[Setekh]

Originally posted by mikhael
Steak, the Chronicles of Narnia, like Tolkien, are required reading. As is His Dark Materials, any and all Roald Dahl and Lewis Carrol.

I could go on, but that's just a core list.

I've had an underprivileged childhood. Though most people I know read Narnia as little kids, I finally got my hands on a proper set of all 7 books (for my birthday from Icespeed ), and read through it in a little over a week. As soon as I can find the Silmarillion from somewhere, I'll borrow it and start reading.

[Rictor]

Hm...that is actually be a good idea, never thought of it that way. If you read the Silmarillion first (you did say you never read the LOTR Trilogy right?) then you get the whole story from the beggining.

And whats this Narnia stuff everyone keeps mentioning. Aside from Tolkien, I have read the Earthsea stuff by Ursula LeGuin and the Darksword trilogy. Is Narnia anything like those? If so, it might be worth picking up.

[mikhael]

Narnia is... a Christian faery tale that is very well disguised. To give you a quick run down of the first book, we have a talking lion, a stone table, a warddrobe, an ice queen, a lamp post, four children and Turkish Delight. Good vs Evil, with a little Evil Victory, followed by a Good Triumph. And that just sets the stage for six other books.

Of course, I read them out of order. I started with the Magician's Nephew quite by accident and shockingly, the whole story makes a heck of a lot more sense.


You read the Darksword Trilogy? And you admit it? Didn't you feel betrayed by the ending? Hickman and Weis (no literary greats to start with) really stuck their heads up each other's asses with that story.

[karajorma]

But wasn't C.S Lewis an aetheist?

[Zuljin]

Indeed, LoTR is amazing
I've lost count on how many times I've read the book now...
unfortunatly I've never gotten the chance to get Silmarillion
mostly since I never have cash, and the local library doesn't have it.....or actually they do but in norwegian....and I'm not reading it unless it's in the original language

As for the movie......the movies are good, but the cliff scene....
I'm not touching that thing with.....with.....anything really, it's sacriledge..

But another VERY good author in the same genre is Robert Jordan, who writes "The Wheel of Time".
Anyone here who has read that?

[mikhael]

Jordan is decent, but he's let the story get too diluted by spreading it among six thousand and nine major characters. Its just gotten silly. Not in the same class as Tolkien at all.

Karajorma, Lewis was an atheist. Tolkien once said something to the effect of having 'tried my best, but only got him as far as protestantism' or some such. Tolkien helped Lewis find faith in Christianity. He eventually became an anglican pastor, and wrote several discussions of the Christian faith. Of particular note is "The Screwtape Letters: a series of letters from a demon to his young nephew, teaching the young devil in the finer points of tempting mortals away from God. The letters are an exercise in reverse theology, meant to show the strengths and finer points of Christian dogma.