Give your literary minority report

[sunnyskywalker]

I'm sure everyone has had this experience at some point: the entire world is raving about some book being the best thing in literature since The Canterbury Tales, and yet when you try it, you think it's more like an entry in the Bulwer-Lytton bad writing contest. Or maybe it isn't bad, but you don't see what the big deal is either - it was a good

Comments

[4thofeleven]

Next year will be five years since "A Feast For Crows" came out. Considering the next book won't advance the plot any further than the end of "Feast"... yeah, the series isn't getting finished.

(And meanwhile, it looks like "Wheel of Time" may actually reach a conclusion. Can't believe I bet on the wrong fantasy epic out of those two...)

Narnia - what bugs me about the prophesy: All four thrones need to be filled to fulfill the prophesy, right? Then the White Witch only needs to capture one human to stop it, and she's already got Edmund. Turn him to stone already and save yourself a lot of trouble!

Magician's Nephew - suffered, for me, in that once you've had the pools between the worlds and the dead world of Charn and the White Witch running amok in 19th century London... ending up in Narnia again's a bit dull.

Anyway. Reepicheep's cool. And to me, chivalrous talking mice make up for a great many flaws in a story.

[sunnyskywalker]

I keep hoping that the long wait time means he's taking time to edit things down and start tying up a few things so the next installment starts concluding the series rather than opening it up even more, but I fear that if A Dance with Dragons ever comes out, it will be the Order of the Phoenix of the series: some good parts, but not really worth the wait, and the series will never get back on track.

On the other hand, at least this way we can imagine that maybe Sam catches a break and gets to hang out in an intertextual pub with Neville.

If WoT finishes even with the author being dead, and ASoIaF can't even with the author being alive, that's... quite a problem for Martin.

Or better yet, kill one of them so no magic un-statuing can occur! Is she a competent villain like everyone in Narnia claims or isn't she?

[matt_doyle]

I enjoy Narnia but can't and won't defend it, XD; and I am more optimistic than you about Martin finishing his series, but The Dark Is Rising is a series that really bothers me.

The main thing that bothers me is the arrogance and invasiveness of the Light. They're total douchebags to pretty much everyone all the time - the Walker betrays them because they put his life at risk without asking consent or informing him, and when he, y'know, almost dies, they do not even thank him or let him know they value and care about him as a person rather than a tool (Merriman says they do, but...). They cavalierly make choices for 'normal people' and fuck with their memories and expect their behavior to be unremarkable for no better reason than that they are arbitrarily the Good Guys. Re-reading the books, the Dark behaves on about the same level, but they are much less hypocritical and self-righteous about it. Mostly they seem to be the Bad Guys because they are called The Dark.

As you can perhaps tell, it bothers me.

[sunnyskywalker]

Oh yes, they're very irritating. I get how living with a bunch of other immortals and bopping around in time could make understanding average human behavior a little harder, but supposedly Merriman's been close to the Walker for some time, yes? So he ought to have some inkling that just maybe almost dying for something he doesn't quite understand would at least rate a "thank you." Plus, is the Light's whole job collecting magic tokens to somehow magically weaken the Dark? I would hope they'd be doing more good deeds to rate being called the Light. Persuading militaries to obey the Geneva Convention or feeding starving orphans or something. Getting the magic tokens ought to be something that helps those efforts, not the whole deal! Except there was some arbitrary non-interference clause, wasn't there? There always is, and I can't remember it ever making sense. "We can't help you because... it would be complicated! And hard!"

It bothers me too.

[duncatra]

I find the whole ice zombies/over the wall thing to be the absolutely least interesting part of ASOIAF. So I don't mind that he's banking that.

And I was actually so annoyed by zombie!Cat (I was pretty neutral on her before, but that struck me as just beyond lame) that I didn't read the last book until it was well into PB.

[sunnyskywalker]

I think if they had to carry the series, they'd be much less interesting. As it is, I think everything else is moving so slowly, and some of it seems so pointless, that I really want the zombies to invade just so they can put a stop to the whole ridiculous game of thrones, because it's pretty clear it doesn't make much difference at this point who's winning.

Having main(ish) characters killed and resurrected into semi-demonic vengeance zombies is a bit silly, but also kind of scary when you consider who else it might happen to, and again I'm hoping for a mass slaughter or something to shake things up.

[deaka]

I was very underwhelmed by Dark is Rising. It had interesting points (I liked Will and Bran's friendship and the Arthurian allusions, and agree re: Will's family and their role), but it was so weighed down by its self-righteousness and Themes of Momentous Importance. I was incredibly bored through most of the final book. And kind of disliked the heroes by the end, too, which isn't usually a good sign.

I've tried to pick up ASOIAF a couple of times, but we don't just seem to get along. I've heard it's a series that's really not kind to its characters, which always makes me a little wary. I hate investing in a character just to have them wind up dead. And yet, it's always that character I get invested in. *sigh*

[sunnyskywalker]

I'm so glad I'm not as alone in disliking the Dark is Rising! I think some of the characters deserved to be in a better series.

Well, that's the advertising, but really there are not as many main characters killed as you would think, and those are often telegraphed way in advance (I think). More often the characters will lose a hand or otherwise get maimed, or separated from their families and allies, and then carry on with the plot. I'm actually more worried that the couple of characters I really like (as opposed to finding interesting to read about) are going to end up corrupted and mean and no longer sympathetic.