[Abyss]

Book 11 was just announced... EVERWAR. Dec 2016.

[Puck]

*sigh* I hereby declare myself unable to finish Nevermore.

I've been chipping away at it for a couple of weeks now, a few pages at a time. I tried skim reading, which I usually never do. I can't, I just can't. Still thinking about finishing this, but I have no idea when. Nothing, absolutely fucking nothing has happened in the 14 or so chapters I managed to bite through. Or rather, the three or so good scenes that did happen ended up buried in a humongous pile of repetition. And some more repetition. The antagonist of the book finally managed to get himself introduced somewhen in the second half, and that happened with Cal ruminating about totally unrelated shit for the possibly longest chapter of the book only to get his ass kicked in the span of a page.

I can totally see this book's plot working, and being delightful - there are shades of the promise in certain scenes - BUT that's buried under so much unrelated and overwritten rememberances (key being the 'unrelated' and 'overwritten' parts, the rememberances would actually fit the plot if done right) that it's pointless. A perfectly wasted plot. This, when written like, say, Deathwish or actually any other of the series' books except Downfall would be insane and fun. IT IS NOT. KEEP AWAY. Let the series end with Downfall. It is a fitting end. Not the best one, but fitting. I love this series. But no.

This post has been edited by Puck: 17 April 2016 - 05:01 PM

[Andorion]

Puck, on 17 April 2016 - 04:59 PM, said:

*sigh* I hereby declare myself unable to finish Nevermore.

I've been chipping away at it for a couple of weeks now, a few pages at a time. I tried skim reading, which I usually never do. I can't, I just can't. Still thinking about finishing this, but I have no idea when. Nothing, absolutely fucking nothing has happened in the 14 or so chapters I managed to bite through. Or rather, the three or so good scenes that did happen ended up buried in a humongous pile of repetition. And some more repetition. The antagonist of the book finally managed to get himself introduced somewhen in the second half, and that happened with Cal ruminating about totally unrelated shit for the possibly longest chapter of the book only to get his ass kicked in the span of a page.

I can totally see this book's plot working, and being delightful - there are shades of the promise in certain scenes - BUT that's buried under so much unrelated and overwritten rememberances (key being the 'unrelated' and 'overwritten' parts, the rememberances would actually fit the plot if done right) that it's pointless. A perfectly wasted plot. This, when written like, say, Deathwish or actually any other of the series' books except Downfall would be insane and fun. IT IS NOT. KEEP AWAY. Let the series end with Downfall. It is a fitting end. Not the best one, but fitting. I love this series. But no.

Looks like I was wise not to pick it up after all. And yes I think the last book provides a perfectly good ending to the series

[Abyss]

Andorion, on 17 April 2016 - 05:13 PM, said:

Puck, on 17 April 2016 - 04:59 PM, said:

*sigh* I hereby declare myself unable to finish Nevermore.

I've been chipping away at it for a couple of weeks now, a few pages at a time. I tried skim reading, which I usually never do. I can't, I just can't. Still thinking about finishing this, but I have no idea when. Nothing, absolutely fucking nothing has happened in the 14 or so chapters I managed to bite through. Or rather, the three or so good scenes that did happen ended up buried in a humongous pile of repetition. And some more repetition. The antagonist of the book finally managed to get himself introduced somewhen in the second half, and that happened with Cal ruminating about totally unrelated shit for the possibly longest chapter of the book only to get his ass kicked in the span of a page.

I can totally see this book's plot working, and being delightful - there are shades of the promise in certain scenes - BUT that's buried under so much unrelated and overwritten rememberances (key being the 'unrelated' and 'overwritten' parts, the rememberances would actually fit the plot if done right) that it's pointless. A perfectly wasted plot. This, when written like, say, Deathwish or actually any other of the series' books except Downfall would be insane and fun. IT IS NOT. KEEP AWAY. Let the series end with Downfall. It is a fitting end. Not the best one, but fitting. I love this series. But no.

Looks like I was wise not to pick it up after all. And yes I think the last book provides a perfectly good ending to the series

Noted and noted.

SLASHBACK was pretty good. Jack was a solid villain even if he was the third uber-unkillable super serial killer in the series so far.

I liked the flashback storyline more than I expected to.

[Abyss]

DOWNFALL.... oh my god so much repetition. So SO much. Why Rob Thurman. WHY?




Like five minutes of Cal droning on about something badass something rough childhood something something IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT.

STOP. Just stop.

I swear to fuck this author just cannot make a point once and move on EVER.

I want to see how the Grim storyline ends, so i'll push thru, but fuck me this is annoying.




And the reincarnation thing... turning your generally interesting protagonists into the eternal sidekicks of a supporting character... WHY ROB THURMAN WHY?

[Puck]

This pretty much sums up Downfall. And Nevermore is WORSE. Just pretend the series ended with Downfall.

[Abyss]

NEVERMORE.... oh dear god, there is a decent book in there somewhere but the repetition, reiteration, redundant restatement FFS WHY ROB THURMAN WHY????

[Andorion]

Abyss, on 20 May 2016 - 07:56 PM, said:

NEVERMORE.... oh dear god, there is a decent book in there somewhere but the repetition, reiteration, redundant restatement FFS WHY ROB THURMAN WHY????

You are still reading this?

[Abyss]

Earbook. Commute. Masichism.

[Abyss]

Finished.

Wow that was bad (imho).

And all that for a cliff-hanger ending when she didn't have a publication deal for bk11.... wow. Actually I give her credit for that part... cliffhanging the end of 10 not knowing if there would be an 11... that takes guts and a level of faith in your audience.

Frustrating... the action, what little there was of it, was solid, the Big Bad was pretty fun, the underlying timetravel plot could have totally worked, but...wow. Hell, even the cliffhanger wasn`t a problem, it was getting there through the massive endless repetition-reiteration-redundancy that made up half or more of the book.

I haven't seen a series implosion like that since the Anita Blake series went pr0n.

Ah well, all done now. I`m out. It would take massive reader praise to get me into bk 11 when/if it streets.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 24 May 2016 - 04:42 PM, said:

Finished.

Wow that was bad (imho).

And all that for a cliff-hanger ending when she didn't have a publication deal for bk11.... wow. Actually I give her credit for that part... cliffhanging the end of 10 not knowing if there would be an 11... that takes guts and a level of faith in your audience.

Frustrating... the action, what little there was of it, was solid, the Big Bad was pretty fun, the underlying timetravel plot could have totally worked, but...wow. Hell, even the cliffhanger wasn`t a problem, it was getting there through the massive endless repetition-reiteration-redundancy that made up half or more of the book.

I haven't seen a series implosion like that since the Anita Blake series went pr0n.

Ah well, all done now. I`m out. It would take massive reader praise to get me into bk 11 when/if it streets.

Here's a blast from the past. A thread over on reddit had me search out whatever happened to Rob Thurman. I discovered exactly nothing new - if she's still writing it's under a different name and she's staying quiet about it, BUT, i also discovered this....

https://www.fanficti...ightning-Strike

...LIGHTNING STRIKE is a fan written sequel to NEVERMORE that wraps up the Cal n Nik Leandros series, and it is, to my utter shock and awe, quite enjoyable. The fan-author manages to keep very effectively to the tone of the series, pick up where the series cliffhanger left off, skip all the crap that was killing readers during the last couple of books (endless repetition, weird swerves of focus, endless repetition, bad horrible bad metaphors, endless repetition), and stick the landing. It's actually very impressive. The characters are written as they should be, the action is solid, the ...'feel'... is very much what the series put out before it imploded. I took a look out of curiosity, was drawn in, and ended up reading the whole thing, now Just Finished.

Anyhoo, if anyone's nostalgia has them wanting to see how the series 'could have ended', there's the link.