The War of Flowers

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Rahl Windsong

Last of the Windsong Clan
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Mar 15, 2005
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Squamish, BC, Canada
I was at a store in Vancouver the other day and they had The War of Flowers on sale for 6.99, hard cover! I should a bought it but I had a few other books in my basket already and was a bit over my budget. So my question is should I go back and buy it anyway? How good is it? It seemed to be sort of like Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series where the main character is from modern times but is somehow swept into this tale of Fantasy, am I anywhere near right?

Rahl
 
Definitely one of the best fantasy reads I've ever enjoyed. The characters are lifelike, the descriptions original, the plot is original and there are some parts (near the beginning with that hobo/cat monster) that made me afraid to read it at night and I think scarred me for life.

Anyways, the issues invoked certainly are current, and it is one of those fantasy books I keep on my shelf to read again and again.
 
Yes War Of Flowers is good. Not as good as M,S,T which is my fav work by Tad but probably superior to Otherland.

Quite a dark tale actually but I enjoyed it.
 
Hummn scary? Yikes I dont like books like that but I might give it a go anyway especially if I have to wait longer then March 1 for The Bonehunters. Thanks for the information Foxtale and Gollum.

My god Gollum I just noticed you have 4557 posts on these forums when do you find time to read? No wonder your personal message storage was full up I really do respect your recommendations to me and I suspect many others do as well. :)

Rahl
 
Rahl Windsong said:
Hummn scary? Yikes I dont like books like that but I might give it a go anyway especially if I have to wait longer then March 1 for The Bonehunters. Thanks for the information Foxtale and Gollum.

My god Gollum I just noticed you have 4557 posts on these forums when do you find time to read? No wonder your personal message storage was full up I really do respect your recommendations to me and I suspect many others do as well. :)

Rahl
Click to expand...
Easy I'm a forum junkie....;)

Actually I think I'm a member of about 6 forums which is a bit scary. Good question about finding time to read, you're right soemtimes I'm online more than in my books but I really enjoy the corrsepondence with other people.
 
**War of the Flowers

It's about a war between the Flower Houses. Makes sense once you read it.
 
6.99 hardcover is a steal. definately worth picking up.Buy it. you wont be disappionted and if you are it was 6.99 thats cheaper than a movie.
 
War of Flowers is definitely worth buying! One of the best stand-alone fantasies I've read in years. A very originally written world and a good story with interesting characters: absolutely worth 6,99 (think I paid about the same for a pocketversion)!

It's not a traditional 'medieval' fantasy setting, but Tad Williams has the gift of creating the most interesting and original worlds, if you've read Otherland you'll know this. IMHO think he's one of the best world-builders in modern fantasy and proves it again with 'war of flowers'.
 
No idea, mate. I've read both, but never saw a link if there was one. Granted I read Otherland a while back, so I can't remember that reference at all. But the two have very different premises. In Otherland the other worlds are virtual realities. In War, the other world is a 'magical' one that coexists in a more or less parallel fashion with our own.
 
Well, this isn't a series, for a start... The only other series Williams has written are Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, and the newly kicked off Shadowmarch, both of which are firmly entrenched in the fantasy genre. I can't think of another of his books that is science fiction, or that shares themes or ideas with Otherland. There was an Otherland short Stroy in one of the Legends collections, maybe you're thinking of that...?
 
dam them previews of new books, sory to confuse you but it was a wuote from the prologue of the war of the flowers, that apeard at the end of the book
 
Huh... did anyone else pick up the almost nonexistant link between September 11 that was warned against at the beginning of the book? I was looking through the book for anything close to those events, but found nothing apart from *SPOILER* the whole destruction of other Flower Houses thing *SPOILER OVER* but that has nothing to do with 9/11 really.
 
Foxtale said:
Huh... did anyone else pick up the almost nonexistant link between September 11 that was warned against at the beginning of the book? I was looking through the book for anything close to those events, but found nothing apart from *SPOILER* the whole destruction of other Flower Houses thing *SPOILER OVER* but that has nothing to do with 9/11 really.
Click to expand...

Ok I am 2/3 of the way through and heres my take on it:

*spoiler*














Ok I see a few similarities:

1: Bruning rubble/staircases, saving lives, chared bodies
2. The most obvious: A flying thing attacking a building
3: Ok the thing which I related to the World Trade Center disaster was the "ash snow" which did happen IRL if you see the footage.
 
I just finished this book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Really clever idea, using the land of the fairies as a kind of parallel world, and a nice, imaginative take on modern fantasy.
 
but back to the earlier thing about the books being related.....
he does tie them in subtly...

was there not a Life of Prestor John world in otherland? there were two more...but they have slipped my mind...
Oh.
In war of the Flowers, they mention sithi...
Now, i could be totally retarded....both ideas having not been his originally.....but they seemed subtle links to me ^^
 
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