M. Jones > Recent Status Updates

Continues to be excellent: and Bernard of Clairvaux gets a deserved trashing!

Brilliant so far, a reputation well deserved (and, as far as I can tell, well researched: he got the bridges in 14th century Paris correct!).

Crept fowards a bit more on this. Nezha and Altan generic male stereotypes...

Hmmm. The pacing went awry at the end of part 1, part 2 should have been a separate book, Rin only wants to get high but without - so far - any hints of addiction; not prissy about the drug angle, just... feels like she's in fresher mode, and some of the language makes me cringe: not a fan of 'thee' and 'thou' - we're all moderns in our age - but the phrase "Sans Chaghan" (i.e. without Chaghan) is just bad.

OK, so this is Hogwarts in Imperial China (even down to the accent in Sinegard having a very Beijing-like 'r' added at the end of words) but despite the very basic worldbuilding, it's great so far.

Started well, amazing set up, worldbuilding, characterisation, and very nifty dialogue; increasingly the banter reminds me of Bardugo's later work 'Six of Crows' - Lynch was first (2006 vs. 2015).

Not really pulling me along like I was hoping. There's some good stuff, but the plot is not really powerful enough seem like more than a series of amusing episodes: we haven't see Troy so the ultimate goal feels distant emotionally as well as geographically, Alexia is a so-so protagonist (Shy South would give her a kicking), and the Devils themselves seem so invulnerable there's not much sense of danger.

Second read for this (well, first technically, since my initial acquaintance came via audiobook), but so far my impressions have all been reinforced: a brilliant tale by a master storyteller.

Stalled. Good start, but the epistolary format was wearing a little thin. The indirect nature of both the conflict and the protagonists' contact was tantalising, but also frustrating; perhaps seeing the characters interacting with their own sides would help. The writing is often exquisite, but can oversteps the fine line into 'Proux-level purpleness', where the cleverness brings you to a halt in wonder.

Forgot I was reading this. Spooky...

Predictions already shot, though to be honest (no, really), I did wonder whether the Great Change is all it's cracke dup to be. Abercrombie is a master of misdirection, being brutally obvious about it at times, then sneaking one past you, or the misdirection turns out to be no such thing. Sneak, in a good way.

Part-way through (up to the chapter 'Purity') in the audiobook, and after a long-ish time setting things up, plots are thickening. The Ambercrombie-Pacey duo as masterful as ever (though SP changed Cas dan Shenkt's voice, and in a very rare error he read one of Bayaz's lines as Clover). Three (obvious?) predictions so far: <spoiler>Broad will kill Judge. Pike will kill Glokta, Vick will kill Pike.</spoiler>

It's here! The Great Change is upon us! Being Joe Abercrombie, whose mantra can be summed up as "same shit, different day" I suspect there is a long and tortuous path to not much ultimate difference.

Ferox returns!

I'm enjoying the (audio)book itself, just not so much the narration. Damian Lynch has a pleasant enough voice, and although he doesn't speak in a monotone, he does always use the same intonation pattern for wildly varying situations; action or tension, humour or passion, it's always the same. His accents are also very limited: only London and West African so far. Nice to hear the latter, but little variation.

In my (still!) concussed state listening on audiobook to Gemma Whelan’s excellent stint as the voice of the redoubtable Elizabeth Barnabas.

Still too concussed to read for any length of time. Hope to be back to this (and everything else I can't currently do!) soon.

This is on hold. Great ideas and great writing, but not got enough direction to keep me going.

Slow going. Not because it's badly written - it isn't, it's lyrical and full of humour. Nor because it lacks ideas - this book is like an action film of ideas; they pepper the pages like machine gun fire or exploding Michael Bay shark-leaps. But unlike action movies (I love them, by the way), this isn't over in two hours. It needs more. It needs likable characters and a coherent plot to draw me along. But it's great.