The Sword and Laser discussion

Confession, I lemmed this book about a week ago. I saw the early announcement and picked it up out of the LA Library. Lasted about two days before dropping it. Just didn't want to spoil anyone's fun until the discussions got started.

The language and overall approach was interesting at first. Over time it just seemed more and more like an after school special on Native American myths, this episode The Story Of The Crow. The characters seemed flat and more and more stereotypical. I kept expecting the crow to go up to a human and say "How" and the human to reply "Scrambled."

Then there was the bird sex and the murder death kill and I was done. Thought about powering through but just couldn't face a few hundred more pages like that.

I hope others will enjoy it. The book is certainly reviewed well. It is not for me.

I'm at about 45% and have been toying with lemming it since around 20%. I'm finding it really, really boring and I keep thinking about the other books I could be reading. I thought I'd give it till the end of the second part to decide since the medieval monks are slightly more interesting than the prehistory tribe. I generally like philosophy but the mysticism in this is getting to be a little too much for me.

As I said in my other buddy read of this book, reading is personal. Sorry this does not work for you. While it is a five star book and probably one of my top three reads this year, I did feel the need to stop reading for a while despite enjoying the narrative. The book has LOTS in it. I need 15 days to finish it, while normally a book I like can be finished in three to four days.

John (Taloni) wrote: "Confession, I lemmed this book about a week ago. I saw the early announcement and picked it up out of the LA Library. Lasted about two days before dropping it. Just didn't want to spoil anyone's fu..."

I had the same feeling about the only other Crowley book I finished, Beasts, which I finished only because it was so short.

Sometimes we just don’t connect with certain authors, despite the praise heaped upon them by others.

John (Taloni) wrote: "Confession, I lemmed this book about a week ago..."

I'm in the same boat as you. I stopped reading around 11%. It's beautifully written but isn't in my wheelhouse. I'll be reading the threads to see what others have taken away from the book.

I have a couple people in mind that I'm going to recommend this book to because I know they are avid bird watchers. I think they'd enjoy it!

I must say, I was feeling bored with the pace of the book. This will be my first Lem of the year but I have the latest Sandman Slim book waiting.

I'm thinking about dropping it. I think I'm just not a fan of John Crowley's writing. I read Little, Big a few years ago and it was just kind of meh. This book has a similar feel to it, and I don't really want to push through another book that just kind of leaves me with a meh.

I read the free Kindle sample and decided to skip this one and continue with my Wheel of Time read.

I'm about 25% in and I love it. I think it helps that I got the audiobook and that it was read by the author. I think he's adding emphasis and metering that might be missed otherwise. It's very poetic. I guess if you want people to read your poetry, disguise it in prose - prose about crows :-)

Interesting. I found the audiobook boring to the point of distraction and lack of focus on anything. Different strokes for different folks! :)

I can’t do audio fiction. My mind wanders. Audio non-fiction, however, is fine. In fact, I just listened to (and thoroughly enjoyed) Sarah Vowell’s Lafayette in the Somewhat United States. I’m not sure why my brain has that quirk.

I'm 13% in and it's a real struggle to read, I often need to reread sentences sometimes more than twice. I mainly read books in English so it's quite a downer feeling like a beginner again.

I'm going to keep at it but i suspect it's going to be one of my least favorite books of the year.

10% in and might not finish it. I guess maybe I'm not that interested in crows.

I’m giving up too. I haven’t lemmed a book in a long time, but I just can’t keep my mind in this one. I’ll get my credit back from Audible!

Best pick of the year. I enjoyed the literary qualities for a change.

Trike, that's true for me as well - I can listen to nonfiction, but not fiction

I'm 13% in now myself. The prologue had me hooked. The part I'm in right now is quite a slog, but I have hopes it will pick up again soon.

I'm almost 50% through and still not sure what I think. It hasn't turned me off, but I'm also only mildly curious as to where this is going.

Albert wrote: "I enjoyed the literary qualities for a change."

Though how someone who taught Creative Writing at Yale could write this grammatical howler escapes me? :-?

We shouldn't of, she said.

I enjoy this book (both the writing and the subject material) when I'm reading it. I can't say that I find it compelling though. It's something that I pick up, read for a few minutes, and then put down. I expect that I'll finish it, but at the current rate it probably won't be until February. It's a good thing that the book discussion is always at the end of the podcast.

I gave up on it last night. I decided to read Hyperion by Dan Simmons for this month instead and I’m enjoying it much more. Just not for me.

With so many people lemming this book, Decembers read is looking like a bit of a Ka-tastrophe :)

Does that say more about the book or us, though? (and Lem threads tend to get a lot of 'me too!' action whereas people still reading don't post "I'm still reading!").

It will be a good book to have an end of reading period rating thread.

I'd guess there will be a wide range of reactions from Lemmed to 5 Star.

I enjoyed it, but didn't love it. It had a better last third than start or middle third.

Rick wrote: "Does that say more about the book or us, though? (and Lem threads tend to get a lot of 'me too!' action whereas people still reading don't post "I'm still reading!")."

Agree.

While the book is clearly not for everyone, I have to say it's now the best book I read with the group.

It got better, i'm now almost halfway through and while it's not the fastest read it's at least not a shore anymore and so my enjoyment have gone up considerably.

Probably not going to be a favorite or anything but my advice would be to keep at it past the first quarter or so before you lemm it.

I ended up not lemming it and just finished. Unfortunately it never really got better for me and seemed to take forever to get through. The subject and characters didn't interest me and the style was weird but serviceable.

Finally staggered over the finish line, not sure it was worth the effort. Too disjointed and not enough hazard for Ka...

I'm still really enjoying this book.

I'm at 75% and I'm done. This is the first book in the club that I've started and Lemmed.

Here's why:
It struck me originally as corvid Watership Down (which I didn't particularly care for) and there was not much in the overall presentation of corvid culture to draw me in.
The pacing is so slow. There's a lot of plot points in the story that AFAICT could just go away and it wouldn't matter.

I considered Lemming it earlier, but I convinced myself that I would power through and see what the book had to offer, but as I went on it was clear that it wasn't going to offer up much so I granted myself permission to Lem it.

If you liked it, great! It was clearly not my cup of tea.

Steve wrote: "I'm at 75% and I'm done. This is the first book in the club that I've started and Lemmed.

Here's why:
It struck me originally as corvid Watership Down (which I didn't particularly care for) and th..."

I've had trouble getting interested in Ka (kept putting it down to pick up something else instead) and I just recently started reading Watership Down, which I'm actually enjoying more, Maybe because the characters in WD just seem more real, or maybe I just like rabbits more than crows.

Tina wrote: "Steve wrote: "I'm at 75% and I'm done. This is the first book in the club that I've started and Lemmed.

Here's why:
It struck me originally as corvid Watership Down (which I didn't particularly ca..."

Not a patch on Watership Down... Maybe if Ka spent more time on inter-crow relations and ignored people (other than nameless external forces).

Talking about Watership Down. There is a recently screened TV version from the BBC.

Animation looks shit and rabbits bizarrely look like hares. It is getting mixed reviews.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3gQ1...

Lemming the book after about 45% read. There should be a term for poetry masquerading as prose. Struggle to get through a novel with no plot. Reminds me somewhat of Night Circus in structure. The vignettes are very beautiful, but unconnected; I never had a feeling of progress, more like watching the bank from a boat lazily down a river. By the way, can anyone tell me the word for a story that’s a series of descriptions, as if from a traveling boat or carriage?

Dale wrote: "By the way, can anyone tell me the word for a story that’s a series of descriptions, as if from a traveling boat or carriage? "

Travelogue ?

In contrast to what many are saying here, I enjoyed it at first then had a stutter about two thirds in - it was the stuff about the Small Ugly People that got me - and had to take a break for a few days.
I came back to it and managed to finish it and I’m glad I did, but it was not an easy book.

Tassie Dave wrote: "Dale wrote: "By the way, can anyone tell me the word for a story that’s a series of descriptions, as if from a traveling boat or carriage? "

Travelogue ?"

Or vignette.