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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
I was aware before starting Shadow and Claw that it was not pedestrian fiction. It is not something to plow through, or relax with. It is an allegory-heavy, literary, fantastic tale. Having said that, it's about a torturer who is exiled from his guild, ends up with a mysterious and powerful relic, and then sleeps with a lot of women and compares them. He also oils and brandishes his sword a lot.
I'm kidding. But really, that summary is as useful as any other.
The writing is outstanding. Some of the descriptions are so incredibly vivid that I remember them like I was there. And yet, often times I found myself fighting the urge to skim. Whenever I think about the pejorative use of 'literary', I think of works like this. If you don't enjoy Ursula LeGuin, you won't enjoy this.
The author invents his own vocabulary--for example, a custom unit of distance measurement--because the story is told under the auspice that it's been translated from a very old, foreign source. This is part of reading a classic. People of the time perhaps thought, "Oh, this is novel!" and suffered through, then the next writer who tried it learned that it was a once-only gimmick. The art of writing has already moved on from that idea, or figured out how to do it better. The custom vocabulary annoyed me, and strangely I felt far more so after the end of the book. On the last page, the author translates and explains the custom vocabulary of the book you just read, which is just what I was hoping the last page of a 400 page book would be. I wish the translator had that page available at the beginning of the book.
Sevarian, the main character, reflects at length about all the women he's slept with. I'm not making value judgments about this--I mean, it is not bad writing, it's just not delivered in an interesting enough way to justify the amount of time spent on it. But then, it's one of the few concrete things we have to hold on to the character about, which brings me to the biggest problem in the book.
While reading this, I was easily interrupted and then didn't look forward to starting again once I put it down. There's nothing driving the story forward except the most perfunctory plot. Why does Sevarian care about going to a certain city? He doesn't. I feel the same way about this book as I did about the earlier works of [a:Neil Gaiman|1221698|Neil Gaiman|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1234150163p2/1221698.jpg], like [b:Neverwhere|14497|Neverwhere|Neil Gaiman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1256043709s/14497.jpg|16534]--a main character who is not emotionally invested in anything is difficult to invest in as a reader. I never understood in the least what drove Sevarian, and hence the story. It was just drifting about in set pieces and disconnected ideas.
There's grisly torture, then dueling with toxic plant lances, then there's a play performed with full dialogue, then trapped in a timeless dream prison with arobotman , and then an ocean monster talking to him, and more! Much more. It's all beautiful and ethereal and I really don't see the thread that unified all the ideas. Just floating about.
Wonderful writing. Wonderful scenes. Obviously layered very thickly in the telling of the story. I'm glad I read it, but more because it's a classic. Still, I'll probably pass on the second volume.
I'm kidding. But really, that summary is as useful as any other.
The writing is outstanding. Some of the descriptions are so incredibly vivid that I remember them like I was there. And yet, often times I found myself fighting the urge to skim. Whenever I think about the pejorative use of 'literary', I think of works like this. If you don't enjoy Ursula LeGuin, you won't enjoy this.
The author invents his own vocabulary--for example, a custom unit of distance measurement--because the story is told under the auspice that it's been translated from a very old, foreign source. This is part of reading a classic. People of the time perhaps thought, "Oh, this is novel!" and suffered through, then the next writer who tried it learned that it was a once-only gimmick. The art of writing has already moved on from that idea, or figured out how to do it better. The custom vocabulary annoyed me, and strangely I felt far more so after the end of the book. On the last page, the author translates and explains the custom vocabulary of the book you just read, which is just what I was hoping the last page of a 400 page book would be. I wish the translator had that page available at the beginning of the book.
Sevarian, the main character, reflects at length about all the women he's slept with. I'm not making value judgments about this--I mean, it is not bad writing, it's just not delivered in an interesting enough way to justify the amount of time spent on it. But then, it's one of the few concrete things we have to hold on to the character about, which brings me to the biggest problem in the book.
While reading this, I was easily interrupted and then didn't look forward to starting again once I put it down. There's nothing driving the story forward except the most perfunctory plot. Why does Sevarian care about going to a certain city? He doesn't. I feel the same way about this book as I did about the earlier works of [a:Neil Gaiman|1221698|Neil Gaiman|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1234150163p2/1221698.jpg], like [b:Neverwhere|14497|Neverwhere|Neil Gaiman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1256043709s/14497.jpg|16534]--a main character who is not emotionally invested in anything is difficult to invest in as a reader. I never understood in the least what drove Sevarian, and hence the story. It was just drifting about in set pieces and disconnected ideas.
There's grisly torture, then dueling with toxic plant lances, then there's a play performed with full dialogue, then trapped in a timeless dream prison with arobotman , and then an ocean monster talking to him, and more! Much more. It's all beautiful and ethereal and I really don't see the thread that unified all the ideas. Just floating about.
Wonderful writing. Wonderful scenes. Obviously layered very thickly in the telling of the story. I'm glad I read it, but more because it's a classic. Still, I'll probably pass on the second volume.
incredibly slow and dense book but well worth the read. feels more like work than a hobby.
Do Księgi Nowego Słońca trochę bałam się podejść. Naczytałam się dużo o skomplikowaniu tej serii, trudności w jej zrozumieniu i tym podobne. Jak już się zabrałam, okazało się, że nie jest aż tak źle. Może nie jest to jedna z najprostszych książek, jakie w życiu czytałam, ale też nie zalicza się do wyjątkowo ciężkich, jak to mylnie wywnioskowałam z wielu opinii.
Cień i Pazur składa się z dwóch pierwszych tomów serii Księgi Nowego Słońca - Cień kata i Pazur Łagodziciela. Śledzimy historię spisaną przez głównego bohatera Severiana, który szkoli się do bycia katem. Jednak z powodu złamania jednego z zakazów konfraterni, zostaje wygnany i wysłany do miasta Thrax, w którym ma pełnić rolę kata. Podróż ta nie okazuje się niestety łatwa i bohatera spotykają po drodze różne, często dziwne, przygody.
Książka ta jest pamiętnikiem głównego bohatera Severiana, która została napisana dla ludzi żyjących w jego czasach a co za tym idzie, sposób przedstawienia świata różni się od większości powieści SFF. Świat w dużej mierze nie jest opisany wprost. Wiele szczegółów, zasad działania itp. nie są czytelnikowi wyjaśniane, różne pojęcia nie są tłumaczone co momentami sprawia trudność. Czytelnik często sam musi wyciągać z tekstu informacje na temat świata, czasu akcji czy bohaterów i dopasowywać je do siebie. Ale nie trzeba się tego bać. Autor zostawia wystarczająco wskazówek, żeby, nawet jeśli nie od razu, połapać się o co chodzi. Sama nie będę się zagłębiać w opis świata, bo warto odkryć to samemu. Jeżeli natomiast chcesz dowiedzieć się troszeczkę przez rozpoczęciem, tak aby wiedzieć czego szukać to
Bardzo polecam! Warto spróbować.
Cień i Pazur składa się z dwóch pierwszych tomów serii Księgi Nowego Słońca - Cień kata i Pazur Łagodziciela. Śledzimy historię spisaną przez głównego bohatera Severiana, który szkoli się do bycia katem. Jednak z powodu złamania jednego z zakazów konfraterni, zostaje wygnany i wysłany do miasta Thrax, w którym ma pełnić rolę kata. Podróż ta nie okazuje się niestety łatwa i bohatera spotykają po drodze różne, często dziwne, przygody.
Książka ta jest pamiętnikiem głównego bohatera Severiana, która została napisana dla ludzi żyjących w jego czasach a co za tym idzie, sposób przedstawienia świata różni się od większości powieści SFF. Świat w dużej mierze nie jest opisany wprost. Wiele szczegółów, zasad działania itp. nie są czytelnikowi wyjaśniane, różne pojęcia nie są tłumaczone co momentami sprawia trudność. Czytelnik często sam musi wyciągać z tekstu informacje na temat świata, czasu akcji czy bohaterów i dopasowywać je do siebie. Ale nie trzeba się tego bać. Autor zostawia wystarczająco wskazówek, żeby, nawet jeśli nie od razu, połapać się o co chodzi. Sama nie będę się zagłębiać w opis świata, bo warto odkryć to samemu. Jeżeli natomiast chcesz dowiedzieć się troszeczkę przez rozpoczęciem, tak aby wiedzieć czego szukać to
Spoiler
z pozoru quasi-średniowieczny świat jest tak naprawdę odległą przyszłością, gdzie Słońce powoli umiera, jedna z wież Cytadeli, gdzie zaczyna się akcja jest starym statkiem kosmicznym, wkopanym w ziemię; poza tym możemy spotkać roboty lub inne niekoniecznie ludzkie postacie.Bardzo polecam! Warto spróbować.
Gene Wolf has created a labyrinth of mysteries and riddles intertwined into a journey that will make you question everything.
This felt like I was reading a dreamy book where the story just floated from here to there with no definite direction.
Severin is an apprentice torturer and when he is expelled from the guild, he starts on a journey toward Thrax. Along the way he meets actors who ask him to join them, shop keepers who desperately want the sword he carries; he fights a duel with flowers and befriends a lady who comes from nowhere and remembers nothing. He sustains himself by practicing the trade he has learned as a torturer and executioner when local magistrates require him.
I really liked the idea of the world but all the tiny bits of information were just frustrating in their incompleteness. When the first book failed to grab my attention I have to admit to just skimming through the second, though the impression I got of it was that it was even more disjointed than the first. The cover of the book states that this is the best science fiction book of the last century but I didn’t understand its greatness.
Severin is an apprentice torturer and when he is expelled from the guild, he starts on a journey toward Thrax. Along the way he meets actors who ask him to join them, shop keepers who desperately want the sword he carries; he fights a duel with flowers and befriends a lady who comes from nowhere and remembers nothing. He sustains himself by practicing the trade he has learned as a torturer and executioner when local magistrates require him.
I really liked the idea of the world but all the tiny bits of information were just frustrating in their incompleteness. When the first book failed to grab my attention I have to admit to just skimming through the second, though the impression I got of it was that it was even more disjointed than the first. The cover of the book states that this is the best science fiction book of the last century but I didn’t understand its greatness.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism
Occult Catholicism with a hint of monster girls.
The descriptions of the Botanic Gardens were beautiful
The descriptions of the Botanic Gardens were beautiful
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A leitura mais psicodélica e nas entrelinhas que já li. Gene Wolfe escreveu uma obra que não penas lemos, temos de decifrá-la.