[Quiet Man Cometh]

Never read The Chrysalids. My sister did in high school and she liked it.

I took a course on dystopian literature in Uni. Interesting stuff. My favourite what Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, and I'd like to venture more into her stuff. Besides O&C I've only read Surfacing.

Along with that we read I am Legend, which is better than the movie in my opinion, and not at all like it. Didn't keep the book though. I have a couple other books that I didn't get through that are still on my shelf to read.

I loved the Watership Down movie when I was little, and did read into the book. Got as far as Efrafa before I put it down and haven't picked it up since. I read pieces of Plague Dogs as well as a thought for a reearch paper I was doing which I ultimately scrapped. Saw the movie of that too which was kind of odd with the ending. Not sure if it was disturbing or not. It ends before the book did, where the author takes some pity for the feelings of the reader but the screen writer did not.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Originally Posted by Gallowsraven

Go on, rant, someone's bound to rant about Twilight sooner or later ;)

So be it.

To begin with, in case anyone's not aware, this book is considered to be great, as far as I can gather, an epic, both in scope and length. And that's the first problem right there.

I'm only 80 pages into it, but the story so far could have been written in 10. Literally, not even 15 minutes of the first episode of the t.v. series has been covered. Follett goes into endless, excruciating detail about the most banal minutiae he seemingly contrive to write about. And he often isn't content to do so once, but will repeat the same useless information over and over throughout a character's point of view.

Tying into this, he constantly uses parentheses in an obvious, after-the-fact explanatory way that is completely, completely unnecessary. Not once, in 80 pages and dozens of such parenthetical afterthoughts has the information conveyed been anything but blindingly apparent from the preceding narrative. This is outright insulting for an author to do.

Now, onto the the characters and characterization. I'll admit to having a bias from watching the t.v. series, but apparently Tom Builder is mentally-challenged, repressed rapist in the making, and I never knew it. I'm sorry, but lines like "Tom had always found the thought of taking a woman against her will secretly erotic" are worthy of nothing but eye-rolling. I realize this is the "oh-so-Dark Ages", (actually, the high Middle Ages...) but come on, is this man an animal? This is seriously what he's thinking about while his daughter is unconscious and bleeding and miss pagan sex-goddess witch is tending her?

On the other hand, we have Prior Phillip of Kingsbridge, whose characterization is more of a technical flaw. In chapter 2 (which is somehow after chapter 5... this book is weird. I'm assuming sub-chapters) he is introduced for precisely one page in the present. Then we unceremoniously flash back and get 25 pages of exposition following his entire life's story from childhood until now, filled with utterly irrelevant details, particularly those of his difficulty coping with monastic vows of personal purity. Once again, I do NOT need to know the details of this man's private sexual desires. Subtlety, dammit! These things can be conveyed in narrative and dialogue without wasting pages and pages pulling the story to a screeching halt so we can read about how a monk pleasures himself. If that's actually important to his character (*rolls eyes*) there are better ways of including it.

All in all, this book is just a bloated mess. The writing is full of anachronisms and facile similes that couldn't possibly be more cliched. Follett, an amazingly successful author, has seemingly never learned the absolute, crowning attribute of good writing: show, and do not tell, except where it cannot be avoided and even then... subtlety! Creativity! Thoughtfulness! I despair, truly, of ever getting anything published, if this is what publishers are looking for.

The Starz series seems to have shared my opinion, because the show bears almost no resemblance to the book, and the show is better off for it. Instead of this obese wreckage of a plot, it actually does a passable job at portraying a compelling drama with somewhat deep characters (except the laughably-one-dimensional villain, who none the less is pleasure to watch).

My verdict: skip the book, watch the show. It's possible that it gets better (and I mean to read the rest of it, just taking a break to finish Storm of Swords) but I don't see how these flaws could go away.

*takes deep breath* *exhales* I warned you it would be long-winded and ranting. :p

[Azrael]

Originally Posted by Gallowsraven

Maria V. Snyder, writer of the Study trilogy and the Glass Trilogy, formally known as the Yelena Zaltana novels and the Opal Cowan novels respectively. I love Yelena, such a sassy character ;)

I never really got into the Sookie Stackhouse books, don't know why. Just one of those things i guess. Are they any good? Might try again if they are. Love House of Night series and the Goddess series though by P.C. Caste. Maybe because she includes real witchy rituals in her books and not the propaganda stuff most people believe.

I really liked them cause they're more adult-oriented. I adore the characters, and the story never gets boring. The only thing I don't like is she sometimes fits too much into one book so a couple of them blend together for me. >3<' like the first three, the 5 and 6.

I like the House of Night books okay, but I haven't read the last two because Burned is in that one girl's POV and I HATE HATE HATE that writing. God it's hard to get through for me, so I'm really stuck right now x.x' But everything was too "oh woe is me and my five boyfriends" most of the time, so I was already having a hard time with them.

[Gallowsraven]

Five?! (o.o) I've only read until Hunted. Are you serious??? FIVE?! Oh good gods! I might try the Sookie Stackhouse books again then, if you recommend them Azreal. Maybe this time it won't be such hard going.

And Suzerain, oddly enough that rant sounds like what i have to say for both Twilight and Tess of the D'Ubervilles, both take up more pages than necessary, the latter uses page after page to talk about grass! In excruciating detail!

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Gee, and here I thought Pillars of the Earth was supposed to focus on the lives of people that circulate around the building of a chathedral. They *are* building a cathedral, aren't they?

I'd like to mention more authors that I can say I liked but unfortunately it's been a long time since I've read more than one or two books by any single author to make any comments. I have a couple more Kay books around that I might look into, (Sailing to Sarantium, Lord of Emperors, and Lions of Al-Rassan) though I'll admit I'm a little afraid of them after my experience with Game of Thrones (anything that mentions intrigue, really). Has anyone read the Fionavar Tapestry series of his? My sister loved it but it looks a little more standard fantasy style than I care for at the moment.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Well, yes, they are, or rather, will be building a cathedral at some point. I stopped after reading the 8-page description of Tom's wife giving birth in the wilderness. I understand "gritty realism, yay!" and all that, but... I really didn't need that level of detail. It was almost like an instruction manual for delivering a baby in the middle of nowhere.

And, sorry, but the only thing I've heard about the Fionovar Tapestry is what you mentioned, though it's supposed to be fairly good. I've seen it recommended as an entry to the genre before.

[Gallowsraven]

o.o

8 pages of . . . ewwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (sorry, i'm hyper on . . . O2 really)

I was reading Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray only i've kinda lost my place. Graham Masterton did a tribute-style version based around a family rather than a person and threw in some twists, but GM writes a lot about demons and demonology and stuff, but he's a wicked cool writer. Family Portrait, his version's called.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Mm, used to find demonology fascinating as a teenager, but I lost interest in it as I got older. I like angelology a lot better, especially the more apocryphal sources. Of course, most works involving angels tend to be cheap, Hollywood Apocrypha drivel. I'm planning to write a book incorporating the Kabbalistic hierarchies, but don't expect to see it on shelves any time soon. :p

And, I'm still reading A Storm of Sword by Martin. I heard this was his best book, but so far, it doesn't feel any better than the first two, to me. Some parts of it are actually boring, I find. This may be heresy, but I groan every time I come upon a Jon Snow chapter.

[Gallowsraven]

I quite liked Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen by Garth Nix (? i could be wrong about spelling or name there . . .) Prefer the first two though, apart from some scenes in Abhorsen i thought it was his weakest. Love the Disreputable Dog, whose introduction is thus;

"I am the Disreputable Dog. Or the Disreputable Bitch if you care to get technical. What's for dinner?"

She's such a sassy character and the sense of humour is so dry and sharp i just adore her.

You'll have to give me the title of your book when it comes out ;)

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Oh, don't hold your breath on that, I'm a hopeless perfectionist as a writer, with a miserable work ethic... and two other books in line ahead of that particular project.

Sigh.

Anyway, never heard of Nix before (checked, you got the name right), I'll have to look into him.

[Gallowsraven]

They're interesting stories.

I still haven'tgotten round to taking those Twilight books i own to the local charity shop . . . i don't want to burn them, burning books is bad, but i'm not sure i'd wish them on anybody.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Recycle them? :D

[Quiet Man Cometh]

When I had textbooks I didn't like my punishment to them was to ship them to Africa. Bye bye astronomy! Or rather, the math part of astronomy.

Read a little more of Ysabel and was pondering the narrative (can't help it. It's become habit to 'lit brain' everything I read). I noticed that the narrative really felt simple to me, condiering other books I've read and quotes mentioned in the forums here. However, it does seem to match really well with the main character who is only 15. Now I'm wondering if this is Kay's natural style or if he's taking into account the age of the character. I do find it rather annoying when I come across characters that don't seem to "think" their age.

[Gallowsraven]

:D Suzerain! I could, i suppose . . . it might work, and i didn't have to pay for them because someone thought that i'd like them, despite my repeatedly saying i thought they were a waste of paper. *ponders*

And i know Quiet, it does get annoying doesn't it. I tend to ignore it if i think the rest of the book is worth it. I don't need to read a book at the minute because my life's got enough drama as it is :D

[Suzerain of Sheol]

I think that sort of thing only really stands out to me when it's done wrong. For whatever reason, I don't find myself thinking about the narrative and it's reflection of the narrator. I think most writers have a fairly good grasp on that sort of thing, which is probably why it's so glaringly obvious when it's done poorly.

[Gallowsraven]

Yep, like my first attempt at writing a story, How can a six year old make a six year old character sound like she's at least in her teens? Mind you, with the way some of the teens around my area talk it doesn't seem so out of place now :D

I'm trying to find Fire Study right now, i know it's lying around here somewhere . . . ¬_¬

Anybody read and/or liked James Herbert's books??? I got a load of them and they're all worn out from reading them :D