Faerie Tale

Raymond Feist wrote:
> In article <qfh5k2lpgl0s0q1j57m8t3ua0nge1ipuoq.TakeThisOut@4ax.com>,
> Guig <yerawsittin.TakeThisOut@hame.jistnoo> wrote:
>
> > On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 11:30:20 -0500, "Paul Howard"
> > <ppaulshoward.TakeThisOut@insightbb.com> wrote:
> >
> > > "gp.skinner" <gp.skinner.TakeThisOut@talk21.com> wrote in message
> > > news:1161099333.818845.182050@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> > > > Having just reread Faerie Tale, I have to say - ARGHHHHH!
> > > >
> > > > It still gives me the shivers
> > > >
> > > It is a Great Read and while I'm not sure where Raymond could go
> > > next with the Faerie, I wish he would write more about the Magi.
> >
> > I had a discussion with Raymond many, many years ago back on IIRC
> > CompuServe regarding a sequel to Faerie Tale, but I'll leave it up
> > to him to explain
>
> Back then I had an idea for an "End of Days" type story called The
> Demon Project, and it was an "indirect" Faerie Tale sequel, with a
> cameo of the twins, now college students, and featuring Mark Blackman
> as the only significant character in both books. Other things, such
> as my publishers wanting more heroic fantasy, prevented it. I may
> still do it, someday, but I've got another six or seven books to go
> to finish the complete Riftwar Cycle.
>
> Best, R.E.F.

Wohoo!!! Six or seven more Riftwar books! Thanks Ray.

I think Faerie Tale is an awesome book and would love to see you write more
in that vein but I'm also a Midkemia junky so am torn. <g>

I hope to read The Demon Project (or whatever it morphs into) one day.

May you have health and happiness all of your days Ray, and may those days
be many.
--
Shaun.
 >> Stay informed about: Faerie Tale 

In article <Xns986C8D9C13543nobodydevnull.RemoveThis@216.196.109.145>,
Craig <nobody.RemoveThis@dev.null> wrote:

> "jgentry" <jgentry46.RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote in
> news:1162153683.481431.321100@e64g2000cwd.googlegroups.com:
>
>
> > I had no idea. There have been rumors floating around for *years*
> > about his possible illness or even death. This is the first I've
> > heard from someone who could actually confirm or deny this. That and
> > that he is actually working on the last book of the series. Good luck
> > to him with both.
> >
> > -->Jeff
> >
>
> There's a self-written note on his illness on his publisher's website:
> http://www.tor.com/jordan/
>
> Damn sad news and I hope he beats it. That said, he has posted some
> relatively good news on treatment on his blog:
> http://www.dragonmount.com/RobertJordan/


Keep your fingers crossed. As you said, relatively good news, but it
comes and goes quickly with this disease. I like Jim and hope he hangs
around for a lot longer.

Best, R.E.F.

--
Never attribute to malice what can satisfactorily
be explained away by stupidity.
 >> Stay informed about: Faerie Tale 

On Oct 30, 12:35 pm, Oliver Nowak <oliver_andreas_no....RemoveThis@yahoo.de>
wrote:

> Your posting reminded me of the flamewars of the Jordan newsgroup in
> its heyday (where I lurked), so I had to search Google groups for some
> fond ( ) memories. Here's one of the more, well, entertaining
> examples, but beware of some profanity:
>
> Google groups URI:
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan/brow...
>
> shortened link for convenience:
>
> http://makeashorterlink.com/?S1261521E
>

Yep, I lurked there for years until it degraded to something totally
different than what I think was it's intended purpose. I stopped
following at least two years ago. Has it gotten better again after the
last release of the series? And who killed Asmo? <ducks>

> And yes, of course, I, too, hope that Mr. Rigney will get well soon.
> Even though I didn't buy the latest two books, I certainly will once
> the WoT series is complete. The first five or six books were the reason
> for one of the most intense addictions to a fantasy series besides
> JRRT's LotR in my case.
>

I've thought of waiting as well, but I really don't want to miss out on
being able to find the hardbacks -- I buy them now and put them on the
shelf for safekeeping until the series is done.

He really had me hooked until about the time of the book after _The
Great Hunt_. The story began to drag and I really despaired of it
having an actual conclusion. It's really strange: unlike Mr. Feist's
books, I actually began to *want* a conclusion to the story. The
characters had begun to irritate me but I *really* wanted to know how
things ended.

JRRT's books were my intro into the world of fantasy. Nothing will
ever compare to them for me. I can still reread _The Hobbit_ and _The
Lord of the Rings_ and be transported back to the days when I first
read them. That is the magic of literature.

-->Jeff
 >> Stay informed about: Faerie Tale 

jgentry wrote in
<1162153683.481431.321100.TakeThisOut@e64g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>

<snip>
> I had no idea. There have been rumors floating around for *years*
> about his possible illness or even death. This is the first I've heard
> from someone who could actually confirm or deny this. That and that he
> is actually working on the last book of the series. Good luck to him
> with both.
>

There have been many occasions of people saying that Jordan was dead or
terminally ill in the past that didn't have any grounding in reality.
Multiple times the rumor was attributed to some bookstore clerk, so
that the "book store people" got sort of a reputation in that regard.

Your posting reminded me of the flamewars of the Jordan newsgroup in
its heyday (where I lurked), so I had to search Google groups for some
fond ( ) memories. Here's one of the more, well, entertaining
examples, but beware of some profanity:

Google groups URI:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan/brows...rm/thre

shortened link for convenience:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?S1261521E


And yes, of course, I, too, hope that Mr. Rigney will get well soon.
Even though I didn't buy the latest two books, I certainly will once
the WoT series is complete. The first five or six books were the reason
for one of the most intense addictions to a fantasy series besides
JRRT's LotR in my case.

O.
 >> Stay informed about: Faerie Tale 

jgentry wrote in <1162265509.953173.41740 DeleteThis @e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com>:
>
<snip>
> Yep, I lurked there for years until it degraded to something totally
> different than what I think was it's intended purpose. I stopped
> following at least two years ago. Has it gotten better again after the
> last release of the series? And who killed Asmo? <ducks>

I don't know exactly what you mean by "better" here. If you mean it was
too off-topic, then maybe, but what on-topic things can you talk about
when you've discussed the series for the better part of a decade and
the plot of the series hasn't moved forward for many (real-life) years?

I only drop by in rasfwr-j every now and then, but I think you can say
that today, the percentage of on-topic discussions is probably higher
then two years ago. The post count has sharply declined, though - have
a look at Google's statistics here:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan/about?hl=en

Most of the regulars from some years ago seem to have left for good.

<snip>
>
> He really had me hooked until about the time of the book after _The
> Great Hunt_. The story began to drag and I really despaired of it
> having an actual conclusion. It's really strange: unlike Mr. Feist's
> books, I actually began to *want* a conclusion to the story. The
> characters had begun to irritate me but I *really* wanted to know how
> things ended.

Yes, I can relate to that. Actually, I wish I could "un-read" the
earlier books of the WoT series and read the whole series in one go.
The later books would be much better reads, if the excitement from the
first few carried over to them.

>
> JRRT's books were my intro into the world of fantasy. Nothing will
> ever compare to them for me. I can still reread _The Hobbit_ and _The
> Lord of the Rings_ and be transported back to the days when I first
> read them. That is the magic of literature.

Yes, for me, this is especially true for the "Hobbit", as I read that
when I was still very young - maybe 10 or so. It's an interesting
question whether I'd like the "Hobbit" (that has been labeled as "for
kids") if I read it the first time today. I didn't like Lewis' "Narnia"
books (that I only recently read for the first time). It's hard to say,
but I think the "Hobbit", with all the background of Tolkien's universe
would be a different thing.

Regards,

Oliver
 >> Stay informed about: Faerie Tale 

OK, this is now an old thread. But when I replied to it, I inadvertantly
replied to Jeff (jgentry) instead of to the group. He's just gotten back to
me to point this out. So here's the original message, followed by my reply,
followed by his reply to my reply.

Mike

*********************************************************
Original Message:
*********************************************************

"jgentry" <jgentry46.RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1161480160.068520.203620@k70g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>
>
> On Oct 21, 6:23 pm, "Paul Howard" <ppaulshow....RemoveThis@insightbb.com> wrote:
>
> > They were 'closer' to Hidden Conspiracy Types who control Governments.
Mind
> > you, they were shown as basically good people.
> >
>
> Hmm. Well, if you do look back at the creatures of Faerie, you'll
> notice that in their actions they almost don't have a "free will" --
> they seem to be almost incarnations of forces of nature and live out an
> almost scripted existence focused on completeing their Rightful Task as
> it were. My example for this would be the pan-like creature who
> initially seemed to be helpful, but as the seasons passed, became more
> and more like the Horned One he hated until he in fact became that
> entity. Just as one season passes to the next and the year becomes
> bitter, cold and then dies giving way to the New Year.
>
> If, as I posit above, the creatures of Faerie are but representations
> of Nature herself, I think it would be hard to pull some sort of story
> arc out of them for the Magi to oppose; what the Magi do now seems to
> be more along the lines of keeping the human world and the Faerie World
> from bumping into each other -- not really exciting unless there are
> some complications as those that were experienced by our hero in
> _Faerie Tale_. The Faerie creatures themselves seem to be
> self-limiting as they exist only to fulfill their roles.
>
> This is not to say that there aren't more nefarious agents of magic for
> the Magi to oppose, however. They really could have some interesting
> adventures if their duties were expanded to more of a "World's Magic
> Police" role instead of riding herd on an essentially limited-dimension
> type of Magical creature -- even though those creatures may in fact
> hold the key to the progression of time and everything in our world
> (they are it's avatars?). They really do have some potential for
> interesting exploits, and I'd welcome these magical contentions to a
> modern setting as well -- simply for the "change of scenery".
>
> Jeff


******************************************************
My Reply:
******************************************************

Actually, I think your comments would suggest an interesting background to
all sorts of possible stories. A murder mystery for example, or a pulp
adventure, or even an alien invasion story (with a fantasy twist).

EG: A human manages to gain access to the Land Of Faerie and is killed by
the forces there. The Magi attempt to dispose of the remains in such a way
that the secrecy of the Faerie is preserved, but get interrupted by
mischance (or by a rebellious Faerie faction), leaving a mystery for the
local slueth to solve. This could quickly evolve into a three-ring circus
between investigator, Faerie rebels, and Magi.

If this doesn't quite fit the established background from Faerie Tale, give
me a break - I havn't re-read it myself for quite a while. It's in the
que.....

Mike Bourke

PS: If you want to use this idea, Ray, I formally renounce any and all
rights to it and will do so in more formal terms if you / your publisher /
your agent / your lawyer desire in return for mention on the
acknowledgements page and 1 (one) free copy. It's your playground, I'm just
admiring the rock garden.

Mike


**************************************************
And Jeff's reply to me:
**************************************************

Mike,

You've got some very interesting ideas here. Some possibilities I've never
thought of, for sure. However, i think you meant this either for the list
or the newsgroup; I got it in email. Will you repost this to the group or
the list as appropriate? I think it would make some great conversations.

Jeff
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