06-18-2006, 01:36 PM
Sort of. Grrr.
I was a good boy. I bought all three books when I heard it was a trilogy. It was supposed to be baroque and dense and a worthy succesor to Tolkien and a great example of world building. It's all those things and more. It was a pain in the ass to read, because he's making up names left and right that have no connection to any naming conventions. Not a single, Tim, for christ sakes'
But it's involving. About halfway through the second book, it dawned on me that the story I was reading was only a shallow precursor to the greater story that was going. Sure, the armies of the three seas were marching off on holy war, ala the European's crusade to rescue Jerusalem, but charcters were also at work to bring the whole world to destruction. The crusade was merely the opening gambit.
And the main character of the book, in my mind, is the bad guy. I hate him, but I need to know how his supporting characters will take care of him.
Halfway through what I thought was going to be the end of the trilogy, I realized we were not going to be done when I read the last page. A few too many threads hanging about. The main character for the apocolypse hadn't even reared his ugyl head despite many mentions of him or Him as the case may be.
The battle sequences are incredibly dynamic and gory. There's none of that we are on the side of good so we will only do good things. At one point, our hero/bad guy informs that town that they are besieging they will only go away if they kill 40000 of their own citizens. The Hero wanted some recompense for having to wait for the town to capitulate.
It likens itself to George RR Martin, only far darker. I'm still waiting for the good guy. And I'll be waiting for book four through six as well. Bastards.
I was a good boy. I bought all three books when I heard it was a trilogy. It was supposed to be baroque and dense and a worthy succesor to Tolkien and a great example of world building. It's all those things and more. It was a pain in the ass to read, because he's making up names left and right that have no connection to any naming conventions. Not a single, Tim, for christ sakes'
But it's involving. About halfway through the second book, it dawned on me that the story I was reading was only a shallow precursor to the greater story that was going. Sure, the armies of the three seas were marching off on holy war, ala the European's crusade to rescue Jerusalem, but charcters were also at work to bring the whole world to destruction. The crusade was merely the opening gambit.
And the main character of the book, in my mind, is the bad guy. I hate him, but I need to know how his supporting characters will take care of him.
Halfway through what I thought was going to be the end of the trilogy, I realized we were not going to be done when I read the last page. A few too many threads hanging about. The main character for the apocolypse hadn't even reared his ugyl head despite many mentions of him or Him as the case may be.
The battle sequences are incredibly dynamic and gory. There's none of that we are on the side of good so we will only do good things. At one point, our hero/bad guy informs that town that they are besieging they will only go away if they kill 40000 of their own citizens. The Hero wanted some recompense for having to wait for the town to capitulate.
It likens itself to George RR Martin, only far darker. I'm still waiting for the good guy. And I'll be waiting for book four through six as well. Bastards.
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit