, so that it becomes like a movie being played out in front of you, and the descriptions of the historical events very accurate. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature with this trilogy. I have read both the Norwegian and English version, and I was impressed with how the translation stayed true to her writing style.
^I enjoyed The Mists of Avalon very much and agree with the quoted opinion, but all three books together seem somehow repetitive (not in a repulsive way like many other authors, but still very similar to each other).
Yes, I have to agree, which is why I'm interested in reading her Darkover books after reading Cavallier's description.
