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Crespolini posted:Edit: And also, it's not really a complaint of tactical realism for me, it's that it wasn't (imo) very satisfying storywise. Just too smoothly sailed, and much too much praise heaped on them for it. I felt like this might be deliberate, story wise, to make Leo betraying Orso later on feel especially twisty. Everything seems to be going so well for the characters we care about. Rikke rebuffed her enemies that even had Bayaz' help, so we sort of suspect things could keep going well and then Leo succeeds in saving Savine and Orso and it's like "awesome, all the pieces are on the board to rebuff Bayaz both in the Union and in the North and for all our protagonists to remain alive and repair their fractured relationships. And then Leo stabs Forest and things go to hell.
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Sep 18, 2021 01:21
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That is a criticism I agree with. Keeping so much from the reader. Rikkes whole POV only works because her whole plan is hidden from the reader. That’s not normally how the povs work in these books, usually we know what the character knows. Not so here, I’m not sure if I agree with that decision as far as consistency goes, but Joe kind of wrote himself into a corner here. It was either leave the reader in the dark or dispense with all suspense.
Ccs fucked around with this message at 04:35 on Sep 19, 2021 |
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Sep 19, 2021 04:32
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Modernish cities in fantasy can usually remain interesting if they diverge in their own way from our history, or have weird fiction elements grafted on. However Joe seems to stick pretty close to history except that there is occasionally a guy who can light people on fire or something.
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Sep 20, 2021 00:39
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I dunno, it didn't have huge magical explosions but I think Joe has gotten better and better at making the books a page turner from the start. So many people fail to get into The Blade Itself because its sort of slow and meandering for long periods as we get to know the characters. They have their own goals which we hopefully get invested in, but its nothing like pacing of these books where characters are immediately hurtling forward on very complicated trajectories. Part of it is that readers are already familiar with the world (probably) but also each book has an arc and major events that cap off each arc. I think the tower section is the most dramatic part of this book. It's the whole reason for Broad's character. Everything after that seems like part of the denouement and the supernatural doesn't play as big a part which is a bit of a let down after 3 books of also hardly any magic happening.
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Sep 20, 2021 18:13
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Genghis Cohen posted:I did think some of the set pieces were great and the prose was better than any of his early stuff. I'm just getting a bit sick of all arseholery and how every big win/loss is the result of some bit of treachery. I think the author under-portrays the effects of simple competence (incompetence is portrayed as ubiquitous and lovingly described) and circumstance in how wars and politics produce results. There was some mention of public opinion, but mostly in how it could be manipulated by Savine. I've found reading KJ Parker to be a less immediately enjoyable experience but he's similar to Abercrombie except that he provides both sides of a conflict a measure of dignity. Usually the reasons one side collapses over the other is due to things no one could have seen coming, or linked to a very specific tragic flaw, and not just "total incompetence." Competence is so rare in an Abercrombie book its like a superpower.
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Sep 20, 2021 21:05
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Yeah Parker reused a lot of ideas and names and concepts between books. It might all be part of the same world, or it might just be the toy box he empties to build his worlds are all from the same parts. He has specific themes he wants to explore that differ between books though all tend to be a bit grim. Sixteen Ways has a sequel and a third one is coming out soonish, though they’re more contained than most books that are part of a series.
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Sep 21, 2021 00:20
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It felt like Broad was basically Logen with a family, minus the semi-supernatural Berserker rage. Instead he just takes off his eyeglasses. I dunno, I felt like his perspective was sort of useful in the narrative just for showing certain necessary scenes. I don't find any of his chapters boring. I don't think Abercrombie has written a boring chapter in this trilogy. But I did find his arc fairly nonexistent, treading the same ground that had been trod before. Just "man of violence finds he's unable to escape violence. At least his family isn't dead."
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Sep 28, 2021 21:37
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Pron on VHS posted:So Rikkes vision at the end suggests Hildi will grow up to be a John Rockefeller or Andrew Carnegie sort of figure? Yeah. And then hopefully drive a big train over Leo. Maybe hire a Snidley Whiplash type to tie him to the train tracks.
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Oct 6, 2021 04:37
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The Heroes is good.
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Oct 8, 2021 01:01
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It does seem like a major theme of these books are “better things aren’t possible” so it sort of fits.
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Oct 11, 2021 17:35
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Are there any fantasy authors who have written successful proletariat revolution stories? Even China Mieville, avowed socialist, didn't have his proletariat win. He just turned it into a metaphor about how the ideal revolution is always imminent but will never arrive.
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Oct 11, 2021 21:26
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Ainsley McTree posted:Catching up on the thread after finally finishing the book; I saw a bunch of people mentioning KJ parker, any particularly recommended starting places for his works? I can see he has a bunch of trilogies but I can't tell if you're supposed to read them in chronological order or not I think The Engineer trilogy is his best long trilogy, followed closely by Two of Swords which was a serial that became compiled into a trilogy. His best book imo is The Folding Knife. It's a quick read so it could give you a good sense whether you'll like Parker.
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Oct 14, 2021 19:19
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KJ Parker's books are always my go to. The Engineer trilogy, in particular.
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Oct 22, 2021 19:42
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KJ Parker is real good but I didn’t think he really had the goods yet in Fencer. Wasn’t until Engineer that he was able to truly gently caress over the reader with some revelations, and then he got really good with The Folding Knife before pulling back a bit. His recent stuff since Savages is positively lighthearted compared to early Parker. Also in the main fantasy thread we’ve been talking a lot about the Commonweal series which I think would appeal to Abercrombie fans for it’s crazy wizards and military tactics. Not as strong characterization though, everything is a bit opaque.
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Nov 2, 2021 01:48
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Yeah it reminds me a bit of Malazan in that magic is everywhere and also I have a hard time getting a grip on any of the characters. But it’s not as long as Malazan so an easier read. Aside from Abercrombie, Christopher Buehlman is probably my favourite fantasy author although his best books are categorized as horror. I don’t know if there’s that many similarities between the two authors though or if they’re both just really good in their own ways.
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Nov 2, 2021 03:08
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Buehlman cites Abercrombie as a major influence for his recent The Blacktongue Thief. The voice of the main character reminds me a lot of one of Abercrombie's characters. And his "Between Two Fires" has the kind of brutal battle scenes I think any Abercrombie fan would enjoy. Commonweal is more of a stretch. But the military stuff plus the powerful wizards of whom there are only a few (a lot of people have magic in that world but only a few are of legendary status) showing up to possibly help, possibly further their own plans gave me an Abercrombie vibe. But I haven't finished the first book and it definitely has its own thing going on.
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Nov 2, 2021 17:57
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The protagonists were younger, so I guess they figured it'd do better as YA.
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Feb 9, 2022 18:46
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I reread the first two books in the most current trilogy in the lead up to the third but I don’t think I’ll reread the third ever. I mean I blitzed through it so it’s not like it wasn’t engagingly written, but there were just aspects that didn’t work for me. I think Joe is taking the right approach by taking a break from The First Law world now.
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Apr 24, 2022 17:17
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He’s gotten better at writing female characters and probably better at pacing but lost a bit of the magic of the setting. Possibly because he was growing bored with the world.
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Apr 25, 2022 03:27
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Sounds like he had some tv stuff in progress…
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May 4, 2023 02:53
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gently caress, I loved that guy in Rome. He would have been excellent as any number of characters in an Abercrombie adaptation.
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May 24, 2023 03:13
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I think Abercrombie said somewhere that Graham McTavish would be perfect for Bayaz. It helps that he’s a fan https://www.reddit.com/r/TheFirstLaw/comments/117guj1/actor_graham_mctavish_reading_an_excerpt_from_the/
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May 26, 2023 03:39
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Hey cool. Hope they pull it off
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May 31, 2023 01:49
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Yeah the new trilogy fell apart a bit at the end. It wasnt bad but it felt like the whole Bayaz thing is running out of steam so maybe after Joe spends some time in a new world he can come back to First Law and conclude the whole Bayaz thing. Three trilogies is a good length for a series.
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Jul 1, 2023 23:42
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I reread the first two books of the latest trilogy before the last book came out and they’re good but they are also a promise of something the final one doesn’t deliver. Whereas Last Argument of Kings definitely delivered on what the first two books promised. Abercrombie is better at shaping books because each of the first two is more satisfying than the individual books of the first trilogy were but he didn’t have as good an idea of what he wanted to do with the final book so the trilogy as a whole is weaker.
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Jul 27, 2023 20:24
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I've been watching The Last Kingdom recently and while I think it's a series that anyone who is a fan of Abercrombie's works would enjoy, it also has Simon Kunz as the perfect Bayaz.  quick file upload I've heard Graham McTavish as a possible perfect casting for Bayaz before, but I think this guy's acting is a cut above. He can't play as commanding as Bayaz in The Last Kingdom since his role as Odda is an advisor to a king who is actually just an advisor and not a puppetmaster, but it's almost there.
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Sep 18, 2023 02:47
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I was watching a roundtable discussion with Succession's British writing staff and realized how much The Age of Madness characters remind me of the cast of Succession. Leo is Tom, Savine is Shiv, Orso is Kendall, and Bayaz is of course Logan. Not quite 1 to 1 but close enough to comment on.
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Nov 16, 2023 03:00
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Looking forward to reading The Devils. As for the film, I hope it does get shot and released one day but considering the state of the industry, upcoming potential IATSE labor action, etc, I’m not holding my breath. I work in vfx and the downturn in the industry over the past year as well as the extremely uncertain future due to AI and reduced budgets and consolidation has driven a few of my colleagues to homelessness and even a couple to suicide. Film is in a bad place.
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Mar 2, 2024 05:30
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Monica Bellucci posted:Oh, have y'all read The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman? Y'should. Yes, its very good. I find that Abercrombie's recent stuff actually might appeal to me less that Buehlmans works. Like I tried to read the preview for Abercrombie's newest book "The Devils" and the tone is just a bit too... everybody is so nakedly self serving, but in a way that doesn't make them feel like full human beings. Whereas Buehlman's characters have more of an emotional gamut that comes through in the tone of the writing. Buehlman also has a lot more range as a writer, with Between Two Fires, The Necromancers House, The Lesser Dead, and The Blacktongue Thief all going for radically different things.
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Apr 18, 2024 03:18
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