Alphabet of Thorn -- Slow Start?

[Zen]

I've never read Patricia McKillip before, so I'm not familiar with her style, but so far, I'm kinda disoriented... It seems the the book begins in fits and starts. Hopefully it smmoths out before I lose interest.

[Robin]

I'm feeling a bit of that as well - but I'm still "VERY early in it". Will wait and see.

[[deleted user]]

I wouldn't call the novel action-packed, but there's definitely some tension being gradually applied during the first few chapters. We'll see where that goes.

[Whitaker]

Yeah, that seems to be her style. It feels of sort "meander-y" (Yes, yes, I made up that word. Don't hit me, don't hit me. :-P). I've not decided how I feel about that yet.

[Jon]

I've sailed right through the first eight chapters this afternoon. I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

[Libby]

I've not read McKillip's work before so I was excited to try a new author. I love fantasy lit of this nature (which I'm a bit confused about because the board says its Sci Fi month but this work seems to be fantasy - do we read one of each per month?)Anyway, I was worried that this particular work would be too mushy for lack of a better term. A lot of fantasty lit lacks literary merit - tends to be too lalala damsel, saved by white knight via help of wizard etc. I'm happy to say I was wrong. McKillip's work is poetic and strong at the same time. In particular her similes are vivid and draw the reader into the moment. I'm only a few chapters in but love it so far and am interested to see other's impressions and comments.

[Robin]

Libby wrote: "do we read one of each per month?)..."

Yes there is one for each genre each month.

[Kathy]

I'm not sure about a slow start, per se', but I would definitely agree that this is written in fits and starts initially. It's a bit harder than usual to follow, especially when I'm trying to figure out what time frame we are in related to the other characters. It will smooth out some later, but I am still not sure if this is intentional by McKillip or just poor writing style.

[Amy]

I finished this in a day - it really caught my attention and made me want to finish quickly. I agree that the writing style is a bit different and a bit of a challenge, especially at first. She switches point of views frequently; this story is told from at least five different viewpoints. Each voice helps to establish the character and the world, and the timeframes, but until I got used to the narrative style, it was a little bit confusing.

[Jennifer]

I've never read Patricia McKillip before, and this is not the type of fantasy book I would normally pick up on my own. I found that this book was a slow start for me, but about halfway through I started to see the connections between the various stories and got hooked. At 3/4 of the way through the book I had an "aha" moment in which I realized I totally loved the book. Stick with it - it was very much worth it.

[Whitaker]

Jennifer wrote: "I found that this book was a slow start for me, but about halfway through I started to see the connections between the various stories and got hooked."

It was like that for me too. :-D

[LaTrica]

I read this a couple of months ago and loved it because it seemed so different from the fantasy novels I usually read. As mentioned before it's not action packed and seems to be more of a mystery or puzzle type story. It actually surprised me which doesn't happen as often as it used to. I couldn't tell where the story was going.

[Libby]

Jennifer wrote: "At 3/4 of the way through the book I had an "aha" moment in which I realized I totally loved the book. Stick with it - it was very much worth it.
"

Agreed - there is certainly a "light bulb" moment where the book really gets interesting.

[JuliAnna]

I didn't have to go into work yesterday, thanks to the snowstorm. So, for the first time in a while I got to spend a day reading a book from cover to cover. I enjoyed McKillip's writing style from the beginning. There were a couple of moments where I thought it was trying a little too hard, but basically I loved it.

[Lara Amber]

I'm 15% of the way through (sorry on a Kindle, no "pages") and have to say I hate it. I can't tell what's going on at all. Not from changing points of view, but because the descriptions are too annoying to actually tell what happened in the very page I'm reading. I feel like I should be taking LSD to have this make any sense.

I'm giving up.

[Jane]

I don't think I'll be able to read this one - I'm a slow reader and have other things in the works that will occupy me through most of the month. But I'll check back here afterward to see if I should add it to the TBR pile - I love finding "new books" and I had not heard of this one before.

[Robin]

So far it has not been grabbing me - I read several books at once and at the moment there is always a reason to pick up another instad of this one - I'm not giving up yet but may at some point.

[Kate]

The start was a little slow. It's taken me a few chapters to get used to her style of writing, which is different from anything I have read before. I'm starting to get into it and like it a lot.

[Robin]

Hey Missorli2 - I'm in exactly the same spot ;-) It did take me awhile and now I am more interested.

[This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For]

I just started reading it last night and after about 30 pages (~10%) I'm pretty unimpressed by it. It's the style, as much as anything else. The little bit of story at this point is vaguely interesting, but it's definitely not grabbing me. I'll give it tonight, at least, but after that...

[Robin]

Michael, I too had problems "getting into it" But I just finished it last night and glad I did.

[This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For]

Well, I'm now about 1/3 of the way through it and am still not impressed. I'm not sure what it is, but I really do not find it interesting. My reading pace is also off because of it. In a book I was interested in I would be at least twice as far through it, but I am finding it hard to keep focused on it and my mind wandering because the writing is more irritating than interesting. Haven't decided yet if I'll continue or give up on it.

[Robin]

It sounds like it might not be for you - which sometimes happens - I know of which you speak as I mentioned I wasn't into it at first - and I can't say that my socks were knocked off by the end of it - but I did enjoy it in the long run.

-- Robin (8 days until Avempartha)