[pat5150]

Anya is a total nutjob, but you can't help buy feel for her. West just introduces her in The Shining Court and she'll be important in the final volume.

[Tiste Simeon]

pat5150, on 01 September 2023 - 01:23 PM, said:

Anya is a total nutjob, but you can't help buy feel for her. West just introduces her in The Shining Court and she'll be important in the final volume.

Yes I can see that from the short part she has been in already.

And in possibly major news (end of Chapter 3):

Spoiler

"The Warlord" spoken about by the demons is Avendar?? Is he in fact a demon of some kind? That was a really cool reveal, even though they didn't use his name...

[pat5150]

Tiste Simeon, on 01 September 2023 - 03:45 PM, said:

And in possibly major news (end of Chapter 3):

Spoiler

"The Warlord" spoken about by the demons is Avendar?? Is he in fact a demon of some kind? That was a really cool reveal, even though they didn't use his name...

Spoiler

Avandar is not a demon. His true identity is much better than that!!

[Tiste Simeon]

pat5150, on 01 September 2023 - 05:28 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 01 September 2023 - 03:45 PM, said:

And in possibly major news (end of Chapter 3):

Spoiler

"The Warlord" spoken about by the demons is Avendar?? Is he in fact a demon of some kind? That was a really cool reveal, even though they didn't use his name...

Spoiler

Avandar is not a demon. His true identity is much better than that!!

Spoiler

But he is the Warlord that they were referring? I can't think how it could be anyone else.

[JPK]

Just keep reading Tiste.

[pat5150]

What JPK said!

[Tiste Simeon]

I'm actually now really enjoying the Avendar/Jewel story in Evereve. Lots of information about who he is but not enough meaning I'm involved to find out more! Very interesting.

Also Khallandaras is still the best and his plot with the Voyani is great.

This book has hit the ground running on the whole, a lot less of the infinite exposition that was a feature of the first two.

I think West still very much suffers from "why use one word when 100 will do?" and some of the stuff that she keeps repeating gets grating (she doesn't need to remind us every single time that his name is now Alesso di Alesso or Sendari di Sendari!) but on the whole I'm enjoying the pace of this a lot more.

[pat5150]

That's good. And keep in mind that the Evereve chapters are the slowest moving of the novel.

[Tiste Simeon]

pat5150, on 06 September 2023 - 02:56 PM, said:

That's good. And keep in mind that the Evereve chapters are the slowest moving of the novel.

Fair enough but I'm really enjoying the evolving of Avendar's story and background.

[Tiste Simeon]

The Raddan! Who knew how ace they were? Basically a hit squad against the Kin. No wonder Alesso is keen to get rid...

[Tiste Simeon]

I am finished! Spoilers for the whole book ahead.

The negatives: - the Jewel/Deepings plot was terrible. It picked up once she hit the Dominion and the Voyani but man there was so much unnecessary fluff there.
- Speaking of fluff, I still feel like these books could have been a million times shorter without losing plot or much in the way of character development.
- Further annoyance is Jewel in general. I dunno she just annoys me. Maybe I just don't like the "always sassy no matter the situation female" trope...
- the demons are just the worst antagonists. Like everything they do is just rubbish. They bring no fear whatsoever despite the constant reminders that they technically do.

The positives: - The Warlord. I love the hints of what Avendar is truly like. Yes Evereve was dull but there was enough hints throughout to keep me happy.
- Khallandaras was great as ever.
- Ok so the scene between Diorra and Sendari by the lake when she takes the sword was beautifully written.
- Isladar is a great character and possibly the most nuanced of all of them in this series.
- the last sequence with the hunt and the conflagration in the city was great, really enjoyable.
- the Raddan!

Overall I did enjoy this and have gone straight into Sea of Sorrows.

This post has been edited by Tiste Simeon: 26 September 2023 - 08:57 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

Oh and for goodness sake the alliance between the demons and the Dominion is weird, like they're spending way more time trying to outdo and undermine each other more than doing literally anything to prepare for this war that I'm beginning to think will never actually happen...

If Alessakar actually wants this alliance to happen he definitely needs to bring his supposed lieutenants in line and sort this out...

[pat5150]

Sea of Sorrows raises the bar quite high and is the best of the bunch!

[Tiste Simeon]

Well that first fight between Meralon Aphanael's team and the demons was pretty cool. The next but with Margette being a whiny brat towards Diorra is not so fun

[pat5150]

Just you wait, my friend. =)

The evolution of the relationship between Margret and Diora is one of my favorite aspects of this series!

[Tiste Simeon]

So I finished this today.

Honestly they're beginning to grate in me a bit, these books. Like, West had created a rich world and I truly experience visceral reactions to certain things (e.g. the way men view women in the Dominion) but honestly, each book could be a couple of hundred pages less and it would lose none of that.

In this one, there was an hour's worth (maybe more) of the showdown with Kirriel and Isladar and other generic demon who made her sword. And it just dragged on forever. And in reality it meant nothing to the overall plot. Or rather, it did, to a small extent, because obviously the sword is now activated, but each time either character did anything, it required PAGES of monologues and recollections before anything happened.

And the entire desert sequence. What could have been a really exciting and emotional story was just... Boring!

I'm genuinely thinking this book might have been my least favourite (book 2 has been the best for me so far).

I already have THE RIVEN SHIELD ready to go and I intend on finishing the series, but I'm going to take a break from it for a while because I need something different in my life for a while.

West herself admitted she doesn't know how to keep it short and I'm thinking a better editor might help? I dunno.

Pat - do you have on your hotlist website a spoiler review of this one? I'd like to see your thoughts after finishing it because you said this was your favourite one and maybe I've missed something.

Truth be told I'm not sure listening to this series was the best option for it. Oh well.

[pat5150]

Here you go:

https://fantasyhotli...of-sorrows.html

Not sure listening to any series is the way to go. At least for me, I would never be able to follow any book if I had to rely on audiobooks. . .

[Tiste Simeon]

pat5150, on 06 November 2023 - 02:59 PM, said:

Here you go:

https://fantasyhotli...of-sorrows.html

Not sure listening to any series is the way to go. At least for me, I would never be able to follow any book if I had to rely on audiobooks. . .

Thanks! Reading through that made me wonder if I missed something. I didn't find the writing right at all! Maybe it's just me.

As for audiobook I am finding in general is easy enough to follow along.

[QuickTidal]

Tiste Simeon, on 06 November 2023 - 11:14 AM, said:

So I finished this today.

Honestly they're beginning to grate in me a bit, these books. Like, West had created a rich world and I truly experience visceral reactions to certain things (e.g. the way men view women in the Dominion) but honestly, each book could be a couple of hundred pages less and it would lose none of that.

Like WOT I don't think these are meant to be binged in succession the way Pat read them. I've been giving them breaks between them so the things about them that can grate a bit don't affect you as much. It's been a few months since I finished Sun Sword 3, and I'm about to start Sun Sword 4.


That said I feel like her writing improved in later years as I read House War books 1-3 in succession and noticed nothing of that sort that we are noticing in the Sun Sword books....to the point I wanted to just go on with the other House War books and skip Sun Sword as I didn't want to kill the momentum. So maybe that's a part of it, West was a lesser assured writer in Sun Sword than she got to be later? Those first three House War books feel tightly written compared to Sun Sword which feels more sprawling with more ,for lack of a better word, filler?

Anyways, I'd just take a long break before going on with the rest if I were you. Also I can't imagine listening to this series in audiobook...that would be taxing with West's verbosity....lol

[Tiste Simeon]

Yeah that's my plan. I've got a host of podcasts to catch up with so I'm going to go through them and possibly listen to another audiobook before I go into THE RIVEN SHIELD.