Hmm. I honestly even find Ramiro sympathetic, and Sendari tragically so and I adore Kallandras and like Valedan quite a lot. But if "sympathetic" means "active and on the right side", then there's less of that in The Broken Crown, for sure.
However, the problem with Hunter's Oath as a starting point is that, in many ways, it seems to me that the entire book is merely a prologue to Hunter's Death.
I'd have to agree pretty much completely, though I think my own reading experience was warped by having read Death before Oath. (OMG, the section with Vexusa explained so much, it was really satisfying.) West talked a bit about having to set up things for books way down the storyline in HO & HD on her most recent blog post, which was interesting. Have you read Lirael and Abhorsen by Garth Nix? They stand in a similar sort of relationship to each other, and Lirael has some of the same structural weaknesses, I think.
I do think The Hidden City is a decent alternative--the scenes with Rath and Meralonne around the 2/3 point explain the stakes quite explicitly, and more clearly than I recall being done in either The Sacred Hunt or the first few Sun Sword books. And as long as people don't wait to read The Sun Sword before reading the last three books of The House War, it shouldn't be too disorienting. But, yes, I'd agree that in some ways THC is different from the rest in possibly misleading ways. Right off the top of my head, I gnashed my teeth at the lack of dates in the book, though of course I could work what year AA it took place in without too much trouble.
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regna
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Date: 2010-01-09 20:30 (UTC)However, the problem with Hunter's Oath as a starting point is that, in many ways, it seems to me that the entire book is merely a prologue to Hunter's Death.
I'd have to agree pretty much completely, though I think my own reading experience was warped by having read Death before Oath. (OMG, the section with Vexusa explained so much, it was really satisfying.) West talked a bit about having to set up things for books way down the storyline in HO & HD on her most recent blog post, which was interesting. Have you read Lirael and Abhorsen by Garth Nix? They stand in a similar sort of relationship to each other, and Lirael has some of the same structural weaknesses, I think.
I do think The Hidden City is a decent alternative--the scenes with Rath and Meralonne around the 2/3 point explain the stakes quite explicitly, and more clearly than I recall being done in either The Sacred Hunt or the first few Sun Sword books. And as long as people don't wait to read The Sun Sword before reading the last three books of The House War, it shouldn't be too disorienting. But, yes, I'd agree that in some ways THC is different from the rest in possibly misleading ways. Right off the top of my head, I gnashed my teeth at the lack of dates in the book, though of course I could work what year AA it took place in without too much trouble.