![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbSo tell me, what is it about trilogies?
I’ve just recently read Robin Hobb’s Shaman’s Crossing: Book 1 of the Soldier Son Trilogy, and, eh.
It’s not bad. Not as in horrendously bounce-it-off-the-wall bad. It has a promising first ten pages, and thereafter moments of great and embarrassing potential. Infrequent moments.
The protagonist, Nevarre, is... dull. There’s no kinder word for it. He is dull and largely passive, and for the vast majority of the book the most interesting stuff appears to be happening to other characters, off screen. The greatest portion of the narrative exists in a vacuum devoid of action, humour, and anything resembling fun.
The first-person POV does not help alleviate Nevarre’s dull stodginess. It makes it worse.
I’m not reading fiction for treatises on restrictive and prejudiced societies, or the proper upbringing and training of soldiers. I’m one of those shallow folk who read it for The Shiny! The Explosions! The Fun! The Interesting Weird People!
Shaman’s Crossing is remarkable empty of shiny, fun, and explosions. It does have some few Weird People, but Nevarre spends most of his time apparently baffled by them. Thus, the Interesting-ness of the Weird is not foregrounded.
Also, the events of the first ten pages do not appear to have much thematic and/or plot relevance to the rest of the book.
Near the end of the book, Nevarre almost dies. And you know what? I didn’t really care.
Scratch that. I really didn’t care.
So: Shaman’s Crossing: one dull, horrendous prologue. It is ‘but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy’, where does that come from? I can’t recall.
I vote for Farce. And you know what? Unless I’m desperate, I won’t be reading it.
There’s too much else of interest for me to waste time on the dull.
(Yeah, I've given up recording the books read this year. Let's just say I lost count, okay?)
I’ve just recently read Robin Hobb’s Shaman’s Crossing: Book 1 of the Soldier Son Trilogy, and, eh.
It’s not bad. Not as in horrendously bounce-it-off-the-wall bad. It has a promising first ten pages, and thereafter moments of great and embarrassing potential. Infrequent moments.
The protagonist, Nevarre, is... dull. There’s no kinder word for it. He is dull and largely passive, and for the vast majority of the book the most interesting stuff appears to be happening to other characters, off screen. The greatest portion of the narrative exists in a vacuum devoid of action, humour, and anything resembling fun.
The first-person POV does not help alleviate Nevarre’s dull stodginess. It makes it worse.
I’m not reading fiction for treatises on restrictive and prejudiced societies, or the proper upbringing and training of soldiers. I’m one of those shallow folk who read it for The Shiny! The Explosions! The Fun! The Interesting Weird People!
Shaman’s Crossing is remarkable empty of shiny, fun, and explosions. It does have some few Weird People, but Nevarre spends most of his time apparently baffled by them. Thus, the Interesting-ness of the Weird is not foregrounded.
Also, the events of the first ten pages do not appear to have much thematic and/or plot relevance to the rest of the book.
Near the end of the book, Nevarre almost dies. And you know what? I didn’t really care.
Scratch that. I really didn’t care.
So: Shaman’s Crossing: one dull, horrendous prologue. It is ‘but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy’, where does that come from? I can’t recall.
I vote for Farce. And you know what? Unless I’m desperate, I won’t be reading it.
There’s too much else of interest for me to waste time on the dull.
(Yeah, I've given up recording the books read this year. Let's just say I lost count, okay?)
