Doug Sundseth > Recent Status Updates

"When was the last time someone _didn't_ try to kill you?"

Time for a reread.

Maj. Tony Nelson, USAF? Really?

8-)

This book isn't working for me right now. The plot is a radical departure from the previous books, away from the basically cozy original style. And the constant hopping from one POV to another isn't helping.

I'm putting it away for a while and I'll pick it up again later when I'm in a different mood. We'll see whether that helps.

Approximately 50K words into this book, hardly anything has happened, and I don't care about any of the characters. I'm not giving this much more time.

At about 40%, the book seems to be getting substantially better, with an actual story that is more than retrospective moaning.

If Henrik Ibsen had written the story of Kvoth being raised by Beast Rabban, you might have this book. I know it's beloved by some, but at this point I'm close to a DNF.

So far, despite many people apparently liking this book, I'm not getting much from it. Casual decadence and a rather gormless protagonist do not make for much entertainment.

I want to like this series, as I've liked others of the author's oeuvre, so I'm trying one final book. If this one doesn't work for me, I'm done with this series.

Interim notes:

POV switches are disrupting, and so far the two main points of view seem entirely unrelated.

Constant use of modern slang and metaphor in dialog takes away from immersion.

Turgid pacing, poor editing, uninteresting world building ...


At the 1/3 point of this book, the only thing keeping me going is other reviews that mention the book gets much better later on. Right now this is one-star.