I want to be able to judge you not so silently AND commiserate over the weirdly addictive crack. Why will you not allow me to do both? I AM BEING OPPRESSED. Or something.
DO NOT READ K.J. PARKER. You will be impressed by the first 100 pages and then frustrated and increasingly infuriated by the rest of the trilogy. Whichever trilogy it is.
yhlee has some posts on them if you want to skim her journal. But basically they set up this really intriguing situation and then ... never improve? It's hard to describe! But I know at least three people, including me, who thought they were AWESOME for about a hundred pages and then got progressively more unhappy about them with each page.
Coincidentally, I'm about halfway through Devices and Desires (Engineer Trilogy book 1) right now. I'm... on the fence. On the one hand, it's nothing if not interesting. But engaging? Not sure. I think the two problems I have are 1) I seem to like most of the characters better than the author/narrative voice does (not hard, since the author/narrative voice seems to be looking down his/her nose at the lot of them), and 2) Parker is going out of Parker's way to withhold one key bit of info from me — fine in a locked room mystery, I suppose, but in a novel about the actions of one man, essentially, after the umpteenth reference to "what [he] wanted to accomplish" without ever actually letting me know what he wanted to accomplish it's starting to require more and more effort to stay involved in the story in more than a detached/intellectual kind of way. Which may or may not be Parker's intention.
Dunno. Half the time I'm fascinated enough to go back to it, the other half I'm tempted to chuck it in favor of something else.
Actually, I had this response to D&D as well. I thought it was partly because the trilogy before (Scavenger) was brilliant and I was being critical, but maybe it's just flawed. I agree that the sleight of hand she does to keep certain elements out of your vision gets annoying. (I'm not sure it gets less in the rest of the series, but I stopped caring? Or I started really getting into the game of teasing out what the characters were about.) I'm not sure that she's looking down her nose so much brutally dispassionate, but it can amount to the same effect. I never really fall in love with Parker's characters, I just have a sort of horrified fascination about what they're going to do, to themselves and to others.
I enjoyed the trilogy and found it satisfying, but I don't think it's her best work.
Hmm. That helps me out a lot, actually. I very rarely read for interesting over engaging, so knowing that and trusting you as I do, I will probably avoid.
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Date: 2009-01-22 08:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-22 03:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2009-01-22 08:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2009-01-22 11:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-22 04:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-22 09:57 pm (UTC)(FWIW, I have picked up the books several times and then gone, "hmmmmm" and put them down.)
But they're so long and the covers look good and there's no scantily clad women on them! I just want books to read! /sulk
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Date: 2009-01-22 09:59 pm (UTC)Also, the female characters are awful.
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Date: 2009-01-22 10:05 pm (UTC)That's disappointing. Ah well, the quest for books continues.
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Date: 2009-01-22 05:24 pm (UTC)Dunno. Half the time I'm fascinated enough to go back to it, the other half I'm tempted to chuck it in favor of something else.
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Date: 2009-01-22 09:19 pm (UTC)I enjoyed the trilogy and found it satisfying, but I don't think it's her best work.
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Date: 2009-01-22 09:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-22 11:52 pm (UTC)And books!
*giggles*