Urgh, so obviously discussion posts twice a week was too much for me, because once you get behind, catching up proves too hard!
I'm giving up on commenting coherently on the rest of the posts, but wanted to stop and say thanks for organizing this - I did read a whole novel front to back, a much too rare occurrence these days, and it was something I wouldn't have chosen on my own, and it was something I wasn't particularly thrilled with, so I was challenged, which is good, too :o)
The biggest reason why the book didn't work for me, if you want to know (when I like something, I'm not always interested in the details of why other people didn't - I like my squee unharshed, *g*), is the tell, don't show. I felt like 90-95% of the book was tell instead of show, and not just tell, but tell and re-telling. Like, something would happen (the precious 5-10% show) or have happened in the past (more tell, *sigh*), and then Bren would think about what happened. What could have happened. What should have happened. And just in case we missed it, what did happen, again! It didn't work for me.
Also, Atevi society and mentality was somewhat clearer at the end of the novel, but for the largest part I really struggled understanding how it worked/they thought, and it was too hard a struggle with too few answers to be very satisfying for me.
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I'm giving up on commenting coherently on the rest of the posts, but wanted to stop and say thanks for organizing this - I did read a whole novel front to back, a much too rare occurrence these days, and it was something I wouldn't have chosen on my own, and it was something I wasn't particularly thrilled with, so I was challenged, which is good, too :o)
The biggest reason why the book didn't work for me, if you want to know (when I like something, I'm not always interested in the details of why other people didn't - I like my squee unharshed, *g*), is the tell, don't show. I felt like 90-95% of the book was tell instead of show, and not just tell, but tell and re-telling. Like, something would happen (the precious 5-10% show) or have happened in the past (more tell, *sigh*), and then Bren would think about what happened. What could have happened. What should have happened. And just in case we missed it, what did happen, again! It didn't work for me.
Also, Atevi society and mentality was somewhat clearer at the end of the novel, but for the largest part I really struggled understanding how it worked/they thought, and it was too hard a struggle with too few answers to be very satisfying for me.
But again, I'm happy I read it, so thanks!