The overall premise is nothing to write home about. Hoping for a better life following a bloody war, five veterans leave everything behind to colonize an island. But can their enduring friendship keep them together? As you can see, it's not the sort of story arc which immediately captures the imagination.
Personally, it was the idea behind the book that made me so interested in reading The Company. I think it is fairly different for a fantasy book. No quests, no evil lord to fight, no coming of age story, no theives, etc. In fact, the idea itself really is more general and not fantasy specific. So, I was interested in reading about how a group of ex war-hero's try to make a life for themselves post-war. I though there was a lot of potential for a unique story, compared to most epic fantasy I read.
So, my question: Do you agree with Pat that the plot behind The Company is rather tame or boring. Or do you view it more like I do, and find it a nice change and something worth checking out? In this question, you can even leave the author's name out of the discussion. I am more interested in what you think about the idea for the book (not the potential given by the author).
P.S...I am around 180 pages into The Company (of 415 or so) and its meeting my high expectations thus far.
7 comments:
I was intrigued by the premise, so I have it on my to-buy list. I agree with you that it sounded very different from the usual fare.
That said, I admit the premise sounds simple on its surface. ;-) Maybe not so much simple as...(gasp) mundane! But I read the premise and thought, "Ooh, this could be very interesting." Not (just) because it's different (different isn't automagically good), mind you, but because I know how a good author can take something that sounds simplistic and do something amazing with it. I expect this in F/SF/H, really.
Take Steven Gould; he took a few well-worn ideas and did really cool things with them in Jumper, Wildside, and Helm. Like most books, a simplistic plot summary doesn't do them justics.
So in my rambling way: I see Pat's point but my reaction was more like yours. ;-)
I have to agree, I did think the premise was interesting. Perhaps Pat means that it won't capture the imagination of many fantasy fans, given that it's very different from so much of the genre...
I'll put it rather bluntly: sometimes, Pat's opinions are so off-the-wall strange to me that I sometimes wonder what the hell he was smoking :P
I definitely found the premise interesting and would probably want to read the book even if it wasn't written by one of my favorite authors.
I agree with Larry here - Pat has an interesting baseline that seems rather far removed from mine.
larry, neth..the same goes for me. But, I dont want to look like i bash every review he makes. It just happens that twice now, i had to speak out. I'm gonna try not to make a habit of it.
I should also start similiar posts about reviews (from anyone, not just pat) i really liked to even things out a bit.
I've been interested in this one. I don't request too many books from Orbit-- I have too many I haven't gotten to yet. But I may see about this one.
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