Have y ever felt like you and your favorite author don’t match anymore? I’ve been a big fan of Cassandra Clare, author of the Shadowhunter chronicles since 2013, her books were really important to me during my teenage years; but now I’m reading Sword Catcher, her “adult fantasy” debut and also her first individual book published outside the Shadowhunter world, and I’m just not feeling it.
Despite being marketed as adult, Sword Catcher doesn’t feel more mature than her previous books, aside from some occasional sexual comments. I’ve been noticing some things that bother me about her writing that just got more pronounced with this book, or maybe I’m just not interested enough in the story to just give them a pass. Also (and this is just a pet peeve of mine) it feels kinda weird that the main female character is a “petite green eyed redhead” that’s the exact description of arguably her most famous female mc!
I don’t know, it’s just kinda sad that your go to author is not delivering as they used to. I read “Chain of thorns” also by her earlier this year and despite its flaws I just kept trying to convince myself that it was okay, but I can’t seem to connect with Sword Catcher which was one of my most anticipated reads this years.
As a side note, I’m only halfway through the book, so there’s still hope for it to turn around, but this is my impression as of now. Now tell me, has this ever happened to you?
Heinlein. I thought he was wonderful when I was 14. Things started slowly going off the rails after that, and when I was 22, I went back and reread Stranger in a Strange Land and was pretty revulsed.
But before that, the Divergence had started. I found Friday very hard to read, and the Number of the Beast was impossible, and there was no fucking way I was going to read The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, let alone to Sail Beyond The Sunset.
I will never go back and reread the Moon is a Harsh Mistress, because I want to preserve the memory I have of first reading it.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is still fantastic. You’ve made me nervous about my planned upcoming SiaSL reread though… it’s been a solid 10 years.
Well that’s good to hear. But, yeah, I read Stranger when I was 13 or 14 and I thought it was amazing. I re-read it soon after college and, while there were still some good moments for sure, there were some things I found . . . well let’s just say, some of the lines Heinlein had Gillian deliver were pretty awful.
And I could not get through Time Enough for Love a second time after thinking it was incredible when I was an early teen.
Best of luck out there.