I've started reading Glen Cook's A Cruel Wind (Canada, USA, Europe), the first Dread Empire omnibus. It's been in the pile since it won that poll last year, and I was really looking forward to reading it. But I'm not feeling it.At all. . .
I'm about 60 pages into the first volume, A Shadow of All Night Falling, and I simply can't get into it. Please tell me that it gets better! If it wasn't Glen Cook, I would already have stopped reading. . .:/
10 commentaires:
I read it not long ago, after devouring the Black Company omnibuses.
I liked it much less as well. There are some redeeming qualities but if you really can't get into it you should probably call it quits.
It does get better, although, in my opinion, it is not his best work. It took me a while to get into it too though. The second and third books in the omnibus have faster pace if I recall correctly as well.
The first book is pretty bad (thankfully short) and probably should have been shortened to a prologue of the second book. You can definitely tell it was one of his early works as it doesn't have the same quality as the rest of the books in the series.
The good news is that the 2nd book improves a lot (especially the second half) and the 3d book of the omnibus is REALLY good and worth drudging through the first one.
If it helps, my wife took almost 2 months to force her way through the first book but when she got to the third book, she read it in a couple of days.
My point....there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
The first book definitely is slow but the series does get better with books 2 and 3. It seems like this is just a stepping stone in terms of his writing to what he did with the Black Company.
I had the same problem, but if you read the prequal omnibus first
(A Fortress in Shadow)It's a much better introduction.
The short stories are also a great read. Highly recomended.
The first part of it is one of Cook's very first books, written by 1972, though not published until 1979.
The second part is better, and the third still better. He was evolving his concept of the world of the Dread Empire. The two sequel books, Reap the East Wind and An Ill Fate Marshalling, follow on from All Darkness Met, and are the best of all, IMHO.
The story was unfinished at the end of An Ill Fate Marshalling, and the manuscript of the story's continuation was stolen, but Cook is now rewriting the conclusion to the Dread Empire storyline. It will be published in the future by Nightshade in the omnibus with Reap the East Wind and An Ill Fate Marshalling. I've been waiting for it for over 20 years!
At this point, perhaps skip ahead to October's Baby, and later go back and skim A Shadow of All Night Falling to catch a few plot points that are important for future storylines.
I liked the first book in A Cruel Wind, but I didn't like the 2nd and 3rd books. However, I loved A Fortress in Shadow.
I had the same problem Pat, I just couldn't get into it. I gave up and re-read The Black Company again, heh.
can't help you here. I've only read the black company books and the instrumentalities of the night books -- I'm still waiting for that third volume which he said in your interview was done.
The third Instrumentalities book is scheduled for release on November 23 of this year, according to Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
The first one was just released in trade paperback last week, and the second one will be out in that format in August. This is probably to help drum up interest in the series, before the release of book three, Surrender to the Will of the Night.
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