A number of months ago--last January or February, I think, I picked up Karen Fonstaad's novel Empress, the first in a trilogy of big fat fantasy books. Although I still haven't read it, I thought the concept was good; books that long I sometimes struggle to finish if I get them from the library, especially if I'm busy, before they're due. And I can pick up just the first book to see how it goes before I commit myself to the whole series.
So today, I picked up three new novels; each the first in a trilogy. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson and The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks I've actually had my eye on for months, but Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley just caught my eye at the local Barnes & Noble; I hadn't otherwise ever heard of it.
Of course, what I'm reading now is a few library books, so I'm not even making any progress on my own books--which now number almost 70 in the "bought but not yet read" category.
I did, however, finish the audiobook by Susan Hill: The Woman in Black. It's a pretty classic ghost story, with an almost Victorian feel. On the back of the case, it even says that it's as close as we'll get to a ghost story written by Jane Austen! I don't know that I'd necessarily call it that, but for my two oldest kids, who wanted to borrow it as soon as I was done done, I'm going to actually recommend that they not listen to it. It isn't particularly horrifying, I didn't think. It wasn't even particularly tense. I think the combination of the unfamiliar (to them) accent it's read in, the stylized, antique writing style, the reference to things that are quite beyond their frame of reference, and the slow pacing will actually quite put them off and possibly even actively confuse them.
Also, apparently the upcoming movie changed the plot quite a bit anyway... hopefully for the better. While I found the book well-written and interesting as a period piece, I found it a bit dull and cliched as a ghost story.
1 comment:
Whoops! Wrong Karen. Empress is by Karen Miller, not Karen Fonstaad. I think I was thinking of Karen Wynn Fonstad who did the Atlas of Middle-earth book.
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