DNF: Dragonsbane, Servant Mage

[thistlechaser]

Continuing with "all dragon in the title or dragon-like things on the cover" books on my Kindle...

DNF #15: Dragonsbane (Winterlands Book 1) by Barbara Hambly. This book should have worked for me. Apparently it was about a middle aged no-longer-couple: A knight (who is a farmer when he's not needed, which is most of the time) and woman who is an untrained witch with "disappointingly puny powers".

Even though it was published in 1985, for some reason I had a really hard time with the writing. As if it were dated, but 1985 isn't that long ago (I was reading scifi books then, it's possible I read this one at the time).

DNF #16: Servant Mage by Kate Elliott. I got 27% through this book before giving up. Another book with writing style(?) issues. Even though it was traditionally published through a big publishing house (Macmillan), it was missing so many commas. The writing was really purple, too. I got to the point where I was mentally editing it more than reading it for enjoyment, so I just DNFed it.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

Sorry to hear that Dragonsbane didn't work for you -- I liked that book a lot (though I did not continue on with the sequels). I liked the protagonists being middle-aged, and I liked the dragon a lot (though it takes a while to get to him).

I do think the style in which fantasy is written has changed a lot between 1985 and now, so I'm actually not too surprised that you found the style jarring (it's almost 4 decades ago after all... that would've been like reading a book from the 40s in the 1980s, you know? I mean, I know that you know, but I find that I have a tendency to think of the 80s as being "about 20 years ago", when really it's much more than that.)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oops, I meant to save this as a draft, but I friends locked it instead. Sorry for the last book listed not having a review or anything, I'm reading it right now.

> but I find that I have a tendency to think of the 80s as being "about 20 years ago", when really it's much more than that.

I think you hit it on the nose. It feels like 20 years ago, at the most. I guess the older you get, the more strange time is.

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

Aw, that's too bad. I really loved Dragonsbane, the sequels are pretty good too. But it is an older style and it's one of the those books I have to be in the right mood for. Funny enough, I usually don't care for vampire (or zombie books) but the few I do like are Barbara Hambly's. I think that says something about her quality as a writer, to get me interested in reading a genre I don't usually care for!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going to give her another try somewhere down the road. I've heard such good things about her writing, maybe I'll be in the better mindset for the style later.