| Author |
Topic:
Sara Douglass's books
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Dingo
Registered:
Apr '01
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Date Posted:
1/10/06 9:51am
Subject:
RE: Sara Douglass's books
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Mastadge posted:
I find Douglass utterly unreadable. She makes Terry Goodkind's novels look like masterpieces. I really don't understand how she's achieved bestseller status anywhere. ugh.
Well, BattleAxe is over 10 years old now, and the Axis trilogy was the first set of novels she had ever written. Also from the way that both that and the Wayfarer Redemption trilogy read I think that they are more aimed at the late teen/early adult demographic rather than general adult reading. The story at its core isn't too bad if you can live with the way in which it is presented (although I did find the way Crusader went a little disappointing after all the build-up in Pilgrim). Given that both Threshold and Beyond the Hanging Wall were written between the two trilogies, they also hold some of that style of writing.
While I only mildly enjoyed the Crucible trilogy, it was where she started to find a bit more of her voice, and I'm liking the Troy Game series because she is able to weave the story together a lot better.
And the alteration of titles was stupid marketing decisions yet again. Each of the novels in both trilogies are named so for the position in Tencendor that the main protaginists (Axis and Drago/DragonStar) hold in each of the books.
Excellence, it's a bit of horses for courses I guess. For me it's the Troy Game, but others prefer her earlier work.
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Excellence
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
1/10/06 3:00pm
Subject:
RE: Sara Douglass's books
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I ought to read at least one of her books some day. I know a cheap place to get them.
Women aren't so good in the action dept, more focused on emotion. Are her books generally exciting? I need action to get me to a back cover.
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NYCitygurl
Title: Manager of SFFBC, C&G, and NSWFF
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
1/10/06 3:56pm
Subject:
RE: Sara Douglass's books
- Date Edited:
1/10/06 3:58pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
NYCitygurl
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The book Wayfarer Redemption/Battle Axe was my favorite ofthose six, but I haven't read the last two yet (not out in the States). I like Faraday, don't really like Azhure because Faraday should have gotten Axis, and xis is a jerk.
Troy Game was okay, but it gets really confusing, espexcally since it seemed that she changed her kind halfway through. From what I can tell, she suddenly decided that she liked Asterion when her original intention was Brutus/Cornelia.
Crucible trilogy was okay, the first one was best. Threshhold is AMAZING!!!
Oh, and on her website it says that she's planning a 'darkover' novel or series after the Axis trilogies and including a desendent of the Threshhold characters. Sounds fun!!
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Handmaiden_Yane
Title: Manager Emeritus
Top Games Tournament Host
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
1/10/06 5:34pm
Subject:
RE: Sara Douglass's books
- Date Edited:
1/10/06 5:39pm (2 edits total)
Edited By:
Handmaiden_Yane
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I would have been content with just Wayfarer, Enchanter, and Starman, honestly. The second half feels really weird sometimes.
Sara Douglass is just one of those authors who like to toy with their creations.  Why can't she just leave the people alone with a "happy ever after" and let the reader imagine what they want the fate of the characters to be?!
As for the Troy Game, I want a Coel/Cornelia! Coel was the only one who genuinely treated her the way she should have been treated the entire time.
I don't think that Faraday deserved Axis. So, I am glad that he didn't get her since he wasn't loyal to her. Also, since he's of SunSoar blood, they would have fallen out of love eventually...just like Rivkah and StarDrifter. Or maybe Douglass will pull a twist and say that Faraday is actually SunSoar, lolz. I really like StarDrifter as the series continues on, though. He's becoming a really good character, even if he is a bit of a womanizer. Also, why can't Douglass just have Zenith decide already if she loves StarDrifter and can overcome her repulsion?
Excellence posted:
Women aren't so good in the action dept, more focused on emotion. Are her books generally exciting? I need action to get me to a back cover.
 Excuse me? I think that's a bit of a stereotype.
But to answer your question...well, they have battle scenes and stuff and Azhure totally kicks butt with her bow and arrow. *I* think they're exciting. There's also quite a bit of gore. Lots of skewed limbs...mashed body parts...blood dripping everywhere....people seem to have a habit of getting torn up and murdered and such. 
Dingo posted:
While I only mildly enjoyed the Crucible trilogy, it was where she started to find a bit more of her voice, and I'm liking the Troy Game series because she is able to weave the story together a lot better.
I love how she "plays" the Troy Game.  It keeps me guessing. I'm a bit interested to see how she weaves in WWII with the last book since it'll be wayy more modern than the other books have been. I wish she had chosen to play with another, older part of history...like maybe the American Revolution? I dunno. I wonder if Asterion will be Hitler? lolz
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Excellence
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
1/10/06 5:45pm
Subject:
RE: Sara Douglass's books
- Date Edited:
1/10/06 5:48pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Excellence
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 Oh, come on, my Handmaiden, it's not like I would say that without heaps of reading to see it, and it goes without saying I've found some exceptions, like Carol Berg, who blends emotion with exciting sword and socery commendably. But too few, alas.
On the other wink, there's a lot of men who can't do emotion well.
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Handmaiden_Yane
Title: Manager Emeritus
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Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
1/10/06 5:57pm
Subject:
RE: Sara Douglass's books
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I'm mollified, Excellence. I just have a bit of feminist in me, that's all.
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Excellence
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
1/10/06 6:02pm
Subject:
RE: Sara Douglass's books
- Date Edited:
1/10/06 6:14pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Excellence
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Hambly had two snap action scenes with Luke aboard the supership. Fast paced and exciting. Pity it ended in a page. And while 3/4 of Elizabeth Haydon's Rhapsody was walking talking boredom, what pitifully few battles she showed was exciting, I admit.
Feminism is good. Now go and obliterate all the fantastists who subclass their women, forcing me to buy a tenth of what I could read!
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My utilisation of complex locution to ask what's more pathetic, fans who worship their
movie actors, or the actors who couldn't give a damn, is more a reflection of my own
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Handmaiden_Yane
Title: Manager Emeritus
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Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
1/10/06 6:14pm
Subject:
RE: Sara Douglass's books
- Date Edited:
1/10/06 6:20pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Handmaiden_Yane
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Rhapsody??!?!? Boring!?!?? 
Elizabeth Haydon is amazing! I love her! Have you read all of her books? The story she spins is amazing! The plot twists! oh em gee! How everything fits in...oh, goodness...it's lovely! And the battles get better! There's one with a FREAKING DRAGON!
Anyway...! In some ways, I like Haydon better than Douglass because at least everything is happier over all.
woohoo Sara Douglass!
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Excellence
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
1/10/06 6:27pm
Subject:
RE: Sara Douglass's books
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I've got her first boxed set. But the second half, after exiting the underground tunnels, all I was reading was walking and talking. I made it through a third of the second book before I had to put it down. Nothing exciting is happening, just conversations. And I'm telling myself her constant denial of her crowd attention to the absolute beauty is the benefit of the doubt. That there is a reason for the constant humility, that it will be revealed in time. I hope, it better, at least.
Don't worry, I have to finish the trilogy sooner or later. But it's hard. I liked her Legends 2 story. Good ending, with the fire phantoms. I won't judge the entire trilogy on the basis of a single book, but I am armoured now against glittering publisher reviews inside a book flap.
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Handmaiden_Yane
Title: Manager Emeritus
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Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
1/10/06 6:29pm
Subject:
RE: Sara Douglass's books
- Date Edited:
1/10/06 6:37pm (4 edits total)
Edited By:
Handmaiden_Yane
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I guess people can't like everything you like.  It's a pity, really, because if you felt the way I feel about them...you wouldn't be calling it boring. Please, please, finish the series though.
I gobble up books. It takes me a day to read Douglass and Haydon books, as well as a variety of many other books.
Also, I absolutely love the cover art for the American verison of Douglass's books. The artist is Royo, and he seems to do a lot of art for fantasy book covers. He does Haydon's too, coincidentally.
This brings up a question:
Is the girl on the cover of Wayfarer Azhure or Faraday? It looks more like Azhure, but I can't recall Azhure ever going down into the Barrows...at least not in that book. But it's too warriorlike to be Faraday, even if she did go down there....
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Excellence
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
1/10/06 7:08pm
Subject:
RE: Sara Douglass's books
- Date Edited:
1/10/06 7:18pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Excellence
|
Oh, I will finish it, Handmaiden. Nice covers too. Keira Knightly's twin?
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movie actors, or the actors who couldn't give a damn, is more a reflection of my own
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Master_Keralys
Title: Manager:
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Registered:
Oct '03
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Date Posted:
1/10/06 9:14pm
Subject:
RE: Sara Douglass's books
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Certainly Faraday. Side note: none of the American covers depict actual events from the books - they're events that are modified in some way. The point where Faraday was looking down into the Well of Stars or whatever it was called (it's been about 8-10 months since I read them), she didn't have the rest of the people shown behind her with her. She was with an entirely different group of people. The covers have good design, but they seem largely focused on showing the women with their flawless bodies in all-too-revealing clothing. Not my idea of the best covers.
- Keralys
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NYCitygurl
Title: Manager of SFFBC, C&G, and NSWFF
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
1/11/06 6:39pm
Subject:
RE: Sara Douglass's books
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You're right, Axis isn't good enough for Faraday, but she loves him and she's alnoe at the end--and at the end of the first trilogy, she's a DEER!!
Hayden is okay; I've read her first 4 Rhapsody books and keep meaning to read the others.
I've always thought it was Faraday, just because Azhure never went down there . . . and because I don't like Azhure and I do like Faraday, so it want it to be her :P
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Handmaiden_Yane
Title: Manager Emeritus
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Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
1/14/06 6:12pm
Subject:
RE: Sara Douglass's books
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It's my suspicion that it's Faraday too. Royo draws amazingly beautiful women, but yeah...I wish he'd put clothes on Faraday since it's more her character. I love Faraday in the second half of the trilogy though...she's so awesome. I just wish she wasn't so bitter.
I love both Faraday and Azhure equally, but I think that somehow the Tencendorians didn't really remember Faraday as they should have so I like her more.
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She was tiny. About as tiny as a stick of dynamite.
Currently gaming: Soul Calibur IV, Civilization Revolution, & Mass Effect
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NYCitygurl
Title: Manager of SFFBC, C&G, and NSWFF
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
1/15/06 6:44am
Subject:
RE: Sara Douglass's books
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I used to like her, until she got together with Axis. I decided that I don't like him, because of the way he treated Faraday. She did so much to have him, and in the end she couldn't In the end she became a deer.
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