h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's quite simple: Which set of books is best? Extension into film is quite legitimate, but I see it as a peripheral question rather than core.

Without a doubt LOTR. I can say this with absolute certainty having never read or wanted to read either HP or Narnia. (see "should men vote on abortion" thread).

PP

depens what mood you are in and what you are looking for.

Chronicles of Prydain, Wheel of Time, Sword of Truth, Blue Moon Rising, Dark is Rising Sequence (books 2 and 4). All equally as good. It's like haing to pick between your favourite clothes. You wouldn't wear a bakini when it's snowing however much you love it.

Have to say though, I thought 'The Horse and His Boy' was the single worst book of the lot.

FABT

I wouldn't wear a bikini when it's snowing either.
Seriously, though, I think we're talking more about comparison between the three above, toherwise we'll never stay on-topic.

HP? Hewlett Packard? Brown Sauce? Mr Lovecraft?

It is debatable whether CS Lewis would have written Narnia if Tolkein had not written LOTR. However Narnia is what sticks in my mind. The scenes of Judgement in the Last Battle are the only explanation of the Final Reckoning which has ever made any sense to me at all. In fact I find that his best book. And in The Horse and His Boy there is the line that we are never given to know what *would* have happened. Though Lewis is a little inconsistent on that, when Azlan explains to Diggory what would have happened if he had stolen the Apple and used it to heal his mother, instead of what actually did happen because he was given one.

I re-read LOTR earlier this year, and I am looking forward to the movies, but ultimately I found Tolkein's world too mannered and sterile for me.

Ben

LOTR, tho the rest r undoubtedly* good

Narnia tales were gud. specially for younger readers (tho i still like em!) they had shape tho i sgree, the horse & his boy was d worst. it dint really fit in i spose.
HPs better than narnia in a way, it captures the imaginations of peeps more today than Narnia does. howeer both include people from this world which im not too kean on in a fantasy book. i liked they way u could move between Narnia, here and anywhere else using the Wood Between the Worlds. that was gud idea!
however LOTR jus rocks! i love the way it seems 2 b set somewher in our past as they have our stars & yet their world is completely different. it includes my favourite aspects of fantasy with a wonderful plot. tho many c it as a book 4 older/adult readers i read, understood & enjoyed it at about 11yrs old (tho was in2 Narnia well b4 that!)
this is waaay 2 babbly aint it? ah well. we r on my fav subject, books!

*(is that how u spell it? is it even a word?!)

the last battles scene is gud. i like that 1 2

I think that the difference between the above and any old fantasy is how well the worlds are realized. Middle Earth has a whole mythology which impacts directly on the 'present' of the books. In fact, The main reason Tolkein created Middle Earth was as an academic exercise. As a lecturer in languages, he tried to create one of his own using the standard rules, but soon realized that a language needs a mythology from which it can develop. Hence, he created elven, and the battles of the elves to survive in a world of warring gods. See the Silmarillion, if you can get past the difficulties with the abstruse language, glut of names, discontinuated storylines, etc. During this time, he was making up bed-time stories for his children, one of which became The Hobbit. This developed into Lord of the Rings when his first book was a success and he got curious about 'The Ring' he had created.
My knowledge in this subject is unhealthy in its magnitude!

WoW! What a question... with out a doubt it is either LOTR or Narnia. It sort of depends on the audience. LOTR is ok for teens to adults of all ages. Narnia is geared more toward the grade school. But both are relevant and I love both series. I have probably read each Narnia book 5 times, so they hold a special place in my heart, but there is so much good in the LOTR, too.

*screams and pulls hair*

I can't decide... it's a toss up...

peace.

Can't be bothered to read LoTR (in fact, I've started it a few times and decided that life is really too short). Can't wait for the films though.
Anyway, how about His Dark Materials? Phillip Pullman's trilogy is erudite, passionate and exciting. It pulls in the best of British fantasy and shuns the trite moralising of something like Narnia and has more grey areas than something like Harry Potter.
And what about The Dark Tower by Stephen King, one of the few fantasy sequences that owes little to LoTR? It's quite mean of me, but when SK was run over a few years ago and almost dies, my biggest worry was that he wouldn't finish the last three books of the series.

So, in answer to the original question: none.

Narnia for me, Definitely Narnia.


Dancer

very scarey bob, i knew that trivia too!



ps- i had to retype that properly especially for you!

Dark Materials is quite brilliant - and goes a long way towards explaining why the first book of Paradise Lost is so compelling. Quite a nasty man, Milton.

Ben

Milton Friedman? Yes, very nasty. The wholesale acceptance of his economic theories are said to be the cause of vast famines in South America.
I will take your reccomendation. I have been somewhat deterred in the past by the apparent commercialism of Iain M. Banks but I might give it a try. In return, I offer you the books of Tad Williams. He has produced a pair of eminently readable epic sagas, in SF and fantasy, and I say that they must be read to be believed. Don't be daunted by the thickness of the books: it's a rollercoaster ride, with no characters ever quite in control...

Are we talking about the same Dark Materials? I am thinking of books by Philip Pullman. Ostensibly for children, but capable of providing the little darlings with nightmares I'd have thought.

"a rollercoaster ride, with no characters ever quite in control... "

Sounds too like my life for comfort...

LOTH=3
Narnia=4
HP=0

I believe I counted right...

peace.

YAY!!! Narnia is on the lead.


Dancer

(picks up cheer Dancer started...)

narnia! naria!

peace.

You are cruel...Must I choose?
S'not fair
They are all great reads. I have read all several times over. So I'm just posting to let you know I refuse to choose.
Ain't that nice of me??

All three are wonderful. It does not make sense to choose one as the best, because they are all serving different purposes. Narnia and Harry Potter are very definitely Children's Books, while Lord of the Rings is probably an Adolescent's book. There is no doubt that Harry Potter is the funniest, and probably the most enjoyable for adults to read, because of the sheer cleverness of it. But only if they read it as a children's book. I loved Narnia as a child but don't think I could stomach the blatant over-the-top Christianity of it as an adult. I have no objection to Christians, but the Narnia books lay it on with a trowel.

All three series describe wonderful worlds in which it is possible to lose oneself, but none of them would come anything close to the real exploration of human feelings that you would get in any decent adult book, such as a Jane Austen or even a Roddy Doyle.