![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catpuccinoI've been powering through the Tearling trilogy by Erika Johansen, after I finally found the third and final book in the library a couple of weeks ago. I read the first two last year but the final book hadn't been released yet (annoying). I re-read the first two, mostly because I have a poor memory and couldn't remember what it was about. I'm glad I did because the first two books are much better than the final one.
A pet peeve of mine is bad and unsatisfactory endings for fantasy novels. I'm not going to post any spoilers in case anyone else decides or wants to read the series, but the ending is so bad (and I've read a couple of other views agreeing with me) that I almost wouldn't recommend the series at all.
I hate it when you read an ending and think, they just didn't know how to end it all. A common issue with fantasy is that sometimes the tale is so epic, an ending is always going to be somewhat anticlimactic. There's that final battle of good and evil and then what? In real life things don't end, they keep going. But in fantasy you have to cut things off somewhere. Do you give your readers the ending they want? Do you end things on a bit off a cliff edge, with the hope or idea that there's another story? Or do you go for that odd idea that occurred to you in the middle of the night, that probably doesn't work or make much sense but in your head is a good, neat little wrap around technique and more importantly it's different.
As I said, no spoilers, but you can imagine which one happened here.
In fairness to the author, the books are great, it is really easy to read, there are so many good storylines and characters and the world is really fascinating. Not completely ruined at the end, but I wish it had ended stronger.
A pet peeve of mine is bad and unsatisfactory endings for fantasy novels. I'm not going to post any spoilers in case anyone else decides or wants to read the series, but the ending is so bad (and I've read a couple of other views agreeing with me) that I almost wouldn't recommend the series at all.
I hate it when you read an ending and think, they just didn't know how to end it all. A common issue with fantasy is that sometimes the tale is so epic, an ending is always going to be somewhat anticlimactic. There's that final battle of good and evil and then what? In real life things don't end, they keep going. But in fantasy you have to cut things off somewhere. Do you give your readers the ending they want? Do you end things on a bit off a cliff edge, with the hope or idea that there's another story? Or do you go for that odd idea that occurred to you in the middle of the night, that probably doesn't work or make much sense but in your head is a good, neat little wrap around technique and more importantly it's different.
As I said, no spoilers, but you can imagine which one happened here.
In fairness to the author, the books are great, it is really easy to read, there are so many good storylines and characters and the world is really fascinating. Not completely ruined at the end, but I wish it had ended stronger.
