Tried reading K. J. Parker's Devices and Desires. It was interesting how the fantastic element in this supposed fantasy novel wasn't magic but machinery, but while the characterization is fabulous the book itself is so staggeringly overwritten I had to put it down.
If anyone wants the ARC, let me know--I'll mail it to you.
I started reading Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys and, for the first few pages, didn't like it. And by "few" I mean "forty." I went in expecting a narrative like American Gods and found . . . yeah, something else entirely. Not only did I have problems liking the character, a gigantic dork who seems to only excel at feeling sorry for himself--the writing style was completely different from American Gods. Dog help me, some of the sentences actually clunked.
But at about forty pages in, I realized what'd happened. Gaiman had tweaked his narrative voice so hard that it no longer sounded like him. It sounded more like hearing a fable as narrated by an old Southern black woman.
Then--seriously, within pages of my little epiphany--the dorky main character's crazy half-god brother turned up, the proverbial shoe dropped, and the story finally took off. I don't think I'll put it down now.
(No, is mine. In the words of kitteh!Gandalf, You can not has!)
If anyone wants the ARC, let me know--I'll mail it to you.
I started reading Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys and, for the first few pages, didn't like it. And by "few" I mean "forty." I went in expecting a narrative like American Gods and found . . . yeah, something else entirely. Not only did I have problems liking the character, a gigantic dork who seems to only excel at feeling sorry for himself--the writing style was completely different from American Gods. Dog help me, some of the sentences actually clunked.
But at about forty pages in, I realized what'd happened. Gaiman had tweaked his narrative voice so hard that it no longer sounded like him. It sounded more like hearing a fable as narrated by an old Southern black woman.
Then--seriously, within pages of my little epiphany--the dorky main character's crazy half-god brother turned up, the proverbial shoe dropped, and the story finally took off. I don't think I'll put it down now.
(No, is mine. In the words of kitteh!Gandalf, You can not has!)