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lottpoet's review
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
acardattack's review against another edition
3.0
Slow pacing really bog this book down. It could have easily been cut in half, and it's not even a long book. Also there was a noticeable lack of Cook's dark humor.
arkron's review against another edition
2.0
This series definitively has got a starting problem in each book. The previous books needed 50 pages each to draw me in and made that up quite good.
It is different with this one, where I even started skipping pages after 100 pages - which I normally wouldn't do - the story was plain boring at times and I didn't have the feeling that I missed anything by skipping a few pages here and there.
Once again, Cook flips from sending his characters 1000s of miles from here to there every couple of pages. That was ok for the first one or two books to learn about the world. But right now, you don't learn anything new at all but revisit the same places just to return to the previous place.
And I have the impression that Cook hasn't got the timing right - going such fast distances takes lots of time - which we don't see passed in the narration at all.
The main narrator this time is Raven's friend Case who replaces Croaker role writing a kind of diary. Case's chapters' style might work for native English readers. But I'm not sure about that style: It seems like a silly trick with all it's wrong plural/singular forms and tenses. It somehow doesn't read ... true. They were really difficult to bear for me.
I don't know how long it would take to learn Darling's sign-language fluently. But Case needed only a couple of weeks to be able to discuss and argue in a perfect way. That felt like the wrong passing of time.
And there is the stand-up comedian troup of Tully and Smeds and the mysterious Old Bear. Their disorganised try of stealing the spike is so uncool, non-ocean's 11-style and foreign-embarrassing, that it's nearly good again. I liked the way Smeds' character changed and the role he became later on. But the whole story of those thieves seemed implausible.
Limper being game again is really great. I find his return as a scarecrow in a kind of horror faery style awesome. It remembers me of the "Candyman" movie (though I hate horror).
But in contrast to the other books, I found the showdown of this book quite lame and uninteresting. So, no upgrade this time.
It is different with this one, where I even started skipping pages after 100 pages - which I normally wouldn't do - the story was plain boring at times and I didn't have the feeling that I missed anything by skipping a few pages here and there.
Once again, Cook flips from sending his characters 1000s of miles from here to there every couple of pages. That was ok for the first one or two books to learn about the world. But right now, you don't learn anything new at all but revisit the same places just to return to the previous place.
And I have the impression that Cook hasn't got the timing right - going such fast distances takes lots of time - which we don't see passed in the narration at all.
The main narrator this time is Raven's friend Case who replaces Croaker role writing a kind of diary. Case's chapters' style might work for native English readers. But I'm not sure about that style: It seems like a silly trick with all it's wrong plural/singular forms and tenses. It somehow doesn't read ... true. They were really difficult to bear for me.
I don't know how long it would take to learn Darling's sign-language fluently. But Case needed only a couple of weeks to be able to discuss and argue in a perfect way. That felt like the wrong passing of time.
And there is the stand-up comedian troup of Tully and Smeds and the mysterious Old Bear. Their disorganised try of stealing the spike is so uncool, non-ocean's 11-style and foreign-embarrassing, that it's nearly good again. I liked the way Smeds' character changed and the role he became later on. But the whole story of those thieves seemed implausible.
Limper being game again is really great. I find his return as a scarecrow in a kind of horror faery style awesome. It remembers me of the "Candyman" movie (though I hate horror).
But in contrast to the other books, I found the showdown of this book quite lame and uninteresting. So, no upgrade this time.
annarien's review against another edition
3.0
Edit second read: writing still abysmal, I have no idea what the standards for fantasy were at the time this was published but damn, I would have never printed anything written in this style. Still, the story was catchy, switching to multiple PoVs improved everything a great deal and last but not least, the last hundred pages brought together all the threads and all the characters in a fantastic way. Enough to make me give this an extra star.
Horryble writing and glaring plotholes and all around unsympathetic characters. This was not so much a book as a lot of action sketched, not described. And yet, it was interesting and unpredictable and with a satisfactory ending.
Horryble writing and glaring plotholes and all around unsympathetic characters. This was not so much a book as a lot of action sketched, not described. And yet, it was interesting and unpredictable and with a satisfactory ending.
eddiel95's review against another edition
4.0
I actually really liked this. I can see why the first four books are bunched together as a quadrilogy; this book ended the whole arc pretty well, despite some big characters from previous not present. Very fun, and a good pov in my opinion too.
sina76's review against another edition
2.0
همونطور که طبق نظرات بقیه انتظار داشتم سطح کتاب یه سر و گردن از بقیه کتابا پایین تر بود.
البته این از ارزش خوندنش چیزی کم نمیکنه .چون وقایعی در این کتاب رخ میدن که عملا صرف نظر کردن از اونا به داستان لطمه وارد میکنه.
ایندفعه گلن کوک روند صعودی تعداد راوی ها رو حفظ کرد.و همچنین کوتاه تر شدن فصل ها.بعضی جاها انقد سریع دوربین رو میچرخوند رو یه پلان دیگه که به ادم وقت نمیداد صحنه قبلی خوب تو ذهنش نقش ببنده. و همچنین یک شتابزدگی خاصی تو متن دیده میشد مخصوصا تو پایان بندیش.
وای از ذهن مریض و خیال پرداز گلن کوک.
بعضی جاها انقدر سطح خیال پردازی این بشر زیاد میشه که ادم می خواد با وال پرنده بره تو صورتش.درسته فانتزی و خیالی بودنش.ولی دیگه با ید تناسبات رو هم رعایت کنه .اخه یه دیگ غول پیکر وسط مهلکه جنگ چیزی جز جمله "قیمه تو ماست" رو به ذهن متبادر نمیکنه.
و به خاطر همین قضیه هست که همچنان برای من چیزی رو دست نغمه یخ و آتش نیومده.چون خیلی واقعی و باور پذیر تر از تصور سفره ماهی های صاعقه افکنه.
و چیز دیگه یجورایی تقلید گلن کوک از تالکین بود.اون از ده تن تسخیر شده و بانو که به صورت چشم در میومد.(کتاب اول)و این هم از سرنیزه نقره ای و ذات پلید و شیطانی و افسونگرش که به چیزی جز حلقه یگانه شبیه نیست.
ولی گذشته از همه این حرف ها از قهرمان کشی گلن کوک خوشم میاد.
البته این از ارزش خوندنش چیزی کم نمیکنه .چون وقایعی در این کتاب رخ میدن که عملا صرف نظر کردن از اونا به داستان لطمه وارد میکنه.
ایندفعه گلن کوک روند صعودی تعداد راوی ها رو حفظ کرد.و همچنین کوتاه تر شدن فصل ها.بعضی جاها انقد سریع دوربین رو میچرخوند رو یه پلان دیگه که به ادم وقت نمیداد صحنه قبلی خوب تو ذهنش نقش ببنده. و همچنین یک شتابزدگی خاصی تو متن دیده میشد مخصوصا تو پایان بندیش.
وای از ذهن مریض و خیال پرداز گلن کوک.
بعضی جاها انقدر سطح خیال پردازی این بشر زیاد میشه که ادم می خواد با وال پرنده بره تو صورتش.درسته فانتزی و خیالی بودنش.ولی دیگه با ید تناسبات رو هم رعایت کنه .اخه یه دیگ غول پیکر وسط مهلکه جنگ چیزی جز جمله "قیمه تو ماست" رو به ذهن متبادر نمیکنه.
و به خاطر همین قضیه هست که همچنان برای من چیزی رو دست نغمه یخ و آتش نیومده.چون خیلی واقعی و باور پذیر تر از تصور سفره ماهی های صاعقه افکنه.
و چیز دیگه یجورایی تقلید گلن کوک از تالکین بود.اون از ده تن تسخیر شده و بانو که به صورت چشم در میومد.(کتاب اول)و این هم از سرنیزه نقره ای و ذات پلید و شیطانی و افسونگرش که به چیزی جز حلقه یگانه شبیه نیست.
ولی گذشته از همه این حرف ها از قهرمان کشی گلن کوک خوشم میاد.
brokenfiction's review
4.0
This book, so far of any in the series, reminds me most of Steven Erikson. I can see the early influences here.
irusu's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0