While my Pathfinder novels haven't (yet) reached as wide an audience as my previous novels, they've garnered far more reviews. I'd love to see even more, especially on Amazon and Goodreads.
While the reviews have been gratifying and often useful, I've seen little comparison of the Varian & Radovan stories, primarily Prince of Wolves and Master of Devils (but also of the novellas "Hell's Pawns" and "Husks," and the short stories "The Lost Pathfinder," "A Lesson in Taxonomy," and "A Passage to Absalom").
So please satisfy my curiosity: If you've read both of the R&V novels, which book did you prefer (and why)? What elements of the ongoing back story do you care most about?
Please comment here, and if you ask any questions I'll try to answer them promptly.
I preferred Master of Devils. I liked the pacing and concurrent plots a lot more, and also found the Kung fu movie feel to be far more enjoyable than the gothic feel of the first. I've enjoyed all the stories about those two, I'm just not all that into the Gothic stuff
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed them both as what they were, but I preferred Prince of Wolves. I read Prince of Wolves as a horror/mystery novel and Master of Devils read like a kung-fu movie in novel form. I enjoy Radovan and the Count’s adventures in both cases, but the horror/mystery theme really works well with first person voice. I liked the addition of Arnasant’s point of view in Master of Devils. It was reminiscent of Darkwalker on Moonshae and did a good job of nailing down how intelligent the hound really is. I actually wrote a review essay for a college English course on Prince of Wolves. I got an A.
ReplyDeleteTruthfully, I usually despise first person voice in fantasy, but I don’t think there is a better way to tell the story of your heroes. It really helped with keeping the reader guessing in the mysteries in Prince of Wolves and in all your works involving the duo gives the reader extra insight to not just their thoughts, but their point of view.
That's a good response to read because it's the first time I've heard from someone who didn't care for the Ustalav setting but did like the Tian Xia setting. I knew there were some of you out there.
ReplyDeleteMgarret, I think you're right that first-person works especially well with mystery and horror. There'll be much more mystery in the next book than there was in Master of Devils, although perhaps not as much horror.
ReplyDeleteAs a fan of both Kung Fu movies AND Hammer horror, I preferred Master of Devils, because it seemed that you were more "into it." You didn't seem to bring the same level of trope-celebration to Prince of Wolves.
ReplyDeleteA keen and interesting observation, Gareth. While I also love Hammer horror, in PoW I probably tilted more toward Universal horror and a few more recent films, like Le Pacte Des Loups, the Indiana Jones movies, and a dozen other sources of inspiration. (Only one reader has mentioned Garlands of Moonlight so far.)
ReplyDeleteBut you and I certainly had the same body of films in mind when I jumped into MoD, and I think you're right that its source of inspiration is much more cohesive.
They are about on par, I think, but my one complaint about both works a little in Master of Devil’s favour. I feel neither has enough of Varian & Radovan together. The characters have such wonderful interaction and their relationship is a brilliant dichotomy. Whenever they split up, I long for them to get back together (and not just because I am engaged in the plot, but because my would increase my enjoyment). Both books separate them early and ends shortly after they get back together. The reason I say I prefer Master of Devils slightly more is that their interaction in the early chapters (is plural even justified, or were they separated by the second chapter?) is even more meaningful after reading Prince of Wolves.
ReplyDeleteRyan, I think you'll get your wish in the next Radovan & Jeggare novel. With the exception of only a few chapters, they're together the whole time. I'm trying to write it in a way that welcomes first-time readers while still rewarding those who've read the earlier stories with lots of brief connections.
DeleteThe original plan with R&V was always to have them investigating different sides of the same story, one from above, with the nobility, the other from below, with the common folk. I did a variation of that with master of Devils, but I've kept them together in one of the short stories and one of the novellas, and both readers and my editor have responded that they like seeing them work as a team.
ReplyDeleteYou might like the work in progress, Ryan. There are very few chapters in which the boys aren't together, and most of those are sexy chapters, when you probably wouldn't want to see them together. (I'll leave that to the fan fiction writers.)
Master of Devils we epic. I really enjoyed reading the book. In context, I read MoD after I read the novellas and your other novels. It took me some time to get into V&R.
ReplyDeletePrince of Wolves took me sometime to read. I left it twice before starting to read for the third time. That time around, I was able to connect and finish. I absolutely loved the ending and became a diehard fan of V&R.
I also most mention that Winter Witch is a damn fine book. I really connected with it. It was driven both with adventure and plot and was a true fantasy novel in my mind. I congratulated Elaine via Facebook as I was moved and she pointed me to your facebook account as she accredited you as a meaningful contributor to the book.
Personally, I feel Prince of Wolves was the released at the wrong time. It was the first book of the PF novels and it was set after V&R had been together for a time. Like others have mentioned PoW makes more meaning after you have read some or all of the other works.
I look forward to your next PF novel!
Sorry it's taken a while to notice these comments. I need to update my Blogspot settings to alert me when there's a new one.
DeleteI've heard from a few folks that the early chapters of Prince of Wolves can be a slow start. A few others love those early chapters, so the trick will be to find a middle ground where both of those groups--and I--are groking the fullness. I think I've found a way to do that with the opening chapter of the Work In Progress (wip), which has some strong similarities to Chapter One of PoW.
I'm so glad you liked Winter Witch. The way our collaboration came about was not ideal, but I was grateful for the chance to work with Elaine. I've long admired her work, and she's a wonderfully supportive friend. She brought Korvosa to life so vividly that I keep harrying her to write more stories there.
One of the great things about working with Radovan & the count is that I've been able to tell their stories in different formats: short stories on the web, novellas in the Adventure Paths, and in the novels. That's given me some freedom to tell the stories in different ways. I want to continue to take advantage of the different formats while trying to remain true to the characters and setting.
It was the great reviews for Devils that encouraged me to go back and read all the stories from the beginning, and after the first couple chapters in Hell's Pawns. My favorite aspect is the British-style detective mystery approach, regardless of setting. So I dig the two parallel investigations - upper & lower class - but prefer the structure of Wolves, where they do intersect around Act 2.
ReplyDeleteThat said, of the novels I had more fun reading Devils, since it felt more wrenching for Radovan & Jeggare - their own personal Hells/Twilight Zones come to life.
Also Devils struck a perfect chord as far as both introducing Pathfinder's flavor of the "fantasy world not unlike Ancient China" setting and giving the whirlwind tour of pop-culture and traditional Chinese heroic fantasy. Wolves was great on the setting-introduction, but I didn't pick up on as many references (although I might be personally less attuned to 40s Gothic Horror than fantasy-medieval China).
Meant to say I was hooked after the first couple chapters of Hell's Pawns. Jeggare always reminds me a bit of Inspector Morse (which I loved in book & TV form), and Radovan just has such a great voice. Authentic gets overused, but it fits here.
DeleteYour comparison with Morse delights me. I'm actually a little more a fan of the Lewis mysteries, since I've seen more of them, but I love Morse also. There is definitely a similarity between them and Radovan & the count, although I didn't have Morse in mind at the time. I can't help thinking of the comparison when a new Lewis series comes out, now.
DeleteMy original plan with Radovan & Jeggare was to have parallel narratives covering the upper and lower classes, but as "Hell's Pawns" took shape I decided to stick with one POV, and Radovan's noir-inspired voice came to me first. Later, the relationship between them evolved, and readers (and my editor) responded to that so strongly that I knew they needed to spend more time "in the same room," as it were. The Work In Progress keeps them together for most of the story.
I'm so glad to hear from someone else that the Tian Xia setting resonated more than the Gothic Horror--it's usually the other way around.
If you're a fan of upper/lower-class stories, you might enjoy ITV's Downton Abbey. It's a delightful melodrama with an excellent cast and rich sets and locations.