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Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 1:30 am
by Obi-Wan Nihilo
TIW, with Caerroil Wildwood gracing the cover (truly a spooky pic back then), was what hooked me. I think TIW is the one book where Donaldson comes closest to allowing The Land to be "real" like any other fantasy series, giving it epic scope and simultaneous but autonomous lines of narration. I don't think that synchronistic approach is in any of the other books, but I could be wrong. Is TIW the book where LM is given his own autonomous section? Or is that TPTP... can't remember. Rereading it a few years ago my disbelief was impaired by, well frankly, amateurish blunders by Hile Troy the "military expert". I think Donaldson should have researched that issue more, but all in all the book still works.
Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 2:22 am
by Vraith
Exnihilo2 wrote: was impaired by, well frankly, amateurish blunders by Hile Troy the "military expert". I think Donaldson should have researched that issue more, but all in all the book still works.
There's a thread about that stuff, you might find it interesting...unfortunately I'm not the guy to tell you where it is/what it's called, half the damn time I can't even find my own posts. Maybe someone who can keep that stuff straight will pop in and link it...or if you're a good/dedicated searcher you might locate it yourself.
Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 3:05 am
by Obi-Wan Nihilo
Thanks, Vraith, I'll see if I can find it and if I do, I'll link it here.
Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 3:00 pm
by peter
Probably the wrong place to ask this given the other thread that Vraith has mentioned, but I would like a lttle amplification on the 'amaturish blunders' made by HT. Not in any way dissagreeing that this could well be the case, but not knowing 'jack' about military strategy myself I never noticed the he had made any glaring errors as such; was it not the case that given the size of the army he faced was MUCH bigger than he ever imagined it would be, he did the only thing possible to rescue victory from the jaws of defeat. Also, if TC was 'dreaming' the whole affair would it not be consistent that his dreamed 'military expert' would in fact have no more expertise than TC himself could conjure up and place into the head of HT. Just a thought...
Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:05 pm
by Vraith
From what I remember, most of the criticism was, in my opinion, pretty weak [either not strategically sound itself or not reasonable/possible within the context of the work...or both...oh hell, I'll just go look for it...]
Turns out there are several threads...and quite a few pages.
Here are two:
kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=74&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=hile+troy+strategy&start=0
kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6506&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=hile+troy+strategy&start=0