[Inkdaub]

Abercrombie - The Blade Itself
Bakker - The Darkness that Comes Before

Nothing I can really pin down, but these books left me cold and disinterested in continuing their respective series. I had a similar reaction to Lynch's Republic of Thieves but I enjoyed the first two Gentleman Bastards books and will keep reading.

[Maark Abbott]

Inkdaub, on 24 February 2016 - 11:20 AM, said:

Abercrombie - The Blade Itself
Bakker - The Darkness that Comes Before

Nothing I can really pin down, but these books left me cold and disinterested in continuing their respective series. I had a similar reaction to Lynch's Republic of Thieves but I enjoyed the first two Gentleman Bastards books and will keep reading.

Did Abercrombie leave you... best served cold?

...Apparently I'm Worry, now.

[Cause]

Morgoth, on 24 February 2016 - 10:27 AM, said:

Macros, on 23 February 2016 - 05:10 PM, said:

I have a hearty dislike for the stormlight archives too, so you're by no means alone on that front.
Irritating characters and that god awful david eddings/ robert jkrdan trope of 'people from this town ALL act like this' but people from the next valley over have an entirely different set of characteristics.
Shallans an annoying tool

Not to mention how the king and his aristocracy can leave a feudal kingdom for ten years with all of their armies without any serious consequences. Ignoring the logistics of it, the power structure back in the kingdom would have crumbled long ago.

The logistics are explained by magic. The parshendi live on Gem city and Gems can be used to literally magic water, food and shelter out of thin air.

As for the power structure, the queen was left behind with a court and certainly many soldiers. Not so different than the kings of our own world going on crusade.

I actually find the world building to be the best thing about the book. It asks and seeks to answer the question: what if the world was hit by daily hurricane force winds. Its take on evolution and so on s ridiculous but we have to remember that the gods of sandersons world are real and activley shape their worlds

[Maark Abbott]

That whole 'magic stuff out of thin air' bothers me as well. And now they've done the big reveal and

Spoiler

the Big Bad is Odie from fucking Garfield. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

[Morgoth]

Cause, on 24 February 2016 - 01:08 PM, said:

Morgoth, on 24 February 2016 - 10:27 AM, said:

Macros, on 23 February 2016 - 05:10 PM, said:

I have a hearty dislike for the stormlight archives too, so you're by no means alone on that front.
Irritating characters and that god awful david eddings/ robert jkrdan trope of 'people from this town ALL act like this' but people from the next valley over have an entirely different set of characteristics.
Shallans an annoying tool

Not to mention how the king and his aristocracy can leave a feudal kingdom for ten years with all of their armies without any serious consequences. Ignoring the logistics of it, the power structure back in the kingdom would have crumbled long ago.

The logistics are explained by magic. The parshendi live on Gem city and Gems can be used to literally magic water, food and shelter out of thin air.

As for the power structure, the queen was left behind with a court and certainly many soldiers. Not so different than the kings of our own world going on crusade.

No, very different from that. Most rulers did not go on crusades for that very reason. The most famous crusader kings, Richard Lionheart and Phillip II of France left most of their army behind under the control of appointed seneschals. Richard was gone for four years and returned to a revolt lead by his brother. Phillip was gone for two years and when he returned to France he immediately started plotting to attack Richard's holdings on the continent. Richard, after all, was away.

Whenever the holy roman emperors spent too long fighting in Italy they were forced to return because of unruly subjects trying to grasp for power. An empy throne leaves too much of a power vacum.

Ten years is just nonsense.

[QuickTidal]

Maark, on 24 February 2016 - 01:15 PM, said:

That whole 'magic stuff out of thin air' bothers me as well.

It's not from thin air, it just seems like that at this point. Trust me, a better explanation will come.

Morgoth, on 24 February 2016 - 01:35 PM, said:

Cause, on 24 February 2016 - 01:08 PM, said:

Morgoth, on 24 February 2016 - 10:27 AM, said:

Macros, on 23 February 2016 - 05:10 PM, said:

I have a hearty dislike for the stormlight archives too, so you're by no means alone on that front.
Irritating characters and that god awful david eddings/ robert jkrdan trope of 'people from this town ALL act like this' but people from the next valley over have an entirely different set of characteristics.
Shallans an annoying tool

Not to mention how the king and his aristocracy can leave a feudal kingdom for ten years with all of their armies without any serious consequences. Ignoring the logistics of it, the power structure back in the kingdom would have crumbled long ago.

The logistics are explained by magic. The parshendi live on Gem city and Gems can be used to literally magic water, food and shelter out of thin air.

As for the power structure, the queen was left behind with a court and certainly many soldiers. Not so different than the kings of our own world going on crusade.

No, very different from that. Most rulers did not go on crusades for that very reason. The most famous crusader kings, Richard Lionheart and Phillip II of France left most of their army behind under the control of appointed seneschals. Richard was gone for four years and returned to a revolt lead by his brother. Phillip was gone for two years and when he returned to France he immediately started plotting to attack Richard's holdings on the continent. Richard, after all, was away.

Whenever the holy roman emperors spent too long fighting in Italy they were forced to return because of unruly subjects trying to grasp for power. An empy throne leaves too much of a power vacum.

Ten years is just nonsense.

Well...in later Crusades, yes. But in the early Crusades, especially the 1st and 2nd what Cause says is pretty close to true. Of the nine lords who lead the 1st Crusade, only 2 ever returned home, and both did so out of cowardice of being killed rather than trying to stop any usurpers to their titles at home. They were all far too interested in what they might grasp in the Holy Land to be worried about home. The only monarch who didn't participate was Henry IV in France, and he didn't go because he was late-middle aged, ill, and had an already unstable kingdom.

The 2nd Crusade was even worse for this, as counts and lords left their homes and families to not only fight in a grand Crusade (the first of which was...largely successful...minus the drawbacks no one was talking about), but there were established Crusader kingdoms to fall in line for, like Edessa, or Jerusalem.

The 1st and 2nd Crusade, you'll notice were small numbers of nobles, with large armies that they brought...but by the time of the 3rd and Richard and Phillip entered the fray, the amount of nobles involved were staggering. So they were able to come to Outremer and lead and show power, without bringing vast armies with them, because those armies largely existed in Outremer already. The 1st and 2nd Crusade didn't really have that luxury. So you're both right, but I see Cause's POV here.

[Esa1996]

Maark, on 21 February 2016 - 10:55 AM, said:

At this stage, The Way of Kings is shaping up to be this book for me. I'm about 550 pages in and we've got a character arbitrarily ranting about 'god is real check my proofs out', which always irritates me. The main issues so far are a lack of pace, only one character out of the main cast has been likeable, the best character is so far a bit character used in interludes... I doubt based on what I've seen so far that I'll continue with the series. If it carries on being a 4/10, I don't know if I'll even finish it.

Like many others I'd say that just try to get through the first book. Personally I found the book to be good throughout, but the ending is what made it great. The second book was even better (Again, I liked the first one almost throughout. Shallan didn't really catch my interest, but everything else was good) and had one of the best endings I've ever read (Well, latter halves, as the so called ending was hundreds of pages long resulting in the fact that I read the last 400 or so pages in one day).

[QuickTidal]

Esa1996, on 24 February 2016 - 02:43 PM, said:

(Well, latter halves, as the so called ending was hundreds of pages long resulting in the fact that I read the last 400 or so pages in one day).

I did this too. Missed dinner entirely. My wife was mad at me for it.

[Maark Abbott]

QuickTidal, on 24 February 2016 - 02:13 PM, said:

Maark, on 24 February 2016 - 01:15 PM, said:

That whole 'magic stuff out of thin air' bothers me as well.

It's not from thin air, it just seems like that at this point. Trust me, a better explanation will come.

At this stage, you'll forgive my lack of hope that it will, or that I'll get to the stage it's explained if it's book 2 (it's going to have to pull something super special at the ending for me to bother, to be honest).

[Esa1996]

Wars of Light and Shadow: Curse of the Mistwraith

I dislike the narration (Some form of 3rd person omniscient. Even after half a book I have little to no connection to any of the characters), the text (Fancy as f**k. I have never read a book with such annoyingly flowery and confusing text) and some small parts of the worldbuilding (Laughing unicorns dancing in the sunlight? Eww....).

Why do I keep on reading? The series has around 9 000 pages in it. Very few series have enough pages to rival my all time favorite book series (Wheel of Time) so I try to read them all. So far WOLAS has been a disappointment (I already gave up on it once to re-read WOT 6), but with the amount of unread pages it has it could still turn out to be the best thing ever and thus I refuse to give up on it so easily. Were the series a trilogy I would not have come back to it after giving up on it once, but due to it's length I did and I'm determined to keep on reading until the end of the first book at least.

[Esa1996]

QuickTidal, on 24 February 2016 - 02:51 PM, said:

Esa1996, on 24 February 2016 - 02:43 PM, said:

(Well, latter halves, as the so called ending was hundreds of pages long resulting in the fact that I read the last 400 or so pages in one day).

I did this too. Missed dinner entirely. My wife was mad at me for it.

I missed Christmas. Spent most of the day in my room reading

[End of Disc One]

Maark, on 24 February 2016 - 01:15 PM, said:

That whole 'magic stuff out of thin air' bothers me as well. And now they've done the big reveal and

Spoiler

the Big Bad is Odie from fucking Garfield. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

I read the book and I have no idea what you're talking about

[Maark Abbott]

End of Disc One, on 24 February 2016 - 03:21 PM, said:

Maark, on 24 February 2016 - 01:15 PM, said:

That whole 'magic stuff out of thin air' bothers me as well. And now they've done the big reveal and

Spoiler

the Big Bad is Odie from fucking Garfield. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

I read the book and I have no idea what you're talking about

Spoiler

Odious or Odie or Odin or something like that.

[Esa1996]

End of Disc One, on 24 February 2016 - 03:21 PM, said:

Maark, on 24 February 2016 - 01:15 PM, said:

That whole 'magic stuff out of thin air' bothers me as well. And now they've done the big reveal and

Spoiler

the Big Bad is Odie from fucking Garfield. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

I read the book and I have no idea what you're talking about

The big bad's name is

Spoiler

Odium.

This post has been edited by Esa1996: 24 February 2016 - 03:28 PM

[Maark Abbott]

Esa1996, on 24 February 2016 - 03:26 PM, said:

End of Disc One, on 24 February 2016 - 03:21 PM, said:

Maark, on 24 February 2016 - 01:15 PM, said:

That whole 'magic stuff out of thin air' bothers me as well. And now they've done the big reveal and

Spoiler

the Big Bad is Odie from fucking Garfield. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

I read the book and I have no idea what you're talking about

The big bad's name is

Spoiler

Odium.

Spoiler

[Andorion]

Maark, on 25 February 2016 - 11:34 AM, said:

Esa1996, on 24 February 2016 - 03:26 PM, said:

End of Disc One, on 24 February 2016 - 03:21 PM, said:

Maark, on 24 February 2016 - 01:15 PM, said:

That whole 'magic stuff out of thin air' bothers me as well. And now they've done the big reveal and

Spoiler

the Big Bad is Odie from fucking Garfield. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

I read the book and I have no idea what you're talking about

The big bad's name is

Spoiler

Odium.

Spoiler

Look up the meaning. Its important

[Esa1996]

Andorion, on 25 February 2016 - 11:52 AM, said:

Maark, on 25 February 2016 - 11:34 AM, said:

Esa1996, on 24 February 2016 - 03:26 PM, said:

End of Disc One, on 24 February 2016 - 03:21 PM, said:

Maark, on 24 February 2016 - 01:15 PM, said:

That whole 'magic stuff out of thin air' bothers me as well. And now they've done the big reveal and

Spoiler

the Big Bad is Odie from fucking Garfield. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

I read the book and I have no idea what you're talking about

The big bad's name is

Spoiler

Odium.

Spoiler

Look up the meaning. Its important

Interesting, I never knew it actually meant something. Always though it was just a name.

[Maark Abbott]

Esa1996, on 25 February 2016 - 12:33 PM, said:

Andorion, on 25 February 2016 - 11:52 AM, said:

Maark, on 25 February 2016 - 11:34 AM, said:

Esa1996, on 24 February 2016 - 03:26 PM, said:

End of Disc One, on 24 February 2016 - 03:21 PM, said:

Maark, on 24 February 2016 - 01:15 PM, said:

That whole 'magic stuff out of thin air' bothers me as well. And now they've done the big reveal and

Spoiler

the Big Bad is Odie from fucking Garfield. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

I read the book and I have no idea what you're talking about

The big bad's name is

Spoiler

Odium.

Spoiler

Look up the meaning. Its important

Interesting, I never knew it actually meant something. Always though it was just a name.

"General hatred".

Christ, this gets worse and worse. Per my comments on Goodreads... I now know how Obi-Wan felt when he told Anakin that he was the Chosen One. After all, hatred is my primary fuel.

[QuickTidal]

Maark, on 25 February 2016 - 03:05 PM, said:

Esa1996, on 25 February 2016 - 12:33 PM, said:

Andorion, on 25 February 2016 - 11:52 AM, said:

Maark, on 25 February 2016 - 11:34 AM, said:

Esa1996, on 24 February 2016 - 03:26 PM, said:

End of Disc One, on 24 February 2016 - 03:21 PM, said:

Maark, on 24 February 2016 - 01:15 PM, said:

That whole 'magic stuff out of thin air' bothers me as well. And now they've done the big reveal and

Spoiler

the Big Bad is Odie from fucking Garfield. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

I read the book and I have no idea what you're talking about

The big bad's name is

Spoiler

Odium.

Spoiler

Look up the meaning. Its important

Interesting, I never knew it actually meant something. Always though it was just a name.

"General hatred".

Christ, this gets worse and worse. Per my comments on Goodreads... I now know how Obi-Wan felt when he told Anakin that he was the Chosen One. After all, hatred is my primary fuel.

Re: Odium. It also has an even bigger Cosmere application too.

[Maark Abbott]

QuickTidal, on 25 February 2016 - 03:40 PM, said:

Maark, on 25 February 2016 - 03:05 PM, said:

Esa1996, on 25 February 2016 - 12:33 PM, said:

Andorion, on 25 February 2016 - 11:52 AM, said:

Maark, on 25 February 2016 - 11:34 AM, said:

Esa1996, on 24 February 2016 - 03:26 PM, said:

End of Disc One, on 24 February 2016 - 03:21 PM, said:

Maark, on 24 February 2016 - 01:15 PM, said:

That whole 'magic stuff out of thin air' bothers me as well. And now they've done the big reveal and

Spoiler

the Big Bad is Odie from fucking Garfield. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

I read the book and I have no idea what you're talking about

The big bad's name is

Spoiler

Odium.

Spoiler

Look up the meaning. Its important

Interesting, I never knew it actually meant something. Always though it was just a name.

"General hatred".

Christ, this gets worse and worse. Per my comments on Goodreads... I now know how Obi-Wan felt when he told Anakin that he was the Chosen One. After all, hatred is my primary fuel.

Re: Odium. It also has an even bigger Cosmere application too.

Well I've now just encountered this Living Tribunal chap with his flute. I expect this means the villains will be The Beyonders.

If the application is to make the Carpet a little bit interesting then that would be good. So far it just seems like a way to tenuously cross things over for more sales.