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.
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.
Originally posted by OnenessThis 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.
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.
Originally posted by bluewaterrider
Homer's actual Iliad was full of such displays, which are formally called [b]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 ... [/B]
Ajax beat the shit out of Hector though.
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.