The books are pretty recent (2008 if the inside covers can be believed) and they feel like the dude who wrote them is kind of new to big-time writing. The story is really good, and it's got magic and swords and people acting all crazy, which means it's right up my alley. But there are some parts that are weird, and just feel kind of awkward.
For instance, the author uses the word "fuck" and various derivations thereof even more than Slick. That's a lot of cursing. I mean, I like cursing as much as the next guy, but at some point it just gets gratuitous. Heh heh, that's a fun word. Also, in the 3rd book there are something like 100 chapters for 700 pages. It's not like we're talking a Dan Brown ratio (where you can sometimes get 3 or 4 chapters in a single page) but that's a little silly.
The good parts are the fact that it's got people that have magic. Yeah, I'm a pretty big nerd. Or geek. Whichever one is better. And in the end, the good guys win, which is pretty much all the time in this genre. I think a funny joke would be to write a book series and have this elaborate buildup for like 3 books, and then the bad guys win in the end. I bet people would flip. Hmmm, maybe I have something to do this summer. Right, back to the book. I guess all the characters that aren't the "main" character are pretty awesome too. Sometimes it was weird because there were a bunch of chapters in a row that didn't even touch on the main guy. Of course, that was only like 20 pages, but it's still weird to leave out the star. It might have been a good plan to ignore him temporarily though, because sometimes he was a jackass and made me wish he would die.
In the long run, it ends up being a pretty good sci-fi/fantasy tale. It's not nearly as long-winded as The Wheel of Time and it actually came out unlike the last 3 books of A Song of Ice and Fire (fuckin' George R. R. Martin. . .), so it's got that going for it. Seriously, what is Martin's game? I swear I read A Feast for Crows right around when I moved to Munsing, and that was a long time ago. At least Robert Jordan has an excuse for delaying his books, what with his being deceased and whatnot. Martin is just being a fat, hairy douche.*
Where was I? Oh right, The Night Angel. Pretty good books. Not exactly up to Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn books, but I'm glad Amazon suggested them.
Final verdict? If you like any of the other books I've mentioned here, you will probably like these ones as well. They will help you kill time until Martin gets off his ass and publishes A Dance With Dragons, or the last Wheel of Time books come out in paperback.
-Jon
*I already knew Martin was fat and hairy before I wrote this, so it doesn't count as research. Also, I hope his Wikipedia page doesn't change the picture at any time soon, because then my link will look stupid.
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