King's Dragon, Prince of Dogs, The Burning Stone

[lightreads]

The Burning Stone by Kate Elliott


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Epic fantasy, emphasis on the epic. Young orphan with a magical legacy, lost Count's heir, King's bastard, inhuman enemies, glorious battles, coming magical calamity foretold in the stars, you know the sort of thing.

I read the first three volumes of seven, but now I think I'm done with this for a long time. I'd heard vaguely about this series before, but I was a bit puzzled – why didn't people rave about 5000 pages of generally well-written, intricately plotted high fantasy? When speaking of the genre, people mention these books, but they're usually halfway down the list of recs. And I think that's exactly right. They are mostly well-written, and the breadth allows a lot of world-building, and there are interesting gender politics. But between flickers of 'oooh,' I stayed just interested enough to keep reading, until I got tired of skimming through characters I don't care about for OMG hundreds of pages to get back to the few threads of genuine interest. (Though to be fair, it's partly that I'm absolutely the wrong audience for all the piles and piles of religion).

It's like all the pieces are there – vast scale, precise work on a very long plot arc, mystery, romance, battles. And yet? Eh. Midlist.

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Comments

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

hahahaha. Yeah. I'll also tell you exactly what I don't like about these books: the characters. I actually got all excited about the first volume and was excited to read the rest... but then... none of the characters did anything interesting. They were all like cardboard game pieces that merely existed for the author to move around to tell her (as you say, admittedly interesting long plot arc) story. None of the characters did anything like develop, they were all almost completely static (they didn't even develop in a cliched way!), and add to that a most unconvincing love story, and... yeah. Eh.

(And speaking as someone who is very interested in religion? The religion in these books is Just Not Very Interesting. I mean, it could be a LOT worse, but it didn't particularly capture my interest (contrast the religion in the Chalion books, which alternately infuriated and fascinated me).)

(I don't like George R.R. Martin for something like the same reason. There, his characters are not particularly cliched or static, but they are totally unlikeable.)

[lightreads.livejournal.com]

and add to that a most unconvincing love story,

Yes, that too. Because I mean what? Really? And you're right about cliches -- I might have actually liked it better as fluff if it was more packed with cliches.

I actually am a Martin fan (most of the time) so I spent the last two books muttering, "GRRM you are not."

...you should write about the Chalion books sometime, if you haven't. I'd be interested because I'm usually very turned off by fantasy religion, but she tapped into something that made emotional sense to me. Like the beginning of Curse of Chalion and the death magic: it's not about ritual, it's not about piety, it's just about needing help so badly.

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

Hee. I think the Ice and Fire books are good, actually (as opposed to the Crown of Stars ones), it just happens that Martin is systematically killing off or making totally unlikeable all the characters I cared about.

And actually the third book I really liked, because it was all "Let me tell you how everything you thought in the first and second books were wrong," and man, that takes some doing to pull off.

...Really? You're interested in hearing me babble about Chalion and religion?! You are so on! It will probably take me at least a month, as I am incredibly backed up on posts right now, but... wow. Yes! (Though I can't promise that the things that fascinated me about the Fivefold Gods will be the ones that fascinate you. I'd forgotten about the death magic, for instance, but it's been a while since I've reread.)

[lightreads.livejournal.com]

And actually the third book I really liked, because it was all "Let me tell you how everything you thought in the first and second books were wrong,"

Yes, that, exactly.

And yes, hit me. I'm thinking of rereading the Chalion books now -- ZOMG I am on vacation in like 8 hours and I have so many boooooooooooks!