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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
adventurous
relaxing
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I debated my rating for this book. The first half was extremely slow paced to the point of being tedious. I had just enough interest not to DNF. Barely. The second half was terrific though. The story begins to pick up, the main character begins to mature, and fascinating discoveries happen. I thought that this book was also interesting because it bridged classic to modern fantasy. While there were strong elements of Tolkien, there were also pieces that clearly inspired modern works like Game of Thrones. I do plan to continue the series.
I immersion read this book for the most part and found the narrator, Andrew Wincott, to give an enjoyable performance
I immersion read this book for the most part and found the narrator, Andrew Wincott, to give an enjoyable performance
I actually don't know how to rate this book, so i'm just not going to. But maybe not rating it will lead to confusion.
It's not difficult to say how I feel about this. I really enjoyed it and I'm pretty solidly invested in the characters. It's a very interesting book in a hundred different ways. Williams is doing amazing worldbuilding here, presenting an enormous world with fully realised civilisations and cultures, which I'm excited to see more of.
I think the most interesting thing about the novel is that it's not in a hurry. That's not to say the pacing's off, but the novel is really about stepping into this world and becoming immersed. The first hundred pages or so are especially slow and seem almost directionless, but once things get moving they're not really rushing forward, like how A Song of Ice and Fire really gets rolling fast. This book just accepts that it has a lot of time and is going to take a lot of time to get through. The story's pretty large and sort of spills out in a very natural way.
That's maybe the best way to describe the storytelling: it's very natural. I imagine many will find it sort of slow and plodding, especially when compared to modern epic fantasy, but then it's sort of a nonstop thrill ride when compares to Tolkien.
It's a really complex novel but it never feels challenging to remember who's who or what's happening. Magic exists but it's sort of surreal and almost shamanic and also pretty rare.
It's not the best book you'll read this year, but there's a lot to love about this thing and I'm pretty excited to continue on with the series, though I may squeeze in a few shorter books in between. Reading a series of huge books in a row can feel sort of daunting at times, and I'm not sure I have the stamina to push through the next 2,000 pages of this goliath at the moment.
But I'll be coming back soon.
Definitely read if you're an epic fantasy fan or just a fan of worldbuilding, because I'm not sure I've ever read someone who does it more naturally, except for maybe Sapkowski.
Oh also, what I really like about this is its focus on people who are not nobility. I mean, there's a great deal of nobles doing what nobles do and so on, but the novel's real protagonists are servants and scholars.
It's not difficult to say how I feel about this. I really enjoyed it and I'm pretty solidly invested in the characters. It's a very interesting book in a hundred different ways. Williams is doing amazing worldbuilding here, presenting an enormous world with fully realised civilisations and cultures, which I'm excited to see more of.
I think the most interesting thing about the novel is that it's not in a hurry. That's not to say the pacing's off, but the novel is really about stepping into this world and becoming immersed. The first hundred pages or so are especially slow and seem almost directionless, but once things get moving they're not really rushing forward, like how A Song of Ice and Fire really gets rolling fast. This book just accepts that it has a lot of time and is going to take a lot of time to get through. The story's pretty large and sort of spills out in a very natural way.
That's maybe the best way to describe the storytelling: it's very natural. I imagine many will find it sort of slow and plodding, especially when compared to modern epic fantasy, but then it's sort of a nonstop thrill ride when compares to Tolkien.
It's a really complex novel but it never feels challenging to remember who's who or what's happening. Magic exists but it's sort of surreal and almost shamanic and also pretty rare.
It's not the best book you'll read this year, but there's a lot to love about this thing and I'm pretty excited to continue on with the series, though I may squeeze in a few shorter books in between. Reading a series of huge books in a row can feel sort of daunting at times, and I'm not sure I have the stamina to push through the next 2,000 pages of this goliath at the moment.
But I'll be coming back soon.
Definitely read if you're an epic fantasy fan or just a fan of worldbuilding, because I'm not sure I've ever read someone who does it more naturally, except for maybe Sapkowski.
Oh also, what I really like about this is its focus on people who are not nobility. I mean, there's a great deal of nobles doing what nobles do and so on, but the novel's real protagonists are servants and scholars.
I read this series for the first time in high school, and it still holds up for me on re-read. The best part is Tad Williams' world building. This series is a long read, but worth the time investment if you're a fantasy lit fan.