What Are You Reading?

[danie]

Stick with it, everybody here had trouble with this book, but there is a follow-up and with hope everything will clear up.

Unfortunately that trend continues in the next book to even greater damage IMO. Sometimes telling a story out of order chronologically works. Other times not. For me this series would have been much better served being told in a linear fashion like King's The Stand. For a highly touted series this one has fallen a lot for me with the second book. Damn shame too since Cronin creates great characters. It's the one hook that will pull me through the entire series. I'll finish the series but more out of a completionist mindset instead of an eager reader.

The last time I was this disappointed in a series that started out with so much promise was Jonathon Mayberry's - Pine Deep Trilogy. Ghost Road Blues was fantastic. Then for the second book - Dead Man's Song - only one thing of consequence happens out of its 480 pages! Turned me off so much I never read the concluding book.

Danie- the forward jump in time really messed with alot of us here. Stick with it. I think you'll be glad that you did. I think it's a great story! I haven't read the second book- The Twelve- yet, it's in my TBR pile, so I can't comment on it. There are quite a few here that have really enjoyed the two books tho, looks like they just haven't commented yet.

Okay, okay, I'll keep slogging through...but I'm not happy about it.

 

[Haunted]

Okay, okay, I'll keep slogging through...but I'm not happy about it.

((((danie))))

 

[Moderator]

Okay, okay, I'll keep slogging through...but I'm not happy about it.

For me I think it was because of the transition to the new characters. I wasn't done with the ones in the first part of the book, darn it!! It took me a little while to warm up to the new ones but it was worth reading to the end. I think that's the same problem I had with The Twelve as it took a while before circling back to the characters from The Passage. Not to mention the back/forth time lines made it VERY confusing. I'll read the third one when it comes out but hope he got enough feedback that he'll not repeat that particular method of storytelling.

 

[danie]

For me I think it was because of the transition to the new characters. I wasn't done with the ones in the first part of the book, darn it!! It took me a little while to warm up to the new ones but it was worth reading to the end. I think that's the same problem I had with The Twelve as it took a while before circling back to the characters from The Passage. Not to mention the back/forth time lines made it VERY confusing. I'll read the third one when it comes out but hope he got enough feedback that he'll not repeat that particular method of storytelling.

Thank you! I wasn't finished with the first characters either!!!!
I'll keep going....

 

[Mr Nobody]

The Passage left me a bit cold, too. The impression I got was that he either hit a block and couldn't get around it, but had written so much that he couldn't bear to start over, or that an editor had a quiet word about the length it was already getting to. Either way, it came out to 'Invest in there characters! Invest! Invest!...Oh never mind, they're gone now. But look! New characters! Invest in them!'...and tbh it annoyed me and left me with the feeling that he might just pull the same trick again, which meant I went forward with the brake on.
Not sure if it means anything, but I got to the end eventually and found I was a little bit curious about what came next...yet still haven't bought the second book. (And there was almost a funny/apt typo there: "...still haven't bought the second bool". )

 

[ghost19]

Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy, Strange Highways by Dean Koontz, and Lisey's Story by Mr. King.

 

[Narvic]

happy heading towards the weekend everybody!

Started reading Blaze yesterday.

 

[OldDarth]

For me I think it was because of the transition to the new characters. I wasn't done with the ones in the first part of the book, darn it!! It took me a little while to warm up to the new ones but it was worth reading to the end. I think that's the same problem I had with The Twelve as it took a while before circling back to the characters from The Passage. Not to mention the back/forth time lines made it VERY confusing. I'll read the third one when it comes out but hope he got enough feedback that he'll not repeat that particular method of storytelling.

My experience exactly. Plus in the second book there emerged a strange story telling device where the story would lead to a big dramatic conflict to cut elsewhere. Then when the story returns to the previous thread whatever happened during the conflict is recounted after the event. Most disappointing.

 

[OldDarth]

One further point about Cronin's trilogy - I really, really like his characters which, as mentioned earlier, is why I will read the third book.

Plus I am extremely curious to see he ties up his version of the Vampire mythos.

 

[Haunted]

Third book by Cronin, City of MIrrors, 688 pages, release date: 23 Oct 2014.

 

[OldDarth]

Third book by Cronin, City of MIrrors, 688 pages, release date: 23 Oct 2014.

Thanks for the heads up. Hmmm, which city is it, I wonder? LA?

 

[Haunted]

Third book by Cronin, City of MIrrors, 688 pages, release date: 23 Oct 2014.

Intriguing title, eh?

 

[Walter Oobleck]

A Jack Reacher story...Never Go Back, Lee Child.

 

[skimom2]

Okay, I'm still reading The Passage. Started out great for the first 250 pages. Now the action has been forwarded 100 years, and the characters are flat and boring. KingRiceFan, anybody, should I finish this? I went from not being able to put the book down to dreading reading it! AGHHHHHHHH!

I liked The Passage (ultimately), but gave up on The Twelve.

 

[shookme]

The Last Man by Vince Flynn. Flynn's writing/prose/style (sorry , I can't think of the right word: I'm just a dumb redneck) is kind of dry and straightforward but his books have me on the edge of my seat everytime.

 

[skimom2]

A Jack Reacher story...Never Go Back, Lee Child.

Those books make me smile--not too deep, quick moving, silly swagger. And I have a not so secret conviction that "Lee Child" is actually a British woman (a lot to do with word choice and phrasing).

 

[Walter Oobleck]

Those books make me smile--not too deep, quick moving, silly swagger. And I have a not so secret conviction that "Lee Child" is actually a British woman (a lot to do with word choice and phrasing).

This is the 1st from Lee Child for me. Apparently this is something like #17 or #19. One or two reviews at Goodreads 1st page said where is the Jack Reacher I know? That's curious, your conviction...will keep that in mind. Couple times early on, there's both male and female characters, military all...and I lost track of gender for some manning the desks or posts. Haven't had a why in the world did you go back! dream for some time...I wonder if this read will generate another. When Reacher is...recommissioned, called back to duty after 16 years...yikes!

 

[Moderator]

Those books make me smile--not too deep, quick moving, silly swagger. And I have a not so secret conviction that "Lee Child" is actually a British woman (a lot to do with word choice and phrasing).

I'm on a friendly phone basis with his assistant--Lee Child is most definitely a man. I didn't realize Lee Child is a pseudonym until just now, though, as she always refers to him as Lee but did know he's British. His real name is Jim Grant.

 

[mjs9153]

Reread IT and in the seven hundred something page range,and they were discussing Mike's bird and the idea that it might be a Roc,which led me to google the term..kinda like this image as the critter that scared him so badly at the Ironworks..

 

[Jojo87]

I started to read Thinner today. I still read Lee Child's Jack Reacher story Worth Dying For. Try to finish it next week.
Oh I thought Lee Child was he's real name. I just Googled it and there is also says that he's real name is Jim Grant. I love his
Jack Reacher series.