I find the world of Dies The Fire very interesting for gaming but I really don't want to read any more of the novels.
I forced myself to finish Dies The Fire and it was enough to convince me never to read any of Stirling's other books. I'd recommend borrowing the book from a library and reading it first before spending money on it.
Personally, I'm happy enough with the plot summaries on webpages like wikipedia so that I
don't have to read the entire book.
Stirling is a slow, turgid and frustrating writer who commits the cardinal sins of: -
1. building up to a significant event by spending chapters detailing everything that leads to that event, then he skips over it almost like he ran out of time and had to finish the book - even though he already spent 200 pages or more building up to it.
2. too many deus ex machina moments, there are a lot of "convenient" coincidences that help the main characters survive the world such as the British soldier who "just happens" to be wandering the forest near the main character's home and this British soldier "just happens" to be a skilled bowyer and fletcher...
I love the story idea but I hate the way he wrote it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by weswood
Tombot-
Dies the Fire is a decent series, you may be able to preview chapters here: http://smstirling.com/ They've redid the site since I was last there. I really liked the 1st 3 books of the series, then the author started with the children of the main characters in the rest of the books. Still an okay read but the deeper into the series you get, there's more detail than action. You might run across 3 or 4 pages detailing a feast or what a character is wearing. Plus it gets a little "mystical", gods possesing people, a magic sword... |