First draft of The Ragged Man is finished – only a few months of intensive rewriting to go but at least I’ve got to this stage! By my rough count it’s not a whole lot under 200k which is a bit more than I’d planned, but there was a fair bit more death to pack in than I’d originally intended so maybe that’s no great surprise.
Most importantly, it means I can head off for a week in Venice without any of my usual feelings of guilt that I’m behind deadline or stuff like that. I’m here exactly as I planned to be and that feels fecking great!
An aside – The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone – what are people’s reactions to it? Am probably a quarter the way through Blood Knight and I’ve come to a realisation – I don’t care. This has actually surprised me since I read the first two novels in the series and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, but looking back at the Charnel Prince I realise I didn’t really care then either and only bought no 3 because Greg Keyes is a big thing in fantasy and I should be aware of what he’s writing, as well as the fact I have enjoyed previous novels of his. But at the moment, I’m reading and it’s barely touching the sides – not feeling engaged at all depsite the prose and characters being as per previous novels and he’s probably a better writer than I am.
So, anyone else? Good guys win, bad guys win, would it matter? I realise I’m ambivalent on the subject, as long as someone wins I don’t really mind, and frankly I’m not sure I care enough to keep going for another three or four hundred pages. I think I’m off to read the Gone Away World instead. That’s apparently got dragons and ninjas in.
The first two books in THORN & BONE are pretty good. Readable, enjoyable, not changing-the-world or anything, but decent. The author seemed to seriously go off the boil in Book 3 and then just gave up with the last book, which is just awful, altogether. I got the distinct impression that Keyes lost interest in his own story and characters towards the end and just bashed out a conclusion in the most mechanical way possible.
A shame, because I enjoyed the first two books and some of his earlier novels.
Yeah, I remember them being decent, but not a whole lot about what actually happened in them now that I think about it. I know my memory sucks at the best of times but…
Doesn’t sound like it’s worth keeping on with the book though, I do have a few others in the pile after all!
I loved the two soldiers in the prologue for the first book. Shame they died, really…
The first two books in THORN & BONE are pretty good. Readable, enjoyable, not changing-the-world or anything, but decent. The author seemed to seriously go off the boil in Book 3 and then just gave up with the last book, which is just awful, altogether. I got the distinct impression that Keyes lost interest in his own story and characters towards the end and just bashed out a conclusion in the most mechanical way possible.
A shame, because I enjoyed the first two books and some of his earlier novels.
Yeah, I remember them being decent, but not a whole lot about what actually happened in them now that I think about it. I know my memory sucks at the best of times but…
Doesn’t sound like it’s worth keeping on with the book though, I do have a few others in the pile after all!
I loved the two soldiers in the prologue for the first book. Shame they died, really…
Gone away world is pretty awesome, i know I enjoyed it quite alot!
And his dad’s one of my favourite writers so that’s got to be a good start!
Gone away world is pretty awesome, i know I enjoyed it quite alot!
And his dad’s one of my favourite writers so that’s got to be a good start!
So disappointing
Last one just didn’t make any sense, character’s whole personality changed.
Re: So disappointing
Grave Thief or Grey Keyes?!
So disappointing
Last one just didn’t make any sense, character’s whole personality changed.
Re: So disappointing
Grave Thief or Grey Keyes?!
Well,you definitely stuck at it;I gave up on the series midway through book 1,only skimming the other three to reassure myself that it wasn’t to my taste.
Well the more I think about it, the less I can remember about what actually happened. But I don’t remember anything actually bugging me about the books either – so maybe that’s an indication of all the spin-off novelisation stuff he’s done? He’s got too used to conforming to someone else’s plan.
Well,you definitely stuck at it;I gave up on the series midway through book 1,only skimming the other three to reassure myself that it wasn’t to my taste.
Well the more I think about it, the less I can remember about what actually happened. But I don’t remember anything actually bugging me about the books either – so maybe that’s an indication of all the spin-off novelisation stuff he’s done? He’s got too used to conforming to someone else’s plan.
I fairly enjoyed the first, the second slightly less, and completed the last two with little more than the satisfaction of having finished the series. Ultimately, I don’t think the end was particularly convincing or enjoyable, and certainly pretty safe and unadventurous.
So, granted, better than much fantasy, but in my view still well short of masterpiece.
I fairly enjoyed the first, the second slightly less, and completed the last two with little more than the satisfaction of having finished the series. Ultimately, I don’t think the end was particularly convincing or enjoyable, and certainly pretty safe and unadventurous.
So, granted, better than much fantasy, but in my view still well short of masterpiece.
I read the first one because it kept cropping up on ‘best fantasy lists’… all I can remember about it is that it had a green cover of a fairly light hue.
Never got around to buying any other of his books and can remember very little about it. [except for some reason I seem to remember that it had a fencer/swordsman who was trying to stab a knight through the eyeslit of his helm… but I have no idea if that really happened.]
I read the first one because it kept cropping up on ‘best fantasy lists’… all I can remember about it is that it had a green cover of a fairly light hue.
Never got around to buying any other of his books and can remember very little about it. [except for some reason I seem to remember that it had a fencer/swordsman who was trying to stab a knight through the eyeslit of his helm… but I have no idea if that really happened.]