28 March, 2011

Quick Reviews - Tigana and The Passage

It's been far too long since I've read these to really give them a decent review at this point so I'm going to summarize a few things and give the rating I gave them at the time.

(Audiobook) Review - Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay

This was my first taste of Guy Gavriel Kay and I can already say I'm a huge fan and will be reading everything I can possibly get my hands on. If Ken Follett (Pillars of the Earth) wrote fantasy, this would be it. It was amazing, epic, emotional and the audio version was superb. And all in one single volume.

A heartrending tale of country that has been essentially blotted out from not only the present, but from history itself, Tigana [US] [UK] tells the tale of a country whose name has been magically erased from language itself and the people who will do anything to take revenge.

5 out of 5 Stars



Review - The Passage by Justin Cronin

I was a bit reluctant going into this. Cronin has been compared to Stephen King and I've only been hit or miss with said author, but The Passage [US] [UK] delivers. Told in essentially two different stories, the outbreak and then later (stop reading this paragraph if you don't want to know although it's not a huge spoiler) .... an almost entirely new batch of characters dealing with the aftermath.

The first "book" if we are calling it that, is pretty slow and a bit long as it sets up what happens in the second "book." Once into "book" two, though, it is definitely worth the set up.

I look forward to book two in this planned trilogy, The Twelve (and book three, The City of Mirrors).

Interesting note, The Passage movie rights have been purchased (actually even before publication) by Ridley Scott and Fox 2000 and the screenwriter for Gladiator will be working on this.

4 out of 5 Stars

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Would you go see the Passage Movie?

ediFanoB said...

The Passage still rests unread. Comparing it with books by Stephen King did not encourage me since my disappointing reading experience with Under the Dome.
Not sure when I will give The Passage a try ....

Bryce L. said...

@Wighty (hehe) - Definitely. I think it could be an awesome movie. Good if not great book, but I think the movie could be even better.

@Edi - I thought the same thing. I'm one of the very few people who put down The Stand. I couldn't stand it (I'm getting ridiculous with these). :) The Passage was way better imo.