Harrower is okay. Feels like a movie pitch. Past Tense is a good idea and well executed but in the end, just okay too. I'm hard to please.
Darkness was good but I don't feel compelled to read 7 more books to find out what happened if for no other reason than I felt Bakker over writes everything. The book is like 600 pages but I felt like I could list everything that happened on 1 page. It was a cool world and I love the idea of aliens in fantasy and what it seems to be building towards sounds unreliably awesome, the whole idea of aliens creating wars that will kill off all humans except for like 30k to bring about some kind of prophecy... I just don't have the stamina to read another 7000 pages to find out which is bummer, because again, I liked it. Maybe some day I'll return to it.
I hear that - Bakker's writing is VERY evocative, but plotting-wise it's a challenge to even keep track of what exactly is happening through all his dense, aesthetic prose. When I read the original trilogy, that's all there was of it, and now that there's 4 more books I've been a bit "Oh, hmmm, there's more. A lot more. ... Hmmmm."
Too bad about Harrower, though we'll see what I think about that and Past Tense when I finally dive in. My guess is I'll be hard on the writing of Harrower but more forgiving of Past Tense.
I considered skipping to book 6 or 7 just to read the ending... I looked at synopsis online for the later books and seemed like I'd be fine to just jump back in later. I don't think there's much of the aliens until later anyway. Can you confirm this based the first 3 books?
There's a definite climax in Book 3 of the OG trilogy, it leaves things a bit open-ended but the initial story largely comes to a close. The aliens play a sort-of part in there. I had no idea another 4-book follow up was coming, and haven't read it, so can't say what's in there, though I've read a few forums that claimed the quartet offers a much more solid end point. (though Bakker has said there may be one last trilogy/story to be told.) I would say: if you weren't feeling the writing overall, just read the synopses. He's a taster's choice author to be sure.
Oooo, I have Harrower and Past Tense, can't wait to read both!
What did you think of Bakker's The Darkness That Came Before? I've read all of the OG trilogy, but not the second quartet yet.
Harrower is okay. Feels like a movie pitch. Past Tense is a good idea and well executed but in the end, just okay too. I'm hard to please.
Darkness was good but I don't feel compelled to read 7 more books to find out what happened if for no other reason than I felt Bakker over writes everything. The book is like 600 pages but I felt like I could list everything that happened on 1 page. It was a cool world and I love the idea of aliens in fantasy and what it seems to be building towards sounds unreliably awesome, the whole idea of aliens creating wars that will kill off all humans except for like 30k to bring about some kind of prophecy... I just don't have the stamina to read another 7000 pages to find out which is bummer, because again, I liked it. Maybe some day I'll return to it.
I hear that - Bakker's writing is VERY evocative, but plotting-wise it's a challenge to even keep track of what exactly is happening through all his dense, aesthetic prose. When I read the original trilogy, that's all there was of it, and now that there's 4 more books I've been a bit "Oh, hmmm, there's more. A lot more. ... Hmmmm."
Too bad about Harrower, though we'll see what I think about that and Past Tense when I finally dive in. My guess is I'll be hard on the writing of Harrower but more forgiving of Past Tense.
I considered skipping to book 6 or 7 just to read the ending... I looked at synopsis online for the later books and seemed like I'd be fine to just jump back in later. I don't think there's much of the aliens until later anyway. Can you confirm this based the first 3 books?
There's a definite climax in Book 3 of the OG trilogy, it leaves things a bit open-ended but the initial story largely comes to a close. The aliens play a sort-of part in there. I had no idea another 4-book follow up was coming, and haven't read it, so can't say what's in there, though I've read a few forums that claimed the quartet offers a much more solid end point. (though Bakker has said there may be one last trilogy/story to be told.) I would say: if you weren't feeling the writing overall, just read the synopses. He's a taster's choice author to be sure.