Bingo Square: Snubbed! (Nebula Finalist) I am a huge fan of A Song of Ice and Fire, and both epic historical fiction and epic fantasy series. As a result, this type of novel was going to appeal to me even if I have been hesitant about reading it for no logical reason – I became aware of Ken Liu because of the praise he received as the translator of The Three Body Problem, and was needlessly worried that his novels would have a similar focus […]
non-linear narrative fail
You know what’s really fun? Coming up with new ways to “critique” a series that you’re still inexplicably reading even though you haven’t really enjoyed it from the very beginning. Thankfully, this is the second to last book, so I’m so freaking close to being done with this thing. Anyway! #6, Tower of Swallows is clearly the one where Sapkowski just said “fuck it” to anything like a comprehensible narrative structure or manageable set of POVs (although the latter has been on life support for […]
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This series is so highly rated, and I am five books in wondering what I just don’t understand. It’s not terrible, but from my view it’s a very middling, derivative fantasy series. I guess every series just has its fans who do connect with it, and I’m certainly guilty of fanning all over series whose appeal leaves other people stumped. I should have reviewed this sooner. It’s been nearly a month and I don’t remember anything that really happened in Baptism of Fire, and it’s […]
The value of a memory
It took me 20 years to finally read Tigana. Israel in the 90’s (and especially) Jerusalem did not have a wealth of geeky things for a nerdy teen to enjoy. There was some book, mostly SciFi classics, Tolkien and Dragonlance. There was Dungeons & Dragons, but good luck finding dices. There was also the early internet, and I was lucky enough to have some family friends who lived in America and could help my needs by occasionally sending me reading materials (mostly books) that I […]