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nonsenseofsight 's review for:
Curse of the Mistwraith
by Janny Wurts
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book was not for me. Which is fine. But it has all the bones of a book I SHOULD really like.
A lot is made about the ornate language used here. And for good reason. I've rarely read anything that used so many words to convey so little information. I don't know (nor do I really feel like researching) when this book came out, but it feels like an attempt at legitimizing the fantasy genre that you might find in the late 70s or early 80s. Like it's trying to class up a genre that, in retrospect, never really needed a glow up. I wish it was more successful and less deliberately obtuse. It misses the gravitas it's attempting in favor of a florid wash of expensive water color descriptors and messy sentence structure (he said, while being florid and ignoring grammar).
I liked a lot of the plot. There's some interesting moments buried in the unceasing tangle of ten dollar words here. Estranged world saving half brother enemies. Crazy all powerful mist monsters. Atomically powerful wizards... there's a lot that is REALLY cool here. But a lot that is also kinda... mundane? Chuckling at drunks. Oh those silly raindrops... that kind of thing.
There's also a HUGE reliance on prophecy as a plot device... and it's grounded in the characters creating and then responding to prophecy... which is a personal pet peeve of mine. There are several long drug scenes (which I don't mind usually... except these are prophecy drugs).
The authors time and attention seems to me like it is often focused, not on the story, but on the language of the story and the sort of metaphysical relationship between that language and the fictional perception of the future it contains.
I'm glad I tried this series... it has a lot that I like. But I was aching for this read to be over long before the halfway mark... and it is a BIG book.
A lot is made about the ornate language used here. And for good reason. I've rarely read anything that used so many words to convey so little information. I don't know (nor do I really feel like researching) when this book came out, but it feels like an attempt at legitimizing the fantasy genre that you might find in the late 70s or early 80s. Like it's trying to class up a genre that, in retrospect, never really needed a glow up. I wish it was more successful and less deliberately obtuse. It misses the gravitas it's attempting in favor of a florid wash of expensive water color descriptors and messy sentence structure (he said, while being florid and ignoring grammar).
I liked a lot of the plot. There's some interesting moments buried in the unceasing tangle of ten dollar words here. Estranged world saving half brother enemies. Crazy all powerful mist monsters. Atomically powerful wizards... there's a lot that is REALLY cool here. But a lot that is also kinda... mundane? Chuckling at drunks. Oh those silly raindrops... that kind of thing.
There's also a HUGE reliance on prophecy as a plot device... and it's grounded in the characters creating and then responding to prophecy... which is a personal pet peeve of mine. There are several long drug scenes (which I don't mind usually... except these are prophecy drugs).
The authors time and attention seems to me like it is often focused, not on the story, but on the language of the story and the sort of metaphysical relationship between that language and the fictional perception of the future it contains.
I'm glad I tried this series... it has a lot that I like. But I was aching for this read to be over long before the halfway mark... and it is a BIG book.