Books (Trope)
I can't read this book.
Why not? It's very simple: the Evil One's name?
Is Tharn.
As in, "Tharn goes stiff with shock and falls down dead."
I can't get past it. I just can't. Every time he's mentioned, there goes my canon fodder, CLUNK.
(No, that's not a typo. A presumption, yes, but not a typo.)
Tharn, Tharn, Tharn, CLUNK, CLUNK, KERPLUNK.
Oh. Also, it has grievous tone problems. I can forgive all sorts of stupid plot shenanigans--fantasy continues by them--but not tone problems like these. They're massive. By turns it tries to be a "horrors of war" pastiche, a Homeric wanderer's adventure, and a fucking kung-fu movie (without the kung-fu). It succeeds, kinda sorta sometimes in spots, at the last two. Its rendering of the first is laughable.
And it's got hideous First Novel Name Disease.
What's that? Simple. There are a dozen proper names in the first six pages, and it's just too many. Especially because it's a hodge-podge: some are places, some are people, and some are racial designations of these people, and since they're fantasy!Christians and fantasy!Arabs (with a side-order of fantasy!vaguely!Chinonipponese) those will be important throughout the battle, and, presumably, throughout the book.
Except, I can't care, because there's no way of telling them apart.
I got to page 80. Of 754.
I picked up Aurian next: Mary Sue Saves THE UNIVERSE.
Ah, ah, but I'm reading this for one thing only. I will stop after I get through her turn as a gladiatrix, whenever that comes.
Besides, it's at least swifter than most Mary Sue fiction, fan or otherwise. The thorougly hackneyed, totally undiverting plot is buoyed by its own stupidity: I keep reading with a sort of horrified, gleeful fascination, waiting to see when Aurian will reach up and eat the sun itself, simply because she discovers she has the power to do so.
And it was cool to see a woman with the "male" powers of earth and fire, and not, like "spirit" or "crystal" or "seabreeze" or any of that froofy shit women usually get stuck with.
I have the last book of the trilogy in my possession. Judging by the reviews, I will not miss much by not having the middle volume also.
She's ridiculously overpowered, and I like it. Not enough to recommend it, but again, it's better than other stuff I've read in the same vein, by virtue of its quickness.
Why not? It's very simple: the Evil One's name?
Is Tharn.
As in, "Tharn goes stiff with shock and falls down dead."
I can't get past it. I just can't. Every time he's mentioned, there goes my canon fodder, CLUNK.
(No, that's not a typo. A presumption, yes, but not a typo.)
Tharn, Tharn, Tharn, CLUNK, CLUNK, KERPLUNK.
Oh. Also, it has grievous tone problems. I can forgive all sorts of stupid plot shenanigans--fantasy continues by them--but not tone problems like these. They're massive. By turns it tries to be a "horrors of war" pastiche, a Homeric wanderer's adventure, and a fucking kung-fu movie (without the kung-fu). It succeeds, kinda sorta sometimes in spots, at the last two. Its rendering of the first is laughable.
And it's got hideous First Novel Name Disease.
What's that? Simple. There are a dozen proper names in the first six pages, and it's just too many. Especially because it's a hodge-podge: some are places, some are people, and some are racial designations of these people, and since they're fantasy!Christians and fantasy!Arabs (with a side-order of fantasy!vaguely!Chinonipponese) those will be important throughout the battle, and, presumably, throughout the book.
Except, I can't care, because there's no way of telling them apart.
I got to page 80. Of 754.
I picked up Aurian next: Mary Sue Saves THE UNIVERSE.
Ah, ah, but I'm reading this for one thing only. I will stop after I get through her turn as a gladiatrix, whenever that comes.
Besides, it's at least swifter than most Mary Sue fiction, fan or otherwise. The thorougly hackneyed, totally undiverting plot is buoyed by its own stupidity: I keep reading with a sort of horrified, gleeful fascination, waiting to see when Aurian will reach up and eat the sun itself, simply because she discovers she has the power to do so.
And it was cool to see a woman with the "male" powers of earth and fire, and not, like "spirit" or "crystal" or "seabreeze" or any of that froofy shit women usually get stuck with.
I have the last book of the trilogy in my possession. Judging by the reviews, I will not miss much by not having the middle volume also.
She's ridiculously overpowered, and I like it. Not enough to recommend it, but again, it's better than other stuff I've read in the same vein, by virtue of its quickness.