240 replies to this topic

[Mara=^.^=]

Oh, I feel that.

And yeah, Ninth House is one I’ve considered picking up, it seems right up my alley in terms of vibes but I heard kind of mixed things about it when it first came out.

 

As a Brown alum, I cannot take anything that happens at Yale seriously. It could be 5/5 stars, and I'd still be like "Yale".

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Katia11]

Is there a rivalry between the two? I know like nothing about Ivy League schools and their relationships to each other. Lol

[Mara=^.^=]

Is there a rivalry between the two? I know like nothing about Ivy League schools and their relationships to each other. Lol

 

Oh, nothing like that — this is strictly personal experience. Being in the Ivy League gave me a chance to mingle with some of these "star pupils". Every student I met from Yale was a clown-car level bozo. Not so for the other universities.

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Katia11]

Ah! Gotchya! I can see why you can't take it seriously then! LOL

[SweeneyxxTodd]

Lol you're not missing anything by not reading Shadow and Bone. I read the first book and was pretty meh about it until the ending, which was exciting and made me temporarily forget how mediocre the first 3/4 of the book was. Then I read the first chapter or two of the second book and remembered how much I couldn't stand the two main characters and was like "lol not worth it" and DNF'd the series. I was reluctant to try Six of Crows for a long ass time because of how much I didn't like Shadow and Bone. But man that duology is SO much better. Oodles and oodles better.

[Mara=^.^=]

So Tim and I had a really interesting conversation last night about prose. We were arguing, essentially, over the sentence structure in a particular passage of a novel. We had wildly different opinions on the best way to rewrite one of the sentences, and in explaining why he thought his version was superior, he accidentally said something that took me completely by surprise.

 

When Tim reads books, he imagines himself in the body of the POV character, like he's playing a first person shooter or something. Their eyes are his eyes. Whereas when I read a book, my mind's eye is disembodied, like I'm watching a movie scene. I am physically distinct and spatially separated from the POV character. This holds true even if the novel is written in the first person.

It turns out that this shift in perspective heavily colors our interpretation of what a "good" sentence looks like. Someone inhabiting the body of the protagonist is going to be interested in a fundamentally different set of descriptors than someone "watching" the protagonist take an action. It just...never occurred to me that readers orient themselves differently in imaginary space. I finally understand why bland POV characters are so popular. Readers are literally piloting them like a mech!

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Katia11]

Huh. See, I feel like I am more detached when I read too. I'd describe it like watching a movie as well. I think that's why when characters die I don't tend to feel as affected.


But I have always struggled with sentence structure, so I tend to not notice as much. For me it's more about the picture created. That's the best way I can describe it at least.

[Mara=^.^=]

I've talked to two other people about this over the course of the day, and one of them sees through the eyes of the POV character, like Tim, and one of them watches the action as though it were a movie scene, like me. I wonder how common each perspective is?

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[ShadRose17]

I've talked to two other people about this over the course of the day, and one of them sees through the eyes of the POV character, like Tim, and one of them watches the action as though it were a movie scene, like me. I wonder how common each perspective is?

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

I feel like I do both, depending on how the story is actually written!

[SweeneyxxTodd]

I think I also tend to imagine the action in third-person? I guess? I don't know that I've ever paid attention really to the way I picture the action in my mind's eye, but thinking now about some books I've read and imagining the scenes I remember, they're all coming up third person/detached sorta.

Out of curiosity, what was the passage and how did you each think it should be improved?

[Mara=^.^=]

I think I also tend to imagine the action in third-person? I guess? I don't know that I've ever paid attention really to the way I picture the action in my mind's eye, but thinking now about some books I've read and imagining the scenes I remember, they're all coming up third person/detached sorta.

Out of curiosity, what was the passage and how did you each think it should be improved?

I don't have the text verbatim - the primary disagreement was whether an action or the thing that prompted the action should be the focus of the sentence. I.E. which comes first - the descriptive visual component or the internal emotional component?

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Mara=^.^=]

All of us in our secret hearts, in our empty moments of contemplation, stumble into the understanding that nothing matters. There's a cold shock of realisation and, in that moment, we know that nothing at all is of the least consequence. Ultimately, we're all just spinning our wheels, seeking to avoid pain until the clock winds down and our time is spent. To give someone purpose is to free them, however briefly, from the spectre of that knowledge.



This book contains multitudes. At its bedrock lies an archetypal struggle that has played out a thousand times in a thousand stories, but the details of the thing are so intricate, so strange, that you cannot help but be swept up by it. It's not the first book I've read about an infinite library, but it's definitely the most interesting. The characters are compelling. The setting is compelling. The mystery is thematically rich. And of COURSE it ends on a fucking cliffhanger.

If you're at all interested in the ethics of dangerous knowledge, do yourself a favor — hold your breath, and dive in.

5 stars.

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Katia11]

I have been eyeing this one, but I've been a little tentative because I read one of his earlier books, and it was sort of meh for me. But now, I really want to give it a try.

[Mara=^.^=]

I have been eyeing this one, but I’ve been a little tentative because I read one of his earlier books, and it was sort of meh for me. But now, I really want to give it a try.

 

I had the same experience. I tried an earlier book and it was too needlessly grimdark for my taste, and the characters were evil assholes. Fortunately, it seems the author has a reputation for writing series that are incredibly different from one another. He even mentions on his website that if you liked or hated one of his series, you are unlikely to hold the same opinion about another.

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Katia11]

Now I have to know... which series was it? 

 

But wow. It's impressive that his books are all that different! 

[Mara=^.^=]

The downside, of course, is that book 3 won't come out for another year at least. No idea if book 2 is gonna be a disappointment after how much I liked book 1, but we'll find out soon enough since I'm starting it in a day or two.

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Katia11]

The downside, of course, is that book 3 won't come out for another year at least. No idea if book 2 is gonna be a disappointment after how much I liked book 1, but we'll find out soon enough since I'm starting it in a day or two.

That's fair. Hopefully book two is just as good! Or at least, isn't terrible.

[Mara=^.^=]

Now I have to know... which series was it? 

 

But wow. It's impressive that his books are all that different! 

 

I started Prince of Thorns and just couldn't get past the rape stuff. NO THANKS. Never finished it.

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Katia11]

Oh, yeah. Yikes. I definitely won't be picking that one up any time soon.

[Mara=^.^=]

The greater tragedy of our world is not the victims of cruelty, but that so many of those victims would, given the opportunity, stand in the shoes of their oppressors and wield the same whip with equal enthusiasm.



I was really looking forward to this book, but unfortunately it did not live up to expectations. I understand that this is a time travel story, with people sliding back and forth across the centuries, but at a certain point you need to have your main characters occupy the same space or their relationship with one another cannot progress. Livira — the audacious, brilliant, action-oriented protagonist of the first book — is largely absent from this one, even though it was her book that wouldn't burn, and her book that broke the world. I didn't hate the new POV characters or anything; I just found myself repeatedly wishing that I were reading about Livira instead. The ending splits her and her love interest apart yet again mere hours after they are FINALLY reunited, which made me want to tear my hair out.

Overall, I think my biggest problem with the sequel is that it introduces additional chaos without substantively advancing the plot. Much of the story takes place in the past, and while the events that occur there serve to complicate the present, the whole thing feels like a distraction. I want to know what's going to happen to the characters I care about — characters who increasingly feel like flotsam adrift on the sea of a vast ideological struggle, with no control over their own destiny. I'm not sure how the author is going to tie all the disparate threads together in the final book, but I guess we'll wait and see.

2.5 stars , docked half a star for sheer disappointment.

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =