This was Achilles finest display. Forget killing a giant, forget defeating Hector, when an entire beach contigent with archers and horsemen and soldiers cannot stop ONE man, it's over.
__________________ "Compounding these trickster aspects, the Joker ethos is verbally explicated as such by his psychiatrist, who describes his madness as "super-sanity." Where "sanity" previously suggested acquiescence with cultural codes, the addition of "super" implies that this common "sanity" has been replaced by a superior form, in which perception and processing are completely ungoverned and unconstrained"
Last edited by KillaKassara on Feb 5th, 2013 at 10:46 AM
__________________ "Compounding these trickster aspects, the Joker ethos is verbally explicated as such by his psychiatrist, who describes his madness as "super-sanity." Where "sanity" previously suggested acquiescence with cultural codes, the addition of "super" implies that this common "sanity" has been replaced by a superior form, in which perception and processing are completely ungoverned and unconstrained"
"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
I always like the David and Goliath fights, the hero of the, In The Hall of the Dragon Kings two fights.
1) His fight with a creeping giant dragon/serpent-like creature
2) His fight with the warlock villain
Read them as a kid, still remember how real they were written. Trust me most dragon /big bad vs plucky hero fights aren't as real as these two.
__________________
Iboga chose not to fight, to allow himself to evolve. He had the wisdom to abandon the actions of war when he knew they would no longer serve him.
Homer's actual Iliad was full of such displays, which are formally called aristeias.
In fact, Hector himself, defender of the Trojan army, is cast in that role for something like a quarter of the book, with all the Greek kings and army trying to figure out how to stop him and the crushing counterattack he makes in Achilles' absence.
Amazingly, this happens even as the major Greek kings themselves make similar mini displays throughout the book, even to driving Hector off for an afternoon.
One of Iliad's better known translators, Richard Lattimore, even points this out in a preview summary for his edition of the work,
how the format of an epic poem telling of an engagement that occurs over a series of days or even weeks, allows every member of the Greek army to shine, even though, ultimately, all of them together cannot save the fleet from Hector; you can drive him off or even beat him on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, if you encounter him, you'd best just pray to make it to the night ...
Harry potter vs voldemort... Oh wait. Maybe Eragon vs Galbatorix...nevermind, lol.
In all seriousness, I second Joe Abercrombie and RA Salvatore, for different reasons. Abercrombie's fight scenes are visceral and brutal, and he almost always delivers.(Gorst vs Whirrun of Bligh, anyone?) while Salvatore's are intelligent and incredibly smooth.
And for an original addition to this topic, the ending sequences of Devouring Darkness and Growing Chaos by Bradley Counter, are both excellent. While he's a new author, his first book is free on smashwords and amazon, so you can't go wrong giving it a read, and you won't be disappointed.
Neal Asher's books have some great fight scenes between awesome androids and really horrible monsters. In 'Gridlinked' there is an android called Mr Crane who is a Series 19 , and he spends a lot of the first half of the book ripping apart various characters. Until he runs into a pair of androids who are a few upgrades ahead of him, and they beat him into scrap. In the final book of the series (Line War?) Crane is back, teamed up with a spider-like war drone and a super agent called Cormac who is armed with a deadly, intelligent shuriken throwing star. The three of them break into the most strongly-defended place on Earth and all hell breaks loose.
It's not exactly Dostoevsky, but Asher does big fight scenes brilliantly.
Back on Earth, there is a superb fight scene in Lee Child's book The Persuader where Jack Reacher takes on a hulking brute hand-to-hand, and the results are grim.
The fight between Butler in full medieval armor and spiked mace vs the troll will be always one of my favourites
__________________
Thanks for the sig Scot-and for the help with my avatar
When someone annoys you, it takes 42 muscles to frown but only 4 to reach out and bchslap them upside down on their head
__________________
Thanks for the sig Scot-and for the help with my avatar
When someone annoys you, it takes 42 muscles to frown but only 4 to reach out and bchslap them upside down on their head
KMC Community Forums
Jan 30th, 2013 11:36 AM
