Blake Charlton
Autore di Spellwright
Serie
Opere di Blake Charlton
Opere correlate
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Nome canonico
- Charlton, Blake
- Data di nascita
- 1979
- Sesso
- male
- Nazionalità
- VS
- Attività lavorative
- Medical student
- Breve biografia
- Over de auteur. Blake Charlton overwon een ernstige vorm van dyslexie doordat hij als dertienjarige stiekem fantasyboeken begon te lezen in de studiezaal op school. Hij is docent Engels geweest, heeft artikelen geschreven voor een biomedisch tijdschrift, kinderen met leerproblemen begeleid en is footballcoach geweest van een junior varsity team op de middelbare school. Momenteel studeert hij aan de Stanford University School of Medicine. De macht der spreuken is het vervolg op De taal der spreuken, zijn tweede boek en het tweede deel van de Spreukentrilogie.
Utenti
Recensioni
1.5 stars. Very disappointing.
Given the blurb, I expected this would be a story about language, with a good deal of language/linguistic play. But it's not: it's a story about magic, with language treated as the magical stuff that gets thrown around. The language elements are very superficial.
Adding insult to injury was a particularly awful misuse of language.One of the characters periodically has fits or convulsions when her god takes her over. Naturally these happen at the most inconvenient times. She sometimes has some symptomatic warning that one of these is about to occur. At two such moments, she exclaims that she is "having an aura."
No. I'm sorry, but no. You do not "have" (as in undergo) an aura. You "have" a convulsion, or you "see" an aura, or you "have" (as in possess) an aura that other people see. This is just wrong.
There were some interesting ideas, so I do hope the author keeps at it; but overall I felt this was not ready for prime time. I have no interest in the sequel.… (altro)
Given the blurb, I expected this would be a story about language, with a good deal of language/linguistic play. But it's not: it's a story about magic, with language treated as the magical stuff that gets thrown around. The language elements are very superficial.
Adding insult to injury was a particularly awful misuse of language.
No. I'm sorry, but no. You do not "have" (as in undergo) an aura. You "have" a convulsion, or you "see" an aura, or you "have" (as in possess) an aura that other people see. This is just wrong.
There were some interesting ideas, so I do hope the author keeps at it; but overall I felt this was not ready for prime time. I have no interest in the sequel.… (altro)
Spellwright is the introductory novel of Nicodemus, a young aspiring wizard who has been branded a cacographer because of his disability. Simply put, he has magical dyslexia - in a world where spells are visible as strings of floating, physical text, a mere touch by Nicodemus can cause a spell to be misspelled, gaining new meaning and often as not warping it from simple to potentially dangerous.
As with many fantasy novels, there is a prophesy, and depending on interpretation Nicodemus could be a savior - or the equivalent of the antichrist.
I have to confess, I've wanted to read this book since it came out a few years ago, and anticipation breeds its own expectations that reality can rarely match. As is oft said, I wish Goodreads would let us use 1/2 stars. Charlton's book is right on the cusp between 3 and 4 stars, but ultimately I couldn't round up.
The cons, for me, were twofold. First, mechanically, I found the text to be agonizing to follow in some places. It is almost worst that this is an inconsistant problem, because the rest of the time you can get a sense of Charlton's emerging voice. Future books will not suffer this problem, and you can tell. Charlton can tell a story, but that fact is buried in this first novel, and only shining on occasion.
Secondly, and perhaps this is another writing advancement that will come in the future, there are far too many info dumps. In fact, this book is an amazing example of show, don't tell. There are so many cases where if Blake had stepped back and given pause, he could have demonstrated his point, leaving the reader to "discover" the truth on their own (and therefore feel both a minor sense of accomplishment, as well as feel more involved in the story).
I read the book in five days, with a real life interrupting. In my world, that means the book was a quick read, so caveat lector.… (altro)
As with many fantasy novels, there is a prophesy, and depending on interpretation Nicodemus could be a savior - or the equivalent of the antichrist.
I have to confess, I've wanted to read this book since it came out a few years ago, and anticipation breeds its own expectations that reality can rarely match. As is oft said, I wish Goodreads would let us use 1/2 stars. Charlton's book is right on the cusp between 3 and 4 stars, but ultimately I couldn't round up.
The cons, for me, were twofold. First, mechanically, I found the text to be agonizing to follow in some places. It is almost worst that this is an inconsistant problem, because the rest of the time you can get a sense of Charlton's emerging voice. Future books will not suffer this problem, and you can tell. Charlton can tell a story, but that fact is buried in this first novel, and only shining on occasion.
Secondly, and perhaps this is another writing advancement that will come in the future, there are far too many info dumps. In fact, this book is an amazing example of show, don't tell. There are so many cases where if Blake had stepped back and given pause, he could have demonstrated his point, leaving the reader to "discover" the truth on their own (and therefore feel both a minor sense of accomplishment, as well as feel more involved in the story).
I read the book in five days, with a real life interrupting. In my world, that means the book was a quick read, so caveat lector.… (altro)
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Premi e riconoscimenti
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Autori correlati
Statistiche
- Opere
- 4
- Opere correlate
- 2
- Utenti
- 897
- Popolarità
- #28,561
- Voto
- 3.6
- Recensioni
- 33
- ISBN
- 30
- Lingue
- 5
- Preferito da
- 3
Blake Charlton is een schrijver met dyslexie. Als je deze wetenschap in je hoofd hebt, dan is De Taal der Spreuken een prachtige allegorie van zijn leven. Maar ook zonder deze wetenschap is het een lekker verhaal met een goed doordacht magiesysteem en heerlijke wezens. De magie zit overal in dit boek en geeft het verhaal echt een meerwaarde. De plot is rechttoe rechtaan: een eenvoudige jongen is voorbestemd voor grootste daden, die de wereld zullen veranderen. De uitwerking van dat plot is waar het om draait. En die uitwerking is zeer genietbaar. Hier en daar zijn de gebeurtenissen wat onlogisch, maar qua karakters zit het wel goed. Nicodemus is erg geloofwaardig en zijn vrienden zijn leuke types. Magister Agwu Shannon is aan het begin van het verhaal een soort professor Perkamentus, maar ontwikkelt zich toch iets anders. Een aantal karakters blijken uiteindelijk niet te zijn wat je in het begin van hen dacht. Een goed debuut dat smaakt naar meer. En gelukkig komt er een vervolg.
… (altro)