15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous!, August 9, 2003
This review is from: To Green Angel Tower, Part 2 (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Book 3) (Paperback)
To Green Angel Tower (the entirety, comprised, in my case, of books 1 and 2 in paperback) is a monumental work. The entire 'trilogy' of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn is excellent along with it.
I try to avoid plot spoilers in reviews-- I don't think it's important or helpful to say "Gaah! so and so died" or "Phew! So and so made it". After all, who wants to read a book if all the salient points are foreknown ?
With that caveat, what can I say about TGAT? The book is exhausting in all the appropriate visaages. Tad Williams is the master of the minutae--not plodding minutae, mind you-- that tie together to form a cohesive masterpiece. There were some loops thrown--especially with regards to Cameris--, Seoman/Simon was a marvel--no, a joy-- to read about (although his sections seemed, to me, too few), Miramele aged appropriately for a lady in her mid/late teens, and Josua-Isgrimnur-Jiriki-Binibak-Cadrach were delightful, but, in the end, the end came too quickly.
I suppose, given the fact that the book, as a whole, is nearly 1600 pages, that itself is a stunning statement. It's not an action thriller-- dooming it for those who prefer such fare--, nor does it delve to deeply in the romance aspect (perhaps even too little, in my opine), but it does form its own raptorous melody.
The bottom line? Memory, Sorrow and Thorn forms one of the great Fantasy series. There's a lot of crap in the genre, and this series, and this book, helps dispel their collective bad air.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Strange feeling that it wasn't quite long enough (SPOILERS), October 7, 1999
This review is from: To Green Angel Tower, Part 2 (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Book 3) (Paperback)
Tad Williams did a great job with this book and with the series as a whole. The series is admirably written with great characterization & vividly described battle scenes. Also, age-old clichés are either given new and subtle twists or discarder altogether in place of fresh ideas. However there were long stretches that I felt could have been condensed. Did we really need to read about Simon stumbling through underground tunnels yet again with next to nothing happening to him except hunger and thirst (until he encounters Inch, of course)? I found this almost excruciating to read, not just of concern for the character but out of sheer impatience with the story. I don't know how else Williams could have charted Simon's journey to the Hayholt but I wish he could have found another way. The climax was tautly paced and this also was excruciating (in a good way), but the ending, i.e. the defeat of the Storm King wasn't explored enough. The reader is left to provide the details on how the Storm King gets vanquished. However, it's not too much of a stretch and it ultimately comes off as believable. There's a lot to be said for leaving things to the reader's imagination and Williams does that. Lastly - Aedon be praised! - there's an ending. After being hopelessly frustrated with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time and despairing of ever seeing a resolution (which is why I'm hesitant to start Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series), it's heartening to see a series that has an ending.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
When All Is Said And Done.., April 24, 2002
This review is from: To Green Angel Tower, Part 2 (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Book 3) (Paperback)
I feel like I just saved the world myself. Geez, it had to be, what 3,000 pages, to get through the whole work? Mr. Williams' characterization is phenomenal. Every person in the epic lives and breathes. His serializing style can get very taxing as he jumps from group to group telling his huge-in-scope story. But in the end, it's the people who've made it work. The vividness of detail more than makes up for the choppiness and the mind-numbing length of the work.
Now mind you he's no Mark Twain. The unbelievable size of this trilogy (which had to be published in four volumes in paperback because it defies the physics of paper and glue!) is enough to stay away. But if you love big sprawling epic fantasy, this is surely one to try out.
I can't say I'll ever start that darn Wheel of Time series, because this one almost killed me. But if you're a fast reader, you may be able to finish this one off between two Aedonmass festivals.
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