Outside of a Dog: Baker, Kage: (08) The Sons of Heaven

Dan Blum

Dan Blum wrote on July 23, 2008 at 2:32 PM:

That's kind of disappointing to hear. On the other hand, if I follow your advice it's a bunch of books I can scratch off my "to-read" list, which would be just as well. And Baker has a prequel to The Anvil of the World coming out soon if I want to read her in particular.

Kate

Kate wrote on July 23, 2008 at 2:43 PM:

It's tricky, because while for some people the series jumped the shark with book 4, for me it wasn't until all the way at the end . . . It's like the Dark Tower series, you can't predict how people will react to the ending without spoiling it for them, which is unfair, but on the other hand it's a heck of a time investment.

At least the books in this series are pretty short and fast reads. I think I'd need to put three of them together to match any one Jordan or Martin volume.

Dan Blum

Dan Blum wrote on July 23, 2008 at 5:39 PM:

Yeah, it's short enough that I may break down and read it eventually anyway.

I started reading Martin and after two volumes decided to wait until the series was finally done, so I could a)decide if it would ultimately be worth my time and b)not have to re-read the early volumes so many times (as many characters and plot threads as he has, there is no way I would remember what was going on from one book to the next if I didn't re-read).

Kate

Kate wrote on July 24, 2008 at 7:34 AM:

I also stopped Martin after two books and for the same reasons, though one of the ways Chad & I pass time on long car drives is him telling me the plots (also for Jordan and Erikson).

David Tate

David Tate wrote on July 24, 2008 at 11:38 AM:

I'm not sorry to have read the series; the early books *were* very good, and there were some extremely cool ideas floated here and there. I hated the ending, but in an odd sort of way the ending was so divergent from where I would have expected it to go that I can almost pretend it never happened. Kind of like all of those alleged Star Wars movies after "The Empire Strikes Back"...

Melissa Devnich

Melissa Devnich wrote on July 27, 2008 at 8:55 PM:

So... if my reaction to the second-to-last one was "What the HELL happened to Mendoza's personality?" is it better that I leave this one unread?

Kate

Kate wrote on July 27, 2008 at 8:56 PM:

Melissa: Yes.

Melissa Devnich

Melissa Devnich wrote on July 28, 2008 at 8:04 AM:

AARGH. Okay, heading off to read your spoiler review.

Melissa Devnich

Melissa Devnich wrote on July 28, 2008 at 8:10 AM:

Aaaaaand now returning from said review with the following highly intellectual comment:

WHAT.

Kate

Kate wrote on July 28, 2008 at 8:11 AM:

Melissa, if you want explication--since the spoiler review was written for people who've read the book--feel free to ask over there.

But, yeah.

mythago

mythago wrote on July 29, 2008 at 12:45 AM:

I think I'm one of the book-4-shark-jumping people. Part of it may just be that I've always found Mendoza profoundly irritating. But part of it is that there's a point where I just felt like, okay, can we get to the finale now?

Kate

Kate wrote on July 29, 2008 at 7:37 AM:

mythago: okay, can we get to the finale now?

Yeah, I hear you.