The Chris Wooding Thread

[afterroots]

This is probably the only instance so far where i've disagreed with Wert's reviews. I'm admittedly only half way through the first of the novels in the omnibus but it's not doing a lot for me. Even though it's definately not a YA novel you can tell from the writing style that this was Chris's first adult fantasy novel after writing a series of childrens/YA ones. I like the whole idea of the weavers and the way the weave works but so far the pace has been much too slow, theres Robert Jordan levels of excessive description and Lucia has been the only interesting character for me.

I'll continue on until the end of the first book at least and see if it picks up but i was really expecting something up to the level of [i]'The Fade'[/i] but it hasn't come close so far. I'll still pick up [i]Retribution Falls[/i] though because i loved The Fade and Chris has obviously improved alot imo since he wrote the beginning of [i]The Braided Path[/i].

[mashiara]

[quote name='Myshkin' post='1750986' date='Apr 10 2009, 01.30']Well, since Wert hasn't steered me wrong yet, I ordered all three volumes of [b]The Braided Path[/b].[/quote]

I ordered [i]The Fade[/i] a couple of days ago. [i]The Braided Path [/i]is also on my list for the future.

[Chris Wooding]

[i]The Fade[/i] and [i]The Braided Path[/i] are very different books. TBP is heavily descriptive (Robert Jordan levels? Not THAT much :lol: ) and denser in that good ole chunky epic fantasy stylee, with lots of characters and plot threads and all that. With [i]The Fade[/i] I wanted to do just the opposite, mainly to see if I could: so it was stripped down, one character's POV, no excessive description. On the way I shed some bad habits, I like to think. But I hope you stick with it, afterroots: as john said up thread, it may have some surprises for you :cool:

ps, for anyone who's interested, I'll be at Eastercon in Bradford as of later today and for the whole weekend. Anyone from the board that's going, come and say hi and/or abuse me heartily!

[john]

So I finished it over the easter weekend and I was pleased to find the ending, something which can often bring a great fantasy trilogy down, was both appropriately epic - with anime style world-shaking death and destruction - and satisfying - but not always in the way you might imagine. Very enjoyable trilogy.

[Luzifer's right hand]

[quote name='john' post='1753477' date='Apr 13 2009, 20.00']Very enjoyable trilogy.[/quote]

I second that. Was fun to read.

[RedEyedGhost]

I just finished [u]The Fade[/u] yesterday, and here's my thoughts from the reading thread:

[quote name='RedEyedGhost' post='1753764' date='Apr 13 2009, 15.04']Yesterday I finished [b][u]The Fade[/u] by Chris Wooding[/b]. This book was lots of fun, had an interesting narrative/chapter style, and the world building was top notch. It's told in 1st person detailing the life of Orna in divergent narratives: one details her story after a devastating loss at the battle of Korok, and the other details Orna's life before Korok in reverse. Orna is a Cadre, a warrior trained from a very early age to be brutally efficient, and I think Orna exemplifies what a lot of the new urban fantasy authors are trying to capture - a strong, passionate, brutal, [i]and[/i] feminine woman. While it's not a perfect book (there could have been more allusions to what happens in the second half of the book in the first half of the book, the emotion showed at one point rang a little false to me), I really enjoyed this one, and will definitely read more from Wooding in the future.

[b]8/10[/b][/quote]

SPOILER: my criticisms and other thoughts

I wished that we would have gotten more about the war, the traitor, and the possible Eskaran offensive when Orna was in the prison at Farakza. Because there was so little about this the first half and second half felt a little disjointed.

When Orna read the "army" letter that Jai had committed suicide just didn't [i]feel[/i] right to me... I don't have any specific reason, just that feeling.

I loved the world building, and especially the surface parts. The imagery was wonderful, and provided a very clear picture for everything.

I had figured Casta to be the traitor, but her being Silverfish was a nice twist (I had thought Nereith himself was Silverfish).

Great book and I'll be picking up [i]The Braided Path[/i] omnibus the next time I order some books.

[Sheep the Evicted]

[quote name='afterroots' post='1751207' date='Apr 10 2009, 02.52']This is probably the only instance so far where i've disagreed with Wert's reviews. I'm admittedly only half way through the first of the novels in the omnibus but it's not doing a lot for me. Even though it's definately not a YA novel you can tell from the writing style that this was Chris's first adult fantasy novel after writing a series of childrens/YA ones. I like the whole idea of the weavers and the way the weave works but so far the pace has been much too slow, theres Robert Jordan levels of excessive description and Lucia has been the only interesting character for me.

I'll continue on until the end of the first book at least and see if it picks up but i was really expecting something up to the level of [i]'The Fade'[/i] but it hasn't come close so far. I'll still pick up [i]Retribution Falls[/i] though because i loved The Fade and Chris has obviously improved alot imo since he wrote the beginning of [i]The Braided Path[/i].[/quote]

It stays like that until the later half of the second book where it suddenly just explodes into action - and not the mindless action flick kind of action either.

[afterroots]

I'm approaching the second half of the second novel now and the book has certainly picked up in pace since when i last wrote that post. I'm definitely enjoying the storyline a lot more and actually care about most of the characters now. In a way this makes it even more frustrating because now the stories too good for me to give up on but it means i have to continue to put up with the writing style for another couple of hundred pages haha. I still can't get over the child like dialogue and the amount of [i] telling[/i] not showing going on but the stories good enough that i'll finish the series.

I will say though that after reading this and [i]The Fade[/i] Chris is definately one of the most creative authors I've read when it comes to settings. I'm loving in the second novel so far the idea of the fault with all it's little communities and vertically tiered outlay as well as the Okhamba (sp?)continent with it's coastal cities on the fringe of the jungle. And it hardly needs to be said that [i]The Fade's[/i] setting is outstanding.

[afterroots]

After finishing the trilogy I can certainly say that it continued to improve as it went along with the third book certainly being up there as one of the better books in the last few years, though i may never have got past the first book if not for Werts review. There seemed to be a few loose ends though so is there any plans for a sequel Chris? I would guess not seeing as nothing has eventuated so far but you never know. And if not is there any chance you could explain (I cant figure out how to use spoiler tags)

SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!

SPOILER: Braided Path

what exactly the contraption placed in the weave at the end was and what happened to the weave whales?

[Myshkin]

My copies of The Braided Path showed up today, and I'm pretty excited. It might be a couple of weeks before I can get to them though, as after I finish my re-read of The Thousandfold Thought I'll want to dive right into The Judging Eye.

[Sheep the Evicted]

Finished the Fade, and it was okay. Setting was excellent but I just couldn't connect with the characters for some reason. Thats probably not Chris fault though. Solid 7/10

Roots - i think it was signal to draw the attention of the Gods. Apparently humanity has evolved enough to warrant their attention.

[Chris Wooding]

Hi all, and thanks for your comments.

Afterroots, glad you stuck with it. There's no sequel for TBP planned, but see below.

SPOILER: End of The Braided Path

I did half-plan one, but it was to be a new series, set thousands of years in the future of Saramyr, when Asara, Kaiku, Cailin etc would still be alive since they don't age. It would deal with the consequences of the breaching of the veil of ascendancy, when the beings alerted at the end of TBP would come a-visitin'. As to who and what they are, I'll leave that one open. Aliens? Gods? Something else? Who knows? (Except me, that is) :thumbsup:

[Chris Wooding]

The first chapter of Retribution Falls is now up on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist. There's also the Logbook of the Ketty Jay, if you haven't already checked it out, which is an informal mini-prequel thing that'll give you a flavour of the book. Tasters, tasters!

Roll on 18th June! :wideeyed:

[pat5150]

And stay tuned, because I'll have three Retribution Falls ARCs for you to win at some point next week! ;)

Patrick

[ljkeane]

I'm looking forward to Retribution Falls and Chris you should write the sequal to The Braided Path trilogy, I'd buy it :thumbsup:

[pat5150]

Got three ARCs of Retribution Falls up for grabs on the blog! :)

Patrick

[Tagot]

Here's my dilemma:

After reading so many recommendations here and elsewhere, I've gotten pretty excited about Retribution Falls. Thinking that I might as well catch up with what else Wooding has written beforehand, I picked up his YA novels Poison and Storm Thief (my library system had no copies of his adult works, but I assumed that his writing style would be similar). I was underwhelmed; the premises of both were interesting and the characterization was decent (far better in Storm Thief than in Poison), but the prose was lacking. There were too many long, exposition-y paragraphs about what characters were feeling when that information was already obvious from dialogue and action- too much telling even after showing. The villains, especially in Storm Thief, felt cliched to the point of caricature, and the eponymous heroine of Poison never felt real to me. Something about the way that she spoke lacked the ring of authenticity that I "hear" when a Martin or Abercrombie character speaks. My question is whether these flaws are a result of my unreasonably high expectations or the fact that these are YA books, and whether Retribution Falls, the Fade, and/or the Braided Path are a noticeable improvement.

[afterroots]

I found a lot of similiar problems in the braided path trilogy but they were slowly weeded out as the series progressed. The Fade on the other hand (his most recent novel) had none of these problems and was a terrific read which should bode well for Retribution Falls.

[Filippa Eilhart]

And stay tuned, because I'll have three Retribution Falls ARCs for you to win at some point next week!

yeah, thanks for that, pat -- got the book right after I finished the Braided Path :)

[mashiara]

And stay tuned, because I'll have three Retribution Falls ARCs for you to win at some point next week!

yeah, thanks for that, pat -- got the book right after I finished the Braided Path :)

I saw that, I was so jealous!

I recently finished The Fade and I really enjoyed it. Retribution Falls and The Braided Path are on my to-buy list, I'm hoping I'll get around to getting them soon. :)