[QuickTidal]

I don't listen to many audiobooks at all, but the ones I can consistently get into and enjoy are the Aubrey/Maturin ones, so on that note I just finished the audiobook for THE LETTER OF MARQUE (Book 12) by Patrick O'Brian (read by Richard Jerrom; who I prefer to the "wad of constant spit in his mouth" Patrick Tull) and I really liked it. I admit there was less of Jack and crew Privateering than I'd assumed there would be (that part of the adventure is only about half the book) and the rest of politicking to set things err..right. That said, the whole last chapter is dedicated to:

Spoiler

FINALLY explaining Diana's seemingly proclivities from the previous books, all apparently wild misunderstandings on both their parts, the largest of which is that she WASN'T sleeping with Jagiello while being married to Stephen...and that she really was just staying around him to protect her public image while Stephen is at sea. I was not expecting that. It also allows them to get closer by finally clearing up things that have been lingering since I think Book 3?

Anyways as usual with O'Brian, a solid solid read and I can't wait to get to book 13, THE THIRTEEN GUN SALUTE! I'm going to be irreparably sad when I finally get to the end of this series, it's kept me company for years now.

[worry]

Finally finished The Way of Kings. Kinda felt like amateur hour for a lot of it tbh. I dunno if that's too harsh, but it's my honest reaction. I don't care that it's a doorstopper or that it's a slow burn, and I don't really relate to describing anything in storytelling as "filler" (and wouldn't here anyway). But if you're demanding Robin Hobb levels of patience in a reader, you better come with at least a degree of Robin Hobb's skills, and this falls way short of that in just about every dimension I can think of -- particularly character. I also don't normally care about hype, like it doesn't help or hinder my reaction to a book, but I am admittedly mystified how this is in anybody's top tier list. [Not a Brando Sando hater either -- I liked Mistborn, thought he did a great job wrapping up WoT, and Tress of the Emerald Sea was a real charmer].

Anyway, I don't think it's the worst of the worst or anything, just "mid" as the kids say, but 1000 pages of mid is itself kinda sub-mid, if that math adds up. I did think the reveals in the final section were interesting, somewhat surprising, and I suppose intriguing setup for what comes next. I'm gonna take at least month off before hitting the next book though.

[QuickTidal]

worry, on 10 April 2026 - 03:22 PM, said:

Finally finished The Way of Kings. Kinda felt like amateur hour for a lot of it tbh. I dunno if that's too harsh, but it's my honest reaction. I don't care that it's a doorstopper or that it's a slow burn, and I don't really relate to describing anything in storytelling as "filler" (and wouldn't here anyway). But if you're demanding Robin Hobb levels of patience in a reader, you better come with at least a degree of Robin Hobb's skills, and this falls way short of that in just about every dimension I can think of -- particularly character. I also don't normally care about hype, like it doesn't help or hinder my reaction to a book, but I am admittedly mystified how this is in anybody's top tier list. [Not a Brando Sando hater either -- I liked Mistborn, thought he did a great job wrapping up WoT, and Tress of the Emerald Sea was a real charmer].

Anyway, I don't think it's the worst of the worst or anything, just "mid" as the kids say, but 1000 pages of mid is itself kinda sub-mid, if that math adds up. I did think the reveals in the final section were interesting, somewhat surprising, and I suppose intriguing setup for what comes next. I'm gonna take at least month off before hitting the next book though.

I'll say this, for me it was

Spoiler

the slow inexorable build to Kal using his powers to Hail Mary leap over the chasm towards the enemy in the last act and run out of stormlight halfway across so he sucked it in from the stone fetishes on the enemy to get all the way over. That sold me the whole book.

That said, nothing quite like this happens again so the rest of the series started to deliver diminishing returns for me. I think his other work is better.

[Chance]

worry, on 10 April 2026 - 03:22 PM, said:

Anyway, I don't think it's the worst of the worst or anything, just "mid" as the kids say, but 1000 pages of mid is itself kinda sub-mid, if that math adds up. I did think the reveals in the final section were interesting, somewhat surprising, and I suppose intriguing setup for what comes next. I'm gonna take at least month off before hitting the next book though.

If you found Way of Kings mid, I wonder what you will think of the next few. I found Way of Kings pretty good at least mid+, but a few of the others where a bit of a struggle. Personally I think Sanderson went wrong with the long backstory parts which should have been handled with much more finesse, instead of basically beating us with the backstory over the head and bloating the books insanely. Basically by the "last" book I only skimmed the backstories and didn't miss anything really.

QuickTidal is right the series never reaches the highs of the first book again, I would probably have said the series was unsatisfactory but Kaladin who was my favorite through the series ended in the perfect place at the end which strangely enough made the entire thing worth it for me.

This post has been edited by Chance: 10 April 2026 - 04:49 PM

[worry]

Just to be clear, I wasn't challenging anyone who did like it! But reading other perspectives is still nice.
I'm curious how I'll respond to the other books now too, since I wouldn't consider anything that happened in this one a "high", even relative to itself. Maybe that mini chapter about the

Spoiler

art destroyer.

[BK (NTS no politics)]

Well atleast next book you ll be Lifted up.

[Abyss]

worry, on 10 April 2026 - 07:17 PM, said:

Just to be clear, I wasn't challenging anyone who did like it! But reading other perspectives is still nice.
I'm curious how I'll respond to the other books now too, since I wouldn't consider anything that happened in this one a "high", even relative to itself. Maybe that mini chapter about the

Spoiler

art destroyer.

my $0.02cdn, while i enjoyed the finale of WoK, bk 2 moves faster and has more impact, 3 maintains the pace and does some fun worldbuilding, all of which is to say i think you will continue to enjoy bks 2 and 3... 4 and 5 are where things start to become divisive.

[QuickTidal]

I am reading the sample chapters of the first omnibus of Paul Kearney's MONARCHIES OF GOD....what in the unbelievable fucking crack did that man put into these books? I'm RIVETED and I'm going to buy both omnibuses to read it all.

Like....it's like GGK and Joe Abercrombie had a baby...the prose is fantastic and the characters are amazing....his Sea knowledge is top tier too....

I'm sure others have mentioned him before....but I didn't realize quite how good these books would be.

[Macros]

From memory the first 3 are ace and the last filters a little?

But Kearney is a great author

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 16 April 2026 - 12:37 PM, said:

I am reading the sample chapters of the first omnibus of Paul Kearney's MONARCHIES OF GOD....what in the unbelievable fucking crack did that man put into these books? I'm RIVETED and I'm going to buy both omnibuses to read it all.

Like....it's like GGK and Joe Abercrombie had a baby...the prose is fantastic and the characters are amazing....his Sea knowledge is top tier too....

I'm sure others have mentioned him before....but I didn't realize quite how good these books would be.

Macros, on 16 April 2026 - 12:57 PM, said:

From memory the first 3 are ace and the last filters a little?

But Kearney is a great author

I found that the first four were brilliant for the most part - there's one subplot i found way offside from the quality of the rest of the books, not bad, just not as good.
Bk 5 is ok. It works well enough as an epilogue to the series but compared to the complexity and sheer glory of the first four the shift is a bit jarring.

[worry]

I DNFed the series after the first two...go figure! If you lived stateside I'd send them to you. Go set up a PO Box in Buffalo or something.

[QuickTidal]

worry, on 16 April 2026 - 02:01 PM, said:

I DNFed the series after the first two...go figure! If you lived stateside I'd send them to you. Go set up a PO Box in Buffalo or something.

HA! That's kind, but I just checked and I can get the ebooks from my library.

[Macros]

Scanned back on the forum, consensus seems to be first book is set up, 2-4 are ace and 5 is messy, ties the story up but even Kearney himself wasnt fully happy with it

[QuickTidal]

Macros, on 16 April 2026 - 02:53 PM, said:

Scanned back on the forum, consensus seems to be first book is set up, 2-4 are ace and 5 is messy, ties the story up but even Kearney himself wasnt fully happy with it

Ah okay good to know. Thanks guys!

[QuickTidal]

FOURTH WING by Rebecca Yarros. Yeah yeah, I know. But I wanted to expand my reading habits with some romantasy, and this one tops a lot of people's lists.

It's good. The prose is nothing at all special (like you could port these characters and how they talk into any setting and it would still be fine), but I'm enjoying it for the Dragons and the concept (which lets face facts is very close to a modern Pern without the sci-fi element)

I have not reached the purported sexytimesTM part yet.

[QuickTidal]

QuickTidal, on 20 April 2026 - 11:15 AM, said:

FOURTH WING by Rebecca Yarros. Yeah yeah, I know. But I wanted to expand my reading habits with some romantasy, and this one tops a lot of people's lists.

It's good. The prose is nothing at all special (like you could port these characters and how they talk into any setting and it would still be fine), but I'm enjoying it for the Dragons and the concept (which lets face facts is very close to a modern Pern without the sci-fi element)

I have not reached the purported sexytimesTM part yet.

Finished.

It's fine-ish. It's DEFINITELY amateurish, the prose is stunted most of the time. Nothing about the world or the characters is embellished or overly interesting, or compelling. The School could be any stone castle...there's barely any descriptions about anything really. Like she walks into a purportedly ornate room and the description is about 2 sentences. An almost obscene amount of effort is spent on internal monologues and dialogue, with so much less on the setting or anything around the characters. Even the opening is a test where they walk across a long thin stone bridge from the main keep to the barracks and the description is so just not there...it may as well have been a stone bridge across a beige chasm with beige all around...when I say NOTHING is described, I mean it.

Also, I dun no if it's that I'm an old fantasy nerd, but every single "twist" that shows up near the end of the book was telecast to me in moments in the first few chapters, including the biggest reveal...and it's not like subtly hidden, if you're paying even mild attention she's shouting them at you....like "what a weird little passage about a specific book to bring up in a paragraph and then forget about, right?"...oof. It makes me realize that a lot of the reason this book is so popular is that it's ported regular romance readers into fantasy and since they've not read much fantasy before, a lot of this feels new to them? I dunno.

The spicy scenes (there are mainly two) are probably the best thing about the book? Decently written and would be titilating for any gender to read, and as I don't come across many of those in my fiction travels it was nice to read someone do them decently well.

Will I read the rest of the series? No. There is simply not enough fresh in this story to keep me interested when other authors have done these tropes so much better. Even the Dragons (which initially kept my interest) are not done justice.

I will, however, keep trying out romantasy authors to see if any of them land better.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: Today, 01:29 PM

[Macros]

I read the first 2 Court of Thorns and Roses recently and felt the same, I wouldn't have said amateur on the writi gbbut plot 'twists' were telegraphed in, the sexy times that seems to have got everyone riled up and horny are...cringeworthy.

Not awful but certa8nly did not get the hype, Priory of the Orange tree was better

[QuickTidal]

Macros, on 22 April 2026 - 02:31 PM, said:

I read the first 2 Court of Thorns and Roses recently and felt the same, I wouldn't have said amateur on the writi gbbut plot 'twists' were telegraphed in, the sexy times that seems to have got everyone riled up and horny are...cringeworthy.

Not awful but certa8nly did not get the hype, Priory of the Orange tree was better

For sure. I think what I need is a combo of the both....like a solid story and prose and the spicy scenes just come in and add to it...a lot of these books seems to exist FOR the spicy stuff and not the other way round.

The best recent example is the Greenbone Saga sex scenes, Fonda Lee was able to make them compelling without feeling overly cringy.

[worry]

SE should go spicy. I think we deserve to know how many joints there are in a Forkrul Assail penis.

[Abyss]

worry, on 22 April 2026 - 03:08 PM, said:

SE should go spicy. I think we deserve to know how many joints there are in a Forkrul Assail penis.

No.



No we do not.