the name of the wind

[mimesere]

so, I bought this book because...uh. Well, because it was there, mostly, and it was a nice thick book and the reviews were good and the back cover copy was suitably interesting.

you guys. you guys. it's really kind of pretentious. also in first person. also about a person who is kind of iffy on the ethics. also the first part of a trilogy. AUGH.

AUGH. DAMMIT. WHY DO PEOPLE PERSIST IN THIS NOTION THAT MORAL AMBIGUITY = "COMPLEXITY"? I HAVE YET TO SEE MORAL AMBIGUITY DONE IN A WAY THAT SAYS SOMETHING OTHER THAN, "LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME I'M A SELF-CENTERED, THOUGHTLESS ASSHOLE."

/grumpy

i'ma go read another ggk book. good people doing fucked up things ftw.

Comments

[nyagosstar.livejournal.com]

thank god you've written this. i've had no less than three people whose opinions about books i value, tell me i would love this. but the cover puts me off and i just, i'm all, *shrugs* about it.

and i hate first person. i feel like if i'm reading first person, it should be fanfiction and it should be for free.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

I didn't know it was first person when I bought it. If I had known, I wouldn't have bought it at all because I...do not like first person at ALL. I only really tolerate it in urban fantasy novels because I have a weakness for those and they don't seem to come in any other flavor.

But yeah, no, I read it, the first 3 pages were pretentious as all get out, it just got *more* pretentious and now I am damn sick of reading the same old fantasy over and over and over again. Brilliant (boy) child, grows up to be a marvel at everything, falls in love with a girl who is somehow at the heart of what goes horribly wrong, kills a king, and also there are elves/fae/what-have-you. CUT IT OUT, YOU GUYS. I would be afraid of spoiling it for you, but srsly, I could be talking about like ninety bazillion books with that. If it's not that book, it's prophecy born (boy) child, some great dark evil, big giant battle for the soul of the world. Boo.

[penmage.livejournal.com]

i'ma go read another ggk book. good people doing fucked up things ftw.

Holycow just finished Al-Rassan. So, very very yes.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

Al-Rassan is far and away my favorite, with A Song for Arbonne and then Tigana right behind.

[cupiscent.livejournal.com]

I keep picking that up in bookstores for similar reasons, but then I open it up and read a few sentences of "let me tell you the tale of my awesome" first person and I break out in Anne-Rice hives or something. I don't even know. I want to read it, but I just can't quite believe I'll enjoy it.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

It's not...bad.

It's just really really not what I like to read. Like, I was fooled by the first bits, which are 3rd person and I kind of glossed over the pretentious sounds of silence opening because whatever, prologues are sometimes that way, and then I got all excited and woo! about the fact that it was a meta narrative about telling stories and how those work and are exaggerated and whatnot and then...I ended up liking people who get a mention every 20 pages, if that, and are not really important to the story and hating everyone that *was* important.

And now I am all cranky because I got to the end and it repeated, word-for-word, the pretentious opening pages *and* it's the beginning of a trilogy with no publication date for the next book *and* the lead guy is kind of annoyingly self-centered and emo. Boo x100000000.

[kidchyron.livejournal.com]

Aw, I really quite loved that book... :-(

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

I can totally see how people would and how it got really good reviews! It's just...almost a checklist of Stuff What I Don't Like To Read. :(

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

I liked it a lot, actually. But the part that totally drove me crazy about was the female lead. UGH AUTHOR YOU CAN OBVIOUSLY WRITE GIRLS BECAUSE THERE WERE ANOTHER THREE OR FOUR WHO I LIKED SO WHY DO YOU HAVE TO GO WITH THE MYSTERIOUS AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL AND UNIQUE AND UNATTAINABLE ALL MEN LOVE HER ALL WOMEN HATE HER ~~~~SPECIAL CLICHE FOR HER.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

Augh, the female lead made me insane. Pretty much the whole book made me insane.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Why couldn't he have fallen in love with the moneylender? I liked her. EVen the bizarre woman-child was okay.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

I liked the moneylender! Also the woman from the Archives! And yes, the crazy girl who lived underground. So many other awesome women, but no, he falls for the unattainable beautiful everyone-loves-her one. Of course he does. Bah.