Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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90 of 91 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Starts off slow but worth staying with, December 26, 2000
People who have picked up this book fall into two categories: those who gave up after 100 pages or so, saying that it was too slow and didn't hold their interest, and those who stubbornly stuck it out through the slow parts and to their delight, found themselves in the middle of one of the best epic fantasies written so far. Yes, the beginning of the series is a bit long and drawn-out, but it is really worth sticking with.The basic plot of this book - of this entire series - is nothing new. Those who have read a lot of fantasy will find a lot of familiar elements - the standard young hero coming of age, a mysterious nonhuman race driven out of the land when men first arrived, an ageless wisewoman who seems to know everything, a king corrupted by evil, and magical artifacts of all sorts. The brilliant thing about Tad Williams is that he rises above the cliches to create a story that is more original and less predictable than it should be. The world of Osten Ard is detailed and very real, and the characters even more so. The cast of characters is very large, yet somehow easy to keep track of (and if the reader gets confused as to who is who, there is an appendix at the end of the book listing all of the names with tips on how to pronounce them). Simon, the main protagonist, grows and changes in the time-honored fashion of kitchen-boys-turned-heroes everywhere, yet the story never feels old or cliched. Williams is a master storyteller. I would recommend this series to any fan of epic fantasy.
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Surprised this series is so popular, October 13, 2005
I really am surprised this series is so popular. It took me three tries to get through all three books, and I'm no stranger to the long fantasy series. (I've read all of the current Jordans and RR Martins, read Goodkind and Hobb, etc., all of which are far more engaging.)
The first book starts achingly slow, and it stays that way pretty much through all 3000 some pages. That said, the story of the boy-who-becomes-a-man never pays out. I kept reading and waiting for Simon to transform from the goofy star-eyed boy into a man with a little bit of guts. Instead he remains indecisive and over emotional throughout, with no real growth, and constantly acting on impulse. Williams then tacks on the happy ending when all is said and done, and poof suddenly Simon is a man, despite having never done anything even remotely adult-like, let alone king-like.
Which brings me to another point. Williams fooled me at the beginning of the book with his warning for the reader not to assume he knows the ending. So I kept reading thinking he was going to surprise me with some crazy twists and turns, but the story remains linear throughout. I never once said 'Wow, didn't see THAT coming.'
And let's talk about over-use of devices. He constantly uses dream sequences to foreshadow and lend a sense of evil foreboding, but it gets old quick, and Simon, who is afflicted with the most dreams, never even learns how to use them effectively. Williams just keeps on throwing in dreams again and again as if to say BEWAAAARE, but there are only so many times you can listen to someone whispering WOOOOOOH in a scary voice before you get annoyed. Not to mention all the tiring scenes underground beneath the castle, lost in the dark, oh I'm going to die, I can't remember my name, are those ghosts over there or have I gone mad. God just hurry up and tell me something that moves the story just one little foot forward. A famous writer once said that every word should count. This is definitely not true here. Fans of this series will say that every scene is necessary to progress the characters, but as I hinted before, none of the characters undergo any significant change, especially not the main character. They're all static for thousands of pages.
And of course there is the great amorphous evil that never does ANYTHING.
This story could have been told in 1000 pages. Save your time. There are plenty of gripping and well told fantasy stories out there, like Stephen King's Gunslinger series, George Martin's Ice and Fire series, etc. Williams' series is like wading through smelly mud, which only makes the ending worse because you put so much time into a tired story that the climax would have to be the best climax in recorded history to make it worthwhile, which it's certainly not.
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24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great book., June 9, 2000
This is one of the better of those epic fantasy sagas that are out there. Strong writing, good characters and superior world-building are marred only by a lack of originality in the plot.The story is essentially the same as in most other fantasy trilogies since Lord of the Rings. The invincible evil guy is back from the dead and out for revenge, so the lowly, unknowledgeable kid is suddenly thrust out, aided by a cadre of unlikely characters, to find some sort of talisman to stop the evil dude before he destroys the world, or at least messes it up too badly. However, this same-old story comes off very well due to the author's skill. The world-building in this story is very good. The entire population of the world doesn't all speak the same language, or have the same religion, or get along with each other. The author doesn't use the same old mix of elves and dwarves and goblins so frequently encountered in other stories of the sort. Rather, we get new races which are essentially the same as the familiar, but with some differences. The characters are also superb. Simon, the boy, is likable, believable, and pitiable, and his characterization is not only good, but it's consistent. The characters grow logically and believably in this story. Of course, there are some of the compulsory characters as well. There's the witch-woman who's the equivalent of Tolkien's Tom Bombadil, the mentor-figure who dies before he can reveal too much, and the travelling companion who seems to know everything. The story proceeds logically, but at times it difficult to get through. The names of people and places are exotic and unneededly difficult to pronounce. And the story doesn't even really take off for more than 200 pages. But that was okay, because in that time we got familiar with the land, the politics, Simon, the religion, and it didn't get boring at all. The religion is also familiar. It's called Aedonism (presumably lifted from EDEN), and is essentially the same as christianity, except the martyr-figure was hung upside-down as well as crucified. Also, there are pagans who practice Udunism, which is the same, of course, as real-world Odinism. The biggest problem in this book was really the editing. Often the character Josua's name was misspelled Joshua, and there were frequent other misspelling and grammatical mistakes. Another slight problem is that the problems were to obvious. "John went to face the dragon carrying only a spear and a shield...and came out, dragon claw slung over his shoulder, holding the sword Bright-Nail ahead of him." For some reason the characters don't see the problem immediately. Still, this was an extremely enjoyable, remarkable, real, vivid, and strong fantasy world, and I am absolutely looking forward to reading the rest of the series. Though the book deserves five stars, I give it four for lack of originality.
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