Being between books I just did a second reading of The Heroes and I must say I enjoyed it better than my original reading. I wonder if it was because I enjoyed Best Served Cold and The First Law series so much and had them fresh in my mind?
Has a second reading changed your opinion about a book before?
I found The Dragonbone Chair to be pretty slow paced the first go around several years ago, but having read it fairly recently it resonated with me a whole lot more than before.
I'm doing a second reading of Midnight Children , about 20 years after the first foray, and it's much better this time around, mostly because my language skills and my literary interests have developed rather radically in the meantime. It's not epic fantasy, but it plays fast and loose with the rules of reality, so for me it qualifies as a genre book.
Gardens of the Moon. Re-reading it didn't necessarily change my opinion of the author, nor did it change my opinion about the quality of the book, but it was more clear and digestible after having read other material by Erikson and having become a bit more acclimated to the Malazan world.
Erikson's style is very cryptic, as most fans of the genre know. He seems to make no literary efforts to bring readers up to speed, more or less just throwing 'em metaphorically into the deep end of the pool. Also, his writing style is darkly lyrical, capable of deep emotional resonance, very passionate. And the dude is witty as hell. His dialogues, especially amongst the terse and crass Malazan soldiers, can be very funny.
I don't believe the book is "better" in the re-reading. I think it suffers because of weak storytelling. Erikson's style simply doesn't play well on unfamiliar ears, on unacclimated readers. I think that is a weakness. No one should be forced to read a book twice or use outside reference material to learn the terminology and familiarize themselves with items unique to an author's imaginary world -- bringing readers "functionally" up to speed so they can digest the fantasy material is one of the jobs of an effective storyteller. So, again, I believe the book could have been much better, the story much more clearly told.
However, there is no denying that once a person does get fully submerged in the world of Malazan, familiar with Erikson's unique creations, the stories become far more entertaining.
Last edited by Eliot Wild; July 14th, 2012 at 10:46 AM.
My "on second thought" was also an Abercrombie book. I started The Blade Itself with unfair expectations (I was on an ASoIaF high and was told this was the next best thing), and only got 150ish pages in before I put it down highly disappointed. On the strength of recommendations though, I read Best Served Cold and enjoyed it, then The Heroes and loved it. I recently went back to Blade with proper expectations and had a good time. I finished Before They are Hanged a few days ago and look forward to Last Argument of Kings.
Funny, I had an experience just recently with a book by Joe Abercrombie. I had read "Best Served Cold" and was into his writing so I bought "The Last Argument of Kings," and put it on a shelf to be read later. Well, I picked it up last week and was almost immediately bored! I tried and tried to read it, but could not stay with it.
JangoLee,
Last Argument is book three of the First Law trilogy. Did you read the first two books? If not I can why you did not stay with it.
Heather Myst, No, I did not read the first two. I bought number three because it was the only Abercrombie book for sale at my local book store! Maybe knowing the characters would have helped, but I think it was just that his writing style did not appeal to me. I am currently using The Last Argument as a wrist-rest when on the computer!Originally Posted by Heather Myst
Well at least it wasn't a total loss.
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