[Hobbit]

Discussion is now open on this book:

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n32/n163295.jpg

The Crooked Letter is Book One of the Books of the Cataclysm, first published in 2006. RobB reviewed it HERE (http://www.sffworld.com/brevoff/273.html).

Hobbit

[Severn]

Blech.

This was...diabolical. I'm sure it has its ardent fans, I'm sure it does. I'm sure the author does.

It was like wading through mud. Dark, sticky word-mud dragging around my proverbial ankles.

I did try. I said to myself 'it's for the bookclub. You have to read it,' gritted my teeth and waded in. And waded out as fast I could. By page 50 I was skipping, and by page 196, ack, I couldn't do it to myself anymore, bookclub or no. (I did skim the last two chapters, just to get more of a context for the discussion).

So what went wrong? Well, for one thing, the plot just seems completely ludicrous. It's hard for me to make that judgement when one could argue that all fantasy plots are farfetched, and somehow ludicrous. However, within the context of fantasy plots themselves, this one is just ridiculous to me. Mirror twins, one killed to travel to a 'spirit' realm, one left alive in the 'living' in order to bring the two together so a big....thing can gobble souls. Er. Ok.

In fact, I felt like the author wanted to pack his book with as many names of demons/creatures/ghoullies as he possibly could. Like taking 5 big packs of raisins and stuffing them into one very small muffin. It's interesting - Erikson, for example, can pull this off with aplomb. Perhaps because the scope of his novels fit the players. This? It felt like a farce.

Which brings me to the writing. I have just subconciously put my hand to my forehead and groaned. I have bookmarked the bits I found the most 'special.' Ones that represent the most cringeworthy aspects - up to page 196 at least.

So, here we have Hadrian. He's running about in a hospital - his brother's dead. Everyone's disappeared from said fully staffed hospital, he finds himself locked in and he has this enlightening moment:

'Something was going on.'

You don't say!

And then the author carefully explains to us that Hadrian feels 'trapped and confused.'

Really? I would never have picked that myself.

Things progressed in this tedius, uninspiring vein until I reached page 156, whereupon I found a truly special moment. One that had me laughing out loud in ironic glee.

We have met Kybele the so-called Earth Mother. Hadrian ponderously reflects 'Kybele looked like an ordinary woman, but her mouth spouted extraordinary things.'

What I found so amusing was that just a few lines earlier Hadrian clamours 'So we just give in?' (to Yod the soul-munching...thing). And, Kybele, extraordinarily responds 'Of course not. That would be stupid'.

I read back over that bit and just rolled about laughing. I have a feeling some might not get the source of my hilarity, and that's ok. I do. :D It has me laughing now.

More ponderous explanations:

'They came to a junction between five major roads just as the sun was coming up. There they stopped.' And there that should have stopped, but no. We are uselessly informed that 'Kybele put the engine in neutral, and the handbrake on.' Thus, the book morphs temporarily into a how-to-drive-a-car manual.

And then, truly, came the crowning glory of page 196. The part I take the most issue with, the few little lines that, honestly, offended me.

Dizzingly, the author takes us to a flash back of the brothers at a museum, where they are staring at a viking longboat that's on display. Hadrian thinks to himself 'it had been underground five times longer than his country had existed.'

...

I had this image, actually, of a wide space of sea in between Papua New Guinea and New Zealand and all of a sudden 'POP!' and Australia just bobs out of the water, flounders a bit, then settles, around 300 years ago.

And then I thought to myself - what if I was an aborigine, reading this book. How would I feel? I might look at the picture of the author and think 'that's a typical statement from a skinny white boy.' (And there's a disclaimer here, I am not in any way shape or form being racist - hell, I'm married to one! Heh). Given that the aborigines have been settled on Australia for around 40,000 years, assuming that the anthropologist's dates are correct. Mr Williams, Australia has existed a lot longer than since the colonists arrived. I saw red and that's the point where I said 'that's it, no more.'

What gets me is that I don't know if that truly is the voice of the author, or the voice of the character, because I don't feel that the characters are developed enough to stand by any of their own opinions. Seth and Hadrian aren't just mirror-twins - they're identical. They have no seperate voice. Seth being aggressive is, quite frankly, just Hadrian in a bad mood to me. And a more boring, personality-less duo I haven't come across in a long time. So, when one makes a statement like that, I'm at a loss. Quite honestly, as an Australian author, I think Mr Williams should have avoided stating that - whether it's supposed to be from the voice of an ignorant character or not.

And that's about it. Now I can go sell it. :eek:

[suciul]

I like Mr. Williams SF, and some of it I really love (Evergence trilogy, Saturn Returns), so I tried this book even though it's urban fantasy at least at the beginning, genre that I dislike immensely since I cannot get beyond the disconnect between the modern rational world and mythical creatures.

I struggled through the book several times, not getting beyond page 30 or so until I gave up, skimmed through it to see if there is a point that may interest me to start from there and that was that.

I cannot say why I could not read the book (genre or writing) since as mentioned before though highly disappointed in Geodesica 2 (squanders a brilliant Geodesica 1), I loved Astropolis 1 and look forward to its sequel, and I may even buy the soon to be released intermediary novella Cenotaxis

[Raule]

First – I will insert my disclaimer: I have a head cold, and have not been able to think clearly, so this will probably be muddled. Okay… with that out of the way, here are my initial thoughts.

My reaction to this book was mixed.

There are certain fictional scenarios I’m naturally attracted to, and this book is an amalgam of some of those:
- mythology as the main subject of the novel, rather than just background or an obligatory part of the world building;
- post- apocalyptic world (or an impending one);
- a philosophical exposé of what life after death may be (mean), twisting our notions about them;
- and some truly surreal imagery to complement the general mayhem.

So, with all that said, I should love everything in this novel, but found that none of these elements quite resonated enough for me. Why is that?

I think the two major weaknesses are characterization and style.

We’re plunged immediately into the action and for the bulk of the novel witness Hadrian and Seth react to what is happening to them without having much background or insight into their past experiences. We’re given bits and pieces, especially as it relates to their relationship with Ellis, but they never form a complete picture (some might argue, this is a clever device, given that each one represents only one-half; the two together making one complete person). I can understand arguments that may say this is intentional and necessary. Hadrian and Seth don’t really know who they are and what they represent to the rest of the players – but they are about to find out. However, at no point in the novel did I ever feel emotionally invested in these characters. I just followed the action, much the way Hadrian and Seth go wherever their fate pulls them. When they are finally given a choice via their life tree, it doesn’t feel like much of a choice… we find out how locked into events they really are no matter the variable they attempt to play out.

I also grew a little annoyed at all the players who hint at what they know about Hadrian and Seth, but never come out and tell Hadrian and Seth what they might like to know about themselves. It's an old trick that wears thin if it goes on too long.

Now, onto the issue of style -- which is admittedly an issue of personal taste. The author’s style here felt like no style (not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, and I suspect plenty of readers will appreciate it), but I like there to be more poetic resonance within my mythology than I got here. Adjectives used to describe this novel have been surreal, hallucinatory, gritty and violent – well, yes, on one level it was all those things due to the nature of the characters, and the circumstances they are plunged in – but I didn’t feel those effects in the writing style. Compared to what is happening, the telling of it seems bland. Something is missing on an emotional level.

With all that said, though, I liked the ideas the author explores. I thought there were some nice inversions in the story that went above and beyond the angle related to mirror twins -- for instance, the inverse timelines of the Holy Immortals and the twins. It’s a bit of a mindbender. I thought the author’s use of mythology was challenging. Myth is my first and true love, but there is a lot of world mythology that I’ve only just barely been exposed to, not studied in depth, so this particular stew challenged me in many ways. From that perspective, I think this book makes a nice jumping off point for someone interested in comparative/world mythology to gain some exposure to mythic figures that aren’t commonly used in fiction. However, I did feel that perhaps the author took on too much. If you look at the list of cultures he credits in his afterword, it’s downright unwieldy.

One unanswered question I had, and maybe I just missed the clues or wasn’t paying enough attention: Were we suppose to guess where Yod came from? He is neither a creature of the 1st or 2nd realm. I assume at some point in the followups, this may be revealed.

This is a book I think I will have to re-read one day to fully appreciate what the author is doing. I’m not sure I was in the right frame of mind to be receptive to all that it entails. Stylistically, I preferred Hal Duncan’s Vellum, which attempts some of the same things, but whose approach and style are vastly different (and I ask myself, is it unfair to even compare them?). For some odd reason, I was also reminded a bit of Phil Pullman’s His Dark Materials, which also involves a multiverse, a trip into the underworld, and quite different notions about what death is. Pullman’s novel was marketed for a young adult audience, and Sean Williams' writing style reminds me of books written for that particular audience. In my opinion, Williams' novel is attempting something more complex, but Pullman does a better job of emotionally engaging us with his characters.

[Power to the J]

Well, I have something of a short response so sorry... (and if I repeat any points it's because I want to have a longer post than last time...)

Okay, I think that the very basic plot of this is decent, and could make an exceptional story. However, I thought that both the execution and characters were weak, and while I pushed my way through this book, I felt rather empty upon finishing this.

Actually, I may have to revise my sentance. Now, while I am something of a newb (I think...) I have certainly read much better. From my small group of reading material, this fed into some of the cliches of the genre that I hate. To name a few: a) how character(s) can go from our world to another and have no medical reaction (I mean like a sickness or disease, which I think would have to happen to Seth). b) how our protagonist either decides to ask a question to the great wise person they are following, or the great wise person tells them to be patient. That strikes me as lazy writing. c) the tired Big Bad Guy. It's in way too much fantasy, and that is why just about every non-fantasy reader thinks fantasy is the same, and with the most commercially succesful fantasy novels, I have to agree (Sword of Truth, Wheel of Time, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter, to name a few). What also added to that feeling was the fact that the bad guy was just a... thing.

I had trouble reading this book, and skimmed as well. I thought that one of the major problems was that Mr. Williams seemed to be going too fast and trying to get right to the story in some parts, and in others giving me too much info. Severn covers the latter, now for the former.

I feel that he could have slowed down some and let us see his world a bit better. The very first passage comes to mind. I think that a bit of explaining as far as how old the twins were would help. Unless I somehow missed that explanation, I felt disoriented and thought that they were teens or younger in the city with parents, or living there, and had met El on the way. Also, I think that Mr. Williams could have easily spent more time building the characters, because, honestly, I didn't care if anybody survived in that first scene.

I also agree with the others that said the characters were the same thing! It got old quick, and I got bored quick.

All in all, this is almost as disappointing to me as last month's book. Hopefully next month will be better.;)

[blake06]

I picked this book up at the local library a couple weeks ago. I was pretty excited to take part in my first book of the month reading. However, I've only managed to make it through about the first 150 pages of this book. Honestly, it is boring me to death.

The fact that I'm reading The Warrior Prophet at the same time probably doesn't help either. When I get in bed at night and look for a book to pick up, I can't help picking up something other than The Crooked Letter.

I really wanted to finish this book so I could participate in the discussion, but I just don't think I'm going to be able to read any more of it.

There are a few reasons that I didn't like the book.

1. Through 150 pages, I'm just not interested in the characters. That's a big problem.
2. The whole premise of the book it just a little too 'out there' for me. I don't think the author did a good job of making it believable.
3. Nothing in the story gripped me or compelled me to keep reading.
4. I thought the writing was rather bland. It also seemed choppy in spots and didn't really flow.

Overall, I was bored the entire time and don't see myself ever finishing this book.

[Gildor]

Ouch, this has been on my 'to buy pile' for some time ... I was sort of looking forward to getting it at some point

[suupaabaka]

It's been sitting on my shelf looking at me woefully for the past six months. I've been meaning to read it, but I haven't really found many good reviews of the book... and if one doesn't appear here soon, I may be inclined to return it to Borders :(

[courtney]

i wanted to like this book, but i can't get through it, which is rare for me.
it has some great ideas, but seems kinda half cocked, and i wasnt really feeling either of the main protagonists..
it just seems badly executed and flimsy. plus i hated the way no one would give the characters any info on what was going on around them.
yeah what they (above) said.

[Erfael]

I guess I'm signing on with the majority on this one. I've read about 200 pages of this one. I've put it aside for the moment. The frustrating thing for me is that the whole concept of the novel is something that I think I should find quite interesting. It's similar to a number of other series or books that I like quite a lot, but original in many ways, as well. There's just something about the writing that I'm finding extremely uncompelling. I really can't say what it is about the writing that doesn't hold me. I find myself thinking about anything other than this book as I'm reading. The eyes keep reading; the brain checks out. That's rare for me, and I can't put my finger on why it's happening. I'm reading another thing or two now, but I'll perhaps pick it back up after that and see if I have better luck.