John Gwynne,
The Shadow of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Trilogy #1).
I picked up this fantasy novel on jacket copy alone, never heard of the author or any of his works before. Sounded like a good fit for my reading likes; epic fantasy, Nordic influenced, gritty combat, etc. Maybe it would be similar to a Joe Abercrombie novel, is what I thought at the time.
Nope.
Yes, there are some neat set-pieces, and the town built in a dragon skull is very cool, but there is one word that is used to distraction; "seax." Apparently this is some kind of Viking knife or small sword, but boy howdy; Mr. Gwynne loves this word. Every few pages, one of his characters is described as wearing "ax and seax on his (or her) belt," or "picked up belt with ax and seax and tightened it around his waist." That latter sentence feels like it occurs 50+ times in the course of this one novel.
The book felt like it was written by cut-and-paste, to boost word count. Or "find and replace" maybe. The exact same terms, the exact same words, the exact same sentences were repeated across multiple chapters. I read the whole thing, thinking it would get better, but that was a lost cause.
I wanted to like the book, but it became so distracting to get the exact same terms used over and over and over... Yes, I can understand why there may not be much difference in what a fighter carried into combat, but ffs, you don't need to list it out ever single damned time! Use a synonym once in a while!
"Seax."
Turned me off the book so badly that Gwynne is on my "Never Ever Read" list now.
John Gwynne, The Shadow of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Trilogy #1).
I picked up this fantasy novel on jacket copy alone, never heard of the author or any of his works before. Sounded like a good fit for my reading likes; epic fantasy, Nordic influenced, gritty combat, etc. Maybe it would be similar to a Joe Abercrombie novel, is what I thought at the time.
Nope.
Yes, there are some neat set-pieces, and the town built in a dragon skull is very cool, but there is one word that is used to distraction; "seax." Apparently this is some kind of Viking knife or small sword, but boy howdy; Mr. Gwynne loves this word. Every few pages, one of his characters is described as wearing "ax and seax on his (or her) belt," or "picked up belt with ax and seax and tightened it around his waist." That latter sentence feels like it occurs 50+ times in the course of this one novel.
The book felt like it was written by cut-and-paste, to boost word count. Or "find and replace" maybe. The exact same terms, the exact same words, the exact same sentences were repeated across multiple chapters. I read the whole thing, thinking it would get better, but that was a lost cause.
I wanted to like the book, but it became so distracting to get the exact same terms used over and over and over... Yes, I can understand why there may not be much difference in what a fighter carried into combat, but ffs, you don't need to list it out ever single damned time! Use a synonym once in a while!
"Seax."
Turned me off the book so badly that Gwynne is on my "Never Ever Read" list now.