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Title: The Rite
Series: Forgotten Realms: The Year of Rogue Dragons #2
Author: Richard Lee Byers
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 352/Abandoned
Format: Digital Edition
| Synopsis: |
More and more dragons go rogue and the various characters attempt to figure out what the badguy Sammaster has done by backtracking him. One group to a mystic monastery currently under siege by dragons and another group to a some wizards who are working on Sammaster’s notes.
DNF’d at 30%
| My Thoughts: |
My first DNF of the year. Man, I was bored with this story. There are several factors leading into that though.
First, I have had a string of 4star books since the beginning of the year. My standards were thus higher. Second, I was on the fence about Forgotten Realms the whole of last year and kept giving them chance after chance. This year, No More Mr Nice Guy. Third, I don’t want to keep on eating badly cooked literary mac-n-cheese where I KNOW that half the stuff is half-baked. Finally, work was physically brutal this week and I ended up taking today off because of how hard Monday-Thursday had gone. Hiking an hour using showshoes, carrying 60lbs of equipment, shovelling out traverse stations all day, breaking trail, pulling a sled filled with 200lbs of equipment during the day, then ending the day by hiking an hour out with 60lbs of equipment again.
If I had read this last year, I probably would have given it 2.5stars and struggled through the final book in the trilogy. Not this year. I am done with this book and this trilogy and the whole Forgotten Realms series. It is written for a completely different target audience than me and I need to stop trying to shoehorn myself into that demographic. Objectively, it was the same as the first book, but I just don’t have the patience to deal with it anymore.
I have enough books on my Oasis and in Calibre to last me 2 years. That’s if I don’t add a single thing. So why should I persist in adding books that have an extremely high chance of being lower than 3stars? Not worth it.
★☆☆☆☆
The ‘forgoten realms’ reads like a corporate manifesto…no substance…I got rid of mine a long time ago.
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I guess it’s time I moved on as well 🙂
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Life’s to short to have us insist on something we know is crap.
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Or even really mediocre 🙂
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It’s fair enough isn’t it – the thing is, I think we’re much tougher on ourselves about reading books. If you started watching a series and there were 12 episodes, you’d maybe watch the first one and if you weren’t sure you’d probably give it another chance – you wouldn’t make yourself watch all 12 episodes out of some feeling of completeness. I’m much more in the dnf squad these days. I used to hate not finishing a book but nowadays I want to read the books that really grip me and don’t feel like hard world. It’s a hobby after all and why read something if you’re not enjoying it.
Lynn 😀
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Funny thing is, I’m a huge proponent of DNF’ing when it comes to encouraging other people to do it. I will gladly push them off the cliff if that is what it takes. But doing it myself? Suddenly, it’s different 😉
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I’ve been reluctant to DNF since I started blogging, figuring that I need to give the author a chance to turn things around before I trash his work on my blog. It should probably be my new year’s resolution to DNF more, but I’m not sure I’ll do it.
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And if I was new to reading and the idea of blogging, I’d think you were on the right track. But by now I’ve got bloody years of experience under my amateur belt, so I should know better. I used to have a 50page/10% rule that I used for DNF. If it wasn’t interesting by then, or hadn’t gotten my attention, then out it went. I’m beginning to think I need to start applying that rule again…
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Daaaaamn… That was harsh and hectic to read… I am sorry you didnt like this “Realm” personaly I believe back in the day it as written for a younger crowd and these authors never realy seemed to mature with its followers. That is in my opinion. Also I believe forgotten realms is for those that activly played the fantacy game… Its not for everyone, I for one never played forgotten realms, but have a collection of their Waterdeep books that I liked back in the day.
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It is definitely geared towards the teen crowd and those who follow the game. So I’ve given it its chance and it just isn’t working for me anymore. Time to cut my losses and find other books to read…
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Still working on a decent WH book for you but its gonna be hard…
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yeah, I know. So no rush!
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Dragonback is up😏
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Ugh, that sucks! You really were not lucky with those at all over the last months. Pretty brave to pick them up still, but I totally understand if you’d drop the whole series now. After so many disappointments.
I agree with Manuel – life’s too short to stick with crappy books! I am sure you have lots of awesome ones waiting. May your next read be a 5-star 😀
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Yeah, it hit me that Forgotten Realms had probably outlived its readability for me when I had to put one the books in that world on my Worst Book of the Year list.
Thankfully, I am about 25% in to Erikson’s “Bonehunters”. AT least I know it is good writing 🙂
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You have definitely given Forgotten Realms a fair chance to impress you. I love your food analogies haha.
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Thanks.
The thing is, I “want” to like the FR books, as the ideas can be great. It is just the execution of said ideas that is pretty poor 😦
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I approve yer change of strategy on this series. The struggle has been felt by this reader at least. Arrrr!
x The Captain
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I tell you Cap’n, it is SO much easier to tell someone else to DNF a book/series than to do it myself. I am looking at this as one of those “growing up” moments 😉
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I really try hard not to dnf books but when I think about how many books I want to read I try and force myself to stop reading…but it’s still hard! why is that?!
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I don’t know why it is so hard, but I know exactly what you mean!
The real tipping point for me was when I was talking with someone and I realized I had 2 years of books to read, books that I actually WANTED to read, not just a passing interest.
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It’s really hard to suffer through a less-than-stellar book after a good run of successful and enjoyable reads, so I perfectly understand why you did not want to waste your time on this. You’re right: since there are so many potentially great choices already lined on your virtual shelf, they deserve your full attention! 🙂
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I feel if I had had a run of 3 stars then maybe I wouldn’t have been so abrupt, but I had 3-5 fourstar books, in a row. That just reminds me that there ARE lots and lots of 4star and above books out there and I need to get to them 🙂
Thankyou for understanding…
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haha badly cooked literary mac and cheese, eh? I don’t suppose that is very appetising 😉 But I get what you mean about not bothering with books that are not gonna end up with a high rating anyway (I think having a string of high ratings definitely gives me higher standards too)
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I feel like I am peeling away dead wood sometimes when I stop reading a series like this. It gives me the opportunity to grow. Doesn’t mean I will, but I have the opportunity 🙂
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hehe I get that.
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“So why should I persist in adding books that have an extremely high chance of being lower than 3stars? Not worth it.” < my philosophy exactly. I think that's the reason I haven't ventured into to many of these yet, even though I feel like I should want to. Your "half-baked" description sums them up perfectly. On to better books!!
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On to better books! A worthy cry to rally an true bookworm 🙂
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That’s some manpower you’ve needed lately. And boy… Context sure is everything. A bad day could turn some average books into utter crap… Glad you’re dropping this series though. It did seem like it was a struggle to just enjoy them.
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Yep, it was just too much of a crapshoot with every book. Will I like this one, or not? I figured I’d done enough in ’17. Time to cut my losses.
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