Reading in April 2009

[NereidKnives]

Starting on Sacrifice of the Widow by Lisa Smedman.

 

[ObtusePunubiris]

Finished up Modesitt's Mage-Guard of Hamor; the second book in his latest duology set in the Recluce realm. As I mentioned after finishing the first book last week, I thought this was some of his best work in this realm in a while. Not that any of the Recluce books have been bad, mind you, but there was a lull there for a bit.

Next up I will make a second attempt at Dawnthief by Barclay. I didn't get more than 20-30 pages in last time I tried it; a few years ago, at least. It just wasn't doing it for me. A lot of folks seem to really like these books, however, so I'll give them another shot. Perhaps I just wasn't in the right mood last time.

 

[Draxinusom]

Finished E. E. Knight's Dragon Champion (Age of Fire series starter). Not as fast paced and homicidal as Deas' debut The Adamantine Palace but very interesting and great never the less. Still a quite fast read with occasional slower sections to enrich the characters and the world (which is more lacking in The Adamantine Palace).

There was one part which I found a bit cliché-ish but not too severe to bother me really. An extremely satisfying read given the "freshness" of having the PoV always from a dragon and not the usual humanoid protagonists.

I was also quite surprised how well the ending was made. There are open side plots but nothing that really screams for immediate attention or make you feel hanging and the main story is basically concluded at the point but can be resumed in the following books. That's exactly how a series starter should end: If you decide you don't want to continue, you have a satisfying and conclusive ending, but there can be more stories told in further books without having to jump through plot hoops and strange constructs to continue.

Given that the next two books basically go back in time to the hatching and are telling the different stories of Auron's brother and sister which due to them being separated early are different, some of the plots will probably not be continued soon anyway. I haven't read further in this series yet and have to wait until I get the next few books, but I ordered them and will continue reading this (as of yet) incomplete series.

For fans of the series, the cover artist Paul Youll has already done the art for the upcoming next installment of the series which you can see here: http://www.paulyoull.com/PAGES/picture pages/NEW/Dragon rule detail.html


Now going to read Naomi Novik's Temeraire starter, His Majesty's Dragon. Reads easy and fun as of yet and is definitly quite lighter in mood and depth than Knights'.

 

[Cranky Hamster]

Next up I will make a second attempt at Dawnthief by Barclay. I didn't get more than 20-30 pages in last time I tried it; a few years ago, at least. It just wasn't doing it for me. A lot of folks seem to really like these books, however, so I'll give them another shot. Perhaps I just wasn't in the right mood last time.

Don't feel forced to like it. I tried and couldn't. In my view it is very poorly written and simply not a good book.

I suspect that part of the reason for the positive press on these boards is that the author posts here frequently (and virtually every time his name comes up) so people feel compelled to be more polite than they might be otherwise. In one sense it's nice, because it goes to show that even with the anonymity of the Internet people aren't total jackasses (though this board tends to be pretty polite anyway), but whenever an author's known to participate on a board it definitely and noticeably changes discussion of that author's work to skew positive. It's a classic demo of the Observer Effect. It also makes me very skeptical of the "consensus opinion" about a particular book on a particular board where that's true.

If you like the book that's great, it's always good to have more books you like, but don't feel as if you're missing out on a genre classic if you don't like that one. Public opinion on this board re: Dawnthief is not wholly reliable, IMO.

 

[Hobbit]

Bit harsh that, Cranky.

I'll base my answer on what I think / know myself, as I suspect my response will be reflected by others.

For the record, I think that Dawnthief's OK but the series gets better. Having said that, if I didn't like it/them, I would say so. And that would not matter whether I'd met James personally or not. From comments on the boards here I would say that James, or any other author for that matter, is actually often more interested in what people didn't like as much as what they liked.

You see, I know, and many authors know, that books are not for everyone.

I know that some people love those books. I daresay there are others, perhaps like yourself, who don't. Each view is valid - just a difference of opinion.

We are very aware that there are authors out there that I like and others don't and vice versa. I like Dune; not everyone else does.

Some authors, for example, may be just what some readers want; alternatively I may find them repetitive, hackneyed, predictable. It may also depend on your background, previous reading, etc etc etc...

However even if it is a book that I don't like, and I will say so, I am aware that there are things in books that others will like.

However, I think you are being a tad unfair if you think that just because James (or any other author for that matter) helps out round here we will automatically love everything he writes and praise it accordingly. Yes, there are some who like to say Hi and say they enjoy Book X. But I doubt they would say that if they didn't enjoy it.

I think that such a generalisation actually devalues our members. As with most authors (let's say Jordan and Martin, for example) there are members with criticisms as well as praises out there. Both are welcome.

In summary, I totally agree: you should not be forced to like any book; I'm surprised that you might think being a member of SFFWorld forces you or anyone else to do that!

Mark

 

[Cranky Hamster]

No, I certainly don't think anyone is "forced" to like a book (or pretend they do) because of that.

I also think reviewers are a little better about sticking to their honest opinions -- and phrasing those opinions politely -- because, well, you get a lot of practice at it. Even so I've seen some reviewers debate the issue, which shows that they're honest and self-aware enough to recognize that it can sometimes be an issue. If that didn't occasion a little soul-searching, you'd be Harriet Klausner.

However, it is a recurring pattern that people, especially members who don't have the experience of being review bloggers, will temper unfavorable opinions or just stay quiet when they know that the author is likely to see the snark. I think this is more a matter of ordinary politeness than any type of dishonesty or desire to curry favor; it's hard to tell someone to their face that you think they spent a year+ and poured their heart out onto the pages just to create a steaming pile of crap. (This raises a question of whether you should ever say something is a steaming pile of crap, of course, but putting that aside it is a fact that this happens less often when people are concerned about being called out on it, and when they do do it, they're likely to backtrack upon being called out.)

So, again: I'm not trying to imply that people are being disingenuous in pretending to like a book because the author's around, nor am I saying that you or anyone else will genuinely love and praise a book for that reason alone (although I imagine authors hope that participating will lead to a more favorable opinion, because otherwise why bother popping up to plug their books?).

What I am saying is that there is a definite Observer Effect in these situations, and while I think it has more to do with politeness than anything else, it does nonetheless skew results to the extent that people who disliked something will be quieter about it, and people who liked something will be louder about it.

It's not a bad thing or a dishonest one, it's just human nature and basic courtesy. But it is something to be aware of, I think. Also this is sort of tangential to the "now reading" thread, so we can make a new thread to debate the issue if you want, but it probably shouldn't go here.

 

[ObtusePunubiris]

Don't feel forced to like it. I tried and couldn't. In my view it is very poorly written and simply not a good book.

I suspect that part of the reason for the positive press on these boards is that the author posts here frequently...

My decision to give this book another shot isn't strictly an "everyone says it's good, so it must be and I'm just missing it" type of thing. It's actually that I know my tastes have changed somewhat over the last few years. So, I have been looking at books that I previously put down rather quickly, but that got a lot of positive press, just to see if my opinion will be different this time.

Incidentally, I have read to the point where I put the book down last time and my opinion is not much changed. I am going to read a bit more before making a final decision, but I'm leaning towards moving on. As before, I'm finding that it just reads a little too much like a Dungeons & Dragons session turned into a novel.

 

[Hobbit]

I understand your point better, Cranky: thank you. I totally accept that for some reviewers it will be an issue. And I think most of us who review have had that discussion at one time or another at SFFWorld; I'm sure others anywhere else do too.

All I can say is that what we try and do at SFFWorld is be honest. That's why our reviews will say what we like and what we don't like; often something I dislike may be something others like, and so on. But we will say if we don't like something.

As before, I'm finding that it just reads a little too much like a Dungeons & Dragons session turned into a novel.

Well, it may not change that much for you, Obtuse. Speaking to James years ago, I understand it was his game-playing and his older brother's influence that got him writing. It no doubt influenced his writing. Some clearly like the D&D element, whilst others won't.

For what it's worth, in my opinion, the series does get better as you know more about the characters. However, this may not be one for you.

Mark

 

[ObtusePunubiris]

Well, I just couldn't do it. I had to put Dawnthief down again. In addition to the issue I mentioned in my above post, there are just too many things that kick me out of the story.

So I'm moving on to Sarah Ash's Prisoner of the Iron Tower; book two of The Tears of Artamon. The first book in this series took me a couple tries to get through, but in the end I enjoyed it.

 

[Numenorian]

Interesting to read the last few posts as I've just finished Barclay's Cry of the Newborn.I'm feeling a strange ambivalence about it: sometimes I was gripped, others I wanted to buy a chainsaw to hack it up whilst laughing manically so bad was it. I'm planning to post something on the Barclay thread( I've been taking notes. Oh yes.), so I'll say no more here except that as I already have it, I've just about decided to give the second book Shout for the Dead a go. More fool me, maybe.

 

[cgw]

Reading Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips. American Gods meets Bridget Jone's Diary (I don't mean it disparagingly). That's my impression so far though I am only half the way through it.

 

[BrightStar]

Well, I just couldn't do it. I had to put Dawnthief down again. In addition to the issue I mentioned in my above post, there are just too many things that kick me out of the story.

So I'm moving on to Sarah Ash's Prisoner of the Iron Tower; book two of The Tears of Artamon. The first book in this series took me a couple tries to get through, but in the end I enjoyed it.

Good choice with Prisoner of the Iron Tower. I quite enjoyed the Tears of Artamon series, and was sorry to see it end.

You're not the only one that couldn't get on with Dawnthief. I tried reading it a few years back, and didn't even have the heart to follow my usual 100 pages rule. I just couldn't get on with it. It's really not my thing.

Somehow, despite Sword of Truth not being quite my thing, I'm still managing to read that at the moment though. About 120 pages into Chainfire, which I guess I can say is just about okay. It's readable, in small chunks.

 

[suciul]

Interesting to read the last few posts as I've just finished Barclay's Cry of the Newborn.I'm feeling a strange ambivalence about it: sometimes I was gripped, others I wanted to buy a chainsaw to hack it up whilst laughing manically so bad was it. I'm planning to post something on the Barclay thread( I've been taking notes. Oh yes.), so I'll say no more here except that as I already have it, I've just about decided to give the second book Shout for the Dead a go. More fool me, maybe.

I liked Cry of the Newborn - but the sequel was almost unreadable. I finished it mostly leafing through to see what happens and the author went on the avoid list from then

Edit: actually waiting for Shout to be published and since I thought Cry had great potential - had some of the reaction as above, but I thought the good outweighed the bad a lot - I tried Dawnthief and that was really unreadable from page 1, so now I would not read James Barclay if you pay me to.

 

[ObtusePunubiris]

Good choice with Prisoner of the Iron Tower. I quite enjoyed the Tears of Artamon series, and was sorry to see it end.

You know, I started this book last night and it wasn't making a bit of sense to me. There were things happening that just didn't follow from what I remembered of Lord of Snow and Shadow. I eventually realized that I never actually finished the first volume. I'm sure I meant to, but I must have gotten side-tracked by something.

So I'll be reading that now, followed by books 2 and 3. This will be the first time I've read an entire series consecutively in quite some time and I am quite looking forward to it.

 

[BrightStar]

You know, I started this book last night and it wasn't making a bit of sense to me. There were things happening that just didn't follow from what I remembered of Lord of Snow and Shadow. I eventually realized that I never actually finished the first volume. I'm sure I meant to, but I must have gotten side-tracked by something.

Heh, you know, you're not the only person that that's happened to! I've been there, too.

Two particular incidents come to mind-Ian Irvine's "View from the Mirror" (or whatever it was called) series, and book one of the Coldfire Trilogy.

View from the Mirror is probably the most notably like your own experiences. I seem to recall trying to read book three, and trying to recall what happened and not being able to remember, or follow what was going on. Took me a while to realize I hadn't finished book two!

What made it worse was when I tried to go back to book two to finish reading, it had been so long since I read that I couldn't remember where I'd stopped. I think I ended up practically reading entire second half of the book twice!

With Coldfire, well, it was more a case of starting it, then stopping. Then I came back to it and didn't remember that I'd started reading it. So I started again and was very puzzled when I seemed to have a remarkable ability to know what was going to happen next. Lucky, I hadn't read much of Coldfire before I set it aside, so I was soon able to get through what I'd already read and move on to newer stuff.

 

[PeterWilliam]

Finished Before They Are Hanged and moving onward into The Last Argument of Kings.

 

[BrightStar]

Still reading Chainfire. Starting to get bored with it though, which isn't a good sign at less than 200 pages in.

 

[Hellions]

I had a great time with Jane Lindskold's Through Wolf's Eyes which tells the story of a girl raised by wolves and thrown into a storm of political machinations as she is brought back to the human fold. The cast of characters is quite large but competently used and the plotting is clever.

Although the first in a series of six, Through Wolf's Eyes is self-contained. A very satisfying read for me and yet another author to be on the watch for.

 

[Astra_]

Still reading Chainfire. Starting to get bored with it though, which isn't a good sign at less than 200 pages in.

Why do you torture yourself?

 

[BrightStar]

Why do you torture yourself?

I know! Why indeed. My boyfriend likens my reading of Sword of Truth to being like me trying to throw myself down a flight of stairs. Repeatedly. I guess I just keep thinking "I somehow managed to get this far---it can't get any worse from here."