The wily Jeff, scribe over at Fantasy Book News & Reviews, has been preying on my noble spirit, issuing me a Gentleman’s Challenge with regards to my review of The Ten Thousand by Paul Kearney.
What I want to do is propose a challenge to Aidan: If you will read the rest of The Ten Thousand…I will read and review a book of your choice. I know you might not want to revisit that book, given the discussion around your review, and your recent comments about being burned out a bit on epic fantasy. But I thought I would try this gentlemen’s challenge anyway :)
The reason I wanted to ask you to read the rest of it, is that i had the EXACT SAME opinion as you (seriously) for the first 1/3 or so of the novel. The entire book changes right after the point where you left off reading.
Being a gentleman myself, there was no reasonable way to refuse! His opinion of the first half of The Ten Thousand was eerily similar to mine, but the second half was enough for him to name it his favourite novel so far this year. Big words indeed.
In exchange for finishing The Ten Thousand, my novel of choice for Jeff to read (provided he hasn’t already) is Greg Keyes’ The Briar King. Keyes’ is, in my opinion, easily the most under-read author in Epic Fantasy and I’ll take any chance I can get to spread the word!
Challenge accepted, Jeff! The Ten Thousand will make it into the pile of books I’ll be stuffing in my backpack next week and we’ll see if it holds more water with me this time!
Hey Aidan..thanks for accepting the challenge with the same good humor in which it was offered. I honestly wouldn’t have done it if our views of the early part of the book werent so similiar. And the fact that I think you stopped right before the book really took off. Since we both like Coe and Keyes (among others I found on your good reads list) and seem to have similar tastes, I thought you might like the 2nd half of The Ten Thousand. Now I’m hoping you at least find it worth finishing, so I don’t look like a dufus :)
I actually read all 4 of the Keyes books and thought they were fantastic. I have been threatening to re-read The Lon Tobyn Chronicle to give some love to Coe, and I think you were working on an interview with him? If so, I could read Children of Amarid to go along with your interview (i have 2-3 books I need to read first, though). Or you can pick something else, since I shouldn’t get to choose the book I have to read.
Hi Aidan and Jeff,
thank you Jeff for the challenge and thank you Aidan for accepting.
I ordered “The Briar King” yesterday. And I’m really nosy on your review Aidan.
I think this challange is a very nice idea, and I’m curious to read what your opinion will be, Aidan, since I found your first reviw honest and clear.
Still I’m very curious to read THE TEN THOUSEND… and I’ll have to wait :-(
It has not been translated into Italian, so I’ll have to wait my trip to London to get hold of it, I guess.