Reading wise I finished the third book in the Queen of the Dead trilogy by Michelle Sagara called Grave. I raved about the first book, called Silence, here. I wrote about the second volume, called Touch, here. Now I've finished the third book and have mixed feelings. I struggled to read the book because it felt over long and drawn out, but the climax was heart rending, as in it made me cry for the characters. If only I could write that well.
What I would observe is that book one was a tightly written novel of 289 pages, book two was 325 pages and the third volume was 450 pages. Assuming a page is 350 words that's 101,150 words for the first book, rising to 113,750 in the second, and 157,500 words.
What I take away from this is two things. Longer isn't better. Trying to fill in all the characters back stories takes away from the plot's momentum.
But, I should add the caveat that I'm less inclined towards reading long books, which is why I won't be buying the novels The Expanse is based on if the show is cancelled, for pretty much the same reason I stopped reading George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones series after the first volume. This probably marks me as out of touch with the current fashion, but it's not long novels per se, just series that are made of very long novels that drain my will to read.
NB: Struggled to read is probably too strong a description of my feelings when reading this book. The book left me satisfied, and in awe of Michelle Sagara's writing ability.
"Longer isn't better." Agree, to me a well written short story is the peak of writing skill.
ReplyDeleteFor book length about 300 pages is enough and more than one book to tell a story shows a lack of mental agility.