Maria
asked
Vaseem Khan:
Unseemly question for you: did you happen to read The mountain shadow by GD Roberts? I had read Shantaram years ago and I loved it. I was v looking forward to this sequel, and now, barely 200pg into it, I'm trying to understand if I like it as I thought I would or if I'm getting progressively disappointed...what's your view on sequels more in general? thanks in case you made it to here! cheers!
Vaseem Khan
Hi Maria
i like the question. i haven't read the mountain shadow, and thats because my view on sequels that are not really part of a series (if you see what i mean) has been tainted by the frankly awful - but massively overpraised - sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird. you may disagree, but i thought it was woeful. secondly, although i loved shantaram, i did feel that a stronger editor might have chopped out about 300 pages which would have made it a sharper read - and i certainly didn't buy the whole going to afghanistan bit at the end - pure tosh. so these things coloured my decision ... but if you tell me its utterly incredible i could be persuaded to change my mind! (apologies for bad punctuation but I've been writing all day and haven't the energy!) happy new year.
p.s. the best genuine sequel i have read is The Lord of the Rings - which was actually a sequel to the Hobbit!
i like the question. i haven't read the mountain shadow, and thats because my view on sequels that are not really part of a series (if you see what i mean) has been tainted by the frankly awful - but massively overpraised - sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird. you may disagree, but i thought it was woeful. secondly, although i loved shantaram, i did feel that a stronger editor might have chopped out about 300 pages which would have made it a sharper read - and i certainly didn't buy the whole going to afghanistan bit at the end - pure tosh. so these things coloured my decision ... but if you tell me its utterly incredible i could be persuaded to change my mind! (apologies for bad punctuation but I've been writing all day and haven't the energy!) happy new year.
p.s. the best genuine sequel i have read is The Lord of the Rings - which was actually a sequel to the Hobbit!
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Jan 02, 2016 02:01AM · flag