Timewaster's Guide Archive

I read a few drizzt books. That is more of a serial that goes on and on, than a series that has a specific end point. You don't really need to read all of them to get the jist of what he is doing. I thought the idea was better than the execution. I found the dark elf world a bit hollow and hard to believe. I kept wondering how every can be right and if there is constant warfare, and very few births why do they have such a big population?

Salvatore was ok. What he was trying to accomplish in his writing is not really what I like to read.

Well, to each their own. I agree, and as I said above (at least I think it was this thread), the Drizzt books do not have the complexity of like the WoT (or similar epic series), but for me it is a very fun read.

You can sit and analyze most series or books in general, writers are not perfect. But the idea is not to look too much into it and take it for what it is.  But if you don't enjoy reading those stories in the first place, I can understand not liking the books.

And you are right, right now they are more of a serialized story, with no specific end in sight.  Although I guess we could have said the same with the WoT 4-5 years ago.   However, of course eventually there is going to be end to the series, just like there is an end to everything.

And I am not reading them to get the gist of the series, but to experience the whole story. I know I am not going to get 'to the end' as there will be more, but I want to at least finish off what he has currently written up to as I will be seeing Salvatore at GenCon in less than a month and want to be caught up when going to his Q&A.

A reading lull is the exact opposite for myself, right now. With my long time off of not reading, I have fallen behind on quite a few books. After finishing my Drizzt books (only 7 more to go), I plan to finally start some of Brandon’s works (I think I’m going to start with Elantris). After completed with that, I will finally start my WoT reread.

So I have many months of reading yet to keep me busy.

Oh yes, then there is Way of Kings coming out, as well. But I think I may wait on that one for awhile. Last thing I want to do is start that series and then in book 3 or 4 the release time becomes longer and longer between books, like what happened with WoT. It really depends on how quickly Brandon puts them out, if they are released fairly quickly, it won’t be an issue.

Yes, that's what I plan on doing as once I start my re-read of WoT, it is going to be straight through. With maybe the exception of New Spring after book 5.

Hopefully by the time I finish my re-read (and new books I haven't read in the series), I will be finishing up with Towers of Midnight right around when A Memory of Light is released, or soon before it.

Chicago signing. Only a few hours away...

I’ll see you there!

Remember what I said in my earlier post, get there at least a good hour or so  early. And if getting early in line is important for you (short on time later in the evening), you will want to get yourself a wristband earlier on in the day.   

I loved 10/Crossroads of Twilight, but I read it knowing I'd have 11/Knife of Dreams to follow immediately after. I think a lot of the dissappointment around it is the whole "This is what we got after waiting years?" aspect. For people starting new or catching up again, I think it reads a lot better than it would have for someone on the bleeding edge of the series.

And yeah, I hated 9/Winter's Heart.

It depends whether you're won over by Mat at that stage, I think. Knife of Dreams focuses heavily on him and really develops his character, so if you haven't started laughing at him whenever he shows up by then, then you're not really going to like it.

Knife of Dreams also goes a lot faster than the previous books did, and reads a lot more like The Gathering Storm.

Ok, that's good. Sounds like I will have no issues with KoD as Mat was one of my favorite characters from early on.

Now can I ask why you didn't like Winter's Heart? Without giving a spoiler?

Ok, thanks Peter.

Yes, TGS made complete sense in rushing to get out. I remember Brandon saying one of the main reasons on why A Memory of Light was split into three books was because both Brandon and Harriet felt it was very important to get out a book by 2009 due to it was 4 years since KoD. And I agree.

And just to clarify, none of us are trying to come across as critical (at least speaking for myself) in putting out the books too soon. We only are saying we would rather Brandon be able to take that time to polish the book like he wants to than to keep that year timeframe. In a way, I am glad to know AMoL will ‘not’ be out in 2011. I am sure it has a lot to do with his other obligations as well, but I am guessing (hoping) part of it is because it is the final book and Brandon wants to make sure it is as ‘perfect’ as possible.

One thing Brandon has made clear in all his blog posts/interviews over and over is that the books are done right before they go to press. And from what I have heard of TGS, he is definitely in the right direction.

No, I never saw those death matches. I have never read Rothfuss, to be honest and did not hear about him until Comatose brought up he was reading The Name of the Wind.

But I do understand what you are getting at and I agree with you, it is not fair to another author to get a character (who is difficult to write) exactly right. But that being said, you still don't want to see large discrepancies with characters in a continuing series from one book to another. It would be one thing if another writer tried to write that more difficult character in a short story (like in your example of the battles), but if you are continuing the 'main' series (like WoT), you want those characters to flow from book to book as much as possible. It really is a tough situation for Brandon, because as you said, Mat is more difficult to write.

What is good is from what I hear is Brandon has done a good job with the rest of the cast (do you agree?) and whatever discrepancies with Mat does not detract from the overall great job that Brandon did. As I said, by the time I get to TGS, I most likely will not remember the issues with Mat and maybe will not even notice it.

Drizzt!  How can you stand that many.  I've read a fair number of his books, some parts are good, but he annoys me so much though!  I actually can't stand him.

100 pages to go in The Name of the Wind!  Someone broke into our house last night, and long story short, I ended up staying up until 3:00 reading.  I was almost asleep at 1:30, but then... Funny how things happen.

Oh, Drizzt is one of my favorite characters and Salvatore one of my favorite authors. A couple of the books are a bit slow, but it has nothing to do with Drizzt. I’m basically doing a reread of the entire series and as I said, have about 8 ½  books left. I have read...17 of them now within the last month and a half? Should have them done by the end of July.

These books are of course not as complex as the more epic series’ (like WoT), but they are fun reads.