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meyerlemon (![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} meyerlemon) wrote,@ 2007-08-09 22:58:00 |
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I finally finished Crown of Stars, the last volume in the, um, Crown of Stars...series (I was thinking "What's the word for 'series of seven books?'" and coming up with nothing.)
1) By the end I had totally lost track of who was who. I admit it. So I would go "What? Who just died? WHO got married? I don't even know who that is!"
2) Overall, I really liked this series. I thought the writing was really competent, and that is not always (ever) a feeling I have about fantasy novels. If I have a gripe, it's that the last book didn't seem to have a plot. It was almost like a very extended epilogue, and I last week found myself thinking "I should finish that" and then thinking "I wonder when the plot gets going" and then I looked at where I was, and I was 2/3 of the way through. The other books had been fairly tightly plotted, so that stood out a little. But it wasn't BAD or anything.
3) ALAIN. I wish that had been solved a little. I really wanted to know what was going on with him. Is he the Messiah? So was he NOT the Count of Lavas? Is that what I was supposed to conclude from the "Liath is the Count of Lavas" reveal? What?
I really liked him. I thought he was a GREAT, great character.
4) I was pissed that Hanna rejected the excellent Captain Thiadbold, who lost a hand and STILL proposed to her, in favor of that milksop Ivar. Who. Whatever. THE LESS SAID OF HIM THE BETTER. (Yes... I'm not a fan.)
5) Anna! Her boyfriends died! And she was stuck, AGAIN, taking care of the hideous Blessing, someone who could really have benefitted from a few beatings. THERE I SAID IT. ARE YOU MONITORING THIS, LJ? I totally just advocated child abuse, and you know, if you had read the book, so would you. Anyway, I wanted her to have a better happy ending than "You may or may not see Papa Otto again, and also I can't remember if you had a child's fondness for him, or, um, a young woman's."
6) Liath. Well... I don't know. She was not my favorite character (See: Alain) and I honestly didn't particularly care if she got to spend the rest of her life with her husband or not. And I was kind of sick of her by the end.
7) Sanglant! I kind of felt like, out of all the people who deserved to be brought back to life, I'm not sure if he was it. And I got so sick of him and Liath and their WE MUST HAVE SEX AND BE TOGETHER, because I never totally felt like they actually liked each other as people. And I do think that's pretty important in a marriage.
8) Stronghand! He's another of my favorite characters. I would have liked more information on his marriage with Theophanu. And on the Eika's new civilization in general.
9) You know who were jerks? The Ashioi. What a bunch of DICKS. Basically, aside from the original Feather Cloak, I hated them all.
10) Um, who else? Sorgatani. Okay, I feel like, the books set up a bunch of people who were never fully used. Such as the shaman who can kill by standing around. BASICALLY, after the loooooooooong buildup for this character in the other books, she came into play exactly once. And then kind of hung out until she could take Hugh of Austra as her blind and maimed love slave. So then why the great weight that was previously placed on Hanna being her luck, blah blah blah?
11) I kind of hate that Blessing got to be regnant when she grew up. She's a spoiled brat. Spoiled brats do not make good leaders of nations (see: President Bush the Younger) and I could never grasp how it was that Liath and Sanglant allowed her to act like a twat (SORRY) all the time. Grumble. And she NEVER got a comeuppance. No one EVER slapped her and said THAT IS ENOUGH and made her STFU.
12) Is that all? I think that's all. OH. I also felt sad for the human girls who were married to the Eika, generation after generation, to keep the peace. Because I think it would be sad to be married to someone you could never... YOU KNOW. ETC.
13) AND. In the epilogue. Who was Blessing's son... I was confused by that part. So was her son trying to get married to the daughter of Sorgatani and Hugh, or did he just want to hang out with her and learn math?
Perplexing.
BONUS JF-ONLY CONTENT:
You know that icon that has an American flag on it, and the test reads: "Book 7 spoiler: American wizards show up and kick everyone's butts, America: FUCK YEAH!"?
That icon makes me laugh so hard.
Every single time.
It's pretty embarrassing. It's similar to my reaction to the Pride & Prejudice icon where Darcy is glaring at Elizabeth and going "DAMN, get off my case woman!"
I'm such a dumbass. But SO FUNNY.
PS: EXTRA bonus content: my friend just signed up for eHarmony, and was trying to convince me that it was awesome, and I was all "BUT WAIT, what you're describing sounds like they match you to someone who's LIKE you. And. NOTHING COULD BE WORSE THAN DATING SOMEONE WHO IS LIKE ME. NOTHING."
1) By the end I had totally lost track of who was who. I admit it. So I would go "What? Who just died? WHO got married? I don't even know who that is!"
2) Overall, I really liked this series. I thought the writing was really competent, and that is not always (ever) a feeling I have about fantasy novels. If I have a gripe, it's that the last book didn't seem to have a plot. It was almost like a very extended epilogue, and I last week found myself thinking "I should finish that" and then thinking "I wonder when the plot gets going" and then I looked at where I was, and I was 2/3 of the way through. The other books had been fairly tightly plotted, so that stood out a little. But it wasn't BAD or anything.
3) ALAIN. I wish that had been solved a little. I really wanted to know what was going on with him. Is he the Messiah? So was he NOT the Count of Lavas? Is that what I was supposed to conclude from the "Liath is the Count of Lavas" reveal? What?
I really liked him. I thought he was a GREAT, great character.
4) I was pissed that Hanna rejected the excellent Captain Thiadbold, who lost a hand and STILL proposed to her, in favor of that milksop Ivar. Who. Whatever. THE LESS SAID OF HIM THE BETTER. (Yes... I'm not a fan.)
5) Anna! Her boyfriends died! And she was stuck, AGAIN, taking care of the hideous Blessing, someone who could really have benefitted from a few beatings. THERE I SAID IT. ARE YOU MONITORING THIS, LJ? I totally just advocated child abuse, and you know, if you had read the book, so would you. Anyway, I wanted her to have a better happy ending than "You may or may not see Papa Otto again, and also I can't remember if you had a child's fondness for him, or, um, a young woman's."
6) Liath. Well... I don't know. She was not my favorite character (See: Alain) and I honestly didn't particularly care if she got to spend the rest of her life with her husband or not. And I was kind of sick of her by the end.
7) Sanglant! I kind of felt like, out of all the people who deserved to be brought back to life, I'm not sure if he was it. And I got so sick of him and Liath and their WE MUST HAVE SEX AND BE TOGETHER, because I never totally felt like they actually liked each other as people. And I do think that's pretty important in a marriage.
8) Stronghand! He's another of my favorite characters. I would have liked more information on his marriage with Theophanu. And on the Eika's new civilization in general.
9) You know who were jerks? The Ashioi. What a bunch of DICKS. Basically, aside from the original Feather Cloak, I hated them all.
10) Um, who else? Sorgatani. Okay, I feel like, the books set up a bunch of people who were never fully used. Such as the shaman who can kill by standing around. BASICALLY, after the loooooooooong buildup for this character in the other books, she came into play exactly once. And then kind of hung out until she could take Hugh of Austra as her blind and maimed love slave. So then why the great weight that was previously placed on Hanna being her luck, blah blah blah?
11) I kind of hate that Blessing got to be regnant when she grew up. She's a spoiled brat. Spoiled brats do not make good leaders of nations (see: President Bush the Younger) and I could never grasp how it was that Liath and Sanglant allowed her to act like a twat (SORRY) all the time. Grumble. And she NEVER got a comeuppance. No one EVER slapped her and said THAT IS ENOUGH and made her STFU.
12) Is that all? I think that's all. OH. I also felt sad for the human girls who were married to the Eika, generation after generation, to keep the peace. Because I think it would be sad to be married to someone you could never... YOU KNOW. ETC.
13) AND. In the epilogue. Who was Blessing's son... I was confused by that part. So was her son trying to get married to the daughter of Sorgatani and Hugh, or did he just want to hang out with her and learn math?
Perplexing.
BONUS JF-ONLY CONTENT:
You know that icon that has an American flag on it, and the test reads: "Book 7 spoiler: American wizards show up and kick everyone's butts, America: FUCK YEAH!"?
That icon makes me laugh so hard.
Every single time.
It's pretty embarrassing. It's similar to my reaction to the Pride & Prejudice icon where Darcy is glaring at Elizabeth and going "DAMN, get off my case woman!"
I'm such a dumbass. But SO FUNNY.
PS: EXTRA bonus content: my friend just signed up for eHarmony, and was trying to convince me that it was awesome, and I was all "BUT WAIT, what you're describing sounds like they match you to someone who's LIKE you. And. NOTHING COULD BE WORSE THAN DATING SOMEONE WHO IS LIKE ME. NOTHING."
