Sword of Shadows by J V Jones Discussion

[Brys]

Ainulindale, you're right about Calvino being ridiculously well written. I finished Invisible Cities yesterday. One city he was describing about it being repetitive, and he repeated his sentences in subtly different ways - it was one of the most clever paragraphs I'd ever read.

@Gollum - well, I didn't get round to listing Wolfe, Zelazny or Moorcock which all deserve to be there as well, and they're only just below the others I listed. That should be all of the authors with the best prose (of those I've read).

And the first short story in Viriconium, Viriconium Knights, is just absolutely amazing. Viriconium's quite hard because of it's surreal style, but it's extremely original (not to mention influential on modern New Weird authors), and written with almost the same quality of Gormenghast.

 

[Jay]

Ainulindale, you're right about Calvino being ridiculously well written. I finished Invisible Cities yesterday. One city he was describing about it being repetitive, and he repeated his sentences in subtly different ways - it was one of the most clever paragraphs I'd ever read.

If you want a book that is just an illustration of genius, a book that goes beyond it's story I'd recommend Calvino's If Upon a Winter's Night a Traveler.


It's really an excercise of narrative mastery, and is intended to be. It's IMHO one of the most brilliant books ever written.

 

[rune]

This discussion is also running on through September

 

[Jay]

HMMM.. if that's the case I'm very much looking forward to reading my copy of Virconium..

It's really an incredible read, and I wouldn't have known of it, if China Mieville didn't get enough exposure to be granted interview and laud the work - he was right. I can't imagine anyone not enjoying Viriconium.

 

[GOLLUM]

It's really an incredible read, and I wouldn't have known of it, if China Mieville didn't get enough exposure to be granted interview and laud the work - he was right. I can't imagine anyone not enjoying Viriconium.

I'll let you know my thoughts once I've completed the book then...

 

[Brys]

I bought upon If On a Winter Night's a Traveller the other day. I'm looking forward to reading it soon (after reading Bakker's the Warrior Prophet for a break from the more literary side of fantasy - just finished Franz Kafka's the Trial before this, which had ridiculously small print as well).

 

[GOLLUM]

I bought upon If On a Winter Night's a Traveller the other day. I'm looking forward to reading it soon (after reading Bakker's the Warrior Prophet for a break from the more literary side of fantasy - just finished Franz Kafka's the Trial before this, which had ridiculously small print as well).

OFF TOPIC: Brys, I don't know if you saw my discussion over at the August What Are You Reading Thread with Knivesout but if you haven't already done so you may like to check out Kafka's final unfinished work The Castle and Gene Wolfe's There Are Doors which has specific references to the works The Catle and The Trial by Kafka and Kafka himself. It would be fair to say both of us found that particular work by Wolfe as being brilliantly rendered, so you might like to check it out, just a thought... Wolfe's Five Heads Of Cerberus and Peace are also worthwile reads IMHO...

 

[finvarre]

As I've recently finished reading this series, I wanted to add my 2 cents' worth...

I generally agree with your opinions stated above. Certainly ASoS is the best series/book written by this author. It's nice to observe how she's progressing. The characters are great, and the plot doesn't 'rule' them. What I mean by this is that I wasn't irritated by any of the characters' decisions and I thought them all believable. This, for instance, wasn't the case with GRRM's series... at least not for me. Try as hard as I might, I always ended up waiting for Tyrion, Jon and some other characters' chapters, while I was really bored with Daenerys, and angry with Sansa or Catelyn , whereas in ASoS I just enjoyed every page and never grew annoyed.I know some people have other preferences, but it's not the point. I just seem to prefer Jones to Martin's writing, and that's all.

What I liked very much about JV Jones' style was the way she depicted everyday life of the protagonists. IMHO, that was supreme realism: in what other cycle are the heroes threatened by frostbite or where else do we learn so accurately how they cope with their daily routine? Life in the clans was superbly described.

As for the second volume being weaker than the first one, I'd disagree. I thought Jones managed to develop the plot in a believable way, and that's what counts most in a sequel. The first installment was more of a surprise, whereas understandably the second one was less so, because it was only a continuation, and therefore more predictable in a way. Anyway, I am looking forward to reading about the final outcome of the war between the clans (or maybe after all we're going to get a good vs evil plot)- and the sooner the better .