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Bleak House is about as interesting as its title suggests.

@Kino:

I'm sad that you didn't get as much enjoyment from the Lord of the White Hell as I'd hoped, but am glad you're liking it enough to read the second volume. You may enjoy the next installment more. It has both more vivid action and more tenderness compared to the misunderstanding that plagues the relationship in the first one.

I've been rereading this duology for fun, and am realizing how much I adore it. But, you know, different strokes. As much as I liked it, I see your points.

Plenty of readers finished Wicked Gentlemen and picked up Hale's next work expecting, like I did, something else with the same somber brevity, tension, and elegance. Instead we found this much lighter -- and frankly, slower -- work. The pace in book one doesn't pick up until at least halfway through. I didn't mind it much, though obviously a slow pace is burdensome.

I get what you mean about the boarding school setting. I was thrown off at first because based on the description, I expected more social conflict and power struggles among the upperclassmen. I also expected more swashbuckling.

I am curious what you liked about the book. For the setting, my favorite things are the nuances of the religion and culture that the characters live with, and the rather novel take on magical powers.

More:


As I've come to see how our tastes both overlap and differ, I wondered what you'd think of this story. It's not very surprising that you didn't like it as much. You often say you prefer a strong pace with a lot of things happening, and as you pointed out this story was slow to escalate. Either way, it's understandable if it wasn't your cup of tea. I myself didn't truly warm to it until close to the end of book one.

If you haven't already read Wicked Gentlemen, my guess is that you'd enjoy it more for it's fluid, poignant style.

I finished "out of the silent planet" "perelandra" and "that hideous strength" by C.S. Lewis. I thought the series as a whole was much better than the chronicles of narnia series, although almost everyone sees fit to compare all his works with it.

@Lord of the White Hell

I had to wait for a few days for the second book to arrive, and during that lull I was pleasantly surprised to find Javier and Kiram dominating my thoughts. In retrospect I was a bit harsh on the book, perhaps due to my disappointment than any real dislike. I think coming down from the George RR Martin books I was carrying loftier expectations of writing quality. My little small-press gay wizard books are delicious, but I'll be the first to admit they have a rather "fic-like" writing quality. That's fine, it's just something to adapt to, and as you well admit the first part of the book was rather slow.

I immensely enjoyed the last quarter of the book. Perhaps when I finish the second book (which I intend to do today with the hurricane coming) I'll have more to say.

Oh I also finished Prisoner by Megan Derr, but more on that later.

*rubs hands together* Ok :3 Time to chat about some books.

1st to Die
I finally finished it, Scy. I got into a murder-mystery mood on Thursday and finally finished up the book last night. It was good. Not SERIOUSLY OMG good, but it was enjoyable. I just felt that more time could have been placed in the characters. The book just didn't delve all that deeply into them. It did it's job, enough for me to feel remorse about a certain death. I think I also just didn't like the case. It was kinda bland and boring. No twists or turns kinda thing, at least none that weren't predictable.

Still, I will say that the Epilogue was just about the best thing that happened in the whole damn book and I loved it.

I think the characters were also "cookie-cutter". Honestly, I felt like I was just being introduced to a cast pulled right off of SVU: Special Victims. Lindsay as Olivia, Claire as the one black lady whose name escapes me, and so forth and on. *shrugs* Seriously, it irritates me. Dan Brown gets nothing but shit for his characters, which I always thought were good, and no one dares rag on James Patterson if all his characters are like this?! Well, it is one book and maybe things do get better. Or maybe I'd enjoy the Alex Cross series more (I do SO love the movies...)

Anyways, not a remarkable book, but it had its moments, and I would probably purchase the next in the series in hopes it got better. If it doesn't, I doubt I'd get a third.

Eon
So, I ended up giving in to temptation and just bloody purchased this damn book. I'm not that far into it and so far the only thing I can say is: disappointing. One of those books where I read the back of the book, imagined it as one thing and it turns out it was something completely different. Normally when this happens it's a good difference for the better, but not this book.

The main character is fucking STUPID and what's worse is the author wants you to feel that in her world she is very smart. ....

And then: INFO DUMP INFO DUMP INFO DUMP INFO DUMP. @_@ S-stop...
But then the parts that I wouldn't mind getting a little info I get absolutely nothing....

*sigh* Still, it's a highly reviewed book all the same so there must be something good in it... I'll... just have to force myself to read it. x_x But it's seriously not what I was expecting. I feel very cheated.


Miss Peregrin's Home for Peculiar Children
:3 Purchased this book after it had been spotlighted on the B&N Unbound Blog. Now, when I got it, I had a huge backlog of other books that I was far more interested in and the book just... sat there. I read the first chapter, liked what I saw, but was not very keen on picking it up just yet.

At the same time my dad finished book 3 of Temeraire and, him not realizing that there was a book 4 and that I had it, went off looking for another book to read, and since that was the first one on his Daily Shelf, that was the one he opened. Now, you have to understand my dad. He is a reader, yes. But he's not like us. He's the kind that reads maybe five or six books during the year if he gets time and I'm often left wondering "did you even enjoy the damn book?!" I have since learned that: if my dad finishes a book, he enjoyed it. Don't expect him to give ratings or even talk about it.

I knew he liked Temeraire because when we were discussing the second book he mentioned a funny scene that struck him and that was really the whole of the conversation. "I enjoyed this bit." "Yeah, anything else?" "Yeah, it's a pretty decent book." ".... *sigh* Well, umm, glad you are enjoying it then!"

^_^ I mean, I have to remember that it was his books that I enjoyed most. I would raid his drawers to get his books he had already read. At some point, though, I outread him. He now comes to me when asking about books. To be honest, when recommending, the best I can do for this guy is to remember what books I found in his drawers when I was growing up and to recommend based on that line. "Do you like fantasy?" "It's alright." "Murder mysteries? (he is my NCIS buddy, afterall)" "If they are any good, I suppose."

Now, I prattle on about these things for a REASON. So with that being said: my dad actually WANTED to talk about this book, but when I confessed I hadn't read it yet it surprised him. ^_^; It was kinda cute. The entire time he's reading the book he would mention to me randomly, "I still can't believe I'm reading a book before you." "Yeah, and is it any good?" "I don't want to give anything away, but yeah, it's pretty decent." But the way he said "pretty decent" wasn't like his other times. There was EMOTION in this "pretty decent". o_o OMG MY DAD'S ENJOYING A BOOK!! HE'S ACTUALLY ENJOYING THE BOOK!!!

:3 And he finished it! In record timing even (considering it usually takes him a few months, he finished this one in about a month). And now that I'm reading it... I can see WHY he enjoyed the book.

My GOD this is just a DAMN GOOD BOOK!!! And I get now why he was having such issues wanting to discuss the book - you can't really without giving anything away.

So, you'll just have to deal with my funny family story here and go on my word that this book is highly recommended. READ THIS BOOK!!!

I'm not done with it yet, I'm savoring it. It's one of those books where I really don't want to rush it. It's not a normal book, either. I couldn't even begin to compare it to other books I've read in the past. :3 Still, it really is just absolutely fun to read.

Prisoner by Megan Derr?

Awful.

Like, shockingly.

I enjoyed the hell out of Midnight and thought it a very cute and entertaining book full of fantastic world-building and well designed, deep characters. It had a few cliches, but on the whole was just so imaginative, especially Devlin's rune magic and pseudo-Victorian society, complete with respectable vampires. And the whole "zombie" element -- it was just so well done. I was really eager to get into Prisoner since I'd heard so many good things about it.

I really did not enjoy reading it.

The world-building was weak. Extremely weak. There was some promise of depth, and a few very unique elements, like the Salharan magic system, but on the whole I found the landscape very generic and lifeless. I have no idea what the three kingdoms are supposed to be like, other than a very basic and cursory understanding. The few unique aspects of each culture were the only ones mentioned, and I have no grasp of each society's technology level, fashion standards, gender relations, societal customs, architectural or artistic styles, or political organization beyond, again, the most basic. Compared to Midnight, this came as a huge shock, and definitely hurt the story.

My mental images of Prisoner's setting is flat and lifeless. Generic snowy forest, generic clothes, generic people. I can scarcely believe how incredibly one-dimensional the characters were, either. On top of that, I completely disliked the main character and the main romance. The only two characters I liked quickly disappeared into the background in the last half of the book, to my extreme disappointment. I genuinely enjoyed reading about Sol and Iah, and I found them the most interesting characters with the deepest

The actions of the characters veered wildly between utterly irrational and completely boring and predictable. The bad guys were BAD capital B filled with hatred and defeated by their own hubris more than the cunning or skill of the protagonists. The antagonists acted without logic. Supposedly skilled undercover spies acted with complete disregard for any sense of subtly, caution, or simple logic. Maybe if you're a foreigner in a foreign court trying to blend in, you shouldn't go around speaking your foreign language and then acting surprised when that blows your cover. Characters switched sides just because other characters asked them to do so.

And I'll turn my scathing disappointment now to the main characters. The Scarlet General, Dieter von Adolwulf, is constantly beating and strangling and throwing Beraht the smart-mouthed Salharan assassin around. The Prisoner of the title refers to Beraht, who is completely unsympathetic and repulsive as a narrator, yet the story kept trying to compel me to feel sorry for him. The General is at least mildly interesting, especially once his backstory gets fleshed out, but his casual violence and overt hostility to Beraht rubbed me completely the wrong way. I'm not entirely opposed to love-hate, but Prisoner took it to the extreme I certainly did not enjoy myself reading about these two.

Sol and Iah, as I mentioned, were far more likable and sympathetic. I would have preferred the entire story be about those two. Iah has been cruelly blinded at the story's beginning, and his adjustment to that fact is decently rendered but sadly not explored. At first Sol and Iah's narrative is as central as Beraht and the General's, but that quickly and abruptly changes in the second half of the book.

Minor characters include Esta, Iah's sister, who I can only assume is supposed to be likable but comes across as an immature brat. She whacks and glares and threatens everyone, including the crown prince and a powerful duke, but that's okay because they all grew up together -- oh my god so painfully cliche. I wanted to claw my way into the book and scream at everyone to behave like adults. I do not enjoy reading about supposedly mature and powerful adults who act like 8 year old playground children.

Speaking on cliche, everyone laughed and winked and rolled eyes and lifted brows and laugh, did I mention the laughing? Like I tried to imagine the situation in which people would laugh that fucking much and failed. Derr couldn't have instead inserted some other reaction? She couldn't have flesh descriptions out more, and constructed characters and scenes that were more than just cardboard cutouts? It just made the whole story feel painfully dull and flat -- again, that's my huge complaint with Prisoner is that I very rarely felt sucked into the story.

Those flashes where I did lose myself in the book were wonderful and certainly showed the crafting promise that flourishes within Midnight, but were also pathetically short far between. I'm astounding that this book could have received such glowing praised, especially in comparison to Midnight. Arguably my own extreme revulsion is due in large part to that same comparison, but this isn't at all like my vague unhappiness with the first part of Lord of the White Hell -- my dislike of the Prisoner goes to the very core of the novel, which is the fact that it simply was not fun to read. I can't ever imagine feeling compelled to re-read it, and that's a damn shame.

I hope you haven't already bought it, Jubelon. I further hope that you don't read it an find my criticism in error, although if that's the case than good for you, sincerely, because I wanted to like the book so damn much.

On a more upbeat note, I did start and finish Lord of the White Hell Book Two yesterday. More on that later; the hour is late and I never intended to write as much about Prisoner as I did.

No, not at all, but I will always have a strong dislike of "overhype" (Harry Potter is great and all, but SERIOUSLY, IT'S BEEN DONE BEFORE!! Try some OTHER fantasy books - there's some great shit out there.). :3 But actually, I'm quite interested in several characters so far. Jon, Tyrion, and Dae-whatsit. Maybe Bran... we'll see how he shapes up.

Thanks for the heads up on Prisoner, Kino. That's a very solid criticism that is certainly more than just a matter of taste. I'm taking your advice into account. I doubt I'd read it and have an impression too much better, but I'd like to give it a read sometime.

I went ahead and ordered Midnight. I've been way behind on my reading, and I think that's hurt my writing as well as leaving me kind of bored and lonely. I've been saving money, but I want to add another book like that to have as well as my other list of unreads (why haven't I finished the latest Thomas Covenant books yet?).

Also, I have a Good Reads account now! Anyone who would like to, friend me or alert me if I can friend you (feel free to PM me your name)!

I've listed as many books as I can think of right now and put together a nice list of books to read, as well as a smaller wishlist. Organizing all that has gotten me in the spirit to go after these books I have waiting for me.

I still haven't taken up Melusine again. I think I was write in my suspicion that this series has a lot of overlap on the book I'm writing, and as such I'm not surprised I'm nervous to read further. I have decided, however, that I do want to read all of the Doctrine of Labyrinths.

I'm always up for another good reads friend! :3

here's my link: http://goodreads.com/pennamf

Thanks, Maxine. c: I added you.

I hope you enjoy Midnight! I haven't re-read yet (my opinion of a book can change drastically based on a re-read) but I really enjoyed it the first time around. There's definitely some unique magical elements in it. I do remember it was the tiniest bit slow to start, not as bad as Lord of the White Hell, but eventually I got hooked on it.

I'm still struggling through Counterpoint. I like the magic system, but the main characters are in this weird hate/lust master/slave-esque type interaction right now and it's straining my tolerance. The writing is solid and the world-building strong, so I'm definitely willing to read deeper, but I don't find myself consumed by thoughts of reading it. This may also be due to the fact I've started writing again, so that easily steals my free time.

As for the Prisoner -- yeah. Read it for yourself, definitely. There's half a decent story in there and a quarter of a really, really good story. It's such a shame! I haven't been able to find the order of her bibliography, so I'm not sure which is the earlier work.

@Maxine and Song of Ice and Fire

I hope you enjoy it. It's extraordinarily well-crafted fantasy, so if nothing else you can read it for the quality if not the story and its characters. You'll be had pressed to convince me there's a better mainstream fantasy epic. Martin is easily superior to both Goodkind and Jordan, but arguably the latter have the disadvantage of being washed-up and dead, respectively, and milked their series to the breaking point. I'll be interested to see how the HBO show and its huge influx of new readers survives the inevitable wait for book 6 -- and exactly how long that wait will be.