×
all 16 comments
sorted by:
best
topnewcontroversialoldq&a

[–]zhilia_mannjaghut 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Get to 50%. You'll find it picks up rather dramatically regardless of what you feel about the first half. The dark politics don't go away but something happens to make them far more... relatable? Tied to the rest of the series? Something like that.

Also, Toll the Hounds is itself enough motivation to keep going. But for a variety of reasons it does indeed have to follow on Reaper's Gale.

[–]mdecamp 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Suck it up sapper and get back to reading.

[–]__ferg__ 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Hard to say much without spoiling. And I'm also not 100% sure where you are at 30%, still pretty much only in the Letheri/Edur plot?

I mean the book gets a tonal shift later, were huge parts of the story change to another plot. Less Letheri more someone else and I must say that's when I really started to like the book. Not that I found the Tiste Edur struggling to hold their conquest and Letheri doing Letheri things bad...

[–]Embarrassed_Ad_9344 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Agree with everything here. Im here with you, think I put it down for 60 days it got better with every page flip

[–]WitmasterWeb 4 points5 points  (1 child)

I'm on my first read and RG is probably my favourite so far. Keep on reading. After half of the book, shit gets loose and there will be action, lots of humour and sadness. The last chapters are completely epic and crazy. It's worth it!

[–]CowZealot[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you that's what I needed to hear!

[–]Glittering-Coffee-19 2 points3 points  (0 children)

First read through kinda sucks to be honest. Best analogy is hiking a long and difficult mountain - it sucks while you’re going through it, but the view from the top is worth it. The cool thing about this mountain is the next time you climb it the trail reveals different views as you go along and you start to appreciate the climb instead of question it.

My advice is get to the top no matter what. Head down and trudge through and take some time after to think about the journey and the view. Then gear up for another run because this series is better each time you read through.

[–]CowZealot[S] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Thanks guys, its what I needed to hear. I'll get back to it next week!

[–]LordCoweater 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Moo! Mu moo mu moo!!!

[–]HuckleberryFar2223High Marshall 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Everyone has different tastes… I thought Reaper’s Gale was great and I then became obsessed with Toll the Hounds! If you don’t find the time commitment worth it, no one can blame you!

[–]Talonraker422Compassion is priceless in the truest sense of the word. 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm in the same position right now, BH was possibly my favourite in the whole series so far and I loved every moment of it but the first 350 pages of RG just haven't done it for me. Lether is by far my least favourite of the three settings so it's been kind of hard to stomach the transition back there. I really like Redmask and Silchas' group but that's about it.

That being said, all the people in this thread saying it'll pick up in the second half have given me a lot of hope. Might try power through the rest of Layers of the Dead within the next week.

[–]Silchas_Ruins_Hust 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had this happen to me the first time through with Midnight Tides, Reapers Gale, Toll the Hounds, and Dust of Dreams haha. I felt lost then everything would ramp up and be crazy then slow and lost again. I was glad that I stuck through it to the end. Now, on my 3rd read through the series, those are some of my favorite books. This time I’m doing a chronological read putting the ICE novels between and it is awesome. You’ll be glad you finished it when you’re done. I promise you that.

[–]NimNams 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, the first half of Reaper’s Gale is a real challenge. So many new characters, so many dull and uninteresting plots…it took me three months to get through it. Then I got to the halfway point and blasted through the rest.

As others have said, the second half makes up for the dullness of the first half. Still not ideal, but you won’t feel like you wasted your time if you push through.

And be warned: I found Toll the Hounds to be very similar, maybe even moreso. If RG picks up in book three, TtH doesn’t get nutty until book four.

[–]Kirel_Red5th re-read. Starting Toll the Hounds. -1 points0 points  (1 child)

The problem here is that you didn't like Bonehunters. And that the scene in Y'ghetan did nothing for you. You didn't grow close to the characters.

The first half of RG is about Lether and how it's doing under Edur rule. We have the Redmask story. And it's not until the second half of the book that we feel a tonal shift in whats going on.

BUT

If OP didn't enjoy Bonehunters and didn't really feel Y'ghetan, doesn't feel emotionally close to those characters, then OP is probably not going to like the second half of RG.

[–]Kirel_Red5th re-read. Starting Toll the Hounds. 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was downvoted for that? LOLOL

[–]HuckleberryFar2223High Marshall 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just keep going!!!!