----- Original Message -----

From: Don

Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2005 7:08 PM

To: Glen Cook: Science Fiction/Fantasy Author

Subject: RE [Glencook-fans] Spoilers for the Tyranny of the Night

 

I finally finished ToN. It was some rough going. First let me say I did not
get to read this book for long intervals and I am sure I missed things as a
consequence. Here we go:
There were so many characters I just couldn't bring myself to care about all
of them. Brother Candle for instance. Why did we need to see that
perspective? Duke Tormond served no purpose but to get the Connec involved
which eventually led to justification for a Crusade that will probably occur
in the next book. Did we really need to follow hi journey to se the
Patriarch? I didn't care about any of the Bruglioni except maybe Polo.
Now that that is out of the way, I enjoyed to book. I feel like the others,
in that the character stuff was great and hindered only by the geographical
and political details. It must be tough setting up a portion of a
semi-realistic universe. I can appreciate the task and the necessity for
detail. But it was tough reading. The end was great and I thought the
Grimmsons were the most fun.
Feel free to let me in on things I missed. I am going to re-read this book
immediately. I think it will make more sense the second time around. I will
probably buy the next one new in hardback. I am hoping that much of this one
was setup

Thanks for listening.
Don

-----Original Message-----
From: glencook-fans-bounces+dfgarcia=grandecom.net@mailman.xmission.com
[mailto:glencook-fans-bounces+dfgarcia=grandecom.net@mailman.xmission.co
m]On Behalf Of Dr. Skull
Sent: Saturday, August 13, 2005 12:21 AM
To: Glen Cook: Science Fiction/Fantasy Author
Subject: Re: [Glencook-fans] Spoilers for the Tyranny of the Night


Sebastian wrote:
>
> Setting a book in our world, or one similar, with all the name  changes
> was annoying. And worse, Glen seemed to enjoy sharing all  these new
> names and places with no real framework to hang them on. A  third of the
> way through I didn't care anymore and story got mired in the details.
>
> Or perhaps the lack of details. Too often Glen spent time in the
> details at some 30,000 foot level of the politics and geography and
> didn't spend time with the characters. He dropped the squad nature of
> Black Company and went back to the epic story of Dread Empire. But in
> the process he left the characters behind.
>
> The Dread Empire was done right. The Dread Empire had a big story to
> tell and Glen did a much better job of telling it with characters.
> These characters you got to know and love after the first book.
> Varthlokkur, Bragi, Mocker, Nepanthe, and Haroun are classic.
>
> I was hoping with a fresh trilogy that Glen would give us a new round
> of vibrant characters like Croaker, Goblin, Elmo, SoulCatcher, Lady,
> and Raven. But this book has no soul and not much Else.

I've been sitting on my reply. Partially, because it took me awhile to
get through the book, but mostly because I was hoping that I just missed
the particular genius of the new series.  However, I have to agree with
Sebastian. Glen's characters are so smartly done that when he moves away
from them the narrative goes flat.  Especially when characters like Else
have such interesting possibilities that are never developed.

I see Glen's bind.  He likes complicated plots with multiple players and
in order to get it all out, he needs an explainer.  But how many
Mercenary Annalists and Ancient Space Ninja Turtle Masterminds can one
have to present insights to world's macro-politics?  I had imagined the
Perfect Candle in that role, but he was always far from the center of
the action.  I have shelves full of histories written in the form of
impersonal thick description. I don't need it in my vacation reading.  I
look to fantasy for unrealistically clear stories told by characters who
are always uncannily close to the action. The narrative portions of the
book were worth wading though the other parts, but I might wait to read
the reviews before I pay full price for the next volume.

Of course, that rule doesn't apply to the promised Black Company books.

-Skull


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