You read Turncoat before previous books in TDF? Why?

 

Good old days. Did that with The Name of the Wind. Started reading after lunch, and it was nearly dawn the next time I glanced away from the book.

 

Only one I could find in the bookstore closest to me, and I already knew the basic set up of the series up to that point. *shrugs*

Indeed. Can't wait to go through Wheel of Time again. :awesome

 

I'm in a similar boat with many here. I read the first book and although I found it meh I decided to jump unto the second one. And that's when being a member of DLP fucked me yet again.

First I had A Song of Ice and Fire spoiled for me. Twice! Then someone did the same with this series regarding the Vord. It wasn't anything big, just the fact that they weren't some fleeting villain helped throw me off enough that I left it alone. Don't get me wrong I had problems with the book before that, the blatant attempt to generate tension at the start of second one just left me bored and wanting it to be resolved instantly. And I never did find the idea of furies that interesting any way, they were nothing special.

But it seems good, and it seems to avoid a few tropes so I might give it a read through after exams. Better yet I'll time it so that I'll finish reading it just before Dance with Dragons and Ghost Story come out so I'll have one summer of non-stop reading :awesome

But I have to ask as well? How is the rest of the season in terms of tone? Martin has spoiled every other fantasy series for me. I read Sanderson's Elantris recently, a fairly dark book with character deaths left and right and still wanted to gag at the "optimistic" tone of the novels. Please tell me this isn't another wankfest over the strength of the heroic spirit and humanity's ability to overcome all odds and shit?

 

I'll try to do this without spoiling much, but just discussing this means some are going to leak out.

Not particularly. Throughout the whole series the number one reason for Alera's troubles are the humans residing within it. The Vord are just another enemy amongst half a dozen others (though stronger than most) but they're also the most successful due to their blatant manipulation of the humans/canim and intelligence in general. I'd suggest you keep reading, because it gets pretty fucking bleak before the ending comes around... And maybe not even then. Still, this is heroic fantasy so you're going to see some of the basic tropes of that genre no matter what you do (and if you have a problem with those maybe you should switch genres).