Peter V. Brett

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Gask

Bronze Baron of the Realm
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Well I decided to try it anyway... anything and everything having to do with Renna so far is making the read very trying for me; she's almost at WoT levels so far.Love You Arlen/ no one tells me what to do / I'm jealous! / her knife gripping is the new braid tug etc. Also, on top of all that for some reason her influence reverts Arlen's dialogue to hick mode. LoL anyways, here to the slim hope that she dies.
 
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Yup, annoying character. However the last was explained in the second book. As a messenger he learned many dialects and modes of speech and used whichever was appropriate to the location he was in. The second book said something about him returning to Tibbet's Brook and actually speaking like himself. Then at the end of 2 and the beginning of 3 he's accepted who he is, and starts going by Arlen Bales again. Who's dialect just happens to be hillbilly.
 

Gask

Bronze Baron of the Realm
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Then at the end of 2 and the beginning of 3 he's accepted who he is, and starts going by Arlen Bales again. Who's dialect just happens to be hillbilly.
Yes, I know but I just have a hard time believing that he so strongly identifies with that place that he would do this apart from when needing to blend in somewhere at need (and its unpleasant to read). He left that tiny village when he was a child, nearly all of his formative experiences happened in that city he ended up in, life as a messenger and his experiences in the desert. You would think that he would value some other time and place in his life more as an anchor for his character.

Oh well, its just a bit of double whammy alongside Renna's issues
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Yes, I know but I just have a hard time believing that he so strongly identifies with that place that he would do this apart from when needing to blend in somewhere at need (and its unpleasant to read). He left that tiny village when he was a child, nearly all of his formative experiences happened in that city he ended up in, life as a messenger and his experiences in the desert. You would think that he would value some other time and place in his life more as an anchor for his character.

Oh well, its just a bit of double whammy alongside Renna's issues
tongue.png
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Don't get me wrong, I detest Renna's character and her development or lack thereof. I am however happy to see a hero who actually sounds out of place when dealing with the better bred powers that be. Usually even if the protagonist starts out talking like that settings bumpkin they eventually move beyond it because of how intelligent/special/whatever they are. It is kind of refreshing to see one of them go "hey this is my hick accent and I'm owning it".
 

Gask

Bronze Baron of the Realm
11,732
44,077
I just got past the wedding bit. Please tell me it only gets better from here. :\
Sort of, Leesha will still be going around whining on and off for the rest of the book but the action at least starts to pick up and most of the Renna/Arlen crap is cut down compared to the first half of the book.

The story would have been much better without the interpersonal relationship garbage and the overwhelming supper powers. The relationship between Arlen/Renna is nails on chalkboard irritating and Leesha bounces between men like a ping pong ball. None of it is interesting in anyway whatsoever and only serves to add copious amounts of filler to the book. The powers make every encounter a forgone conclusion with obligatory token moments of danger sprinkled in here and there for flavor, it kills any tension that might be had and leads to some ridiculously anti climatic victories.

The only characters that I like in this tale are the bard, Amman and Jadir. Rogers interaction with his wives is entertaining and his power is a bit different and unreliable, Amman is probably the most sensible and realistic person in the book (it makes him interesting, it's a pity he has only a few chapters but the ones he does have are fantastic) and Jadir while a superman he spends most of his pov administrating his government and guiding his people. Everyone else feels like a stereotype of the story thus far; nearly everyone is willing to turn to violence at the drop of a dime at any moment and for any perceived insult or reason. Hardly anyone is rational, reasonable or thoughtful and it makes for a bland story, the only way that I could finish it was to liberally skim past much of the bloat and nonsense.

A possible way to have improved the tale would have been to expand upon the coreling consorts/princes pov and develop them more. It would have been interesting to get a view of their realm and its connection to Earth from their perspective beyond the usual predator prey/slavering demon thing. Plus it would have provided some much needed breaks from the main characters and their foibles. Also devoting almost half the book to events that already took place in the previous novels was a mistake; Jadir's first wife isn't interesting or unique enough from the picture already painted of the damma'ting to warrant the page count given her and could have been done in a much briefer fashion. That said, her pov was much better than either Leesha or Renna's because at least she had goals and concerns beyond a tedious love interest.
 

Superhiro

Silver Knight of the Realm
439
43
To be quite honest, this book was shit. Arlen has just become annoying as hell, with Renna multiplying that by 100x. The fight/battle scenes are weak, the structure of the story doesn't make any sense and was terribly done. His few redeeming characters don't get enough POV chapters, and the corelings are just becoming boring.
 
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I don't see the big difference between this book and the first two. Outside of the ward/coreling living experience Brett didn't bring anything amazing or new in the first or second book. His characters have pretty much kept to what they were in the first two novels as well. Its decent, nothing great. Which is what I expected after reading the Painted Man/Desert Spear. Some of you folks are acting like some dramatic fall off in quality happened when all I see is more middle of the road work. Something to tide you over until some better stuff comes along.
 

Superhiro

Silver Knight of the Realm
439
43
I saw potential in the first two books. The first started off pretty lame but got better towards the end. The second book was two steps forward and one step back in his progress as a writer. I liked learning about Jadir and the Krasian culture, but the other characters pov's were hit and miss. The third book just sucked.
 

Gask

Bronze Baron of the Realm
11,732
44,077
I saw potential in the first two books. The first started off pretty lame but got better towards the end. The second book was two steps forward and one step back in his progress as a writer. I liked learning about Jadir and the Krasian culture, but the other characters pov's were hit and miss. The third book just sucked.
I agree Super and things were interesting, I feel, so long as a sense of danger and uncertainty was present. Once the main characters started becoming ridiculously superhuman any potential for a good story flew right out the window; there is no conflict that they cannot resolve and so the author had to come up with something else to fill up the pages with. The first book was worth a read, the second was a disappointment and the third is worse which is a shame because the series had a fun premise initially.

I'm not overly bothered though Vimesh as I knew going into this that it would probably be bad but as Superhiro said it did have some potential once and it is always sad when that comes to nothing.
 
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I think his writing style and clumsy use of Characters told me early on that his upside wasn't going to be that great. For instance if you look at Sanderson's early books (Elantris) I could tell that while he has a penchant for Scooby-Doo endings his character work and world building were already at a high level. Pacing was a bit off, but then that is probably the hardest area for a new writer to be proficient in. Then I look at Painted man, and while the world and concept was neat and somewhat new, the characters were fairly stilted/unlikeable even then and the pacing was really bad. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy the series for what it is, I'm just surprised that people actually saw high potential given the previous two books and their issues.
 

Nebuchadnezzar

Golden Squire
458
50
Yeah, it was basically the menacing atmosphere of the first book that made it interesting and very readable despite it being another stock fantasy Hero's Journey with a farmboy. Plus, something like 15? 20? years went by in that book, that's some serious pace we haven't seen since out of Brett.
 
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Book one gives you ~15 years of time if I'm correct in thinking that Arlen is a good five years younger the Jardir.

The whole of books two and three covers three months of actual plot advancement. Biggest actual (and only) advancements in books two and three would....

First Mimic fights, second mimic fights/demon great wards, Fight between Jardir and Arlen

Not counting the flashbacks of course.
 

Kaio

Bronze Knight of the Realm
221
3
I think in the second half of the book for brief periods their actually was a feeling of danger from other corelings (the multiple princes working together, etc.) for a very brief period. I wish there was stronger foreshadowing to the strength of these princes working together or being stronger in some way to put Arlen and Jardir in some kind of real risk (not to mention making them more remarkable then they are right now--Arlen appears to be smarter,though lacking as much knowledge, then these millenia old Mind demons wtf?!?!). He could have attempted to create more suspense from earlier on. Give us a real sense of risk....

Instead Arlen had a solution for these princes early on and I think most people were not worried at all for him wasting suspense potential. Jardir's battle with them was even less interesting due to his zomg hax weaponry.
 

Gask

Bronze Baron of the Realm
11,732
44,077
Instead Arlen had a solution for these princes early on and I think most people were not worried at all for him wasting suspense potential. Jardir's battle with them was even less interesting due to his zomg hax weaponry.
Hes made the princes far too mindless... all they seem to care about is feeding (power) and breeding... much like our protagonists. Heh.

It would have been a bit better if the princes sieges had actually been successful for a time then we could at least of have had a struggle of some sort instead of Arlen's death ray and Jadir's invisible walk of victory
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I think his writing style and clumsy use of Characters told me early on that his upside wasn't going to be that great.
True enough but at least itwasfun enough to read at that point but that is no longer the case.
 
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Wow I just blew through all 3 of these books. I can't recommend them enough. If you like Mistborn or Abercrombie, you will like these. I put it right between the 2. The cool things from the new 'magic system' of Mistborn, to the characters/violence of Abercrombie.

The basic plot without any spoilers is that every night from sundown to sunrise demons rise from the center of the earth to hunt humans. Humans have learned that there are these magical 'defensive' wards that they can paint roughly every 6 feet which will make an invisible barrier to repel demons. So they all try to live their lives doing so. One guy gets fed up with it and tries to find ways to fight the demons.

The wards and the way Peter Brett uses them is pretty cool, and similar to the way Sanderson does the Mistborn magic. Not quite as developed, but still really cool.
Definitely a great read, and worth checking out.
 

Void

Experiencer
<Gold Donor>
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There is a Peter V Brett thread a couple down already, but since you brought it up and I have avoided that one for spoilers, I am having the hardest fucking time finishing book 3. I'm 70% in and it seems like finally the exciting shit is going to start, but holy fuck did I not care about most of the characters, and actively hate much of the hillbilly speak, the romances, and the particular backstory for this one. I loved the first book, got bogged down halfway through the second one because I was so disappointed it wasn't a direct continuation, but then Jardir became interesting enough on his own and I was ok with it. But this third book, going through some of the shit I've already experienced twice before, with a character I hate...gah. I just want to be done, but it is hard for me to force myself to do it.
 

Gask

Bronze Baron of the Realm
11,732
44,077
There is a Peter V Brett thread a couple down already, but since you brought it up and I have avoided that one for spoilers, I am having the hardest fucking time finishing book 3. I'm 70% in and it seems like finally the exciting shit is going to start, but holy fuck did I not care about most of the characters, and actively hate much of the hillbilly speak, the romances, and the particular backstory for this one. I loved the first book, got bogged down halfway through the second one because I was so disappointed it wasn't a direct continuation, but then Jardir became interesting enough on his own and I was ok with it. But this third book, going through some of the shit I've already experienced twice before, with a character I hate...gah. I just want to be done, but it is hard for me to force myself to do it.
It does not get any better Vvoid, finish it for the sake of it if you want but nothing interesting happens and none of its problems improve. Some large scale action starts to happen but none of it is really satisfying.

I feel the same as you by the way; I thoroughly enjoyed the first, the second had clear problems and the third was just a huge let down and a waste of time to read. For specifics read the other thread.
 

Void

Experiencer
<Gold Donor>
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Oh sweet Jesus. I finally slogged through the rest of the third book. I should have read some of the spoilers here telling that there was a cliffhanger at the end. If I had known there was going to be a fourth book (I honestly thought it was supposed to be a trilogy) I would have stopped at 70% a week ago and just read a wikipedia summary.

Fuck that ending, fuck almost every single character (good lord, I can't even imagine who the next book will be centered around that I won't give a fuck about...maybe if we're lucky it will be Leesha or Renna...), and fuck the fact that they could basically crush the demons right now if they wanted to, what with figuring out electrum. Inevera's bone wand could essentially be used over and over again since it just sucks up magic from the surroundings. Why can't they just arm a couple hundred warriors with electrum covered bones and fireball everything? Might take a bit to get that much electrum, but seriously it is only a matter of time to figure out the formula.

Ah who gives a fuck, I hate almost every single character anyway so I don't really care if they annihilate the demons or not. And if I have to read one more "Honest word, ent gonna lie, love you Arlen Bales" or any combination thereof, I might lose it.

I refuse to even pirate the next book(s), so when the time comes I'll just ask someone to summarize what happened so I know how it ends. The funny thing is, it isn't the worst book I've ever read, not by a long shot. Taken in parts it is actually pretty decent, but given that I've already read half of what happens, and that I hate so many characters, the sum total of its halfway decent parts turns into something I despise. Perhaps it is also the fact that I enjoyed the first one a lot, and the second one quite a bit once I forced myself through the initial displeasure, but now the third one just killed any desire I had to read anything in this world ever again, and perhaps anything by Brett too.
 

Grimmlokk

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
12,190
132
I still enjoy his writing, but the book was a huge cocktease. Covered one actual month...all build up to the new moon and we got one fucking night of actual content for that. Basically just summaries of the other nights and the desert guys dealing with it.

Whatever, still look forward to the story wrapping up. But if the next book is this much backstory and build up that last bit of desire will go away fast.