I finished the first book of the trilogy a couple of weeks ago. My reaction was, okay, I get the grit, but would you like to give me some reason to *like* these people? Of the main viewpoint characters (the torturer, the thug, and the twit) I got one that I had any sympathy for at all. (The thug, as it happened.) I was flipping pages to get past the twit's scenes.
Plus the author takes care to make sure that his fantasy country is governed by shallow, cruel morons. It didn't take long for me to start hoping that the orcs would sweep down and set fire to the whole thing.
Now you tell me that the whole series just knocks things over with no satisfactory resolution? To quote William Goldman: "Jeez, Grampa, why did you *read* me this thing?" I see no reason to finish the trilogy.
(I am now re-reading the second Locke Lamora book, which is *made* of satisfying and sympathetic bastards. Even if I know there are a lot of books to go before the ending.)
For what it's worth, both dfan and Gunther liked the ending (of the third book/series) a lot. I think they were big fans of the author's unflinching willingness to reject standard fantasy tropes (which I liked too, but it was outweighed for me by how much I read to get there and then there was nothing else). Also, the characters really don't get any more sympathetic by the end -- most of them actually get less sympathetic.
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I finished the first book of the trilogy a couple of weeks ago. My reaction was, okay, I get the grit, but would you like to give me some reason to *like* these people? Of the main viewpoint characters (the torturer, the thug, and the twit) I got one that I had any sympathy for at all. (The thug, as it happened.) I was flipping pages to get past the twit's scenes.
Plus the author takes care to make sure that his fantasy country is governed by shallow, cruel morons. It didn't take long for me to start hoping that the orcs would sweep down and set fire to the whole thing.
Now you tell me that the whole series just knocks things over with no satisfactory resolution? To quote William Goldman: "Jeez, Grampa, why did you *read* me this thing?" I see no reason to finish the trilogy.
(I am now re-reading the second Locke Lamora book, which is *made* of satisfying and sympathetic bastards. Even if I know there are a lot of books to go before the ending.)
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