/lit/ - Literature

>>19806731
A Shadow in Summer, Long Price Quartet #1 - Daniel Abraham (2006)

I may have enjoyed this prologue more than any other I've ever read. Although it's only a small part, I feel like the entire book, and indeed the whole of the series, will be commentary on the decision made then. It reminded me a lot of one of my favorite PKD stories, "The Exit Door Leads In". The reason why this prologue, and the book, had such a strong effect on me is due to my personal beliefs and experiences. I can't separate myself from my enjoyment, so my rating on this is hopelessly biased and likely will not be of much predictive value for you. There's a lot in this book that I could see as being off-putting to many readers for several different reasons. After reading a lot of reviews, there's apparently also a lot that I don't understand why they believe it's so off-putting. None of that bothered me in the slightest though, which again is an indictment, but I make a lot of allowances for fictional works. Based on the book's GR rating and those of /sffg/, clearly that wasn't the case for many.

This book is political intrigue, moral quandaries, and ethical dilemmas from the beginning to end. There aren't any heroics, let alone heroes. Not only isn't there any adventure, the narrative openly mocks thinking there could be. Instead, it's an assortment of people who are just trying to get through life and are inexorably and unknowingly drawn to the tragedy at the center of the story and surviving the aftermath the best that they can. The viewpoint characters are two teenagers, a young adult, and a late middle-aged woman. I enjoyed reading all of them. Although there is a protagonist, overall it's more like an ensemble as they each have an important role to play. Romance plays a significant role and there are a number of sex scenes, but none are described in any particular detail. That's all I have to say about that because there are too many who are too sensitive about such matters. This book is about character interactions to the exclusion of almost all else. I greatly enjoyed that.

Aside from being able to bind concepts into physical manifestations that do the binder's bidding, there are no other fantastical elements other than it taking place in a secondary world. Those who expect a traditional, high, epic, heroic, or similar sort of fantasy will probably be disappointed by what they read. That's the case with this first book at least, I can't speak to the others yet. Because of this, the author's next fantasy series, The Dagger and the Coin, was more traditional. I enjoyed that one well enough, but already I prefer this series. The only thing I'm disappointed by is that I haven't read more fantasy like this. I'm eager to see how this series progresses. If it maintains this level of enjoyment for me, then this will easily become one of my favorites.

Rating: 5/5

I'm thinking of giving the Long Price Quartet a try. Any of you read it? It any good?

>>9789711
The Long Price series


The protag is literally the most worthless and self-pitying piece of shit you could imagine.

what the fuck am I in for?