Carrie’s Comments (group member since Apr 23, 2011)

Carrie’s comments from the The Read&Write Book Club group.

The Summoner by Gail Z. Martin

Has 33 chapters, we'll do the same as last month. Read to the middle (chapter 16) post your views then again at the end.

Overall I liked the book. there were a few things that were distracting though. like the different names she used for common things. Like Faren for spider and Ravi and Ceryni for rodents, She called horses horses why didn't she call everything by their normal names?

I don't know if it was just my copy but there was no indicators of a change between characters POV or when a time lapse occurred.

The story was engaging though and I was hooked by the end.

So I've been trying to get this story out of my head but as soon as I have the first scene down I get stuck at the transition.

How do you get past blocks? any tips and tricks?

This thread is for suggestions for our book of the month read. If you want to suggest a book you've been waiting for an excuse to get feel free to post it here.

red to chapter 15 today. so far it is ok. A simple storyline sofar pretty linear and predictable. I chose this book be cause a later book in the series had some good reviews but I hate starting things in the middle.

This one has been a quick read so far very simple language. I would prefer a little bit more depth to the characters, I hope there will be more into their motivations later in the book.

Welcome to our little group! I'm sure we'll learn a lot from each other.

29 chapters, since it's hard to hold back a good book I suggest that when you reach chapter 15 post your views on the book, then again at the end. whenever you get to them. what do you think?

The Magicians' Guild by Trudi Canavan

how about...

The Summoner by Gail Z. Martin

or

The Magicians' Guild by Trudi Canavan?


I'm open to suggestions.

also we could read book 2 of the king killer chronicles
The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

if you haven't done so already that is.

Sure, have any requests?

I was rather frusterated at the flip flop between the pat and present in one part of the book. I read through a "present" section then I settle in to get back into the story only to be back in the "present" a chapter later. I think I even growled to myself. when I get into a book I hate being interrupted. The world in my head dissapates and I have to build it up again. I loose the immersion into the story.

I'm on the fence about reading book two. I'm interested in the story but I hate the interruptions. the first and last "present" sequences being the only ones where I truly felt they were moving the story.

Well I got distracted and finished the book before I realized what I was doing. I'm not used to pacing myself.

overall I think it is a good book. I still found the "present' scenes distracting and the forshadowing was a bit heavy but I enjoyed it. I wont go into the details until I know that you've finished. Don't want to give any spoilers before you're ready.

I feel like the author watched "Princess Bride" movie too many times. In the movie the boy interrupted the story teller a few times, which is ok for the movie but in this story it is more distracting. There isn't a lot of information being passed in these "present" moments and I find them unnecessary, except to reinforce the "I'm a character in a book telling a story" feeling instead of just telling us the story. So far I don't see a reason for the author to choose this format instead of just telling us the story through the younger Kvothe.

I am the type of person who likes to submerse myself into a book and totally ignore what’s going on outside the book. I can do that with this book but there are some sequences that bring me out of the story.

First is the story in a story. It starts out with an older Kvothe telling the story of his youth to a chronicler. I’m fine with this but every time it comes out of the telling and back to the older Kvothe, I lose the image and go back to the first. I will probably get used to this as the story progresses but I think the author would have been fine telling it from the boy Kvothe’s point of view and would not lose anything in the telling. Of course the author may have something in store that requires this approach that I have yet to reach. So it’s not too big of a thing.

The next is the foreshadowing. Most notably at the end of chapter 14 “Little did I know our time was quickly drawing to an end”. To me the sentence right before that in the previous paragraph would have been plenty foreshadowing without being so obvious about it “We were family, and I knew that any trouble between us would eventually be smoothed over. All I needed was time”. It was almost like the author was saying “did you catch that last part?” I think the chapter would have been just fine without that last sentence.

I have never read anything by this author before and it is taking me a bit to get used to his writing style. It started out slow but that might just be the unfamiliarity, after the first few chapters I was able to submerse myself for the most part and the morning went by fast as I was able to lose myself in the story.

I’m excited to learn that Patrick Rothfuss’s “The Name of the Wind” is this author’s first published book. He worked on this story for seven years, while going through college. 2 more years going through Grad school and doesn’t get published til 2007. I’m inspired by his persistence. Even though he had all three books complete earlier, book 2 just came out in March this year and the third is still in the works. I wonder if they are just building on the suspense factor or trying to milk everything they can out of it. On his website the Author mentions that the publishing was scheduled for a one a year basis. What happened that put such a big gap between book 1 and book 2.

1. If I woke up in China...
2. I am a vampire looking for...
3. I'm being chased by...
4. The internet crashed so I...
5. I saw a flower eat a...
6. I was working at my desk when...
7. If I had a magic wand I would...

woohoo!

So there are 92 chapters in this book with a prologue and an epilogue. If I break that down into the 4 weeks of May that would be 23 chapters a week.

That will be our rough goal:

May 1-7 chapters 1-23
May 8-14 chapters 24-46
May 15-21 chapters 47-69
May 22-31 chapters 70-92

Then we can discuss each section on the weekends, or if you finish early feel free to post early.

I was thinking at the end of the month we could use our comments from each section to write up a book review. What do you think?

I can understand that. I'm rather new at writing, as you could probably tell. It's good to find different ways of doing things.

I definitely understand this. I could really care less what color of tie a person is wearing. Unless it is a "lucky" tie or something special I don't really care unless it is part of the story.