(no subject)

[erastes]

Ah well, it was bound to happen...

I finally got a four star review on Amazon. The reviewer did love the book, though but - and this is interesting (for me) - she thought that the pacing was slow in parts. I've had many other reviews that said the pace was "breakneck" and "breathless" so it just goes to show that people will always take different things from one's work.

I'm only joking though, I'm still pleased.

Final note about Privilege of the Sword: I finished it last night and like a complete WUSS spent about five minutes literally sobbing. It was probably relief for the ending but it did leave me wondering and I'd like to know what others thought: Do you think that Alec decided that he was going to be the power behind the city's reforms from a very early age? Did he go (and subsequently leave) University for that reason - having gained some informants there, and then moved on to Riverside proper? I hope I'm not reading him as being a character with far more depth than he really was supposed to be, and I can't really ask the author, I sent her an email thanking her for the book, so if I write again (specially as she didn't reply) I'll look like some mad stalker. But overall, I didn't like the book itself. I think that she tried to hard to introduce too many threads, and for me it all didn't mesh in the same dark and delicious way that Swordspoint did. I ended up loathing Katherine for the reasons I gave yesterday - she's a Mary Sue and there's no away around it. If I hadn't been convinced by "I've been learning the sword for six months and now I'm a flegging genius" then I certainly was in the Coda when she makes fashion statements that are NEVER WRONG. Such a Sue trait. Anyway, yes, readable and enjoyable but simply less than before.

It led me to think about book series' in general - does anyone know of a book series that doesn't degrade in quality? I can't really think of one. Heinlein's Future History comes close (for me) but even that slid into mush with the last couple of books.

Comments

[fiona-glass.livejournal.com]

Book series that don't degrade - the first three books of Storm Constantine's Wraeththu series come pretty close. I've never read the later books in the series but have heard they're not as good, but they do seem to have been bolted on as an afterthought. The first three are complete in themselves and the last is every bit as brilliant and original (if rather untidy!) as the first.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Again, it's strange how people's views on things differ - I tried the first Wraeththu book on someone's recommendation and although the first section (him leaving home and travelling across the desert) was interesting, once it got all mystical and sexual with flowery metaphors I just couldn't cope with it. !!! Perhaps I should have tried harder.

[fiona-glass.livejournal.com]

They're books that you either love or hate, I think. The writing is brilliant but very untidy, as though her head was full of all these ideas and she simply threw them at the page and left them there. ;)