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@noah-cochran

That is what really didn’t make much sense to me, considering he is her closest friend and everything, and all her focus is on Peeta. The first two books are great overall though.

Huh, that’s actually a really good point. I think making Gale a more interesting character by himself would fix a lot of that, he was just boring on all accounts. That’s an interesting point, he should have been somewhat more important to her.

Read any Dickens? I convinced a couple of my friends to read Bleak House to test the waters, and they both immediately started complaining about it to me. xD It just goes to show that the strict three act story structure of many movies and YA books is not always required (though the main idea of it is still used of course).

Oh, goodness, yes. He always ends up doing that XD I hold to the claim that Dickens is better as an audiobook so you can do something else while he rambles XD

’ve read nearly the entire Hercule Poirot series, and Murder on the Orient Express, Murder of  Sir Roger Ackroyd, and Death on the Nile are probably my three favorites (but there are so many good ones).

Oh, I read Murder of Sir Roger Ackroyd as well! I forgot to mention it. That twist was fantastic. It had me audibly going “what?” multiple times after the reveal.

And then there were none  is probably my third favorite stand alone book ever, though the ending was quite dark and disappointing (but very very memorable). However, the scene where the record player starts playing and a voice starts listing all of the crimes of each person in the room is still one of my favorite scenes in any book ever. It’s beyond good. As you can see, I’m a major Christie fan. xD

Absolutely, it was an amazing scene and the entire story had such a cool structure because you knew what was coming and there was no way to prevent it, so you just slowly watch the rhyme finish. Stories structured around a rhyme or song are my one weakness, I just love how it works.

I agree with everything you said. I read the series quite a while before I began writing, and I already thought the plot was quite trite and uninspiring. The main characters were solid, but the plot and events were just not great. Too the point that the last three or four books in the series I started skimming, and then I got to Emperor of Nihon-Ja and quit a quarter of the way through. xD It was bad.

It is, I feel like one of the issues is that the author doesn’t try anything new, ever, he just keeps repeating the same structure over and over. Which also means he doesn’t really improve.

He once said he doesn’t read in his genre at all so he doesn’t copy and I instantly went “Oh, yeah, figures. No wonder they’re all the same.”

Emperor of Nihon-Ja was my least favorite of all the books, without a single doubt. I often just skip it XD

Some of my cousins love it, and they cajoled me into reading Brotherband. I quite a third of the way through the first book for pretty much everything you said. The characters and plot were top notch boring. Now hopefully several of the people on SE don’t see this post. xD

Yeah, it’s a slow start and the characters never live up to their full potential. It actually… gets worse XD It’s missing the great cast that made Ranger’s Apprentice halfway decent, and it isn’t nearly as funny. It feels like it’s trying too hard.

Was it called the Baker Family Series? I used to read that one way back in the day, it fits that description almost exactly (though I wouldn’t say it was terribly brilliant xD).

No, I’ve never heard of it! It was the Winnie the Horse Gentler series by Dandi Daley Mackall. I’m rather out of the target audience now, it’s squarely MG, but it was well written compared to most other ‘horse stories’ I read. As evidenced by the fact that I remember almost everything about it XD

That sounds very interesting. I looked it up, and it is now on my list. Is it your favorite fantasy series?

I actually don’t know what my favorite is XD I have many favorites XD It’s definitely in the top three! Whenever I read it I get that instant feeling like “That’s it, that’s what I want to write.”

Also! While looking it up yesterday I saw that they finally translated “The Song of Seven” also by Tonke Dragt. It’s different, I’d classify it as urban fantasy, though there isn’t that much fantasy about it.

The basic premise is that an elementary school teacher recieves an answer to a letter he never sent, asking him to come for an interview to tutor a student at the castle-like House of Stairs. And then he finds out about a treasure, a prophecy, and a conspiracy. Hijinks ensue and it’s amazing.

It’s a fairly modern, realistic setting, but like, slightly to the left. Some things about it are just the slightest bit off in an interesting way. The side characters seem to know things that they don’t tell the main character. Some slightly odd things happen without explanation, and things that are objectively kind of weird are just accepted.

Except by the main character, who just arrived in the town and thinks they’re all being very silly and immature.

The main character isn’t that amazing, but he suits the story perfectly, since the whole story is just a little not quite natural and he just… ignores it and rationally explains all of it.

Someone tells him he’s the chosen one and he just ignores it and spends half the book trying to find his textbooks. He’s the prime example of a chosen one who wants nothing to do with it, and it’s hilarious.

However, despite that, he has a lot of agency, in all the wrong directions. It’s kind of hilarious because he’s constantly being pushed in plot directions and going the exact opposite direction and accidentally helping the plot along.

The book has fantastic side characters, they’re vivid and just a little weird and absolutely amazing. I’d read a book about them alone.

The only thing that’s slightly iffy about the book is that there’s a character who staunchly claims that he’s a magician. He never does any kind of magic and it isn’t even implied that magic exists. Every single weird thing he does turns out to be some kind of sleight of hand.

And this is another example of a story that’s structured around a rhyme or a song. This one is a Dutch childrens’ song, the titular Song of Seven. (Zevensprong in Dutch, which literally means a crossroad of seven ways, which also appears in the story)

I remember that there are several instances of childrens’ rhymes used in the story, but I think the translation is fairly good, it’s the same translator as the Letter for the King and she did a great job with the songs last time.

I love that book and I’ve been waiting forever for the translation so I can convince other people to read it.