Hi, I am on a driving trip and downloaded a recommended books, “Best Served Cold” and then the reviews say read the original trilogy first. After several hours of “The Blade Itself” there is no sense of a plot or where the characters are going, they are just meeting up.

I understand that this is a common criticism of his early works. Should I finish the Blade Itself or go on to the sequel standalone novel? I got a bit of the sense of the world.

Incidentally, I loved “Project Hail Mary” and started “Three Body Problem”, but the pronunciation of the chinese names turned me off, so I’ll read the book instead.

  • @bastion
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    03 months ago

    'The blade itself incites to deeds of violence."

    “Conquest is the last argument of kings”

    Basically, the whole trilogy is a meandering shitshow of people who have risen to the level of their incompetence. It came off, to me, as “See? Power bad. If your have power, you abuse it. Everybody feels crappy but nobody talks about it and that’s the way it is.”

    There is some degree of… …not realism, but… …grit? There are some good, earthy moments. But plot… …not really, other than that power is bad.