[ SECRET POST #5974 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5974 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.



__________________________________________________



02.



__________________________________________________



03.



__________________________________________________



04.
[Arto]



__________________________________________________



05.



__________________________________________________



06.
[Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous]



__________________________________________________



07.
























Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 30 secrets from Secret Submission Post #854.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

05. https://i.imgur.com/335WqT6.png

[(Anonymous)]

I have tried to read this book several times and just could not get into it. I finally gave up and read the summaries online and yeah, I don't feel like those are for me even though everyone and their sister is raving about the series.

[(Anonymous)]

I tried this series because of the wicked cool cover and because so many people seemed to like it. Wasn't thrilled to see that it was written in first person POV* but kept at it and while I didn't love the book, I liked it well enough to try the second. Hard no on that one so far, I haven't been able to struggle through it.



* Because that POV is, IMO, a challenge to carry off for a lot of authors. It has a way of revealing the flaws and weaknesses in a person's writing if they can't nail the "voice" of the character AND make you care enough about the person to keep reading.

[(Anonymous)]

It's...not first person? It's third person limited.

[(Anonymous)]

Was it? Huh. Maybe I'm misremembering. IIRC the book was very dominated by the voice of the protagonist to the point where it felt like first person. I had a hard time with that.

[tabaqui]

I read the summaries of the first two? books and just noped out. Not for me, at all. Too bad, because it *sounds* good.

[(Anonymous)]

I enjoyed the first book and read it through, but had this weird, nagging feeling something was off. I didn't really recognize it until I started Harrow the Ninth and found myself struggling with the first 200+ pages.

I finished it eventually because I genuinely wanted to know what happened to the plot and these characters, but I think I found out what that weird, nagging off-feeling was that made these books such a struggle: it's... kinda sorta bad at explaining its own lore and worldbuilding?

I don't know how to explain it. It's like, yes, they are Doing the Thing, or This is Their Culture, but they don't explain it in a way that would make sense to an outsider (AKA first time reader.) It's like Gideon and Harrow are having a conversation with themselves over their culture and world and I'm the third wheel who just has to figure out how it functions by trying to put the pieces together. I was all "Okay, so they're saying this jargon and doing that whatchamacallit now?"

...Also Harrow the Ninth liked to drag its damn feet. Like, I get it's very character-driven (and it was, and it does it well), but I was basically Milhouse wondering when they were going to get to the damn fireworks factory ("fireworks factory" in this case being the damn Resurrection Beast.)

Needless to say, I just read a summary of Nona the Ninth and will likely do so for Alecto the Ninth.

[(Anonymous)]

I tried reading it and didn't make it very far and I think you are spot on for why that was. I was just kind of confused about a lot that was going on, there was no real good explanations for the world and motivations and was just left with more questions than answers. Which I don't particularly enjoy.

[(Anonymous)]

See, I like that it doesn't hold your hand or over-explain, and that you gather information more...organically? I prefer being taken along for the ride and "trusted", not so much being talked at like I don't belong, if that makes sense.

But I do get that it's definitely not for everyone.

[tabaqui]

That's a good thing sometimes, but if it leaves the reader just confused and lost, maybe they need to give just a tad more info....

[(Anonymous)]

This is a really interesting post to me, because I would say that style of exposition is not just the standard way of doing exposition in SFF, but actuslylg generally considered the *ideal* way of doing exposition in SFF, for decades.

Ofc that doesn't mean that you have to like it or that Muir executed it well. But it's just interesting because the whole construct of allowing the fictional society to exhibit itself and allowing the fictional people to behave as they actually would is so heavily valued - ever since the whole Heinlein bit about the door dilating.

[(Anonymous)]

+1

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, that fits with what I recall of it, too. I also kept getting thrown off because the plot and world building feels like something from centuries past (albeit with some sci-fi touches for variety) but the main character talks like a teenager/20 something from the 21st century and I didn't really enjoy that, nor did I think those things went well together. It was like reading a Regency novel that used modern slang.

[(Anonymous)]

I am wondering which point you're at--there are definitely some slow parts midway through Canaan House, but it /does/ pick up.

That anon who keeps making Arknights secrets

[(Anonymous)]

I have mutuals who’re into the “lesbians committing war crimes in space” genre, and they love this series. I can’t say I see the appeal of that genre, though, and this sounds even more insufferably up its own ass than This Is How You Lose the Time War. There’s a character whose name is partly Eminem lyrics? Dialogue references none pizza with left beef? A guy talks like he’s from the 1920s for no reason other than that a guy in Homestuck did the same? I want no part of this.

(I only love one space war criminal, and it’s the nonbinary autistic neurologist who stars in Arknights.)

Re: That anon who keeps making Arknights secrets

[(Anonymous)]

Okay...?

Re: That anon who keeps making Arknights secrets

[(Anonymous)]

Liking that you mentioned Time War because I didn't care for it. I read it and wondered what the hype was about after I finished it.

Re: That anon who keeps making Arknights secrets

[(Anonymous)]

NAYRT

I didn't like Time War either, but I thought Gideon the Ninth was far more enjoyable than it due to having actually distinctive characters, rather than co-protagonists who sounded almost identical to me. (And iirc Blue's and Red's chapters were even written by different authors! Yet I still couldn't tell their voices apart.)

[(Anonymous)]

I think with this series, if the characters, the setup, and/or the "mystery" elements don't catch your fancy early on, it's probably not going to vibe with you overall, and that's totally fine.

(I say "mystery" in quotes because it's not like some kind of detective thing, but I do like the author's knack for leaving clues/information in plain sight, even if on first pass we don't know what they are--I've found it's a fun series for rereads for that reason. IMO that's rule one OF a mystery, to not withhold information from the audience, though obfuscating it a bit through perspective is fine).

[(Anonymous)]

I think the beginning is pretty slow and it honestly took me a good 200 pages before the plot kicked off and I became super invested, but I am now obsessed with the whole series and absolutely love it. But it's all a matter of taste.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not reading 200 pages in the hopes of a book picking up. I gave up after 50 pages. It wasn't mysterious or confusing, it was just repetitive and boring.

[(Anonymous)]

Y'all gotta stop taking it personally when someone says something got better for them. A lot of people ARE pushy about trying to get you to continue something, and that's fair to get defensive about, but that's also not what the comment you're replying to was doing. They're just telling their own experience. As was I (my comment is the one below this one). Nobody here is telling YOU that you need to keep giving it a chance.

[(Anonymous)]

I felt the same way as you for at least half of the first book, but I kept reading it to see if I'd start to get the fuss and in the latter half, I really did. Then I sped through the next two books and I'm obsessed with it like everyone else.

Still, I would never blame anyone for not getting the fuss. I'm honestly surprised it's popular despite how much I love it. It feels like a series I'd like and wonder if that makes my taste questionable because if anyone else read it they'd think it sucked. Instead I got surprise validation from it actually having a huge following. (And I'm worried it won't last very long and will become the new has-been, "Ew, you still like that trash? Cringe!" series a la Game of Thrones.)

[(Anonymous)]

I've read both Gideon and Harrow as buddy reads on a discord and that definitely helped. Especially Harrow was so fun to read and although i was like HELL NO at the second person pov at first, i grew to like it, because the narrators voice was so distinct. it's very SFF and not fantasy and the style is very different from what the usual ya/fantasy reader is used to, so i get that it's not for everyone. Im waiting for a Nona buddy read (starting in summer) and i am very much looking forward to it.

[(Anonymous)]

Comment OP here and actually, I think the thing that bugged me about the first book especially (ended up reading Nona the Ninth and liking it slightly more, but not Harrow the Ninth yet, because the library hold waitlist for it is longer) is that the setup and protagonists felt very YA in a way I'd gotten sick of when I was still a teen myself, nevermind an adult still reading YA, which I've done way less often since I hit my 30s.