Fantasy Book Club Series discussion
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Shadows Linger
Chronicles of the Black Company
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Shadows Linger (The Chronicle of the Black Company, #2) Chapters 1-24
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I think this book is better organized and the chapters are of a more reasonable size!
I plan to read this, but I am trying to finish up listening to A Memory of Light. I am so close I can almost see the 'light' at the end of the tunnel.
Wow!! John that was one long read huh!!! Well we will be here when you do get the chance to read SL.
Shelley wrote: "Wow!! John that was one long read huh!!! Well we will be here when you do get the chance to read SL."I noticed that Tor is doing a re-read of this series, by the way. (view spoiler)
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Maggie wrote: "I finally caught up! This book goes along a lot better then the first, which left me lostly confused. The action here is more something I can visualize, if that makes sense."I like the fact that we see different points of view outside of Croaker's first person one.
Maggie wrote: "I finally caught up! This book goes along a lot better then the first, which left me lostly confused. The action here is more something I can visualize, if that makes sense."Yay! I agree SL flows much better! I read it in two days! I did so cause I knew I was going to be busy with moving, BUT also because it was so good!
I know Jon, I like reading the story thru Marron Shed's eyes! He's so selfishly human, yet likable since you see him taking care of his mother and he does so with Iron Lilly, which is his Marron's life!
Am up to chapter 13 and am finding this one easier to get into than the first few chapters of book 1. Am definitely intrigued by the Barrowland and hoping to find out more about The Dominator. Also this Black Castle in Juniper that Raven and Shed visit. It is nice to have a different perspective every now and then and I also feel a bit sorry for Marron Shed - I know he is a bit spineless but he is just an innkeeper, not a soldier!
After all the voyages within the first book, this is quite a change - most of the stuff happens in that creepy city Juniper. I really had to get used to this change of narrative style. But I like it to be able to concentrate on one special part of the world and its ecosystem.Shed and the Iron Lilly - well, I don't know if I really like that POV.
Taken as a whole, I think that this novel should have been shortened a third. It's not that it is boring - I just think that worldbuilding, story line and character development could have been done in fewer pages as well.
I'm just past the halfway point, and Shed's story is getting very dark. Looks like Raven was a terrible influence on him. That said, I actually like Shed more than Raven. Maybe it's because Raven is a touch close to Gary Stu territory - a bit too much of the stone cold killer with a heart of gold who almost never makes mistakes. He's like someone's D&D character (okay, maybe that's a little harsh).What I always liked about Croaker is his uncertainty, his fear (even as he's no coward), his curiosity, and his relationships with the people around him. Raven does the mystery man act well enough, but I just don't feel an emotional connection to him. He's an action movie hero.
Shed, though, Shed has problems. And he seems intent upon making them worse in a hundred tiny and not-so-tiny ways. He's almost a Dorian Gray figure. His sins get worse and worse, and yet no one but his mother seems to see the difference in him. He eventually packs her out of sight as surely as Dorian hides his condemning portrait. It's a macabre tale of a sort I'm not used to seeing in the genre, and that makes it interesting.
This one is a lot easier to follow so far since there's less jumping around even though there's multiple narrators. The black palace is an interesting bit.
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I have to say that I really really enjoyed this installment of the series!! Yeah I finished book two already! I needed to read ahead because I knew I was moving and would be pretty busy!!!