That's right, I'm at the halfway point of Ed Greenwood's Dark Lord, book one of the Falconfar series. I really wanted to like this one and it even started out as the right genre for me (normal Earth guy gets sucked into a fantasy world with knights and dragons). But this is no Woods Out Back. In fact, I thought Ed was a better writer. At least that's the impression I got when I listened to other people talk about him. Seeing as I never read any of his work, I'm a bit disappointed in the quality of this book. Everything feels so...fake. I know, I know, it's a fiction book. But I want to be part of the story. I want to be so engrossed I forget to eat.
Then we have The Tower of Shadows by Drew Bowling. I heard some positive rumblings awhile back about the book and finally decided to pick it up. And what do I get? A cookie cutter story about a young man destined to fight evil with a group of rag-tag friends. This feels very much like an episode of Knight Rider or something where the Knight comes in at just the right moment to save the day. I will give Drew credit for writing something and getting it published and getting big names like Terry Brooks and R. A. Salvatore to write blurbs.
But my big hangup with both books is the character development. There is none. There aren't even characters, just these two dimensional cardboard cutouts of stereotypes. Ugh. I can't wait to finish.
On a more positive note, here's proof that children are the root of happiness. Elizabeth is playing dress-up with her imaginary friend, Sickey. Oh, you can't see Sickey?* You must be a sci-fi/fantasy author!
*(Sickey's on the left.)
2 comments:
I recently stopped reading George R.R. Martin's Windhaven a hundred pages in. With my schedule, I no longer have time to read books that don't interest me.
Still, I feel bad because I like finishing what I started, but I say don't put yourself through a horrid book if you don't have to...
I know I shouldn't suffer as a reader, but I'm such a completist. I've gotten much better about it, but I used to buy an author's entire backlist based on reading one good book. Not the smartest choice sometimes, but that's just how my OCD rolls.
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