Kevin's Watch

I admit I was disappointed with Runes. I'm not sure why, but part of it was my feeling that WGW ended perfectly and I didn't think you should mess with perfection. It even caused me to put off reading FR until now. Well, SRD said to trust him and I am about 1 third of the way through. He was right, I should have trusted him. I am listening to Scott Birck's read and its already caused me to be late to work (techinically I was on time, but I was in the parking lot listening for quite a while), late to dinner (technically I was home, but sitting in the driveway), etc.

Thanks Stephen, I shouldn't have doubted. Thanks for the 7 best books I've ever read (and one that deserves an honorable mention)!

caused me to be late to work (techinically I was on time, but I was in the parking lot listening for quite a while)

heh, I do that too!

FR does seem more engaging, and the story does pick up speed. (Cautious of which forum I am in, I'll leave it at that.)

This is most certainly due to having a very complex set-up, which Runes has to accomplish, sometimes at the expense of other things. Hopefully, that's all behind us now.

And never had I read a Donaldson book that raised so many questions without answering them. That got to be sort of a drag. It seemed like every chapter there was a new mysterious force that was out to get Linden for inexplicable reasons.

I would bet that the remainder of the series is going to be more like FR, but even more so. There's a huge crescendo building.

I think that for myself, I'm only really starting to get into the Last Chronicles after hitting the halfway point for FR. (Although, I still have to finish FR, so we'll see how well my interest holds up. It looks promising, though.)

I don't know if this has been said elsewhere, but a thought just occured to me that I've been meaning to post and that I don't think I've posted before. And this may warrant another topic.

But I think one of the main things that I'm noticing about the Last Chronicles that has really been a drag for me is the repetitive structure of:

-Linden has no idea what's going on
-Linden runs into some Person X who knows more than she does
-Due to some plot convenience, Person X isn't able to tell Linden everything that she needs to know, but just a few small pieces of the puzzle

I mean, I don't expect to be told everything as soon as Runes starts. But personally, I just grow tired very quickly of the same old structure. (I mean, Esmer himself was getting annoying by the time Runes ended. Then you throw in a half a dozen other, similar, characters, and...)

But like I said. I think I'm starting to get hooked now after the halfway point of FR.-jay

kevinswatch wrote:(I mean, Esmer himself was getting annoying by the time Runes ended. Then you throw in a half a dozen other, similar, characters, and...)

C'mon. Esmer had a wispy blue robe. Anele had a heavy blue robe. The Mahdoubt had a patchy blue robe. How can they be more different? And don't get me going on eye color!

Haha...

Seriously though...was there any character like that in the 2nd Chronicles? Sunder got TC up to speed, and bam, he was off. Unless I'm just forgetting something... (Which who knows, is likely.)

I guess that's just one of the things that makes the Last Chronicles a very different series than the 2nd Chronicles.

But between Esmer, and Anele, and the Mahdoubt, and (in FR)...

Spoiler

"Thomas Covenant", the Theomach, the Harrow...

(I'm sure I'm missing more...)

Ug, I've had enough of these characters.

-jay

Jay's right, Sunder answered much of our questions early on in TWL and then the Soothtell filled in the gaps. We only had the mystery of Vain, and even that was obvious by the end of TOT.

Runes of the Earth reminded me too much of Lord Fouls bane. I expect some introductory stuff whenever a start a series, but i don't like having to deal with it twice, but FR was soooo worth it.

SRD did do a great job in TWL by including Sunder to basically answer questions, but in RoTE not only does he not have a Sunder, but everyone seems to avoid answering any questions, its just so frustrating.

Something my brother mentioned was that 'The last Chronicles" has made the Land considerably smaller. In all the other Chronicles it took much much longer to go from place to place. But there were some liberties taken with the current books that have enabled movement in the land to be almost instantaneous.

SoulBiter wrote:Something my brother mentioned was that 'The last Chronicles" has made the Land considerably smaller. In all the other Chronicles it took much much longer to go from place to place. But there were some liberties taken with the current books that have enabled movement in the land to be almost instantaneous.

You know, that's a GOOD thing. Did we really want to follow Linden et al as she made another 300 league walk across the Land in ROTE?

WGA wrote:

Runes of the Earth reminded me too much of Lord Fouls bane.

Your comment surprises me. I found the style to be substantially different. Less sprawling*, more focused. And not bogged down by descriptions (I mean, if we don't know what Revelstone looks like by now...), more action-packed.

*LFB had to be sprawling to introduce all it did (a whole world and its characters!).

I have found both with 1st chronicles and with 2nd chronicles of TC that the first book took a little while to get going. Much ground work laid down in our real world before transport to the Land.

As has been already said above RoTE took a lot longer to get going. However, FR really pulsed along at a quick pace after the first couple of chapters. I suspect that the last two books in LCoTC will be just as breathless.

Though I also grew tired of Linden always asking questions and no one giving straight answers. Must be something about Linden having to make her own uninformed choice.

This probably should go in the FR forum...

(aras yells sorry to the moderators...)

SoulBiter wrote:...there were some liberties taken with the current books that have enabled movement in the land to be almost instantaneous.

True. But I guess that since I have read the previous books enough to have a feel for the breadth of the Land it gives me an appreciation for that kind of instantaneous travel. I think "Wow, they really ended up that far away?"

BTW SoulBiter, that avatar is one of my favorites here at the Watch. Very nice!
[If I compliment you enough, will you post a link to a larger sized version of it? Pretty please?]

Thanks Andy!!

Its an Edgetar.. made by the one and only Edge.

SoulBiter wrote:Thanks Andy!!

Its an Edgetar.. made by the one and only Edge.

You're very welcome (although I am sorry that only the avatar-sized version exists... ) I don't know Edge but am very impressed!

Edge is from South Africa and is the creator of alot of the avatars around here (see mine.) I haven't seen him around in a while.

wayfriend wrote:

kevinswatch wrote:(I mean, Esmer himself was getting annoying by the time Runes ended. Then you throw in a half a dozen other, similar, characters, and...)

C'mon. Esmer had a wispy blue robe. Anele had a heavy blue robe. The Mahdoubt had a patchy blue robe. How can they be more different? And don't get me going on eye color!

Er...um...where they? Um...how come you can remember all this stuff? I have no idea who wears what colored robe; although i *do* remember the Mahdoubt has two different colored eyes...or did I just make that up! who knows! I certainly don't.

Seareach wrote:Um...how come you can remember all this stuff?

My memory is not impeded by being limited to things that I actually have read.

Wait.. Dang. I read all the way through to the bottom of this forum and forgot what we were actually discussing. Avatars? Blue Robes? Capacities of memory?? Happens quite a lot on these forums actually..

Oh wait - it's the thing where.. Linden always seems to run into characters who know more than she does but doesn't tell her anything. And that was pissing someone off. And they all had Blue robes. There's an awful lot of Blue isn't there - I remeber the New Lords liked their blue robes.. They had Blue flames coming from their staffs.. Which I'm sure made everything look even bluer.. And then I believe I read somewhere that the sky and seas were blue as well.

Hell even Diamondraught and and Springwine were blue!

And when they made Vain they must've made a mistake because he WASN't bloody blue was he? Maybe it was a typo.

So.. Hell you gotta just roll with it don't you! I kinda like the sense of frustration you get when reading the book though.. You feel frustrated but just KNOW it's going to be worth it!!!

ninjaboy wrote:Hell even Diamondraught and and Springwine were blue!

Blue Diamondraught? Dang. We were just discussing this in another thread and most of us thought Diamondraught (and maybe Springwine) was clear. Were you joking or does it say that they are blue somewhere in the books?

ninjaboy wrote:And when they made Vain they must've made a mistake because he WASN't bloody blue was he? Maybe it was a typo.

Actually I think he was just a very very dark blue.