Half way through The Great Ordeal and I'm really not enjoying it. It's a real slog. I'm spotting a trend though.
Both Prince of Nothing and Warrior Prophet have a clear goal and continuous forward motion. Both times I read them I felt I was being dragged through the story. Then with the Thousand Fold Thought, the driving pace of the story just falls flat, with large portions of the book taken up with conversations and noodling about. Sure, there's a battle at the end, but it wasn't enough to lift the story anywhere.
Now the same thing has happened with the second trilogy! White-Luck Warrior and Judging Eye both had the same intense drive of the first two books of the Prince of Nothing: this person is going there, these people are heading somewhere else, these armies are going that other way, these people are trying to keep control in this other place.
But then at the start of The Great Ordeal, most of these story threads have come to a dead stop. Three of the four main stories have devolved into people talking to each other. Boring! It wouldn't be so bad if I knew what their motivations were, and what they wanted out of the conversations, but I don't.
I'm sure I'll get through the second 50% of this book, but after finishing the first two books in five days, I'm surprised at how slow this one is going. No need for spoilers in the replies though, I'll catch up with the discussion in the other thread once I'm done.
I sort of agree. The first 2/3 of the book it seems like something only happens every other chapter. For example, you'll get a chapter in Momemn and something exciting will happen to the characters there. Then when you finally get another Momemn chapter, it will just be a lush description of how things are going there ever since that exciting thing in the last chapter happened. The next exciting thing you are anticipating won't unfold until the next Momemn chapter comes around, whenever that is. The same goes for all the different threads.
The worst thing is that the next chapter is always in the geography you least care about. If you really really want to see what happens next in Ishual, and would even settle for Ishterebinth, you can bet your life the next chapter is going to be in Dagliash.
I can tell you this, however. Chapter 13 has a really long and drawn out description of battle, but in the end, it delivers in terms of the crazy shit that goes down. After that, every single chapter has at least one crazy thing that happens.
I liked this book way more than the previous two. I'm still confused about why we spend so much time with Kelmomas and Esminet. I also wasn't thrilled with all the time spent with the actual ordeal... which is disappointing. Ishual and Ishterebinth were all more interesting to me.
The Great Ordeal is the greatest effort of men in all of history at least.
After all the marching and sranc in the other books, I'm totally desensitized to it all. A lot of the physical acts in this universe are just blah to me. It gets muddled in the (more significant to me) philosophy and plot. I read about meat and blood and it's all a great ordeal of nothing to me.
Esmenet wouldn't be featured so prominently if her thread wasn't going to weave into the rest.
On that note, this being the spoilers-free thread, all I can really say is that so many things that seemed to have a point have not. The Unholy Consult better deliver on some premise. I wonder how much is building up for book 7 and how much is maybe meant for these supposed books 8 and 9 that might occur.
I can't really foresee there being a book 8 or 9. They are so close to Golgotterath even at the start of book 6, and they only get closer. I can't imagine any conclusion of the story that lies beyond Min-Uroikas that isn't just an epilogue. Book 7 would have to move at a truly glacial pace, or provide a humongous fork in the plot, to somehow avoid being the final volume.
Comments
Both Prince of Nothing and Warrior Prophet have a clear goal and continuous forward motion. Both times I read them I felt I was being dragged through the story. Then with the Thousand Fold Thought, the driving pace of the story just falls flat, with large portions of the book taken up with conversations and noodling about. Sure, there's a battle at the end, but it wasn't enough to lift the story anywhere.
Now the same thing has happened with the second trilogy! White-Luck Warrior and Judging Eye both had the same intense drive of the first two books of the Prince of Nothing: this person is going there, these people are heading somewhere else, these armies are going that other way, these people are trying to keep control in this other place.
But then at the start of The Great Ordeal, most of these story threads have come to a dead stop. Three of the four main stories have devolved into people talking to each other. Boring! It wouldn't be so bad if I knew what their motivations were, and what they wanted out of the conversations, but I don't.
I'm sure I'll get through the second 50% of this book, but after finishing the first two books in five days, I'm surprised at how slow this one is going. No need for spoilers in the replies though, I'll catch up with the discussion in the other thread once I'm done.
The worst thing is that the next chapter is always in the geography you least care about. If you really really want to see what happens next in Ishual, and would even settle for Ishterebinth, you can bet your life the next chapter is going to be in Dagliash.
I can tell you this, however. Chapter 13 has a really long and drawn out description of battle, but in the end, it delivers in terms of the crazy shit that goes down. After that, every single chapter has at least one crazy thing that happens.
Esmenet wouldn't be featured so prominently if her thread wasn't going to weave into the rest.
http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2016/06/new-r-scott-bakker-interview.html
With both THE GREAT ORDEAL and THE UNHOLY CONSULT turned in, has work begun on the yet-to-be-named duology that will follow The Aspect-Emperor?
Nothing more than notes and fragments. At the moment I’m rewriting The Unholy Consult, buffing, polishing, strapping muscle on some bare bones.
I really don't see this ever happening and I somehow imagine any adaption being pretty bad, but whatever.