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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
---------------------------
Read over 27 Days
---------------------------
Style....................................1
Pacing...............................0.75
Enjoyment......................1
Memorability................0.75
Recommendability..0.75
Plot.......................................0.75
Characters.....................0.75
Setting...............................1
Originality........................1
Resolution........................0.75
Clarity................................NA
Focus..................................NA
Objectivity/Bias..........NA
Sources.............................NA
My Agreement.............NA
---------------------------
10/10 Score: 8.5
5/5 Score: 4.25
Gut rating: 4.5
Read over 27 Days
---------------------------
Style....................................1
Pacing...............................0.75
Enjoyment......................1
Memorability................0.75
Recommendability..0.75
Plot.......................................0.75
Characters.....................0.75
Setting...............................1
Originality........................1
Resolution........................0.75
Clarity................................NA
Focus..................................NA
Objectivity/Bias..........NA
Sources.............................NA
My Agreement.............NA
---------------------------
10/10 Score: 8.5
5/5 Score: 4.25
Gut rating: 4.5
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Complicated
This is the series which informed my aesthetic as an adult. Can't recommend enough. I may have grown past it in some ways, but it cannot be considered anything less than the most important series I have read.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
So interesting, requires some serious mental fortitude to get through but worth it just for the world building. A ridiculously complex and layered world that will take second and third readings to make sense of. Looking forward to listening to podcasts about this and reading the second half one day soon.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Esse volume reúne os dois primeiros de uma tetralogia de cinco livros (sim, é errado, mas é isso mesmo). Pensei seriamente em parar na metade, quando terminei o que seria o primeiro na saga, mas decidi dar uma chance para ver se melhorava. Melhorou, é verdade, mas não muito. Começando pelos pontos bons: o world-building. O mundo dessa saga é muito interessante, do tipo que capta nossa imaginação, deixa a gente querendo saber mais. É uma versão do nosso mundo num futuro muito distante. Não só algumas centenas, mas sim milhões, talvez bilhões de anos, quando o sol está prestes a morrer. O que, tecnicamente, é uma questão importante nessa história, embora não tenha aparecido tanto até aqui. A iconografia também me agrada. Apesar de ser uma série de fantasia, ela tem elementos góticos bem fortes. O dialogo é com a simbologia medieval, como a maior parte das séries clássicas de fantasia, mas aqui isso é feito de uma forma interessante, seja pela desconstrução da religião cristã ou pelos seus símbolos e afins. A linguagem é muito elogiada pelas pessoas do circuito da fantasia, mas, sinceramente, só me fez pensar que quem escrevia ficção fora do mainstream na época deveria ser muito ruim. É uma escrita competente, que escapa de uma forma interessante dos clichés das línguas inventadas e palavras tolkenianas, mas que não tem nada de incrível... Agora, as coisas ruins: a história é péssima. As coisas acontecem do nada, só para mover a narrativa para a frente, não existe a menor possibilidade ação, tudo acontece porque o destino do protagonista é ser um herói. Tudo dá magicamente certo para ele, sem nenhuma causa aparente. Os personagens caem nesse mesmo aspecto. Surgem do nada, tem ligações aleatórias, apenas para facilitar o desenrolar da narrativa, são vazios. As personagens femininas, então... A forma que são retratadas chega a ser ofensiva, mesmo dentro do âmbito de objetificação para o qual já estamos preparados quando começamos a ler um livro como esse. Não existe nenhum momentos de tensão, nenhuma expectativa. Adoraria conhecer mais desse mundo, mas não sei se tenho mais paciência para ver se os próximos livros continuam a melhoras quando existem tantos outros para ler...
The two books that comprise Shadow and Claw are filled with strange and compelling details that, like the world of Dune, situate you in an alien universe with some, but very little, context. Many writers employ this immersive move with varying degrees of success, and I would say Wolfe is semi-successful. I loved the medieval-futuristic universe (I wonder if Poptropica’s Astro-knights were perhaps inspired by it), although much of the vocabulary and customs are glossed over by Severian, the narrator, as the simple facts of life—never to be explained. These two books require a lot of commitment, which can be hard to give when the story takes us on such a wildly confusing romp. While this makes things exciting and intriguing, it also raises questions that, if you remember certain extremely specific details VERY exactly after about 400 pages, MIGHT be sort of vaguely answered. So you need to have a lot of faith to enjoy.
But other parts of these books are enjoyable immediately. Severian, and his self-construction through unreliable narration, is fascinating. I spent most of the first and second books thinking of him as a relatively decent guy, with jarring details interspersed throughout his tale that I good-naturedly dismissed, but eventually, the accumulation of odd events, glibly narrated, became too much to ignore. From the outside, Severian is a decent guy with a quest. But as we learn more about him (from his own words, no less), it becomes clearer and clearer that he is not who he paints himself to be. His gleeful showmanship during executions, his regular dismissal of women, his willingness to abandon everyone and everything that isn’t Terminus Est, and the very questionable scene with Jolenta (not to mention pretty much every woman he meets) all add up to a pretty not-stellar guy. And yet he remains compelling, partly because of his story and partly because his facade is torn down.
Many times I found myself lost while reading this story, and sometimes I felt that my trust in the process was misplaced. Why did I read such oddly placed stories and plays with wildly confusing characters, events, and meanings? Why did so many questions remain completely unanswered? I suppose that as Severian says many times, I must read on—although he gets it, really, if I don’t want to—to understand. Besides, I must admit that a lot of the beauty of this story lay in the fabulous little details that teemed from its pages—things like Jonas’s flesh hand being weaker than his metal one, or tiny, earthshaking sentences like when Severian meets the man in yellow for (almost) the first time, or Dorcas’s VERY revealing (though spare) words. Every gorgeous little detail fed me like a little morsel and that is ultimately what kept me compulsively turning the pages and that is what will ultimately propel me into the rest of Severian’s story.
But other parts of these books are enjoyable immediately. Severian, and his self-construction through unreliable narration, is fascinating. I spent most of the first and second books thinking of him as a relatively decent guy, with jarring details interspersed throughout his tale that I good-naturedly dismissed, but eventually, the accumulation of odd events, glibly narrated, became too much to ignore. From the outside, Severian is a decent guy with a quest. But as we learn more about him (from his own words, no less), it becomes clearer and clearer that he is not who he paints himself to be. His gleeful showmanship during executions, his regular dismissal of women, his willingness to abandon everyone and everything that isn’t Terminus Est, and the very questionable scene with Jolenta (not to mention pretty much every woman he meets) all add up to a pretty not-stellar guy. And yet he remains compelling, partly because of his story and partly because his facade is torn down.
Many times I found myself lost while reading this story, and sometimes I felt that my trust in the process was misplaced. Why did I read such oddly placed stories and plays with wildly confusing characters, events, and meanings? Why did so many questions remain completely unanswered? I suppose that as Severian says many times, I must read on—although he gets it, really, if I don’t want to—to understand. Besides, I must admit that a lot of the beauty of this story lay in the fabulous little details that teemed from its pages—things like Jonas’s flesh hand being weaker than his metal one, or tiny, earthshaking sentences like when Severian meets the man in yellow for (almost) the first time, or Dorcas’s VERY revealing (though spare) words. Every gorgeous little detail fed me like a little morsel and that is ultimately what kept me compulsively turning the pages and that is what will ultimately propel me into the rest of Severian’s story.
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
medium-paced