The Books/Reading Thread

[no country for old wainds]

Why approach it as if you have to read the entire series? It peaks with books 2-6 imo, and all of those books are internally satisfying. I'm working my way through book 10 right now and I'm about ready to be done with the series, haven't had the greatest time with the last four books.

i totally agree with this for the record, 2-6 are the ones i completely adore. i do think toll the hounds is great as well but i get that it's hard going at times, being the most static and aggressively philosophical etc. there are things i love about the resolution and the more i've thought about some of the arcs in their completion the more i admire the ambition and resonance of them, but i do just feel like he's juggling too many threads and POVs by that point--pretty standard saga endgame issues really.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

I have the first book of The Black Company and DNF. I remember it boring me to death. But that was a while ago, might have to give it another go sometime soon

 

[Einherjar86]

Why approach it as if you have to read the entire series? It peaks with books 2-6 imo, and all of those books are internally satisfying. I'm working my way through book 10 right now and I'm about ready to be done with the series, haven't had the greatest time with the last four books.

Definitely read Black Company; the first three books form a very strong, self-contained trilogy. I remember the first book being rather atmospheric and slow but the following two are page turners. (Shadows Linger in particular reads like a dark fantasy Elmore Leonard story.)

Knowing that makes it more sensible to me; but not knowing it, I'd be under the assumption that stopping in the middle would effectively be like stopping in the middle of a standalone novel. I'd be missing a chunk of the story. I think wainds has told me all this before, my memory is just terrible.

The Black Company is more appealing to me at this point, if only because I own the first three books collected in a single edition. I think I'll start it once I finish the Jemisin trilogy (although I may have to read Paul Tremblay's new horror novel first...).