Customer Reviews

To Green Angel Tower, Part 2 (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Book 3)

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I would have to say that I am writing this review at the last novel to encompass my feelings of all three. The intial book in this series "The Dragonbone Chair" was indeed a good book and a good place to start, but I thought it was a bit slow and dragged a bit a times too concerned with the development of characters too unimportant. Throughout this epic conglomeration, Williams, at times has so much going on inside his head that he rushes himself and deosn't really explain things. I realize that Green Angel Tower is > 1,000 pages, but I hate it when plots are divulged in the last 4 pages when they could have been slowly released at different times in the book. Overall I would rank this trilogy right up there with Jordan only Tad Williams knows when to quit and doesn't carry the series out for 10 novels like Jordan. This book is one of those that gets better every page you turn and that starts from page one of the first book. Williams has a knack for the dramatic yet his characters are very believable. I didn't care for his Otherland series, but I must say that if he ever goes back to this type of fantasy I will be the first in line.

RECOMMENDATION: CLASSIC, MUST READ FOR ALL COLLECTORS

This is the fourth and final volume in Tad Williams's Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series (started with The Dragonbone Chair, The Stone of Farewell and To Green Agel Tower: Siege).

Drawn by the will to finally reunite the three magical swords, the various heroes all slowly converge back to the Hayholt for the final and terrible battle against the Storm King, and his allies the High King Elias and his councellor, the red alchemist and priest Pryrates.

Using the legendary knight Sir Camaris as a rallying emblem, Josua conquers Nabban. Enrolling new troups on the way, his army grows steadily bigger and stronger.

Miriamele, accompanied by Simon, has fled from Josua's camp, convinced she can talk her father, the High King, out of his evil deeds. Even though complicity and trust settles, Miriamele is torn between her attraction to Simon and the shame she feels at having let Aspitis touch her.

Compared to the first three books, this final volume is much faster paced. With many reverses in the seemingly helpless situations, unexpected turns as well as treasons and, finally, romance, it is truly "unputdownable"!

And if, like me, you can't get enough of Osten Ard, do not miss Tad Williams's novella, The Burning Man, that you'll find in Robert Silverberg Legends anthology (pb isbn/asin: 0812566645).

And just remember this: Beware of the false messenger...

I thoroughly enjoyed this series from beginning to end. Each book kept getting better and better and To Green Angel Tower Part 2 topped the cake. All the storylines just come together so perfectly. My only complaint is the lame climax. Williams could've done better in the confrontation w/ Storm King. The other people who reviewed this seemed irked about Simon and Miriamele. I personally don't care that they screwed. Anyways, I definitely recommend this book. It ranks easily up with Jordan, and almost to Tolkien. And guess what!! Unlike Wheel of Time, this series is actually finished, so you can read it ALL at once

I am 23 now. I was 15 when I read the LOTR and 17 when I read Tad Williams trilogy. Between them I read David Eddings fantasy books. What I can say is that LOTR is beyond any other fantasy story ever (and not only fantasy) and even though a few months after I finished reading it I rtead David Eddings books and thought they were really great, only when I ended reading "To green angel tower" I realiced that it was the only fantasy book that could be compared to LOTR. It is so great and you get into the story and characters right from the beggining. That is all I want to say about that. Now I am going to start reading "Ender's Game" of O.S.Card. I t seems really good, but I don't know if it will make me feel as great as LOTR and Tad's Trilogy. (By the way, is he ever going to write anything else...)

I am speechless. Tad Williams wraps up Memory Sorrow and THorn, leaving the reader with a feeling that they would like to know the further adventures of the characters they have grown to love for 3,000 pages. That's the only drawback when reading a lengthy novel with solid consistant character development, is you kind of wish the story went on some more. I burned myself out reading this one (it only took two and a half days) but it was worth it. The pieces are moved, and the adventuring continues and one by one everyone arrives at the site of the final struggle against evil...I dont want to give away anything, so I will say that on its own, if you havent read the series, go back and start with the first book, its a winner of a story through all of them, and it is worthless and would be pointless to start with this one, even with the sinopsis in the beginning to help you out, and if you have read the first two books and the first half of the third, keep on, man, you will not regret it.

Memory Sorrow and Thorn is the first fantasy series I read. It is still one of my favorite. Tad Wiliams describes a world with patience and consistent improvement. With the final part of To Green Angel Tower he doesn't disappoint. Good fantasy needs a bad guy that is fun to read about. Pyrates is such. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys the style of Lord of the Rings. It is not entirely original like Tolkien's work, but it is creative and entertaining. One can see where Robert Jordan got many of his plot devices. Williams does it first and better.

This series is one of the best that I have ever read. I really liked the character development. Every character had a part to play in the book before they died. I would recommend this series to anyone.