24. Dave Duncan, Ill Met in the Arena -- this is a book I never would have picked up if I hadn't already enjoyed Duncan's King's Blades books. ( But I rather liked it! (SPOILERY) )
The First Law is an exercise of subversion. It's not the best of its kind ever, and the humour and characterisation is very hit or miss. It was very much hit for me, but I'm not surprised some people don't like it as much. In any case, I'm going to enjoy seeing more of your reaction on the trilogy ^_^
Oh, I get the subversion, and in some cases I like it rather a lot, like with Logen and Bayaz. But I feel like (so far, anyway) something's lacking... Depth, maybe? A number of the characters still feel like exercises rather than people to me -- Jezal, for one, West, disappointingly, and, most frustratingly, Glokta. Actually -- and this is totally a subjective thing, but for me -- what I think I'm missing the most is vibrancy, in both characters and setting. These are not people that I'm craving to spend more time with, not even the ones I like a lot, and it's not a setting I want to dive into. I don't think that's necessarily the book's problem, maybe just a mismatch between what I want to read and what it's trying to do.
I definitely do want to read the other two books. And I checked out your awesomely organized tags (and couldn't resist reading the write-up for book 2) and saw that you have icons. Pretty!
Yeah, I sort of peeked into the 2nd book review cautiously, since the 1st book you only had a one-liner for, saw that it was more of an intro rather than spoilery, and read on. Not that I'm a spoilerphobe, but I want to experience these fresh.
It's a matter of taste, I'm sure, and I did like most characters more by the end of the book than at first, so the second book might finish winning me over, or the third.
(Oh, and I forgot to mention him, but I liked Severard a lot, too.)
I love that quote! It's my favorite DF quote, and one of my favorite first lines of a book ever. :D
Death Masks is actually not my favorite, purely because of Susan (I kind of can't stand her; well, not by herlself -- by herself I find her boring -- but with Harry). But I love Kincaid (he's actually one of my favorite characters) and Ivy and the Marcone and Michael in this book. And some pretty cool arcs are set up in it, too.
- Agreed with Morgan :((( It was touching specially since I never had anything particular against him. - Also Michael. We are left with the big "cliffhanger" from the last book and for those who haven't read the short story in the warrior, we don't really know how he's doing.
Agreeing with most of what you say.
I also thought that the turncoat (the bureaucromancer) was a bit too obvious.
Yeah, I never hated Morgan either. He was a bit like Stannis, but without the scary crazy influence over him. And I thought he got a good send-off in this book
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Waaah, I can't read the review on Nation yet, but I want to, so much.
Hey, some people say that it's better to just skip the first two Dresden books and read a summary and just read the third to start with the good stuff. Your opinion?
I didn't feel any huge jump in quality between 2 and 3 -- for me, the big jump was starting with book 6, I think -- that's when the series went from "read as I find it" to "actively follow". Book 7 is where the individual books get less episodic, so I would try to read 7 and on in order. Before that, I think you can skip around and not miss as much. I would just start with the first book (I didn't think the first two were bad at all, although it is a series that improves as it goes along), and just skim if you find parts that aren't holding your interest. These books are very quick reads, even the ones that are "slower" relative to the rest of the series, so it's not like you'd be sinking weeks into the first two.
If you do want to start with "the good stuff", many people list #4 (Summer Knight) as one of their favorites; it's not one of mine, but mostly for a rather quirky reason that annoyed me out of all proportion, probably, and nobody else I've talked to even noticed it, so I'll just recuse myself on that one
( ... )
Trying very hard to ignore the Dresden review for now since I've just started reading it!
*ARGH* Nation!!! I knew that I'd forgotten a book when I did my last list! How could I forget this one? I loved it! I'll have to go post it soon so I don't forget again. It's been a long time since I've read a book in a single day because I enjoyed it so much (other than the cotton candy fluff Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich) and Nation is one that I did read that way! My reasons for loving it are pretty much the same as yours.
Looking forward to reading what you have to say about Nation! I think it took me two days of commute to finish it, but once I hit a certain poing, I just couldn't stop reading.
I thought Turn Coat started out kind of slowly, but by the end, I was pretty impressed and pleased. Can't wait to see what you have to say about that one, once you finish it, too :)
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I definitely do want to read the other two books. And I checked out your awesomely organized tags (and couldn't resist reading the write-up for book 2) and saw that you have icons. Pretty!
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haha you're lucky my review of the 2nd book is more an intro to the whole series. Don't read the review for the third though!! and thank you ^^
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It's a matter of taste, I'm sure, and I did like most characters more by the end of the book than at first, so the second book might finish winning me over, or the third.
(Oh, and I forgot to mention him, but I liked Severard a lot, too.)
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Death Masks is actually not my favorite, purely because of Susan (I kind of can't stand her; well, not by herlself -- by herself I find her boring -- but with Harry). But I love Kincaid (he's actually one of my favorite characters) and Ivy and the Marcone and Michael in this book. And some pretty cool arcs are set up in it, too.
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- Agreed with Morgan :((( It was touching specially since I never had anything particular against him.
- Also Michael. We are left with the big "cliffhanger" from the last book and for those who haven't read the short story in the warrior, we don't really know how he's doing.
Agreeing with most of what you say.
I also thought that the turncoat (the bureaucromancer) was a bit too obvious.
And I wanted more Marcone
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Hey, some people say that it's better to just skip the first two Dresden books and read a summary and just read the third to start with the good stuff. Your opinion?
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If you do want to start with "the good stuff", many people list #4 (Summer Knight) as one of their favorites; it's not one of mine, but mostly for a rather quirky reason that annoyed me out of all proportion, probably, and nobody else I've talked to even noticed it, so I'll just recuse myself on that one ( ... )
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*ARGH* Nation!!! I knew that I'd forgotten a book when I did my last list! How could I forget this one? I loved it! I'll have to go post it soon so I don't forget again. It's been a long time since I've read a book in a single day because I enjoyed it so much (other than the cotton candy fluff Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich) and Nation is one that I did read that way! My reasons for loving it are pretty much the same as yours.
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I thought Turn Coat started out kind of slowly, but by the end, I was pretty impressed and pleased. Can't wait to see what you have to say about that one, once you finish it, too :)
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