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Disgruntled
Feb. 17th, 2005 08:46 amLast week I started reading the first book of a fantasy series that had been recommended to me as an example of a multi-book fantasy series that was well written and sustained reader interest.
To begin with I enjoyed the book. But I've become increasingly annoyed by the author's habit of destroying key scenes by dropping heavy handed hints. Things like "Later we would realize what an ominous omen this had been" or "This was a valuable lesson for all of us, but the coming tragedy would show that character X had not taken this lesson to heart."
Grr. Argh. Trust your readers. They can figure out that the ill omen means something, and they can see for themselves that character X is heading down a bad road. You don't need to insert flashing neon lights that destroy any suspense.
Also, if you have a map at the front of your book, your readers ought to be able to trace the characters' journeys on the map. So, say, if your map has labeled the countries but you refer to your characters' travels by which city they visit, your reader will become cranky. Lose the map, relabel it to show cities rather than countries, or change the freaking scale of the map so you can include both country and city names.
There are parts of the book I like. Some of the characters are intriguing, although we're rapidly approaching the point where we'll need a cast list to figure out who is who. And the world development is very well done. But the heavy-handed intrusions of "I now know that this was the greatest mistake we would make..." started out as mildly annoying, but each time it happens it becomes more aggravating and right now I doubt I will make it to the end of the book.
It doesn't help that the only time I have to read for pleasure is the brief time it takes me to drink my coffee each morning. There are so many other books in my TBR stack that it annoys me how much time I've wasted on this one. Think I'll give it one more day and then move to something else.
To begin with I enjoyed the book. But I've become increasingly annoyed by the author's habit of destroying key scenes by dropping heavy handed hints. Things like "Later we would realize what an ominous omen this had been" or "This was a valuable lesson for all of us, but the coming tragedy would show that character X had not taken this lesson to heart."
Grr. Argh. Trust your readers. They can figure out that the ill omen means something, and they can see for themselves that character X is heading down a bad road. You don't need to insert flashing neon lights that destroy any suspense.
Also, if you have a map at the front of your book, your readers ought to be able to trace the characters' journeys on the map. So, say, if your map has labeled the countries but you refer to your characters' travels by which city they visit, your reader will become cranky. Lose the map, relabel it to show cities rather than countries, or change the freaking scale of the map so you can include both country and city names.
There are parts of the book I like. Some of the characters are intriguing, although we're rapidly approaching the point where we'll need a cast list to figure out who is who. And the world development is very well done. But the heavy-handed intrusions of "I now know that this was the greatest mistake we would make..." started out as mildly annoying, but each time it happens it becomes more aggravating and right now I doubt I will make it to the end of the book.
It doesn't help that the only time I have to read for pleasure is the brief time it takes me to drink my coffee each morning. There are so many other books in my TBR stack that it annoys me how much time I've wasted on this one. Think I'll give it one more day and then move to something else.
