{"id":4370,"date":"2018-03-05T05:15:48","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T05:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.offkorn.com\/blog\/?p=4370"},"modified":"2018-03-07T19:37:46","modified_gmt":"2018-03-07T19:37:46","slug":"the-witch-with-no-name-the-great-ordeal-the-unholy-consult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.offkorn.com\/blog\/the-witch-with-no-name-the-great-ordeal-the-unholy-consult\/","title":{"rendered":"The Witch With No Name, The Great Ordeal, & The Unholy Consult"},"content":{"rendered":"

The concluding novel<\/a> in Kim Harrison<\/a>‘s Hollows<\/em> series makes it fairly clear that the series has been dragged out far beyond its expiration point with power-level creep that’s both ridiculous and inconsistent. Roughly half the book is someone doing something awful, blaming Rachel for it, and having everyone believe them for no apparent reason, while a quarter consists of Rachel beating herself up about ‘holding Trent back’. Only ~25% or so of it is decent-to-good and you wouldn’t lose much by just skipping straight to the epilogue chapter.<\/p>\n

Originally R. Scott Bakker’s Aspect-Emperor<\/a> series was meant to be a trilogy, but after a lengthy delay it ended up becoming a quartet. It’s very fortunate that The Great Ordeal<\/a> is preceded by a detailed recap of what came before, because after nearly a half-decade gap I doubt many remember previous events at all clearly. It’s also fortunate that the book turns out to feel more like the earlier Prince of Nothing<\/a> novels. I still don’t like the Esmenet\/Kel sections at all though.<\/p>\n

The Unholy Consult<\/a> is a bit different though in that the disparate storylines are mostly merged into a single narrative while the vast majority of the book focuses on one battle. Ultimately I don’t think these two needed to be separate novels, as there are a number of aspects that end up completely superfluous (such as the Sorwheel\/Serwa and White Luck subplots) or orphaned (those ‘vile angel’ interludes). The conclusion deserves special mention for being so… random? Though there’s a certain symmetry to the one person not damned being responsible for damnation, the way it happens does not feel natural in the slightest. It’s almost like an after-thought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The concluding novel in Kim Harrison‘s Hollows series makes it fairly clear that the series has been dragged out far beyond its expiration point with power-level creep that’s both ridiculous and inconsistent. Roughly half the book is someone doing something awful, blaming Rachel for it, and having everyone believe them for no apparent reason, while a quarter consists of Rachel beating herself up about ‘holding Trent back’. Only ~25% or so of it is decent-to-good and you wouldn’t lose much by just skipping straight to the epilogue chapter. Originally R. Scott Bakker’s Aspect-Emperor series was meant to be a trilogy, but after a lengthy delay it ended up becoming a quartet. It’s very fortunate that The Great Ordeal is preceded by a detailed recap of what came before, because after nearly a half-decade gap I doubt many remember previous events at all clearly. It’s also fortunate that the book turns out to feel more like the earlier Prince of Nothing novels. I still don’t like the Esmenet\/Kel sections at all though. The Unholy Consult is a bit different though in that the disparate storylines are mostly merged into a single narrative while the vast majority of the book focuses on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[28,41,44,29,358,359,30],"class_list":["post-4370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-related","tag-fantasy","tag-hollows","tag-kim-harrison","tag-paranormal-romance","tag-r-scott-bakker","tag-the-second-apocalypse","tag-urban-fantasy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t