Matt > Recent Status Updates

I can't take this much longer. 313 pages in and we are still doing character backstories. The actual story in this book is like 90 pages. It's like a D&D adventure where each of the 6 PCs turned in a 60 page completely unnecessary backstory. Six pages each would have sufficed, or heck, just reveal what's important to the story through dialogue not endless flashbacks.

The writing is good, but the story is dull and the protagonist is irritating beyond belief. There is too much polemic here disguised as fiction and not enough adventure story. Narnia comes off as the better work, despite or because of the fact it was aimed at children.

I was waiting for this book like 15 years but it definitely wasn't worth the wait. No where near as charming as the first volume, with way too much time spent with characters that aren't the ones we cared about in the first volume. The best characters are all in the background and a bunch of secondary characters are in the foreground and it's so dull.

"His humility was all the more stunning because it was based upon a conscious act of self-effacement on the part of the majestic God whom He continued to be. The splendor of God had dimmed itself in an awesome gesture of condescension. If in the late Roman soicla imagination, power and wealth were things that had to be asserted in order to exist, then no abjectio, no "stepping down", could be more stunning..."

Slow going dense work, but very worthwhile.

I'm still waiting for the story to begin. I thought it was going to start around page 150, but that had to be the briefest appearance of a major character (if that is what it was) in the history of literature. Now I have no idea where it is going, half-way in and there is still no sign of what motivates the story.

One thing I certainly didn't expect was this book to be written on about a sixth grade level. Indeed, I'm thinking of giving up on it and turning it over to my sixth graders as a science project.

Oh brother. I'm not even sure I'm going to make it through the forward on this one. What pretentious prattle.

Per ipsum, et cum ipso, et in ipso, est tibi Deo Patri omnipotenti in unitate Spiritus Sancti, omnis honor et gloria per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Per ipsum, et cum ipso, et in ipso, est tibi Deo Patri omnipotenti in unitate Spiritus Sancti, omnis honor et gloria per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Unfortunately, I'm having to have serious doubts about Hara's reliability as a witness. He seems a capable but arrogant, abrasive, and caustic man. If he was any less willing to admit mistakes and failings, I think the account might be rendered so suspect as to be of little worth. If I here one more time about his superstitious feelings or how every success by the IJN was because of some note of his....

I'll say this: He's slick. He's really slick. This is the smartest book I've read since Gene Wolfe. I'm stunned by where he's going with all of this.

I've finally been able to restart this book after a log break. Not as promising now as earlier. There is a certain vibe to this book, such that, were the main character replaced with Conan it would make very little difference in the book and might actually improve it. It's not exactly turning into the gritty historical fiction I expected.

Only now is it beginning to break with the rote mechanics of D&D - to the benefit of the story I think. Having an adventure is fun, but generally speaking no body likes to listen to someone else go on about their character.

You can hear the dice clattering in the background of every sentence.

This is beginning to look like additional evidence that experts, however brilliant, should never write outside of their own field.

This would be so much more effective as a heavily illustrated coffee table book.

Progress is slowing because the stories are getting repetitive.

The most recent stories haven't achieved quite the heights of 'The Scarlet Citadel'.

Howard's power is increasing as he hones his character and his craft. It's interesting to see some of his worst writing tics fading.