Kevin's Watch

ussusimiel wrote:Hi Baradakas!

I read and didn't like ROTE and FR. I didn't find AATE any better, in spite of the return of TC. I've posted before the reasons why I think the Last Chrons don't work for me, so I won't go over that ground again. The link Effie gives above gives a good flavour of the reaction of people who are disappointed with the books.

One advantage of the Last Chrons is that it has swelled the ranks of THOOLAH to the point where we are almost thinking of having a Test of Linden Hate for new members Disappointingly, from a Chrons perspective, dissing Linden is a far more popular activity than dissecting AATE chapters. (You can blame Vraith for the bad pun I'm sure that he'll be along shortly.)

u.

Frostheart wrote:If it's bosoms you crave for, we have those in Linden's Army aplenty! Even the famedly stoic haruchai don't know where to place their eyes when the Swordmainnir undon their cataphracts.

Frostheart wrote:On topic, yes it gets better. At least in my opinion. *shrug* Remember typing something in the How Bad Is It thread myself.

Frostheart in the How bad is it? thread wrote:Well, finished it and liked it, hard to decide whether it bests FR or the other way round. Too bad I 'happened to know' about a half of the important plot twists beforehand, thanks to my damned curiosity, Amazon, and Wikipedia. Since this thread is so tipsy with spoilers, I'm not sure where to use the tags, but suppose it can be edited later?

The book's been criticized of people merely dillydallying about, but that scarcely bothered me. In fact, I was perhaps 120 pages in, when I finally realized this must've been one of the 150-page stretches of 'standing and prattling'. Guess I merely found the concept of a world so nigh an actual Götterdämmerung/Ragnarökr (indeed, the Norse mythology fangirl in me kept humming all the while; we have a kind of Jörmungandr writhing about, the sun and stars vanish, the sea swallows the earth, even Giants are involved, even if they don't battle against the Aesir....) too fascinating to pay attention to the lack of action. Another aspect which struck me as interesting was the stark difference between this and traditional fantasy: one gets eventually bored of all those barbarians in furry underwear, dragons hoarding treasure, trolls with the IQ of half a starfish, and busty tavern wenches. Haven't ever read a thematically similar fantasy book.

A few mentions of SRD named as the Dostoyevsky of fantasy pops up here and there, and I concur. Not much sword-flinging occurred in The House of the Dead or Crime and Punishment (alright, this is a poor analogy, as these cannot be regarded as fantasy, but parallels exist in the form of slowly unfolding or accumulating psychological tension), yet at least I've regarded them as brilliant novels. Tastes do vary, and I accept that. Nevertheless, a slow pace doesn’t vex me, if it encases such Dostoyevsky-ish pressure as many of the 'chatty' portions here.

Now, on to some other points...

Spoiler

Pros:

-Covenant's back. I greatly missed his thought processes, as Linden, after the 2nd chrons, has become such a redundancy machine. "I made the staff. It's mine. I need my staff. Did I mention it's mine?" Yesyes, we get the point this woman needs a big, hard staff to sustain herself. On the other hand, oddly enough I find her less annoying when she's angsting as a result of her own failures. It's the arrogant confidence and deliberate neglecting of all warnings in the previous tomes that induced teeth-gritting (not that TC's whining in the 1st chrons was particularly enjoyable...).

-SWMNBN. Might be a Mrs. Wannabe-Voldie on some level, but personally found her chillingly terrifying, particularly after Elena's fate. The scene with TC facing her sorely needs some fanart. ;D

-Mercy given to poor ol' haunted Kevin. Brought tears into my eyes.

-Jeremiah's return to sanity and his bone construct

-Stave, the first Haruchai I've liked

-The insequent. Perhaps dei ex machina -ish, but as characters, quite engaging

-They're sadly underdeveloped, but I still enjoy the presence of the Swordmainnir. The very least Coldspray and Grueburn possess more personality than Liand and wosshername-with-a-hand-on-his-shoulder and the other Raman loadstone put together. This band of huge, damn badass ladies who fight like berserkers and yet soon thereafter are able to progress into childlike mirth and adventurousness, even respectable funeral songs, feels just refreshing. Perhaps they're sketchy, but the very least don't bloody well snivel about broken nails or whether their Nth ex-boyfriend had OMIGOSH found, like, a new gf and OMGOMG, like, she's SOOO trashy, like, HOMG. Right. I may harbor some bias, thanks to my long-lasting love of certain branches of mythology. (I don't know, should I have posted my views on the Giants thread instead?)

-The whole episode with Covenant and the humbled after the split-up with Linden

Cons:

-Linden's repetitive repetition of repetition. Even so, she's more tolerable than in ROTE

-Lack of detail in the Land; everything degenerates into a blur of gray and deserty-something, can't really even recall where the company traveled after the subterranean passages

-Altogether too rudimentary supporting characters too scantly described. Have hard time f. ex. remembering the names of the Ramen. Aside from Coldspray and Longwrath, what do the Giants even look like? Eg. Grueburn cracks into speech every now and then, but apparently the reader is left to the mercy of his or her own imagination about whether she's old or young, dark or blonde, etc.

-Longwrath's absence. Would've been interested in learning more about him

-The 'true names' hack/trope. This just plain annoyed me

The whole LC brick-pile needs a re-read, as seems to be the general case with SRD's books. But keeping a breathing break and going to slink into the worlds of GRRM and Steven Erikson for a twinkling.

Wasn't sure where to post my review, so selected this thread.

peter the barsteward wrote:...
I may yet be able to see the Last Dark as a 'cracking conclusion' - but I doubt it could ever go further than that. I can't see it somehow pulling the other three books into a new perspective in my mind where they all of a sudden become 'brilliant' in the way the first two Chrons were for me. If he can pull that one off then SRD will have exceded any other literary trick I have ever seen!

Effaeldm wrote:I've seen such a literary "trick", though I'd use a different word, it sounds too simple and not fitting. Perhaps "miracle" is better. It was with a series of books I could barely read at the start. Long-winded, boring, full of details I didn't need in the slightest, some of the characters were interesting, but most not touching me in the slightest. I summoned all my resolve to not drop unfinished books easily I had at the time. It turned out not enough. I stopped reading them. End of the story? Not really.

I'm not even sure now what was the thing that made me read that from the beginning again. I guess it was more like some feeling that an actual reason, later I mentioned a few details that could be a reason for such a decision, mostly just subtle similarities to my other favorite writers.

I'm rarely really at a loss of words, but that's it. I have none to describe my feelings. I felt and still feel... like in love, insane, sick, lost in some other place and not wishing to return, like those books are more a part of me than my own flesh and blood.

How can such a thing happen, are there any ways? Actually, there are. Don't you remember where joy is? The story may get new sense, you may look at the things differently knowing what it was all for, how the jigsaw elements will combine, how the seemingly unnecessary things build the mood and the feel. You may fall in love with it and take close to the heart the things you wouldn't appreciate otherwise. And perhaps the most incredible option - you may become a different person after reading it.

Frostheart wrote:Well, at least his evil Hugs of Despite feel much softer that way!

You miiiight want to cover those quotes, at least mine, with spoiler tags. Baradakas hadn't read AATE yet, after all, and mine lavishly throws around all kinds of major plot twists.

Frostheart wrote:
kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=22610

Effy for some reason thinks he's utterly boobalicious. Yet compare him to Drogo further down in the same thread...

shadowbinding shoe wrote:Also, double post Effy

shadowbinding shoe wrote:I saw that lovely thread.

I can see Effy's point. That blue line nipple looks very prominent.

Do you think big muscles fit Foul's image?

Frostheart wrote:

Well, considering all the titty jokes so far supplied by Effy

Frostheart wrote: Don't have TPTP at my disposal right now, but didn't his true form stand quite well-endowed (and not talking about his illearth stones and staff of law now) with strength?

Frostheart wrote:he might appear in pink lingerie in the next picture.
...
(and not talking about his illearth stones and staff of law now)