More Goodreads
Jun. 21st, 2009 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
missroseroseSeems like I've been doing a lot more reading, lately. Or maybe just writing about it more.
Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself
: This book came highly recommended to me by a couple of friends, but I must admit, I wasn't too taken in with it at first. For the first hundred, hundred-and-fifty pages, I honestly couldn't tell what was so great about it - the narrative was scattershot, the characters stereotypes, and the plot (what there was of it) a dreary slog. Especially troublesome to me were the characters - stock origins aside, only one of them was remotely likable, and he was the one we knew the least about. The rest were all various nasty people in various stages of depression or cluelessness, and frankly I didn't see why it was I'd want to spend any more time with them.
Somewhere along the line, however, that changed somewhat. The plot was still lacking in action, the revolving point-of-view approach still scattershot, but the people populating the story grew on me. One's plain-black internal monologue gradually got blackly humourous, another's arrogance became tempered with a small dose of self-awareness, and I found myself liking them rather more - to the point where I was disappointed when the book was finished, because I'd been enjoying the time I was spending with them.
Structurally, the novel is a bit of a mess; the author was obviously focusing on launching a series rather than telling a single story, and the slow start and lack of any real climax belie that. But plow through the narrative housekeeping, and as the voices of the various characters become stronger and surer, you may well forgive those deficiencies and find yourself looking forward to the next book rather more than you thought you would. I know I did. B-
Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself
: This book came highly recommended to me by a couple of friends, but I must admit, I wasn't too taken in with it at first. For the first hundred, hundred-and-fifty pages, I honestly couldn't tell what was so great about it - the narrative was scattershot, the characters stereotypes, and the plot (what there was of it) a dreary slog. Especially troublesome to me were the characters - stock origins aside, only one of them was remotely likable, and he was the one we knew the least about. The rest were all various nasty people in various stages of depression or cluelessness, and frankly I didn't see why it was I'd want to spend any more time with them.Somewhere along the line, however, that changed somewhat. The plot was still lacking in action, the revolving point-of-view approach still scattershot, but the people populating the story grew on me. One's plain-black internal monologue gradually got blackly humourous, another's arrogance became tempered with a small dose of self-awareness, and I found myself liking them rather more - to the point where I was disappointed when the book was finished, because I'd been enjoying the time I was spending with them.
Structurally, the novel is a bit of a mess; the author was obviously focusing on launching a series rather than telling a single story, and the slow start and lack of any real climax belie that. But plow through the narrative housekeeping, and as the voices of the various characters become stronger and surer, you may well forgive those deficiencies and find yourself looking forward to the next book rather more than you thought you would. I know I did. B-
