oberonus Posted April 3, 2019 Share Posted April 3, 2019 So I started book one of the Crown of Stars series, King's Dragon, based off of recommendations of people whose opinion I value, but my god is this book a slog. I'm almost at the halfway mark and I'm basically forcing myself to read this as its just so goddamn boring. slight spoilers Spoiler I'm at the part that Liath gets rescued from Hugh and is joining the Eagle's and Count Lavastine has just sacked his cousins castle all the religious talk and lack of plot is just making me not enjoy this book at all. However people say this series is great. I'm not seeing it and just need to know it gets better so i can convince myself to slog through, otherwise I think i'm just going to give up (but I'm not a fan of giving up on books) is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 It's a series that dives deeply into genuine medieval attitudes to religion, politics and warfare (rather than the cartoonish approach taken by other fantasy authors, which even GRRM can be guilty of). It's somewhat slow-paced and thoughtful. The first book is not the best and the series does improve significantly as it goes along, at least until it gets to around Book 6/7 when the pacing flags a little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oberonus Posted April 5, 2019 Author Share Posted April 5, 2019 Thanks for the info. I tried to read a chapter last night, (Rosvitas first POV chapter) and I couldn't get past 2 or 3 pages. I think I'm going to have to retire this series Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Patrek Posted April 6, 2019 Share Posted April 6, 2019 I never finished the series and can't really remember much about it. But every single book was a terrible slog and I gave up not about halfway through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted April 6, 2019 Share Posted April 6, 2019 You are all terrible people, except for Wert, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AncalagonTheBlack Posted April 7, 2019 Share Posted April 7, 2019 On 4/6/2019 at 7:54 AM, Darth Richard II said: You are all terrible people, except for Wert, of course. I read them all back to back.The series is damn good but probably not for everyone.I didn't find it a slog at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oberonus Posted April 8, 2019 Author Share Posted April 8, 2019 On 4/5/2019 at 7:24 PM, Darth Richard II said: You are all terrible people, except for Wert, of course. I tried! I picked up the series because it was one of wert's recommendations of top fantasy series from his gratuitous list. its just such a slog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 Personal attacks on people using sexist language is not going to be tolerated on the board. Don't do it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maltaran Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 I enjoyed it, but mostly in the early books it was Alain’s dreams of the Eika Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 I read the first book, as I recall, and didn't enjoy it sufficiently to continue. Linda got further along in the series but eventually stopped as well. As a bit of a historical curiosity, there is/was a circle of writers who fairly directly believed Elliot's series should have had the success and popularity that ASoIaF had, and tended to denigrate GRRM's work in light of that belief. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 I love Elliott and Crown of Stars but it definitely kind of lost some momentum near the end. Now her Crossroads stuff, THAT deserves to be as popular as GRRM. Also never understood blaming another series for being more popular then a different one, unless they like, directly copied from each other or something. Do you know whom those writers were/are? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 2 hours ago, Ran said: I read the first book, as I recall, and didn't enjoy it sufficiently to continue. Linda got further along in the series but eventually stopped as well. As a bit of a historical curiosity, there is/was a circle of writers who fairly directly believed Elliot's series should have had the success and popularity that ASoIaF had, and tended to denigrate GRRM's work in light of that belief. I think ASoIaF has distinctly more "character" than Crown of Stars, and certainly a much greater scope but I think Elliott's grasp of the very early medieval period (more leaning towards the 8th/9th Century than GRRM's 13th/14th Century) was extremely assured and her portrayal of certain cultures was much more nuanced, so her Eastern European plains-dwelling nomadic horse warriors were far superior to the Dothraki in terms of believability and depth. Dialogue was not a strong point of the series (as it is in ASoIaF, certainly) but I think the much greater focus on a smaller number of characters and storylines was to CoS's benefit, and assured it got finished in a reasonable timeframe, but that also removes from it a lot of the epic scope that gives ASoIaF its appeal. To be honest, I think the series' early struggles with getting out there (although it's sold quite reasonably well, but nothing like ASoIaF numbers, of course) might be down to the absolutely, mind-bogglingly awful cover art on the US first editions). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 Heh, I believe all mine are first edition hardcovers(Been reading the series since it came out, so those of you that got to read it in a small time frame make me jealous) and yeah, 90s fantasy covers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 I liked the cover to The King's Dragon. Prince of Dogs, the dogs look fine, the character (Sanglant?) not so much. One thing's for sure, the publisher didn't think it had crossover appeal, as they definitely sold it as fantasy from the get-go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 10 hours ago, Darth Richard II said: Now her Crossroads stuff, THAT deserves to be as popular as GRRM. Irritatingly the follow up series seems to have just petered out after the first book came out a few years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 5 hours ago, ljkeane said: Irritatingly the follow up series seems to have just petered out after the first book came out a few years ago. Dead Empire is due out next year, apparently due to her YA series taking off and doing better, so she focused on that. But yeah, Books 1 and 2 of a trilogy being separated by five years is not ideal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 I'll have to check dates but I don't think Elliott has ever been a speedy writer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 4 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said: I'll have to check dates but I don't think Elliott has ever been a speedy writer. Nah, I don't think it's just because she's writing slowly. She mostly puts a book out every year or two when she's writing a series. Her twitter's a bit of a chore to get through but I think she vaguely alluded to some publishing issues at some point. Wert's probably right that the focus was on her Court of Fives books for a while but I can't see anything clear cut about when Dead Empire's coming out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 23 hours ago, Darth Richard II said: I'll have to check dates but I don't think Elliott has ever been a speedy writer. She was a one-book-per-year writer for many, many years. Crown of Stars did dent that a little, but because she wrote books too big to publish in one volume and then splitting them in half. Still, seven big novels (one of them more than 1,000 pages long) in nine years is nothing to sneeze at. 23 hours ago, ljkeane said: I can't see anything clear cut about when Dead Empire's coming out Orbit have it listed as a 2020 release. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 Yeah I must be thinking of someone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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