Series: "Strange the Dreamer" & "Muse of Nightmares" by Laini Taylor

[Lesley]

@Colleen, Interesting, I definitely didn’t (view spoiler)[ ship them either, but I did think that their rivalry/friendship was worth further exploration. Thyon has great conflicted character potential. (hide spoiler)]

@Kristin, thanks for the mini spoiler, it actually increases the likelihood I’ll pick up the second book.

[Meredith]

colleen the convivial curmudgeon wrote: "I agree. While I in no way (view spoiler), like some other people, mostly because I saw Thyon more as an (view spoiler), I would've definitely liked to see more of their development and watched as, maybe, Thyon realized he was (view spoiler)"

LOL, I agree with a lot of that! I thought towards the end that Thyon (view spoiler)[ was thawing a bit towards Lazlo, seeing him as more of a person, rather than an opponent to be suspicious of, but who knows now what will happen after Lazlo's transformation. (hide spoiler)]

[Meredith]

It's been about 2 weeks of discussion for "Strange the Dreamer." Would folks like to set a specific start date a little further out for "Muse of Nightmares" discussion or just roll right into that discussion? I know some have already read it or are reading currently.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Meredith wrote: "LOL, I agree with a lot of that! I thought towards the end that Thyon (view spoiler) "


Definitely. I just wished we saw more of Thyon's PoV regarding stuff. I would've liked to see more from him and less kissing...


Meredith wrote: "It's been about 2 weeks of discussion for "Strange the Dreamer." Would folks like to set a specific start date a little further out for "Muse of Nightmares" discussion or just roll right into that ..."

I've ordered my copy from the library, but don't know when it'll be in.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

So sayeth we all! Less kissing! More Thyon!

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Allison wrote: "So sayeth we all! Less kissing! More Thyon!"


Or more kissing Thyon, for some people. ;)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Ha! I mean, I would like more Thyon kissing, but like proportionally, the number of lips and tongues mentioned should decrease significantly. I'm calling for a 30% reduction in kissing across the board.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Allison wrote: "Ha! I mean, I would like more Thyon kissing, but like proportionally, the number of lips and tongues mentioned should decrease significantly. I'm calling for a 30% reduction in kissing across the b..."


I second this proposal!

[Meredith]

I thought folks might be interested in reading this essay and interview with Laini Taylor. It was a promo for Muse of Nightmares so it assumes you've read Strange the Dreamer and it's a bit spoilery for the very start of Muse (if you want to be completely unexposed to anything about Muse before you start that).

Also, for this crowd, a necessary content warning: Discussion of Kissing. You are warned.

https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1395

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Meredith wrote: "I thought folks might be interested in reading this essay and interview with Laini Taylor. It was a promo for Muse of Nightmares so it assumes you've read Strange the Dreamer and it's a bit spoiler..."


I read the beginning and skimmed the rest, but all I could think of was this:

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

haaahahahahahahaha! I love that, Colleen.

Meredith, thanks for that! It is interesting to get her take on the relationships and what matters :)

[Joseph]

ROFL!
(i'm stealing this to post in my twitter feed)

[Meredith]

Alright, I declare Muse of Nightmares discussion open, spoilers tagged appropriately.

I am about 25% in (end of Part 1) and while I like some aspects of the continuing story and some cool new things are happening too, (view spoiler)[ the amount of words thus far and the actual progression of the plot are very disproportionate and not in a good way. I hope things start moving forward soon (hide spoiler)]

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

There is a huge ramp up in part one. (view spoiler)[ I do wish maybe some of that could have been added during all the kissing of Strange, so it was more melded together. (hide spoiler)]

[Meredith]

Now at end of Chapter 39 (63%). Enjoying a lot of the developments, and then (view spoiler)[ it's literally like another whole book burst into this one. I have been waiting for the explanation of the connection of this story to the Taylor's previous series and that was satisfying. But I've gotten so swept up in the Thyon and Ruza developments, that I want to get back to that and not face the other, bigger conflict that's coming. Well, really, I am looking forward to how Taylor brings all these different narratives together, and resolves (or not) the different threads she's been weaving. (hide spoiler)]

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I started Muse this morning. Very early days - only 20-some pages in.

I liked the prologue, and what it might mean for the story...

But then we get back to (view spoiler)[Strange and Sarai and I'm already getting re-annoyed at the fact that Laszlo is even considering hurting people to save Sarai because "she's my life, my world, my everything, and I can't live without her" after THREE FUCKING DAYS.

(Ok, maybe it was more than 3, but still... ) (hide spoiler)]

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

point of order, Colleen:

(view spoiler)[ it's not even fucking days. All of that and no penetration which somehow makes me even more exasperated haha (hide spoiler)]

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Allison wrote: "point of order, Colleen:

[spoilers removed]"


LOL

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

A little further into Muse - 70+ pages - and I'm glad to see the direction is going to be more about (view spoiler)["healing" Minya. I generally suspected that, but I'm glad to see it panning out.

Still curious to get back to that other village and the other blue-people whose names I forget. Mesarthium, or somethings. (hide spoiler)]

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Didn't get much reading done this weekend.

***

pg. 210 - 40%

I'm glad that (view spoiler)[they finally thought of a way to deal with Minya in the short term, but I also feel like I'm spending a lot of time waiting for things to happen. Like, we get this little bit of plot, and then kissing, and then some plot, and then dreaming, and then plot, and then finding books, and then plot, and then... waiting... (hide spoiler)]


I'm both interested in the other story but also a bit torn about the fact that (view spoiler)[it seems like it's the past. I was hoping it was more a concurrent thing, but now it seems like we're getting the story of who Wraith is in drips and drabs. (hide spoiler)] At least that's my guess. I could be wrong, but the name matches.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I'm on page 466, about 89% in - and, honestly, I've half checked out. I did not like the turn that this took, with introducing a (view spoiler)[new villain, and having the Minya healing thing take sort of a back seat and happen in, like, 5 minutes... (hide spoiler)]

I guess there's still time for the book to redeem itself but I've started skimming the more floridly descriptive paragraphs, and it's never a good sign when I start just jumping paragraphs at a time.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Finished this last night. Giving it 2-stars.

As many complaints as I had about the first book - especially the insta-love and 10 page descriptions - I at least found it fairly interesting/compelling for large sections of the book. Mostly Lazlo's sections, granted, but, still.

This second book just fell flat for me. The addition of extra characters, the changing of the game board... the fact that we didn't see nearly enough of the characters in Weep, including Thyon and Calixte (sp?) and far too much of the same old, same old up in the citadel...

And then when things actually do happen they, ironically, happen too quickly.

Also, this was one of those books that I could easily not pick back up. Part of it was me being busy, but a bigger part of it was just a lack of compulsiveness. I didn't ever feel the need to keep reading, to find out what was going to happen. Maybe because so much of it became so predictable?

Meh.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Yeah, book 2 was definitely weaker. I'm glad that I got a conclusion, but I am more convinced that this should have been 1 book.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Allison wrote: "Yeah, book 2 was definitely weaker. I'm glad that I got a conclusion, but I am more convinced that this should have been 1 book."

Definitely should've been one book. There was so much extraneous stuff that wasn't necessary, and it would've been nice if they'd introduced a little bit about (view spoiler)[Nova and Kora (sp?) (I'm already forgetting their names) (hide spoiler)] in the first book if they were going to end up being so crucial. It sort of felt tacked on, to be, tbh.

[Lizzie]

Did anyone else find the links between this and the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy interesting? Like, she could expand in any direction she wanted from here really!

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I never finished that series. I read the first one and sort of hated the Romeo and Juliet insta-love stuff, so...

[Leticia]

I'm reading Strange the Dreamer and that takes loooong to unfold. It isn't so bad that I want to DNF it but it is slow, really slow. It is the flaw of a couple of books I read recently, too much play by play and repetitions and the pace drags. If 100 or more pages had been cut out of it it would be a five star book.

[Dawn F]

I liled it but I agree, it could have been cut shorter.