Atilium Posted August 27, 2014 Report Share Posted August 27, 2014 Awesome review, Peter! Really just added t my impatient appetite. Maybe I should rob a bank.... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabriele Posted August 27, 2014 Report Share Posted August 27, 2014 (edited) My review is up on Brandon's blog. I found it interesting that you missed the italicising of thoughts. Because that's a habit - probably introduced by publishers - which I hate, like being told that I'm too stupid to figure it out for myself. I didn't even notice it's not done in Brent's books. I've not used italics in my writing until I was told to do so in a crit group. It still feels wrong and I'm sometimes not sure what exactly should be italicised. Since that group fallen by the wayside anyway, I think I'll go back and get rid of the italics. If Brent Weeks can get away without .... Edited August 27, 2014 by Gabriele 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Rooster Posted August 27, 2014 Report Share Posted August 27, 2014 I'm about halfway thru the book now It's super great. Way more cerebral and philosophical than previous entries. I'd love to talk shop if anyone else is that far. Biggest surprise is Andross. He's still the worst but now he's also the BEST. He's a total wild card now. I Love where Teia's arc is going, her first three chapters had me worried she would be treading water the whole book. Maybe too much time on the oar for a certain character but then again there's a ton of good introspection and flashbacks thanks to this situation. All in all I wish I were further from the end. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterAhlstrom Posted August 27, 2014 Report Share Posted August 27, 2014 If you're writing in first person, italics for thoughts is not needed, because you're already in the person's head. If you're writing in third person, italics for thoughts is very much standard practice. There are many types of thought sentences that are NOT immediately easily distinguishable from the narration unless they're in italics. If they're just set as normal text it's very distracting and trips me up. However, some people do mess up italics. Larry Correia's Grimnoire books often have italics for indirect thoughts, and that's not the standard. Indirect thoughts go in roman, and direct thoughts go in italics. 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabriele Posted August 27, 2014 Report Share Posted August 27, 2014 (edited) I write multiple third / omniscient, so I'm breaking rules here anyway because everyone and his uncle say omni doesn't sell. Fun thing is that said crit group often didn't even notice the omniscient. Edited August 27, 2014 by Gabriele 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harry31j97 Posted August 28, 2014 Report Share Posted August 28, 2014 Just finished The Broken Eye. It's the best novel this year after WoR, I would say even better than the Tower Lord. I'm with Gabriel here, italicizing thoughts is not strictly needed, if done properly, as it's done in The Broken Eye. Biggest plus of this novel is, I think , the way political intrigue is shown. Just wonderful. Character development is beautifully done. I think Brent weeks is getting better & better. The night angel was good, but not among the best. This though is right up there among the best fantasy series. Highly recommended read. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argent Posted August 28, 2014 Report Share Posted August 28, 2014 I would encourage everyone here to either use the spoiler tags for a couple of weeks, or mark their posts as containing spoilers from The Broken Eye (if that's the case, obviously). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempus Posted August 28, 2014 Report Share Posted August 28, 2014 (edited) I'm about halfway through. Kip got 'rescued' by Zymun at the end of the last book for NO REASON other than to inform Kip he had a brother. It was practically retconned the way Weeks abandoned that narrative line. Everything would work better for the story if Kip had stayed on the ship and Andross would just tell him about Zymun (for some dastardly mind trick). Weeks has been oh so sparse with the details of the world and the history, it's getting annoying. We've got ancient secret societies, a main character spending all his free time reading forbidden books, portentous dreams, cut-ins from dead people, extremely important missing relics, cards that can explain OODLES about things and people both past and currently active... AND WE'VE LEARNED ALMOST NOTHING. We aren't given anything by Weeks, except the bare obvious. Either the last half of the book is rife with infodumps or I'm going to be very angry by the end. I've never been in a situation before where I wished so badly the author would elaborate on something, or the PoV character who knows nothing would ask simple, basic questions to deconfuse themselves instead of acting like a derp. Edited August 28, 2014 by Tempus 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccstat Posted August 29, 2014 Report Share Posted August 29, 2014 (edited) So, I finished Broken Eye in a 24-hour binge session. That was not my intention, but I simply couldn't get myself to stop. I have a spoiler-free review up on goodreads, but here are my thoughts: After the opening dozen chapters, it quiets down a lot. I obviously can't call it boring, since it sucked me into binge reading, but up until the halfway point it seemed inordinately slow. Not that nothing was happening, but the majority of our protags were being reactionary rather than working towards something, and by this point we know they all have some serious goals to be working for. BUT! Can I just say that the character twists in this one left me absolutely stunned? Shocked, even? I did a reread of the first two very recently, and the new revelations demand so much to be reinterpreted. I loved it in Blinding Knife when Weeks pulled off 3 plot twists in 3 chapters. This was similar, except that I liked the timing of them (in terms of position in the book) more in Blinding Knife. (For the record, I absolutely loved Black Prism and really liked Blinding Knife.) Vague musings that don't give anything away but can invite spoiler-tagged discussion later: Ironfist and Tremblefist are so incredibly awesome. Weeks hit this one out of the park. Twice. Zymun's storyline and character did not go at all where I thought they would. Andross's storyline also powerfully bucked my expectations. Karris' arc was pretty transparent, but I felt that her personal growth was shown well, and surprises weren't really the point in her sections. Rea Siluz? Anybody? Still pretty confused on that one. Oh, and the final epilogue. So good in the way it mirrors previous books, and in what it promises for the next one. Yet, there are some logistical problems. How did that happen!? Edited August 29, 2014 by ccstat 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harry31j97 Posted August 30, 2014 Report Share Posted August 30, 2014 The ending gave me a pause too. I don't know how well that'll work out in next novel. Gavin's prison was made to imprison a, well a prism. Dazen can't draft, so he could have been jailed in a simple room too. I guess Andross simply wanted to remind him of his brother's imprisonment. About Ironfist's allegiance, I had some suspicions since Teia's assignment to steal shimmercloak, but still it threw me a little bit of the loop. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cem Posted August 31, 2014 Report Share Posted August 31, 2014 Rea Siluz I thought she was one of the First Ones, like Abaddon. But not one of the Two Hundred that rebelled against Orholam. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccstat Posted August 31, 2014 Report Share Posted August 31, 2014 (edited) Rea Siluz Oh, that makes more sense now. I had been trying to fit her into the 200, but clearly that doesn't work. Somehow I missed that there were other, non-rebellious ones. I am going to have to watch for that on a reread. My assumption was that all of the jinn that manifest would be from among the 200. Ironfist I was almost upset about the Ironfist allegiance thing, because at first it seemed to undermine the whole loss-of-faith arc from the second book. However, Tremblefist's dying words revealing that he knew too, and had sacrificed to support his brother not just in the Blackguard but more fundamentally in his conflicting oaths, ensures that Ironfist has a personal journey still to make in the next volume. Epilogue I am more bothered by the fact that Andross (we assume) was able to repair the prison. He is not personally able to draft blue, and Dazen finds himself in the blue prison, so there was a team of drafters and other workers involved in the repairs. Either there are more people in on the secret, or Andross had them all killed. Regardless, the newly revealed Grinwoody also knows, and that puts another group of (broken) eyes on the situation. (sorry, couldn't resist) Edited August 31, 2014 by ccstat 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempus Posted August 31, 2014 Report Share Posted August 31, 2014 I have a strong feeling that Gavin's prison is a setup for drafting white/black luxin. He has all the advantages Gavin™ did not, full knowledge of the structure of the prison, its traps and weakness. Those have probably been changed partially, but there wasn't time to change them fully. He will end up drafting white/black luxin (unclear on which), in order to escape. He'll succeed at drafting whichever (or possibly both), and fail at escaping either once or twice, then almost succeed at the same time that someone is engineering his escape (or does so accidentally), giving him the final push to be freed. Except whoever is the assister will not be the people he wants to be assisted by. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashiok Posted September 1, 2014 Report Share Posted September 1, 2014 I think it would have to be black because he has been put pretty far on that path. He will go evil and Kip will have to destroy him 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cem Posted September 1, 2014 Report Share Posted September 1, 2014 I think it would have to be black because he has been put pretty far on that path. He will go evil and Kip will have to destroy him Black doesn't really make sense. Why would he draft black now, when he didn't do it when they were poking a hot metal rod in his eye as foreplay for his murder? I'm guessing it's redemption time for Dazen from now on. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Fire Posted September 4, 2014 Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 (edited) Rereading the series after finishing Broken Eye , I have a hypothesis about what was up with Kip's mum Lina. I think that she was a Chi drafter. We hear that Chi is especially nasty to its drafters' health (probably being x-ray or gamma ray radiation). Lina sent the letter to Gavin admitting she was dying even before she took a mace to the head. Also, since Parl drafting tends to make its drafters empathetic towards others, it stands to reason that Chi should make one self-centered and unappreciative of others. (Kips Mum to the extreme) My guess that she was a Chi/Super-Violet Bi-chrome (Further giving Kip great drafting genes) because Liv recounts to her sponsors about Lina having stunning hazel eyes, shortly after lamenting that with her own brown eyes her own Super-Violet halo will never bleed into the visible spectrum and give herself beautiful eyes. It also stands to reason that she was a part of some secret society or another. Edited September 4, 2014 by Green Fire 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempus Posted September 4, 2014 Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 Rereading the series after finishing Broken Eye , I have a hypothesis about what was up with Kip's mum Lina. I think that she was a Chi drafter. We hear that Chi is especially nasty to its drafters' health (probably being x-ray or gamma ray radiation). Lina sent the letter to Gavin admitting she was dying even before she took a mace to the head. Also, since Parl drafting tends to make its drafters empathetic towards others, it stands to reason that Chi should make one self-centered and unappreciative of others. (Kips Mum to the extreme) My guess that she was a Chi/Super-Violet Bi-chrome (Further giving Kip great drafting genes) because Liv recounts to her sponsors about Lina having stunning hazel eyes, shortly after lamenting that with her own brown eyes her own Super-Violet halo will never bleed into the visible spectrum and give herself beautiful eyes. It also stands to reason that she was a part of some secret society or another. That makes a lot of sense. We also know she stole the dagger at some point, and if she could x-ray that should make it much easier to take a protected dagger from a paranoid Prism. I can't recall any other unusual actions she does that chi drafting may allow, but it's notable we haven't seen any chi drafters yet - besides being rare, being story integral might be important. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccstat Posted September 8, 2014 Report Share Posted September 8, 2014 (edited) I've been rereading Broken Eye, and there are a few things I have questions about. I thought I would find clues on the second read-through, but if they are there I haven't figured it out yet. Here is the one that's bugging me right now. What is the story with the man Teia kills in the alleyway? I can't figure out who sent him or why. He calls her "Adrasteia the Implacable" so he clearly knows who she is, and he is smart enough to avoid the choke point her squad set up, but he is not a good fighter and it is unclear why he was there in the first place. Was it really just the setup by Andross for the murder charge he uses at the end? I understand that it was a useful thing for him to plant, and the accusation could have played out in a number of different ways for him. But surely there were some other effects that I can't see. Maybe a test of competence by the Order? That sort of makes sense, but still leaves some holes for me. Anyone have a better explanation? Also, for what it's worth, I am liking the book even more on the second time through. That may be because I am seeing the foreshadowing and character undercurrents more, or simply because I've been skipping or skimming most of Gavin's sections to focus on the action at the Chromeria. Edited September 8, 2014 by ccstat 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argent Posted September 8, 2014 Report Share Posted September 8, 2014 I don't know if I replied with my thoughts (think I lost my comment due to browser voodoo) about The Broken Eye, but without going into specifics, I have to say that it was... I think the only book not written by Brandon (and even he has done this to me only a handful of times) that got my hands shaking during the climactic scenes. Not all of them (e.g. the climax and resolution of Karris' arc were nowhere near as emotional to me as Gavin's and Kip's), but enough. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cem Posted September 8, 2014 Report Share Posted September 8, 2014 I don't know if I replied with my thoughts (think I lost my comment due to browser voodoo) about The Broken Eye, but without going into specifics, I have to say that it was... I think the only book not written by Brandon (and even he has done this to me only a handful of times) that got my hands shaking during the climactic scenes. Not all of them (e.g. the climax and resolution of Karris' arc were nowhere near as emotional to me as Gavin's and Kip's), but enough. For me, the only parts that I didn't love were the climactic scenes you mention. I've read everything Weeks has written and the same thing has been true for all of his books. I liked both the Night Angel and the Lightbringer, the latter much more so, but in both series I always felt the climaxes were drawn out too much. I don't think I could explain what exactly about them bothers me. I don't really know it myself to be honest. Weeks' endings just don't seem to work for me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argent Posted September 8, 2014 Report Share Posted September 8, 2014 No, I agree. Kip's climax was definitely too long. The others were more in line though. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Who Sharded? Posted September 29, 2014 Report Share Posted September 29, 2014 I'm a quarter of the way through, and I'm also finding the lack of italicized thoughts to be strange. I don't remember this happening in the last two books. Ian C. Esselmont also started doing it with his latest book...I don't get it. Otherwise I'm really enjoying this. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Topomouse Posted October 1, 2014 Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 I just finished the first book after seeing the review on Sanderson's site, and I have to say I'm not really impressed. I didn't really like any of the characters, and somehow the magic system felt kinda "artificial", even thought it was actually what interested me the most while reading. Right now I don't intend to buy the other books, but can someone here convince me to do so? I see that meny people are liking this series so maybe I'm just missing something. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argent Posted October 1, 2014 Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 If you didn't like it, you didn't like it. There is no big secret to it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashiok Posted October 1, 2014 Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 Character/plot wise, book two is mostly set in the school thingy, and the characters are much cooler. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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