The Great Great Gods War Read

[kevinswatch]

I started up SRD's new series last month. So far I've been enjoying it. The whole idea of magic + rifles is kinda cool. And I love that the pacing is so much better than the Last Chronicles. I'm waiting for some interesting characters though. So far everyone has been pretty boring, minus the prince.

Sad that there's so little discussion for the series here. I guess online book discussion is dead? Oh well, I guess the Watch had a pretty good 20 year run.

-jay

[Savor Dam]

Don't sell us short, Jay.

Yes, discussion and dissection of earlier series is not as broadly participatory as it once was, but you will see a fair amount of commentary about The War Within, which the book totally deserves. There is lots of anticipation for The Last Repository and the culmination of the tale SRD is telling.

Meanwhile, Cord Hurn has relentlessly moved forward the long-stalled dissection of the Gap series, completing the chapters of Forbidden Knowledge and planning for the dissection of A Dark and Hungry God Arises.

Consider also how certain Watchers lurk in Facebook groups that draw SRD fans and those susceptible to SRD's themes, and guide those folks to visit here.

We are trying to keep it alive. Your positivity can help.
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Love prevails.
~ Tracie Mckinney-Hammon

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.
~ Rainier Maria Rilke

[kevinswatch]

Sorry, good point. Not trying to be negative. Just my tongue-in-cheek humor.



-jay

[Zarathustra]

After the way "negativity" was treated during the LC discussion, I have absolutely no intention of joining a discussion about this book here. You guys wanted lively participation? You shouldn't have chased away people who disagreed with you.

Jay can't even joke about this without being chastised about "negativity." The Positive Comments Only Police are too zealous in their enforcement and personal attacks for my taste.

Have fun talking to yourselves! I hope the series is good. I might give it a try someday, if I can find it in a bargain bin somewhere. I haven't read a single comment by anyone here that makes me want to rush out and buy it.
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Meaning is created internally by each individual in each specific life: any attempt at *meaning* which relies on some kind of external superstructure (God, Satan, the Creator, the Worm, whatever) for its substance misses the point (I mean the point of my story). -SRD

Remain faithful to the earth, my brothers, with the power of your virtue. Let your gift-giving love and your knowledge serve the meaning of the earth ... Do not let them fly away from earthly things and beat with their wings against eternal walls. Alas, there has always been so much virtue that has flown away. Lead back to the earth the virtue that flew away, as I do-back to the body, back to life, that it may give the earth a meaning, a human meaning. -Nietzsche

[kevinswatch]

To be fair, it's people like you that make me never want to go in the Tank again. It's all relative.

-jay

[lurch]

So far I will say..Donaldson's other works are analogous to a machete' in that his style hacks thru the dense themes creating paths of understanding and enjoyment by and for the reader.Donaldson's style in The Great God's War so far, is analogous to a fish fillet knife,,leaner, thinner,sharper , and gets right to the bone quickly. The 7th is some of Donaldson's leanest writing.

I like Donaldson's style in TGGW. Perhaps theres a bit more dialogue and by that the importance of the Word as it is said comes to the fore front. Words trap characters and also liberate and etc etc in TGGW. The opening chapters of TWW is excellent example of communicating by words unsaid. The lean dialogue tells soooo much.On the surface everything seems okay but below the surface theres all sorts of difficulty.Theres some Art there.He demonstrates the value of " The Word" again later when the queen takes down Postern. The reader has to be a bit more focused perhaps but thats the price of having all the fat trimmed away.
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If she withdrew from exaltation, she would be forced to think- And every thought led to fear and contradictions; to dilemmas for which she was unprepared.
pg4 TLD

[SleeplessOne]

I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books, as lurch mentioned the writing is quite pared down, and yet it is still unmistakably Donaldson.

I actually just started a re-read a few days ago, very interesting reading the 1st volume again having some idea in advance where it is leading.

Prince Bifalt is self-righteousness incarnate, he is also a provincial, small-minded and violent man.

And yet his indignation is very much justified in a lot of ways, too.

@kevinswatch if you are enjoying the 1st installment I predict you will be pretty thrilled with the 2nd.

As to the tyranny of positivity, I was one who was fairly negative about the LC but I didn't find my opinions were unfairly castigated - challenged certainly, but I'd hardly say my views were howled down.
People just had differing views on that story.

Also re-reading (well, re-listening to) the LC at the moment and I've found a bit more to enjoy the 2nd time around.

[Hunchback Jack]

I will say that I enjoyed TWW more than SD, but that I liked both just fine.

SD felt like a novella. Not just in its limited length, but SRD writes his novellas in a different style from his novels, focusing on characters and dialogue and less on world-building. TWW expanded the scope and included some world-building, and was written in a more "novelly" style.

I'm looking forward to TLR (although I hope the title changes).