(no subject)

[meganbmoore]

Not that I need more books, but can anyone offer up opinion on Sara Douglass's Wayfarer books, Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel books, Brian Sanderson's Mistborn books, or Elizabeth Hayden's Symphony of Ages books?  (Yes, I know those aren't the official titles for some...)

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Douglass has one of the worst prose styles I've ever encountered. Avoid.

I didn't like the first Hayden book enough to finish it. Cookie-cutter high fantasy with nothing to distinguish it from a million other books.

Carey I like a lot, but she is not to everyone's tastes-- definitely a love-or-hate writer. The first page of the first book should be enough to tell you whether you love or hate her prose, style, and/or heroine. There's some pretty extreme BDSM in the first book.

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

Well, all I know about the Kushiel books is that they contain a great deal if smut. ^^; Sorry I can't help more.

[mymorphine.livejournal.com]

I'd agree with rachelmanija on Hayden's stuff, although there're some pretty interesting plot bits in the average high-fantasy world it's set in. Also, how obtuse the main characters were to each other actually made me throw the book against the wall, but at least I picked it up again and read voraciously until they figured out what I'd been mad at them for. XD Meh, perhaps not the greatest investment of money in the world, but I found them interesting when I'd nothing else to read.

[booster17.livejournal.com]

Love the Kushial books, but her prose style can be annoying to some people. I think Amazon might have some actual pages to view if you're interested.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think I tried reading either Douglass or Hayden ages ago (as in, in college when they first came out) but didn't finish it. But I don't know if it was from badness, or because bricks were too long for me to read then outside of breaks.

I may actually have acquired the first Carey on a whim at a bookstore visit, though.

[vierran45.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any of the others, but I borrowed the first Hayden trilogy from a friend and for some weird reason even all three of them even though I hated the Mary Sue heroine (everybody loves her and she's incredibly beautiful, but of course doesn't know it herself etc etc) and wanted to throw the books into the wall quite a few times. I also ended up ranting quite a bit about the books to the friend who had loaned them to me.

[estara.livejournal.com]

There was an excellent in-depth impression on Dear Author about Jaqueline Carey
http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2008/11/03/if-you-like-jacqueline-careys-kushiel-series-hosted-by-val-kovalin/

I like her world-building and characters, at least of the first trilogy ^^

[escalove.livejournal.com]

I absolutely loathe The Wayfarer Trilogy, like loathe it, I second the bad prose comment but I loathe the romantic plots in the series, and it is one of the few books that I actually wanted to you know toss across the room and then rip the pages out. So I would say avoid it, it wasn't even bad in an entertaining way.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Carey is very lush; she has a descriptive style from an earlier age, and it suits her perspective character well. The smut is very high-class, and not particularly skimmable, as-- and this is a rare exception in a book with this much smut-- good portions of it are important to characterization later on. I enjoyed the first book well enough, but got stalled on it halfway through, mostly due to circumstances rather than a flaw in Carey.

[sureasdawn.livejournal.com]

Dougass: Unreadable
Carey: First Trilogy is good though lots of kinky stuff and sexual violence, second trilogy gets progressively less readable.
Hayden: Good worldbuilding, but the characters I liked best were a bit mishandled, and the Main is a giant Mary-Sue. Couldn't get through the second trilogy.
Sanderson: Haven't read yet.

[irysangel.livejournal.com]

*GIGGLE*

Symphony of Ages?

Okay, Haydon has some great ideas, but they're all wrapped up in the MARY SUE-IEST OF MARY SUES.

Example: At one point, the main character walks into town and everyone stares at her. She thinks, oh noes, they stare because I am so heeedious. But really, they are all thinking, OMG she is so beyooootiful we cannot stop staring! So then she has a complex about how ugly she is.

I do not think it is your sort of thing. :)

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Wayfarer : horrible, horrible books I regret having read.
Kushiel : fun and quality guilty pleasure. The prose is somewhat purple but amusing, the world building is actually quite good, and the characters tend to be likeable and vibrant. The plots are very so-so, and you've gotta accept the gimmick of sacred masochist prostitute saves the world without snickering to appreciate it.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Err...yeah. Bad romantic plotlines are a no for me. I don't even know why they tend to end up a dealbreaker so much when they're rarely my main reason for reading/watching something.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Mary sue thing seems to be a universal impression.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

You say "sacred masochist prostitute saves the world" and my my first thought is "Is if based on a Kaori Yuki or Higuri You manga?"

[lotuseyes.livejournal.com]

I"m reading through Sanderson's 'Mistborn' series now (just finished Part 1 of the first book 'Mistborn') and I'm enjoying it a lot. I can't say anything for the other two books in the trilogy (or if I will even love Mistborn completely), but so far its great fun. Vin, one of the main protags of Mistborn, is fun character. I do know that Sanderson's other book, Elantris, was VERY good fantasy. I devoured that in about a day or two.

I liked the premise of Haydon's books, but like the others I couldnt' read them. Same for Douglass (though I was trying to read her 'Games of Troy', I think that's the name of it, series). I couldn't read the Kushiels, despite them being recc'ed to me by everyone, because of the smut. I don't mind some smexy, but there's some kinky smexy in those books though I read Anne Bishop's Black Jewels books without problem....

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

*sees icon*

Is that the cover of Od Magic?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

But not on LJ?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Define "obtuse."

[mymorphine.livejournal.com]

Gack - obtuse to each other's feelings and thoughts, I skipped some words in there. XD Obtuse as in these-two-have-to-be-paired-up-to-save-the-world and all they do is get frustrated with each other. For about 600 pages. I wanted to hit those characters very, very badly.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Ugh, Kushiel made me sick: it's all about sex sex sex, and some sigusting BDSM sex at that (I don't care if consensual adults want to engage in it, it's their own business. But I do care if I have to read about it, in graphic detail).

[morwen_peredhil]

Both the Douglass and Hayden series I remember abandoning unfinished in a "Good riddance!" sort of way, so I can't recommend them.

I read the first three Kushiel books before giving up on those. Mary Sue pain!smut, if that's what you're in the mood for. They were better than Douglass and Hayden, anyway.

[animeshon.livejournal.com]

I can't comment on any but the Jacqueline Carey books. I didn't want to read them at first and the BDSM in the first book was pretty shocking for tame little reader me. But I love them now.

I haven't read the Wayfarer book's by Douglass but I generally find her writing style just too blah for me (not a good description, but I loved the idea of the Troy Game and can't bring myself to finish the series)

[vierran45.livejournal.com]

No, I think I read them before I even started my LJ. It would have been around 2001-2002, since I remember that only the first three books were out at that point.

[sanada.livejournal.com]

Hayden... oh lol, read if you're in the mood for laughs, but only if you can get them for free from the library. As for Carey... my sister liked the Kushiel books, but I always had the slightly skeevy feeling that I was reading someone's sexual fantasies wrapped up in an overly pretty package. My sister insists that the series gets better after the first book, but I couldn't hack my way through the jungle of purple prose to make it that far.