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tannat

Tannat

Not so much a blog; just lots of books

Currently reading

The Grace Year
Kim Liggett
The New Voices of Science Fiction
Jamie Wahls, Sarah Pinkser, Vina Jie-Min Prasad, Rebecca Roanhorse, S. Qiouyi Lu, Darcie Little Badger, Kelly Robson, Nino Cipri, Amal El-Mohtar, Sam J. Miller, E. Lily Yu, Alice Sola Kim, Suzanne Palmer, Alexander Weinstein, Rich Larson
Progress: 13%
Engineering Animals: How Life Works
Alan Mcfadzean, Mark Denny
Progress: 125/314pages
The Rise of Yeast: How the Sugar Fungus Shaped Civilization
Nicholas P. Money
Conservation of Shadows
Yoon Ha Lee
Progress: 22%
Le premier jour
Marc Levy
Progress: 180/496pages
Moby-Dick: or, The Whale (Penguin Classics)
Herman Melville
Manifold: Time
Stephen Baxter, Chris Schluep
Progress: 99/480pages
The Long War
Stephen Baxter, Terry Pratchett
Progress: 68/501pages

The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart

— feeling confused
The Crystal Cave (Merlin, #1)  - Mary Stewart

Series: Arthurian Saga #1

 

Completely unmemorable.

 

The old man telling the child and then the young man’s story sounded stale to me. Merlin seemed to be more of a sock puppet than a person. I didn’t really care about anyone in the story, and most of the dialogue rang false, somehow.

 

The prose was so unmemorable that I’d pick up the book where I’d left off the night before and be completely unable to find my place because nothing sounded familiar (specifically in Book IV). I generally have a much better memory than that, so there was something about Stewart’s words that just wouldn’t stick in my head. In fact, it happened frequently that I’d discover that although I’d read every word in the preceding paragraphs, I couldn’t remember what they’d said. I don’t know why, but the book couldn’t hold my attention. The threads just slipped away.

 

I don’t blame my 8-year-old self for giving up even after passing the halfway point. The book adds nothing as an interpretation of the legend, or at least nothing interesting. My rating reflects the fact that the book completely failed to engage my interest and attention. Others evidently had different experiences.