harry-connolly

Way into Darkness

Book Notes

And done. With this book read, I have finished the three book series, The Great Way, by Harry Connolly.

Have no fear in reading these books: the protagonists have a happy ending despite repeated eye rolling certain deaths and stunningly fortunate good luck. Except for the parts of complete unbelievability, because, really, a world of magic with the ability to create matter out of thin air (but really just a transporting of material from one dimension to another) and intelligence without mass, and the ability to transmute living creatures, and conquering alligators or an underwater wooden structure that sinks, isn't totally unbelievable, I enjoyed this book the best of the three.

The cover STILL has a depiction of a white girl representing the black girl who was actually IN the book. Still annoys me.

What also slightly annoyed me was the repeated "and here is where I die" thoughts followed by "oh look I'm still alive and have incredible human endurance and haven't pooped once since the series began" parts. I got over those annoyances.

I really really really like Harry Connolly's Twenty Palaces books. I don't know what happened with this series. It was difficult to read. Felt like a different author entirely.

Way into Magic

Book Notes

Okay, in for a penny in for a pound with this series. I didn't really like the writing style of the first book, but apparently I became used to it in the second book because it didn't bother me as much as it did in the first book, I'm not sure what it is about this series of books so far, but I am finding them more than a little difficult to finish reading. And somewhat frustrating with the deux ex machina happening.

Phooey, I hate the autocorrect on the ios devices, especially when it corrects two words back after I've confirmed it was correct and moved on.

So, the book. Instead of the kabillion characters, the story lines have reduced to two, Cazia and Tejohn. To my complete and total unsurprise, bad things happened in the journeying, foreign creatures are strangely cool with humans, both others are utterly hostile, our heroes escape time and time again from likely death and absolutely certain disfigurement and captivity yet manage to escape both physically and mentally unharmed. It's kinda painful to read.

I'm doing a poor job of explaining my difficulties with the book.

How about the cover of the book has the main female character on it, AND SHE IS WHITE. She's described as "dark-skinned" in the book. Talk about completely and totally pissing me off at that point. Put a black woman on the cover if the character is a black woman. More power to you, too.

Time passes oddly, things I expect to take days take hours and other things I expect to take hours take weeks, it's weird.

And it was okay. I read quickly. There wasn't any plot repeat that series often have, for which I was thankful. I suspect the three books are just one long book broken into three parts for easier publishing.

The Way Into Chaos

Book Notes

This book, The Way Into Chaos: Book One of The Great Way (Volume 1), is the first of a three book series. It was written by Harry Connolly, who wrote about the Twenty Palaces series, which I think was recommended by Jim Butcher, and which I really liked. I vaguely recall being a little thrown off by Connolly's writing style in the Twenty Palaces novels, but I had read them just after I had read a few Dresden books, and, well, anything is going to seem odd after reading them (because they are awesome).

Which is a slight lead-in to the fact that I struggled with this book. I really wanted to read this book for the sole reason it was written by Harry Connolly (given the number of Bosch books I read, I feel specifying Harry (ANOTHER HARRY!) and not Michael is important here). I enjoyed the Twenty Palaces books, I like Connolly's writing.

I couldn't stand the writing in this book.

I've experienced this before, where I couldn't stand the writing style of a book and kept reading. Eventually the style becomes okay and I can finish the book. Happened in this one, too. I finished the book, but man, I am not excited about it. I'll keep reading the series and see what happens. Until then, neither not recommended nor recommended.