The Dragon Waiting group sync-read

[tabacoychanel]

Hello everyone and welcome to our group sync-read of the first of John M. Ford's books to be rereleased by Tor, The Dragon Waiting (1983)! I know there are 5-6 of you who have already expressed keen interest in this virtual bookclub; if you are not one of them PLEASE feel free to join us if the book looks like your jam! It's said to be a dense book so I'm looking forward to having fellow travelers to tackle it with me. If you haven't already, do read this to get a general idea of what the book is like and this longer article which situates Ford's work in the context of what was happening in the genre at the time.

I'm going to start an Introductions thread below where we can all introduce ourselves and hash out the structure of the sync-read. I'll give it a few days (until October 4) for us all to post a short intro, and get on the same page re: the reading schedule. See you all down there!

P.S. there's one or two of you i may have corralled into getting a Dreamwidth account just so you could join this dicussion lol for you guys I recommend turning on email notifications for this post so that anytime anybody replies to this post, you'll get notified.

Comments

Re: Introductions/Housekeeping

[mysticalmuddle]

Hi Kevin! You're a fellow Lya-friend and DW newbie, right? Glad you're here with us

I've read a lot about the Wheel of Time, in a poke-with-stick kind of way, but never got around to deciding whether I'd pick it up. Would you recommend it to another high fantasy fan? I've heard the books run toward being bricks--full of nice solid world building, but also very much door-stoppers--which normally wouldn't stop me, but the mixed reviews about whether the ending payed off or not, kind of did. I'd love to hear what you think

Re: Introductions/Housekeeping

[(Anonymous)]

I loved Wheel of Time - I'm very big on world building and magic systems, and WoT is extremely immersive and complex on both counts. It also sets up and then gleefully subverts many classic fantasy tropes.

Definitely Robert Jordan sometimes gets carried away with descriptions of food and clothing, and the infamous "slog" of books 8, 9, and 10 could have used a good editor, but he bounces back in a big way in book 11. Although he passed away before finishing the series, Brandon Sanderson absolutely nailed the ending with the last three books. Very interested to see how it all translates to a new medium with the Amazon series . . .

Basically, if you're willing to commit the time to immerse yourself, it's a very rewarding payoff.