Kevin's Watch

Seareach wrote:Hi guys. I've stickied this and changed the title slightly.
Cheers. Sea

Very kind of you to do this, Seareach; thank you! Now SkurjMaster's thread will not become obsolete when the book is finally out!


Cheers, indeed!

Avatar wrote:Oh, so now you turn up? you missed the reunion Sea, shame on you...

I keep an eye on my bit.

There was a reunion? No one told me. I would have been happy to bring a platter.

Cord Hurn wrote: Very kind of you to do this, Seareach; thank you!

Gotta do something to earn my keep

An interview about Seventh Decimate www.unboundworlds.com/2017/03/stephen-r ... -new-book/

Seareach wrote:

Avatar wrote:Oh, so now you turn up? you missed the reunion Sea, shame on you...

I keep an eye on my bit.

There was a reunion? No one told me. I would have been happy to bring a platter.

Should visit more. Or check your email.

--A

Thanks Sea - interesting (but brief) interview!

It will be interesting having a trilogy of books devoted to characters that don't seem to have any link to the 'real world' - The Gap shows humanity in all its ugliness and bravery is little changed in a Donaldsonian sci-fi future, while of course the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and Mordant's Need give Covenant, Linden and Terisa a chance to work through their real world issues and apply their real world strengths to a fantasy setting.

Perhaps now that SRD has guided Covenant and Linden through ironic modalities and elevated them back to the heroic he feels no need to drop a real-world character into an exotic landscape to further his themes.

The whole Repository aspect sounds like a metaphor for the Internet and the power of information in today's day and age to me at this stage ...

edit:

if I'd taken the time to read the prologue before posting I probably wouldn't have bothered with the above, as it is obvious and clear that SRD has devised a nice premise for himself to muse upon a number of real-real world issues and philosophies - this looks reeeeally promising!

After reading the prologue I was encouraged. (I wasn't thrilled with the opening paragraph and its torrent of unwieldy proper names but I powered through that and found I liked the tone, setting and concept of the new story)

aTOMiC wrote:After reading the prologue I was encouraged. (I wasn't thrilled with the opening paragraph and its torrent of unwieldy proper names but I powered through that and found I liked the tone, setting and concept of the new story)

HAHAHAHAHA!! You trooper!

I'll have to give it a go

So the book showed up on my Kindle, and I am probably going to finish it in a day or two.

The prologue read better the 2nd time through. Just enjoying the ride...

How will we handle discussions/dissections ? Part One, etc.?

I'm still in the beginning stages of reading this and so far, it is not disappointing. SRD is drawing me in nicely.

I've been reading the reviews on Goodreads and it seems that SRD fans give it 5 stars and non-fans give it 2-3 stars, even though they claim to know SRDs anti-hero formula.

I admit to not reading this book as soon as it was available. There is a reason for this: my phone has sucked me out of the habit of reading. To my dismay, I realized I haven't sat down and read anything in several months. But on Christmas break I downloaded and read 7D, and finished it last night. I mention all this because, having lost the habit of reading, I am not sure if this has tainted my first impressions.

The first impression I had was that this story reads more like a short story than a novel. The characters are briefly sketched, the plot is sparse and succinct. There are no digression or asides that would make this feel more fully fleshed. It reads very much like KJ&AG, which are novellas.

The second impression I had was that this was smaller than I expected. Prince Bifalt reached the library far sooner than I expected. I almost expected the story to end when he arrived, and in fact it didn't continue much beyond that point. It was disappointing I must say.

It was apparent to me early on that Bifalt must have a seriously skewed worldview. That the war that Bifalt sees isn't what the Amikans see. That it was a huge and deadly misunderstanding which only an utter and adamant refusal to communicate with the other side could keep alive for so long. This impression was confirmed later on in the story.

You cannot help but imagine that this sort of mindless and fatal nationalism is an analogy to current events. Or, rather, it has an "applicability", as Tolkien would say. Donaldson is not commenting on specific people, but on a certain kind of thinking. If you listen to the Storymen interview (which I linked to in another thread, and which I highly recommend that everyone should listen to with attention) this notion is confirmed.

I was expecting the librarians in this story to exemplify the kind of benign wisdom which we expect from secret caretakers of the universe. But I was surprised and delighted to discover that they seemed as petty and power-hungry as everyone else. I am left hoping that this is only seeming. The final scenes seem to bear this out to some extent.

If this book one is the Real Story of this series ... simple, direct, and concise, but laying a foundation for complexity and profound wonder ... then it accomplishes this task well. If it's not ... if the rest of the series continues to be developed like a short story ... then I would be disappointed in it. However, Donaldson's methods are well established, and so I have more optimism than dread in this regard. Bifalt is going to Amika, and his enemy has his zone implant - I think this is going to spin into a storm!

Great review as usual wayfriend!

Yeah, it had a Real Story feel to it for me, and definitely a smallness with large potential! Interesting that the next phase of it (possibly) is a journey to Amika - I thought it would expand more than that. Bifault's minor transformation was relatively quick.

I'm definitely intrigued for the next book.

wayfriend wrote: If this book one is the Real Story of this series ... simple, direct, and concise, but laying a foundation for complexity and profound wonder ... then it accomplishes this task well.

Of course it's the Real Story of this series! I expect the next volume to be 700 pages at least.

I read Seventh Decimate over the Christmas holidays (a tradition of mine to read SRD over Christmas) and loved it. Looking forward to the next one.

I had a pile of books to read and Seventh Decimate was the very first I grabbed.

uh oh it seems that my take on 7D contains too many 'shite's.

Good to see you on the Watch, Stone. Don't be a stranger.

Read up to just after the ambush last night. Wasn't gripping at first, but it's getting better. None of the characters have much of my interest yet. What a blinkered lot! Never ventured beyond the boundaries? Still, it will be interesting to discover their world as they do. Haven't downloaded it to kindle - waiting for it to get a bit cheaper first, so no reading on the bus. Can't take that heavy book with me.

Finished. Agree with Way and Stevie G. What a narrow minded blinkered man Bifalt is (was?). But I did enjoy the ending. Look forward to the next part.

Well I kind of agree that the prince is walking through life with blinders on but isn't that how we all live? Granted, some of us more than others, but we all see things through our own perspectives don't we? So I do not fault SRD for writing a character who is narrow-minded.

I heard an old joke once upon a time that said, ' Middle age is when our broad minds and narrow waists switch places. '

I just finished Seventh Decimate last night. I'm not completely sure what I think of it, but I must have been enjoying myself to some significant degree, because I finished the book in barely over a week (which is a very fast pace for me, as someone who lingers over the pages and tries hard to visualize the scenes as concretely as possible). Prince Bifalt is not particularly likeable, being narrow of vision and violent of purpose, and somewhat hypocritical, but as I neared the end of the book it appeared he was reading the sorcerers correctly as unscrupulous manipulators. The ending caught me by surprise, and has certainly made me curious for how the story will continue. I hope to have more to say about the book after I've had time to ponder it, and maybe re-read some passages.