SciFi and Fantasy eBook Club discussion

This looks like a really good book. 600 pages of fantastic goodness. I haven't picked it up and started it though, as it's a bit higher priced than I'm willing to pay for a 4yo book.

Am I wrong? Do I need to hunt this book down and read it anyways? Tell me, tell me, tell me what you think of it ...

I picked up the triliogy in DTB before there were Kindle versions and only now got around to reading it.

This was a meaty and ponderous fantasy novel strong on ideas and politics, not so much on action. The character names bugged me were a bit hard to sort and keep track of in my head, but they were for the most part an interesting lot.

The book is also very much one third of a whole and not a self contained story and I know that's a turn off for some readers.

Think I'll wait awhile to see what the price is once the "agency model" ends for Penguin Pub. and Amazon is free to discount it.

Charles wrote: "Think I'll wait awhile to see what the price is once the "agency model" ends for Penguin Pub."

I don't think Penguin will give up Agency Prices unless it loses in court against the DOJ. I try not to be influenced by prices. Cheaper is better, but cost isn't a dealbreaker.

No, it's not a deal-breaker, but I have enough to keep me busy for months on my to-read list and don't feel compelled enough to read this book now to pay that price for it. (And unless Penguin changes its mind and decides to settle out of court, it looks like they won't even go to trial until June at the earliest, by which time at least this should be available at paperback prices. [rolleyes])

How does the rest of the book compare to the prologue? I read the prologue but it turned me off so much that I didn't feel like bothering with the rest.

My main concern is that the author tried so hard to make Kellhus an exceptional person, but he seems like a blank slate.

Christina wrote: "How does the rest of the book compare to the prologue? I read the prologue but it turned me off so much that I didn't feel like bothering with the rest."

Most of the novel is taken up with characters other than Kellhus, and they're not so exceptional, nor could they be once a little more detail is revealed about him. I would have anticipated some readers objecting more to the professional lives of the major female characters.

I'm only just barely started - the political structure seems quite complex, but so far I think it has potential. i do agree about the names - right now they are difficult for me to track.

This was a FANTASTIC BOOK!

It is complex, so is the Simarillion. I liken it to Lord of the Rings in that it is dense in detail and highly structured - both in it's characters and it's politics. I see this as a positive because you can see the work that has gone into building this story - it was not slapped together overnight. I do agree that the character names are hard to pronounce and the multitude of characters can make it hard to stay on track with the story line. I wrote a paper about this book during my degree, one thing I discovered was once your past the first 100 pages things get much more clear and there is also a false plot-line going on...like something written to distract the reader from what's really going on and it parallels the distraction for the antagonist...after I noticed this I put myself in the mind frame of the antagonist and it made things really interesting!

If you've been discouraged for some reason, give it a go again. It is worth the effort. YES it's a difficult read at times but if it was easy and see-through you'd all be badgering it fr being a novice work.

right?

I read this once. It was very philosophical, but it seemed to be trying far too hard to be deep. I didn't mind the dense structure or detail - they were positives. I do draw complaint on the naming-soup, but that seems to be a common flaw in fantasy writing.