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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
In which a great deal happens, and the template for modern epic fantasy is clarified for the delight of readers.
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
adventurous
funny
reflective
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
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
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
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
slow-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:
Yes
The first 100 pages were a slog, but as the story unfolded and books went by I found myself deeply missing the peace and tranquility of the first 100 pages. I prefer books that focus on one character's perspective and Tad Williams definitely baited me with most of the book being one POV. Enjoyed my read, but never got to finish the series.
it was too much lore, it was a quarter in the book before anything actually happened. i love lore, but it was forcefed through everything, it was not a good flow at all whenever lore came up that i ended up just skipping through most of any lore explanation.
& the songs, too many songs. half of the songs didn't have to be written out word for word, the entire book was way too long. it could have been cut by half.
yet i'm still probably going to read the next book & just hope it'll be better than this one.
& the songs, too many songs. half of the songs didn't have to be written out word for word, the entire book was way too long. it could have been cut by half.
yet i'm still probably going to read the next book & just hope it'll be better than this one.
I'll try giving it a go another time, for now I really can't seem to get interested into it.
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
So I'm not sure how I feel about this book. I think I did enjoy the story more once it picked up in the last quarter but the pacing was definitely slow. Simon is still young an has a lot of foolish thoughts; however, as it felt true to his age, I'm not very bothered about it. But it did mean that I wasn't able to connect with him as the main character. I'm also not super interested in the conflict between the two brothers, Elias and Josua, since it feels like a lot of the elements Tad used in his story became cliches over the past 37 years. It makes sense--he inspired a lot of popular authors that came after him. It does mean the beats of the story might feel hackneyed regardless. I haven't made up my mind on whether I would continue onwards with book 2, but I do want to read the series since the fans promise that there's a really great payoff at the end of this trilogy and in the second trilogy and how far the characters come.
On the narration - Andrew Wincott felt like a mediocre narrator to me. He had similar voices for some important characters and used a very odd, lilting cadence for characters that he assigned strange foreign-sounding accents. I feel like that also affected his expression of the character's emotions as people mark how they feel by the rhythm of their speech as well as the syllables they choose to emphasize. And since none of that could be expressed with the foreign-sounding accents, I felt like I couldn't engage with the characters. Not a fan at all of his narration style.
Overall, I was glad to read the first part of a very classic series that inspired so many. (I could honestly come up with a long list of elements that George R. R. Martin borrowed from this first book alone. It wasn't subtle at all as I had assumed prior to reading the book. If anything, the degree to which he was inspired is highly understated by his fans. It's like he took story elements from this series and put them into a blender -together with The War of the Roses- and thrown most of it into ASOIAF.)
On the narration - Andrew Wincott felt like a mediocre narrator to me. He had similar voices for some important characters and used a very odd, lilting cadence for characters that he assigned strange foreign-sounding accents. I feel like that also affected his expression of the character's emotions as people mark how they feel by the rhythm of their speech as well as the syllables they choose to emphasize. And since none of that could be expressed with the foreign-sounding accents, I felt like I couldn't engage with the characters. Not a fan at all of his narration style.
Overall, I was glad to read the first part of a very classic series that inspired so many. (I could honestly come up with a long list of elements that George R. R. Martin borrowed from this first book alone. It wasn't subtle at all as I had assumed prior to reading the book. If anything, the degree to which he was inspired is highly understated by his fans. It's like he took story elements from this series and put them into a blender -together with The War of the Roses- and thrown most of it into ASOIAF.)
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated