Other Jimness > Cinder Spires Spoilers

Loved it! Thoughts...

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Dina:
My kindle also opened in the prologue but I did that to see the cover and the dedication (to two Silent Paws) but I don't think there are maps. I don't have my kindle with me here but I'll check when I arrive home. Perhaps I skipped it. I am sure I searched for them at the ending of the book, where I expected to find a map, and there were none. Thanks for the info anyway!

Edited: Oh yes, the maps were there! After the table of contents. That is why I didn't find it. Anyway, I had already seen Pris maps on her page. Still, I don't see the details well enough.

Ananda:
This is the only review thread I could find, so I'll just post here.

I got around to finally reading this book in december after having set it aside with a bad impression a bit previously.

Unfortunately, my initial bad impression never got better and I have to say that I really did not enjoy the book. As usual, Butcher is good with his action scenes and so, but the writing just wasn't there for the rest of it for me. Maybe it was because he chose to write in third person and just couldn't pull it off, but the characters were all like cardboard figures and complete stereotypes for the sort of characters you'd expect. There was zero depth or subtlety.

The book also seemed to be aimed at young teen readers. I know I watched an interview sometime last year where he said he wanted to write a book for young people: was this it? In that same interview, when asked why he started a new series, he replied, perhaps flippantly, thst it was to pay for a divorce. This, I believe!

There were some funny lines along the way, but there was a lot of obvious stuff, too. The, 'then why'd you marry her' line was so obvious in coming from nearly the first line about the woman, for example. There were several such places where you knew exactly what would happen.

Anyway, I wanted to like it, but just could not. I wasn't expecting a literary masterpiece because that's not what Butcher does. He writes fun popcorn fiction. However, I was still hoping for more than a paint by number piece.
 

Fedd:
Sadly Im with Ananda here. Ive loved nearly every book in the DF and codex alera but could not enjoy Cinder spires. Dont care for the genre I guess, and the dialogue was very repetitive. The warrior born character gets introduced fairly early on and yet every scene with them in it, their powers have to be described yet again. The book was fairly tedious, and the characters were completely one dimensional.

Dina:
You know, I am very surprised by that criticism, which is repeated. I think the characters are much better than the Dresden Files ones (which I loved!). I can see how Grimm and Folly are archetypical, but the others feel like real people to me. They are, hands down, my favorite part of the book.

Ananda:

--- Quote from: Fedd on January 03, 2016, 03:33:50 AM ---... the dialogue was very repetitive.

--- End quote ---
This is an issue he has in all of the DF books as well. He will use the same word three times in two sentences, for example. Or, he will say something in one sentence and then repeat it with different wording in the next. It feels like these are instances of him just pushing through lack of inspiration to keep on deadline with the intent to fix it later. I think he would benefit a lot with a stricter editor who is more willing to make red circles around these for the re-write because they just go through now to the detriment of the work. If I am remembering correctly, he even once described a lion's roar as leonine.

And, Dina, I am glad you liked the characters. I think I enjoyed the cat character the most because he seemed to be intentionally designed as two dimensional. I didn't expect any depth from him and wasn't disappointed. He was fun and funny.

The DF characters started out two dimensional as well, I think, but have expanded over the course of the series. The writing is also awful for the first few books and that doesn't help. I think the first person perspective helped hide a lot of the shortcomings, though, because we only know what Harry knows or chooses to share about others but we still get a sense of intimacy because were are inside his head and exposed to all his feelings.

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