Really? I can only recommend this book if Talion\'s wife likes contant penis references, only three female characters, all of whom are whores, and copious amounts of \"rape\". I read the first two and then gave up in annoyance. Aliens probably dunnit tho.
In fairness, I\'m no stranger to the \"whores following an army\" schtick. Fine, fair enough. But there are only THREE women and one is a queen. And she\'s still described as a slut, and you can\'t exactly lump her in with the \"camp followers\". I found the first two books tediously puerile where they could have been brilliantly original. Call me strange, but I get sick of reading the word \"phallus\" every second sentence. I don\'t know if that\'s a reflection on me or the author.Originally posted by slah
This is true.
However the series is about what happens during a \"holy crusade\", and most of the women who would be associated with an army going on a crusade is in fact whores. This series is rather gritty and \"realistic\" and a \"jeanne d´arc\" heroine would be completely out of character in my opinion.
Put a lot of men together without any women, and you get a lot of penis references. this is not a weakness in the book but rather a very apt description of the hairier (weaker?) sex
I shall look into this Malazan wotzit. I\'m usually wary of new fantasy these days because, to be brutally honest, so much of it is absolutely abysmal and I hate wasting my money on books I dislike. Perhaps I\'ve become harder to please, but I like to think of it as \"more discerning\".Originally posted by slah
Well to be blunt, women don´t really - generally speaking - have any place in a big loud holy army. That should explain the lack of them. Adding women just to have more women in book seems pointless.
Ah, but as you\'ve already pointed out, women did have a place in the army. At the back. On their backs. I\'m not necessarily demanding equal representation, maybe just one single female character who has motivations beyond being shagged by everyone going. (Ooooo, but she\'s using sex to MANIPULATE men! Yeah, like that\'s an original, underused concept.
Regarding how they act... as far as I remember (it´s been a while since I read the books) the men act just as slutty - apart from the religious nutjobs - so I don´t think it´s an attempt to lable the women as slutty, but more an attempt of showing ho and why people like they do.
Like I said, it might just be me. I just get fed up with reading the same damn thing over and over and I hate the assumption that lots of sex=mature. I\'m more inclined to think the opposite, usually. Zzzzzzzz. :yawn: Incidentally, I feel exactly the same way about the Earth\'s Children series by Jean M. Auel. The first book is fantastic and I\'d recommend anyone to read it, but after that it gets silly. She introduces a Cro-magnon man-god and his huge willy and now I am heartily sick of reading her dull, repetitive sex scenes and hearing how amazing all the Cro-magnon people are, and I have given up on the series.
I think we must agree to disagree on this one. You liked the books, I thought they were (at best) disappointing and silly interspersed with flashes of brilliance that only served to illustrate how good it could have been. Plus I didn\'t like the fact that the WHOLE first book was basically an introduction (yes, I know JRR Tolkien did this too). Then Bakker scrambled to explain some of Kellhus\' superhuman abilities in book two and it just felt ret-conned, like he\'d been pushed into a corner about it and made stuff up on the spot. Boo, I say!
If you want strong women I recommend the Malazan book of the fallen. The empress is a woman, and was before her ascend to the throne the premier assasin in the empire. There are also numerous other \"strong\" female characters both humans, gods, demons and other races.
Sorry, I\'ve got a bit lost. You\'re talking about Malazan or Name of the Wind?Originally posted by mattrock
BTW, Amazon, if you want good fantasy with a bit of a different twist, give that last recommendation a try...I bet you\'ll thank me.
Well, I read a lot of Iain M. Banks, where the story doesn\'t usually make sense until the last quarter of the narrative. I\'m sure I\'ll manage somehow.....Originally posted by slah
Go for it amazon.
The first book is called \"gardens of the Moon\", and it is epic worldbuilding in a magnitude that hasn´t really been done before. Just remember that it takes a while before you actually figure out what the hell is going on - you have to stick with it for a bit at the start where it doesn´t make a lot of sense
Originally posted by Talion
Maybe before we were married, but you know what women are like, put the ring on your finger and the less penis references the better......lol
Amen to that
This Malazan book of the fallen - sounds interesting, she likes dark stuff as well. Is this a series of books. Or one big book that opens a portal to hell (if yes to the second question, I\'ll skip it)
It´s a series of 10 books that should - if everything goes according to plan - be concluded some time next year.
The first few of them are almost stand alone books in the sense that they don´t deal with the same characters, but instead flesh out the universe. This means that most of the characters never meet, and that some die, and that some are never heard from again - so don´t become to attached to any of them
