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| Posted By : Jeff Stehman - 4/1/2006 2:53 AM | I finally got around to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The more Rowling writes in this series, the more her world falls apart, and the flatter most of her characters seem. Hardly a page goes by without me having a "what the heck were you thinking" moment about her prose, she rarely surprises, and her plots continue to be flawed. And yet this book, like all the others, sucked me in. I polished off the last two hundred pages today, which for me is downright obsessive. I can't think of any other way to describe Rowling's writing except to say she is a great storyteller.
--Jeff Stehman |
| Posted By : erazmus - 4/1/2006 3:33 AM | She is that. I read the harry potter books when they come out, no matter how badly they make me wince. (Biggest wince yet, Harry has a magic mirror that can talk to his godfather, but he forgets about it until his godfather's dead.)
Mike
Michael D. Turner
"Psyched Up" in _Turn the other Chick_-ed. E. Friesner-Baen books
www.baen.com
"Two Ravens" in Amazing Journeys Magazine #9 Sept. 05
"An Incident at Black Tongue Tavern" in _Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy_ from Fantasist Enterprises |
| Posted By : BethS - 4/1/2006 7:51 AM |
Jeff Stehman said...I finally got around to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The more Rowling writes in this series, the more her world falls apart, and the flatter most of her characters seem. Hardly a page goes by without me having a "what the heck were you thinking" moment about her prose, she rarely surprises, and her plots continue to be flawed. And yet this book, like all the others, sucked me in. I polished off the last two hundred pages today, which for me is downright obsessive. I can't think of any other way to describe Rowling's writing except to say she is a great storyteller.
I've never been wild-crazy about the Harry Potter books, not like some folks, but the deeper she got into the series, the more it improved, each book better and more interesting than the last.
~Beth |
| Posted By : nathan - 4/1/2006 11:35 AM | She's such a great story teller I never really notice the stuff some others wince about, literally. People will voice some complaint and a small part of me, in the back of my head, will go "wow, I think their right, I never noticed this or that slip"--yet each time a new book comes out I reread the whole series so that I'm finished about a week before the next release date.
I honestly havn't felt that way about anything but the Dark Tower series by SK.
In fact those are about the only two things I'm guarenteed to buy hardcover no matter what. W/ DT over and HP drawing neigh it maybe a decade 'til my next hardcover purchase, lol.
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| Posted By : von Darkmoor - 4/5/2006 12:21 AM | While Rowling is a great story-teller, both Martin's SOIAF and Erikson's MBOF are far better stories. I buy them all, but the books I recommend and loan out are Martin's and Erikson's. Then again, Rowling doesn't need me to recommend hers.
~~~ "Your fool is here to save you from your folly . . . Here's to folly!" -- Simkin, in Doom of the Darksword ~~~ |
| Posted By : Dragon Angel - 4/5/2006 12:39 AM | I read a few reviews of the end of the Dark Tower Series that were...shall we say...less than favorable. What did you think, Nathan?
read free fiction and poetry at http://www.geocities.com/davidolson22/index.html |
| Posted By : nathan - 4/5/2006 11:41 AM | David, stunned to hear that. It's 7 books with IMO books 1,3,5,7 being the great, book 2 leaving me so-so and book 6 pissing me off.
But book 1? I do not think I've re-read a book more times over the course of my life than The Dark Tower The Gunslinger. It is like sword-and-planet meets Authrian legends. It is completely original though I suppose it has its influences. That first book set the tone for a desperate, dying world part post-apoclypse part hidden under the shadow of Sauron part High Noon/Magnificent Seven.
I happen to think it is the best fantasy series of all time. Better than Tolikeen, Jordon, Fiest, Martin, Drake, Z-Bradley, and whoever else you've got. Like I said certain books are noticably weaker than others but when included in the whole series is unlike anything else out there.
That 1st book, written in 1973 or so I think, is just awesome dark fantasy with a completely original twist. It wasn't published until he'd been writting for awhile and I think his success let him write a Big Fat Fantasy with completely adult perspectives and characters. It is as far as I can tell the first Weird Western in many ways though it goes beyond that into transdimensional spec fiction as well.
There is nothing else out there like it. It is so good and so original I've been waiting for some kind of pastiche to be written in its shadow like LoTR had so many.
Bad reviews? I admit I was stunned when I first learned people actually thought/think King was a technically bad writer so I've learned to accept that people see things in his writing I often don't. However the only reason I can think of off the top of my head why someone wouldn't like it is A] they thought it was King horror and not dark/high fantasy or B] they're big High Fantasy fans and didn't like how dark and R-rated he made it.
OR C] they only read book 6.
Let me repeat, I think book 1 stands alone at the pinnicle of dark/high fantasy writing. I do think that is fairly personal as King's images and themes have always *clicked* with me so it is perfectly possible that LoTR or Eragorn or something is someone elses fav, but get the Gunslinger at least. Flawed hero capable of horrific acts in the name of finding the object of the quest [ends justify means to Roland], a dark part sci-fi, part horror, part fantasy world on the brink of death...
Okay, I'm rambling now; but you get the idea, lol.
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| Posted By : Jeff Stehman - 4/5/2006 1:03 PM | You sold me. I'll add book one to my library list and try to get to it this year.
--Jeff Stehman |
| Posted By : darkbow - 4/5/2006 3:10 PM | While I enjoyed the Dark Tower series, I wouldn't gush over it as much as Nathan. Though I always rave over "Wizard and Glass," my favorite of the 7 books.
However, as far as the scope of the tale is concerned, I would have to agree it is a great fantasy story. It has just about everything a pulp lover would want: guns, robots, high adventure, jungles, monsters, a dark lord (or two or more), cowboys, knights, cute critters, a talking train and more and more and more.
Without giving anything away, I believe a lot of readers were disappointed, or maybe confused, with the ending of the series. And while King is one of my favorite authors, I have to agree with a lot of people he tends to have weak endings. But maybe it's a case of the journey being better than the climax. Also, I couldn't see any other ending than the one King had for the DK series; it made perfect sense.
Nathan, I'm curious ... what was it about book 6 you hated so much. |
| Posted By : nathan - 4/5/2006 3:23 PM | SPOILER SPOILER!!!
See I thought the end was The Only Ending.
Roland is the tragic hero. The fact he now has the horn means maybe the loop isn't eternal 'this time.' But really a traditional "happy ending"? Crap. Doomed heroes rule, lol.
I didn't really like any part of the series that occured in "our" world. I want to read about Tower World not our world--that's why I loved #4 so much as well. I just felt 6 was over all the weakest of the books and it was weak while in my least favorite part [our world, in case you didn't get that, lol]. Though I liked the part where they convince the 1970s SK to pull the 1st story out of the garage.
However this is the part that always leads me to shake my head at how different people are. I thought the ending was perfect, like I said the only ending that did the series justice--then you go and tell me that's why people were disapointed.
It's not like you can go and "argue" to them in some legal sense why that ending was Perfect. People are entittled to their opinion just as I am to mine but the idea that legions of people could be off put by what is so great in my mind leaves me wanting a beer 
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| Posted By : darkbow - 4/5/2006 3:56 PM | Heck, I don't need all that to want a beer!
I agree with you about the ending. It was the only ending possible.
SPOILER ALERT!
However, I did think the fight with the Crimson King was anti-climatic. Thinking in "Western movie" terms, I wanted that final fight to be something more like "The Wild Bunch," or even "Unforgiven." I felt little emotion from Roland during the fight with CK, but maybe that was part of the point, or just Roland's calm during combat. One of the reasons I loved "Wizard and Glass" so much was because of the emotion; Roland's role as the doomed hero was much stronger, in my opinion, in book 4 than it was during and shorty after his fight with CK. However I did feel better about things once Roland reached the top of the tower and learned his fate. Just seemed to me all the major villains got short-changed in the end. Even the Walking Dude went out like a little punk.
BACK TO ORIGINAL THREAD
Overall, yeah, I liked the Dark Tower series better than Harry Potter. But I enjoy Harry Potter too. |
| Posted By : erazmus - 4/5/2006 4:15 PM | Still haven't read DT, except for a few snips in his SS or what creeped into _Black House_. HP is wonderful for what its done to raise the profile of fantasy and is compelling. I know a hundred other books and series I like better, but combined I doubt they've sold as many books. I'm hoping for a fantasy explosion similar to the horror explosion that followed Steven King's success.
Mike
Michael D. Turner
"Psyched Up" in _Turn the other Chick_-ed. E. Friesner-Baen books
www.baen.com
"Two Ravens" in Amazing Journeys Magazine #9 Sept. 05
"An Incident at Black Tongue Tavern" in _Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy_ from Fantasist Enterprises |
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