"The City of Dreaming Books" - Discuss Everything *Spoilers*

[SFFBC, Ancillary Mod]

Welcome to the start of your next story!

Tell us all about your experiences!

Some questions to get us started:

1. What did you think of the world?
2. What did you think of the characters?
3. What worked or didn't for you?
4. Overall thoughts?

Non-spoiler thread here: First impressions

[YouKneeK]

I survived, I survived! Ok, it wasn’t as bad as all that. The first third was torturous, but once the author stopped inundating me with atmosphere and started to tell his story, I became more interested.

1. What did you think of the world?
It seems like an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink sort of world. It may feel more clearly defined if one has the backstory from the earlier books. Despite all the descriptive passages about Yarnspinner’s current setting, I didn’t really feel like I had a solid grip on the world itself, although I felt like I understood everything relevant for the story at hand.

2. What did you think of the characters?
I liked Yarnspinner quite a bit, despite his bumbling, gullible, and overly-trusting personality. Part of this might have been influenced by the audio narrator, who I thought did a great job of conveying his personality. I also liked Homuncolussus (the Shadow King) quite a lot. Some of the other characters were fun, too. Smyke was too much of an over-the-top sort of villain for me, though.

3. What worked or didn't for you?
The rambling examples of various things Yarnspinner saw or experienced or heard was too much for me. As I noted in the spoiler-free thread, they were imaginative but tedious. There was more atmosphere than plot in the first third and I started to doubt I would make it through to the end.

I enjoyed it quite a bit more after the story took off and the descriptive lists were sparser. I did like the story, but in truth I’m not sure if it seemed more entertaining by comparison with the early part of the book than I might have found it otherwise.

4. Overall thoughts?
Too much atmosphere, not enough story, but I liked what story there was.

I normally feel like an audiobook is more difficult for me to absorb than a print book, but in this case I think I would have struggled with the print book. My eyes surely would have glazed over at all the rambling and my mind would have wandered. The audiobook narrator, on the other hand, relentlessly plowed forward where I might have stalled otherwise. I did lose my attention more often than I normally do with audio, and sometimes I had to rewind him, but more often than not, when I snapped my attention back into focus, he was still rambling about the same thing so I didn’t feel like I missed much!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

you took the words right out of my mouth, YouKneeK

[YouKneeK]

Haha Allison, that was quite a mouthful, too! :)

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

If I had the audiobook I'd probably persevere as you did, YouKneek, but instead I'm abandoning it. A rare instance of wanting to refund a book.

[Anna]

YouKneeK wrote: "My eyes surely would have glazed over at all the rambling and my mind would have wandered. The audiobook narrator, on the other hand, relentlessly plowed forward where I might have stalled otherwise."

This is how I get through batches of IReallyReallyHateThis group books :) Turn the speed up to max, go make a sandwich, come back and wow you've "read" 150 pages! :D

[YouKneeK]

I can definitely understand the abandonment choice, Ryan! If I had a DNF bone in my body, I might have done the same.

Haha Anna, I’m not quite there yet, I like to at least believe I’ve really “read” (via ears or eyes) the book in full, but I will keep that option in reserve if I encounter anything even more torturous in the future!

It is possible that I was yelling at the book a bit while listening, though. “STOP!! I GET IT ALREADY!! WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP!!!” Also things like, “You stupid dinosaur, I figured that out 5 hours ago, what’s wrong with you?!” I guess one nice thing about audiobooks is that they talk back, sort of. :)

(Edited to clarify that the main character really is a dinosaur, that wasn't some sort of weird age slur, for the benefit of people who might not have read the book and are reading the spoiler thread anyway.)

[Anna]

YouKneeK wrote: "You stupid dinosaur, I figured that out 5 hours ago, what’s wrong with you?!"

I'm going to start screaming this at all the super obvious "twists" from now on XD

(And yeah, have not read the book, will not in the near future, so deemed it safe to be here, because I won't remember anything by the time I do read this.)

edit: Also, I just read my previous comment, and it's not clear that you take the phone with you while you make the sandwich, you don't leave it in the other room :D lol, I mean, what would be the point? I just meant that if your hands are busy making sandwiches, you can't press stop even when you want to, and by the time you're done, you've made tons of progress! Even better is cleaning the shower drain, because you most definitely don't want to touch your phone with those hands, and you don't want to listen to a good book while doing it :)

[YouKneeK]

LOL! :)

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

I sometimes leave my phone playing a less than engaging audiobook as I pop out of the room for something... It's nice to pretend that the bit I don't hear is the line that would turn the story from a 2 star read to a 4 star one.

[Eva]

I'm still stuck at 5% and focusing on Velocity Weapon instead. I wonder if its good rating and reputation lead me astray in nominating it. If it turns out to be a dud for the majority, I apologize! I'd heard from all sides that it was the bee's knees.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

People nom things they've either personally loved or couldn't know about. No guilt associated with it! Dozens agreed with the idea. Such is the benefit of a direct democracy :)

[YouKneeK]

Whether it’s a current or past read, I always go into a group read knowing there’s a chance I won’t like it. One reason I enjoy letting the group bookshelf drive most of my reading selections is because we end up with such a wide variety of books. I’m not trying to confine myself to the types of books I know I’ll like. I enjoy being able to sample lots of different types, and best of all I don’t have to research it myself because everybody else chooses it for me. ;)

In that regard, this book was a resounding success for me, because it was unique in my reading experience. Although it wasn’t really to my tastes, there were things I enjoyed about it, and I appreciated the different experience.

(Edit: Somebody please remind me of this if and when I ever get to the Doctor Who book.) ;)

[YouKneeK]

Anna wrote: "edit: Also, I just read my previous comment, and it's not clear that you take the phone with you while you make the sandwich, you don't leave it in the other room :D"

Haha Anna, I just saw your edit and I had in fact completely misinterpreted that – I thought you and the audiobook device were in separate rooms! Taking it with you and doing something to keep your hands too messy to touch electronic devices does make sense. :)

[Ellen]

Optimus expressed my feelings perfectly.
"But what was the point' I demanded sitting up with a groan. 'I nearly went mad, I didn't understand any of it, and I've as good as forgotten it all.'
'It's always the same with demanding literature,' Homuncolossus replied."
I liked it okay. The Booklings and the Animations were my favorites.
Of the content warnings I had the most trouble with the harm to books. In a city dedicated to books and making their living from books how could they be so careless and destructive with them?
This book seems like a satire of authors and the publishing business and book trends.
There were times it was very funny and sometimes very tedious. Not reading anymore from this world I think.

[Mrs S E White]

I am just over half way through, I am not sure that I will finish this book, this is rare for me, there is brilliant usage of word's, very discriptive, however the discriptions just keep coming. Please stop, I got it already, I am so bored, he even managed to make the small amount of action sound boring, just get to the point please. This book should be excellent, but it is not, it is just a bit yawn.

[Eva]

I've just finished it - a 3.5 star read for me which I'm probably going to round up because it gets bonus points for uniqueness and charming illustrations. I agree with you guys that it was too wordy, most especially too full of long lists of things the narrator sees. I am a reader who can get excited about settings, though, and I think the setting is the real star here. Some of the characters were great (especially the booklings) but it seems to me that there was zero need to make the protagonist a dinosaur except for the allegorical meaning of literati like him being a dying breed close to exctinction.

Anyway, I'm glad I read it, it was very unique, but overly wordy. That said, most of the literary references, in-jokes and Easter eggs went over my head due to my lack of knowledge of the classics.

[Chris]

Finally got through this one. It was definitely a bit of a slog, although I think the first third or so of it was the worst. Once the story actually got rolling it was somewhat interesting.

I agree with Eva (and many of the others above) that this book was definitely more about the setting, and so things like the booklings were really enjoyable to read about, while the random fumbling into and out of danger by what, largely, seemed to be sheer fluke was honestly not all that enthralling.

I enjoyed it well enough overall, but I probably won't be looking to read further books from this author or series any time soon.

A curiosity: the chapter numbers (and numbers in some other art) are all in octal -- that is, base 8, where the symbols represent the digits 0 through 7. I thought there might be some specific meaning to that which I'd overlooked, but I can't think of anywhere that the number 8 or the idea of octal numbers was mentioned in the book. I noticed it a little after the scene where Hildegunst is looking at house numbers and I'd noticed the symbols didn't match up with the digits in the text, but never saw explanation.

Perhaps it was just a way to make it seem a little more magicky or fantastic. In the acknowledgements after the book, he does credit Tito Milchvers for "deciphering the digits of the Bookimystic [not sure what word English used for this] ​numerical system" (my translation).

[Raucous]

So... I liked the rambling flow of this book. It wasn't the sort of book that dragged me in and wouldn't let me go, but I looked forward to dropping in and enjoying short immersions in Zamonia. The whimsical storytelling, the prose, and the vivid descriptions all helped there.

I did frequently regret that i wasn't more familiar with classic Zamonian literature (Eva's guide in the non-spoiler thread helped there). There were also a few places where I wished that the author would just get on with it, but mostly that was buried under my admiration for the way he put together such a consistent and imaginative world.

Overall I liked it enough that I'll be reading more of Walter Moers work and wishing that I could read some of it in the original Zamonian.

[Raucous]

My spouse's reaction: "This was too long. I finished it but not until after I'd had enough."

I see that the first book in the series is even longer. I guess that I'll be reading it alone.

[Eva]

Raucous wrote: "My spouse's reaction: "This was too long. I finished it but not until after I'd had enough."

I see that the first book in the series is even longer. I guess that I'll be reading it alone."

If I understood the concept correctly, then every book in the series is in a different sub-genre (adventure, mystery, middle-grade, ...) so perhaps one of the other ones will appeal to her more. :-)

[Gabi]

LOL! I just came from finishing the book to have a look here - and as so often my taste is contrary to most comments so far. I absolutely loved the book. I'm even considering giving it 5 stars, because it was so cleverly different from the usual Fantasy books. I could have read on the double amount of pages and ramblings. I adored how Moers juggled with words. Yet I'm pretty sure it loses some of its marvel in the translation.

[Jen]

I completely agree Gabi. I loved this book so hard. Part of it was the language. Part of it was the unusual nature of the story. Part of it was the love of books - the book pastries, the culture of books and authors, a city of bookstores!! Just a complete delight.