Oh boy. This book was not for me. I’ll start this review with some of my comments from the CBR book club, and expound a little from there.
“I’m a little over halfway through and I will power through because I am a completist but I don’t like this book. It is a slog. I like plot and character development and I don’t see how this has either. We learn about the characters but they just “are.” The development happens as they slooowly reveal things about each other to each other, but for me it is just stagnant and at a snail’s pace. I don’t typically read fantasy for all these reasons, so I’m definitely not the audience. This book has yet to hook me: it just comes across as very disjointed and jarring.”
Now that I’ve powered through (and I really do mean powered through, with teeth grit and determination), my opinion stands firm. I didn’t like this book. Das was not very deft with the non-linear structure: the gaps between jumping back and forth were too long. I stopped caring about what was happening in either space. And ugh, all the bodily fluids! Another Cannonballer summed it up pretty well.
Malin, you nailed it. “There was such a focus on all sorts of bodily fluids and excretions and I had more of an issue with the long-winded and seemingly graphic descriptions of that than the violence, as such.”
To me it doesn’t work in this medium. I enjoy some gory and uncomfortable things: “Grindhouse” is one of my favorite movies, and I have seen just about every episode of SVU. But I wouldn’t want to read that level of detail, and don’t enjoy it here. It was jarring and distracting from the story. I just didn’t really see that point.
I was told I shouldn’t write off fantasy because of this book, so I won’t, and hopefully I can find another book in the genre that I like. But hey, it is one more book that I read this year, so bully for me. And huzzah for good discussion!
I’d love to be able to recommend a lot of good fantasy for you to try, but I think the genre has passed me by.
I still love GRRM and Lord of the Rings, but the other series I loved in my, by Tad Williams, didn’t capture my attention last month when I tried to read it.
Based on the reviews, I’m glad I skipped this.
I read the first two (maybe 3?) GRRM and loved those. LOTR. walking. All the walking. Not my style though I did like The Hobbit.
Maybe I’ll see if other Cannknballera have a thought…
Is that a request for good fantasy? Patricia McKillip’s Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy is my favorite out of all the Tolkien inspired stories that came out of the 70s and 80s. And if I’m really blunt, I think it’s the only good one period (aside from Tolkien himself, which I know not everyone loves).
More recently, Catherynne Valente is an amazing writer and I enjoy a lot of her books. The Orphan’s Tale is really amazing, though some people are turned off by the tale-within-a-tale-within-a-tale-within-a-tale format.
Yes, yes it was a request! Many thanks!
I’m myself not a huge fantasy reader (Tolkein and GRRM are not my jam) but once we get outside dragons and such I’ve really loved The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.
Love “The Night Circus.” I wouldn’t have considered it fantasy. Maybe I don’t have a clear understanding of the genre…
Typically there’s a division between high fantasy (stuff set in its own world, the grand mythic hero stuff) and low fantasy (set in a rational world like our own where non-rational things like magic occur: think Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Supernatural) and you might find that you prefer low fantasy, which The Night Circus falls into more than the high fantasy stuff. If so, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett might be places to start. :)