Melche posted:

I kinda wanna reiterate what I said earlier, because I think a lot of people are complaining about the wrong things and the defences are pretty valid. I dislike this book because it follows one character through his early life, as he apparently matures into the legendary hero he's gonna become. It's entirely character based. And yet, there's no character development whatsoever.

I don't dislike it because he's too perfect, or constantly talks about how awesome he is. That's intentional. He's a narcissistic prodigy who spent his early life training with a troupe of actors and has an obsession with mythologising himself. That's fine, and could have worked really well.

I don't dislike it because of the occasionally retardedly florid writing, or goony goony atttitudes towards women or any of that other crap, because those are bad, but the sort of flaws that loads of books have and you overlook if it's engaging enough.

But, I really think it is objectively bad. I'm saying it basically fails fundamentally at what it's trying to do, with the complete failure to develop a character or have any of his experiences meaningfully affect him. Makes the book completely substance-less. The whole book sort of felt like an introduction, like I was kind of pissed off at the end that the writing had been good enough to string me along for the whole book without ever developing into something substantial.

It's a shame because like people have said, when he isn't going overboard the writing is pretty good. I kind of wish he'd written a self-contained book or two (I don't know if he has?) before diving straight into some three-book magnum opus epic. Because this book might have been good if he had a bit more experience of structure and character, but I think he hasn't given himself much to work with. Felt very style-over-substancy. (I don't know nearly enough about writing to make that assessment, that's just kind of what it feels like).