karpatpromo6b81

So this book was recommended to me, touted as being the greatest fantasy book ever. I treat these types of claims with complete skepticism and expect them to EARN that designation. This one, very simply, didn't. Not to say it was a bad book. The writing was clean. A few grammatical and factual details were missed in editing. No big deal. The biggest problem I have though was it's trying so hard to be different and unique... Except it's completely mundane and irrelevant. The story doesn't begin for a hundred or so pages. There is a massive focus on the mundane. The author tries so hard to convince us that he's just a normal innkeeper. But we all know that's not true. Once he finally delves into the past, the author spends a lot of time manufacturing a world for us, and has to lay that world out. It's as if to show us how clever he is, how exacting his descriptions are. Yes, he has thought up some extravagant explanations. And they're all really, really boring. And not always relevant. Now the story does go through some great action. As I said, it's not really poorly written. But how often do we read about the extremely bright orphan who overcomes poverty and adversity? Now obviously since this is first of a trilogy, and it reads as a novel that is first of a trilogy, there's a lot more of the past for us to discover, as well as there will, hopefully, be something of substance happening in the present. Overall, if you like standard fantasy, go for it. But as I discovered and enjoyed both Lord of the Rings and Dragonlance at a young age, I do expect other fantasy novels to wow me. This one hasn't done it yet.

2022-10-29 03:24