Reading roundup

[hamsterwoman]

35. Lois McMaster Bujold, The Hallowed Hunt -- I have some kind of odd apprehension when it comes to LMB's fantasy books. Before I start each one, I hesitate because I'm (somewhat irrationally, at this point) afraid I won't like them. This was true with Chalion and with Paladin of Souls and with this one as well, even though I ended up enjoying

Comments

[etrangere]

I have a theory about GGKay. When you start reading his books, it's all very enchanting, the characters, the writing style, the bittersweet atmosphere. Then the more you read them the more the flaws are glaring, the emoness and purple prose, the overused phrases, the occasional weird/problematic characterization, the obligatory scene of BDSM, how surrealy pretty and witty everyone is supposed to be. Okay, maybe that's just me. I reread Tigana (which I used to love almost as much as I did Lions of Al Rassan) last year and I was much, much disappointed. Okay, there's still something I found appealing in Dianora and Brandin, but... basically, what you said :)

IIRC there's a bit of homosexuality in most of Kay's books. Songs for Arbonne has a couple of minor characters, Lions mention rumours about one of the main character without confirming them. Last Light of the Sun had a very ambiguous slashy scene. Okay, more than ambiguous. Yet very weirdly situated in the story. (I try to forget Last Light, anyway...)

[hamsterwoman]

Okay, maybe that's just me.

No, I seem to be following the same trajectory, sadly... *makes a note never to re-read Lions of Al-Rassan, just in case*

I'm glad that my reaction to Tigana is not unique just to me -- I was poking around a GGK community on LJ, and was a bit dismayed to discover how many people were rabid fans of it, listed it as their favorite book, and started to wonder if I was missing something... I suppose, if that was the first GGK book I read, I would be impressed, in spite of the hugely annoying flaws -- but since I know he can do so much better...

I do like the Dianora and Brandin storyline, I just... well, kind of how Brandin told her they should've met in Finavir? Yeah, I kind of wish they had met in a different book. One I could actually enjoy more. XP

I remember the rumours in Lions and at least one of the gay characters in Arbonne (I actually really liked Duke Thierry; he had sense), but it really seems to be laid on thick in Tigana, and totally superfluous to plot or character development in many places

[etrangere]

No, I seem to be following the same trajectory, sadly...
I know other people who are at the same point. generalblossom was the one i first heard criticizing his style, and whether that's why or just maturing as a reader, I never could read him again with the same enchantement (and his was my favourite fantasy writer when I was 16, srsly

[hamsterwoman]

Sarantine Mosaic was the first thing by GGK I read, and so I kind of have a soft spot for it, even though the WTF pairing was definitely WTF. But, as you say, the first exposure to GGK leaves a positive impression, so I think I liked the book, though I don't have a fair point of comparison, really. (I haven't felt like re-reading it, either, but I generally don't re-read books, even books I like.) Then I read Lions, which is definitely my favorite, and I think -- I think -- it's actually a really good book, but I am afraid to re-read it now. Then I read The Summer Tree (I haven't read on in the Fionavar Tapestry because our library doesn't seem to have Wandering Fire, but I do want to, mostly for Diarmuid), then Song for Arbonne, and now Tigana -- and my impressions are kind of all over the place. Lions is definitely my favorite, and Tigana is the only book that I came close to kind of hating, but beyond that, I'm not really sure

[lodessa]

I feel like there is a cool world and story lying somewhere under Tigana, but instead of getting that... we get this boring, melodramatic, bizarre concluson making, monstrosity.

[hamsterwoman]

Yeah, pretty much. It's a subset of a reaction I seem to get rather a lot nowadays, which is, "I wish this book had been written by a better writer." :P

[lodessa]

Yeah. But then again it sort of makes sense why fannish brains seem to have locked onto Kay at some point. Because it begs to be fixed.

[hamsterwoman]

Oh, good! I always feel obscurely vindicated when I hear other people dislike Tigana too! :)

I looooved Diarmuid -- like, he was the only thing that made the Fionavar Tapestry worth reading for me, really, through the melodrama of the Arthurian love triangle and general Tolkien wannabe-ism and occasionally bizarre worldbuilding. OK, I'd kind of liked Kevin, too, but that didn't last very long, did it. Anyway, so, very much with you on the Diarmuid love, and it was probably a good thing I'd spoiled myself for his death because I would've been even more annoyed otherwise. Also, I've heard about the parallels between him and Lymond a lot, which means I've been wanting to read the Dunnett books for a long time.