I just finished Servant of the Shard, the first book in R.A. Salvatore's The Sellswords trilogy, a series starring assassin Artermis Entreri and mercenary drow Jarlaxle. On the back of the book there are several pages with ads for other Forgotten Realms series, and one of them caught my attention. The book, written by Thomas M. Reid, is called The Gossamer Plain, and it's the first book in The Empyrean Odyssey trilogy. The reason why I thought this book might be interesting is because the two main characters are the alu-fiend Aliisza and her boyfriend Kaanyr Vhok, two characters from the War of the Spider Queen series. I never cared much for Kaanyr, but the alu-fiend was sexy and fun, so I thought a story showcasing her might be cool. Therefore, I went to Amazon to see what other people had to say about the book, to get an idea pf what to expect. It has four stars, with most of the reviewers giving it five. However, there is one person (and this is what triggered this post) that gives it two stars. He argues that there are many things that are never clear, that they are confusing, and that the story lacks cohesion. He says Aliisza's story is poorly developed, and that there are many boring parts worth skipping.This may or may not be truth, but there is something that makes me question the validity of this guy's assertions: he says he finished the book in three hours. According to Amazon, the book is 308 pages long, so if he read it in three hours, her read one hundred pages an hour. Now, I understand I am a slow reader, and that people out there read faster than I do. Depending on the size of the font, I average from thirty to forty pages an hour. I can read faster if I want to, but I don't enjoy the story as much: details are lost, and the whole thing gets… well, confusing and not very cohesive. So, to me, a guy claiming he read 300 pages in three hours is akin to saying he didn't read the book but scanned it. I wouldn't be surprised if that lack of cohesion, that lack of explanations he whines about are due to the fact that he wasn't even reading the book. He was skipping chunks of the novel, and barely paying any attention to the parts he did read. Then again, I might be wrong, and this person is a well-oiled, fine-tuned reading machine, and he managed to do in three hours what it would take me ten hours to accomplish.So what do you think? Am I just being snotty and dismissing his feat out of sheer disbelief, or maybe it is a fact that you can't pay that much attention to something you barely spend any time doing?
6 comments:
Jeje, yo hago lo mismo. Si veo algo que parece interesante en Amazon, me voy directo a leer las pegas antes que los elogios. Suelen ser mucho más reveladoras.
Sobre lo que hablas, teniendo en cuenta que al parecer The Gossamer Plain no ha recibido nada más que un voto negativo, ya habría que tomarse esa opinión aislada con cautela.
Y si encima el tío dice que se leyó un libro de trescientas páginas en tres horas, una de dos: o no se enteró de nada de lo que leyó (que ninguno aquí es Número 5), o se saltó incontables párrafos enteros (lo que explicaría que piense que a la historia le falta cohesión). Como los que enseñan a leer Guerra y Paz en cinco horas.
Si no van a disfrutar de los placeres de la palabra escrita, ¿entonces para qué leer? ¿Para saber lo que va a pasar? Pues que se lean una sinopsis, que probablemente no tardarán ni media hora.
Y que no me diga nadie que es que no tienen tiempo pero aún así quieren leerlo. Es que NO te lo vas a leer. Como dice Fel, lo van a escanear. Y al día siguiente a ver quién se acuerda de cómo se llamaba el protagonista.
PD.- Espero que esa trilogía nueva de Salvatore que te estás leyendo, sí que la haya escrito él.
Número 5, qué bueno...
Piensen lo que piensen el resto de clientes amazónicos, no creo que me lea The Gossamer Plain en ningún momento del futuro cercano, pues si bien este primer libro de la trilogía ya está a la venta, creo que leí que el segundo sale a mediados de este año, y el tercero en 2010 (tal vez era 2009, no estoy seguro). O sea, que va para largo.
Y sí: esta trilogía sí la ha escrito Salvatore, no como cierta guerra arácnida real...
No es que me desagrade el amigo Salvatore ni nada. Sólo he leído u libro suyo, Vector Prime, que no me pareció malo, la verdad. Pero, una pregunta, ¿qué ha hecho para merecer la etiqueta de "Serie Creada Por..."? ¿Es que vende mucho o algo?
Y no estoy siendo sarcástico. Tan sólo un poquito ignorante.
La verdad es que no tengo ni idea. Supongo que podría buscar en Wikipedia... Bueno, voy a buscar en Wikipedia...
"The War of the Spider Queen book series was overseen by R. A. Salvatore, and each book was written by a different writer from Wizards of the Coast."
Vamos, que tampoco dice mucho...
Vamos, que tampoco dice nada.
Surfeando, me he encontrado estas declaraciones suyas:
Q: How did the War of Spider Queen series come about?
A: The idea was the brainchild of Phil Athans, my editor. Honestly, it took them a long time to talk me into signing along on it. In the end, the idea that I could help some other writers get some much-needed exposure is what won out, and so I agreed. At that point, I flew out for a meeting in Seattle, where a group of us – Phil, myself, Rich Baker, Thomas Reid, Richard Lee Byers and others – created the general story arc for the series. After that, my role became that of content editor, mostly making sure that the parts which took place in Menzoberranzan kept the place where I wanted it for future works.
Vamos, que ni siquiera fue idea suya.
Pues eso: que ni siquiera fue idea suya. Parece que simplemente hizo de Lucy Autrey Wilson: esto sí lo puedes hacer, esto no :P
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