Many authors have inspired me both as reader and writer, but the one I think has had the strongest influence is R.A. Salvatore, who specialises in sci-fi/fantasy themed novels.
My love of the sword and sorcery genre first began in the early 1980's through movies such as Conan the Barbarian and Excalibur. Then, my older sister's boyfriend at the time invited me to join their Dungeons & Dragons campaign, which helped to develop my sense of imagination, creativity, and storyline development.
In the late '80s, that same boyfriend recommended a book he was reading at the time, called The Crystal Shard by a new author named R.A. Salvatore. Before then I had never been an avid reader of books, but I was hooked by the stories this author weaved, set in a fantasy world and populated by characters familiar to me from my D&D days.
What I loved most about these stories were the descriptiveness of both the environment and the action, and the development of each of the main characters into unique personalities that I, the reader, truly came to care about.
Over the past 25 years, R.A. Salvatore has written numerous different series of books, but my favourites are still his first two trilogies, The Icewind Dale trilogy and The Dark Elf trilogy.
Here's a link to the author's website http://www.rasalvatore.com/
and to a wiki on the books referenced above: The Crystal Shard
Here's a link to an excerpt from the first book in the Dark Elf trilogy: Homeland
Wasteland?
1 week ago
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ReplyDeleteSalvatore is great. I have read one or two of his books though my favorite sword and sorcery series is the Forgotten Legends Avatar series. I think as the series evolves it gets darker, and darker and darker. Especially the last two novels excluding the one that was written several years later, I believe it was called "Crucible: The Trial of Cyric The Mad".
ReplyDeleteHave you ever read Glen Cook? I currently reading through The Books of The South trilogy he wrote in the late 80's. Its fantastic I would suggest it as well as R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series. Probably one of the most complex pieces of writing ever to embrace the pages of a high fantasy novel.
As you can tell, I grew up on fantasy and sci-fi. Great stuff...
I've never heard of this writer, but he seems to be somewhat our of my comfort zone, but I will consider taking a look at one of his books.
ReplyDelete