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The Sword, by Deborah Chester
Feb. 22nd, 2016 11:15 amSo this is the book where the cover pissed me off by being entirely misleading. And okay, books have that problem. Often. But this one has an accurate cover painting, it's just of a scene about 280/390ths through the book, a scene it could quite honestly have skipped and not lost anything. And the blurb on the back might pass as an accurate summary of the situation on the last page. Maybe it was meant for the next book in the series? So weirdly it's all accurate, just incredibly poorly timed.
Still, I try and put aside my expectations, and review the book as I actually read it...
It's still kind of rubbish.
( Read more... )
I think someone needed to point out the difference between plot and story to this author. Their adherence to strict chronological order puts scenes in their right place on the calendar but is counterproductive emotionally. The reader first gets attached to characters that get killed, in a situation that gets thoroughly changed, so the reader wasted a hundred pages of emotional investment. And then the only two female characters of note just kind of... exist. Disconnected. From everyone. You might start caring about them, but it would take quite a leap, and there's no resolution to any smallest part of their story in this book. It sets up that they're in some danger, it does nothing else. They belong in their own book, a later one.
But it's only 390 pages as is, so if you take out the first 109 entirely and then a couple chapters of women, you've got a very skinny book.
Bulking it out again by putting some work into the emotional arc of the main hero and having to clue the reader about the world a different way would probably work though.
As ever I realise I have yet to successfully complete a work of this nature. Doesn't mean I can't recognise problems.
Add to that a tendency to stupid fantasy renaming (it's a big animal with fur, rarely white and only in the north, has big claws and a long muzzle, sometimes stands on its hind legs... don't bother calling it a beyar, we all know what it is)
and to ridiculous unpronounceable fantasy book names (is there a way to pronounce Vvord? Without an imaginary vowel I mean? And the main character of the first 109 pages is called Tobeszijian. I had to look up everything after Tobes to type that because I gave up on saying that in my head every time I read it. And that's the main character, they should be memorable enough.)
It wasn't fun to read, it wasn't engaging, the characters I wanted to see weren't even in it (that's a complaint about gender, not just cover matter), and it is going straight in the sale bag.
Still, I try and put aside my expectations, and review the book as I actually read it...
It's still kind of rubbish.
( Read more... )
I think someone needed to point out the difference between plot and story to this author. Their adherence to strict chronological order puts scenes in their right place on the calendar but is counterproductive emotionally. The reader first gets attached to characters that get killed, in a situation that gets thoroughly changed, so the reader wasted a hundred pages of emotional investment. And then the only two female characters of note just kind of... exist. Disconnected. From everyone. You might start caring about them, but it would take quite a leap, and there's no resolution to any smallest part of their story in this book. It sets up that they're in some danger, it does nothing else. They belong in their own book, a later one.
But it's only 390 pages as is, so if you take out the first 109 entirely and then a couple chapters of women, you've got a very skinny book.
Bulking it out again by putting some work into the emotional arc of the main hero and having to clue the reader about the world a different way would probably work though.
As ever I realise I have yet to successfully complete a work of this nature. Doesn't mean I can't recognise problems.
Add to that a tendency to stupid fantasy renaming (it's a big animal with fur, rarely white and only in the north, has big claws and a long muzzle, sometimes stands on its hind legs... don't bother calling it a beyar, we all know what it is)
and to ridiculous unpronounceable fantasy book names (is there a way to pronounce Vvord? Without an imaginary vowel I mean? And the main character of the first 109 pages is called Tobeszijian. I had to look up everything after Tobes to type that because I gave up on saying that in my head every time I read it. And that's the main character, they should be memorable enough.)
It wasn't fun to read, it wasn't engaging, the characters I wanted to see weren't even in it (that's a complaint about gender, not just cover matter), and it is going straight in the sale bag.