[Kirsty Wood]

Hell, a lot of the stories could be bound into a single book and sold, Dance in Fire for one.

[Josee Leach]

Hell, a lot of the stories could be bound into a single book and sold, Dance in Fire for one.

i'd buy an anthology of short stories from the game. much easier to have than having to read them in-game or on the imperial library website

[Miranda Taylor]

I think you need your sarcasm-o-meter and joke-o-meter re-calibrated. I was just being a bit silly - didn't translate too well via a purely text message, it seems.

The irony went right over my head too. I think we will see the adventurers interacting with "NPCs" in the novel(s), as well as growing in their abilities. "The Briar King" had a scholar/mage who increases his powers permanently after undergoing a pilgrimage, a paladin-type character becomes more capable, and a middle-aged ranger (or "hoster") shows himself to be a seasoned fighter. Each of the main characters is shown as mortal rather than some uber fantasy-figure, though they do increase in power over the course of the series.

[Johnny]

There should be a book with everything from the imperial library now that would be a good read.

[Bethany Watkin]

EDIT: Re-read the post the morning after & decided to clean it up.

[Dalton Greynolds]

Redsrock, I see you have read the entire novel, and I see you have found it wanting. Thank you for that. It has saved me a trip to the library.

Actually, you misunderstood him. He hasn't read the whole book. In fact, the one person who has read the novel said that it was good. (I can't remember his exact words, sorry. It was two or three threads back from here.)

[Chris Guerin]

Actually, you misunderstood him. He hasn't read the whole book. In fact, the one person who has read the novel said that it was good. (I can't remember his exact words, sorry. It was two or three threads back from here.)

He hasn't read the whole book.

Redsrock read some of it?

[Yonah]

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780345508010&view=excerpt

[ZzZz]

I haven't read the entire thing. I've already stated that once. I finished reading the excerpt is all, and no, I did not like it.

[Caroline flitcroft]

It is good enough for me. It seems the new "Emperor" is just a guy trying to rebuild the Empire and does not control a large part of Tamriel yet. The provinces apparently are on their own. The characters were likable so far and the tidbits about the state of Tamriel were nice enough for just a few pages.

[snip]

[Cccurly]

flying city make by his shadow people undead?

"Blackstar Season 1, Episode 13: The Zombie Masters"

-look carefully may suggest spoiler for future tes novel

[sophie]

I still don't quite understand why you didn't like it. You mentioned something about the characters being shallow or something like that. I found the exact opposite. It had to introduce the characters like that for you to understand the personality of each of them. It didn't have to do some stupid huge chapter long anolysis of them, their past, and what they looked like and their favorite Godzilla movie.

[Lalla Vu]

I still don't quite understand why you didn't like it. You mentioned something about the characters being shallow or something like that.

Umm... I don't believe I said anything about the characters. I could be wrong, though. What I don't like is the writing in general. It's not very good.

[jessica sonny]

It'll only resemble a mad man's rant about why the sky is blue and that it's a lie.

Hold on here. You're telling me... It's NOT a lie? :ahhh:

[Crystal Clear]

What I don't like is the writing in general. It's not very good.

To clarify: it is about the same level of quality as a Forgotten Realms novel.

[Oceavision]

Some of us whine because we don't like the writing. What's more annoying is people whining about us whining. Seriously... get off our balls. Some of us aren't going to be fanmen and act like it's a work of God. I don't like it, and I've stated why. Stop [censored]ing and just deal with it.

Deal with NINE pages of whining, emo egotrips and calling anyone that actually liked it enough and do not agree with you a "fanman"? Sorry, can't do that.

[Ricky Rayner]

The excerpt was not one of the best things I ever read, but it is readable enough for me to get the book.
True, the writing style svcks, but it seems to me as if he didn't really have so much time to write the novels (often, there is a limited time you have to write the novel) with having to explore the lore and play the games before/while writing (both tasks being very time-consuming). Thus, the writing style may be better on more important scenes (and chapter 1 certainly doesn't have such important scenes) as those would be worth spending more time then unimportant ones. So, lets see how those scenes are handled and how the story itself looks like before attacking him in this field as I find it hard to believe that an author with so much experience would make such mistakes without a good reason.

But what I really liked in what I read is the fact that I got the impression that he did play the games, if at least a little bit. Overestimating Chameleon and thinking that it is the same as invisibility and making that slowfalling mistake looks like something a new TES player would make (just what the two characters here are: new adventurers still not skillful enough in "playing the game").
You may argue that the argonian didn't really sound as an argonian, but quite frankly that is something only a TES veteran would notice... or care so much about. Even the in-game books made by devs are not always flaw-less.

[Timara White]

You may argue that the argonian didn't really sound as an argonian, but quite frankly that is something only a TES veteran would notice... or care so much about. Even the in-game books made by devs are not always flaw-less.

Not to mention there are likely socio-political forces at work that are influencing the character of Meer-Glim, to where if he sounded like a lizard straight out of the marsh, things would be off-kilter.


The character isn't that old, about the same age as Anniag. Further, the both of them are being raised in what used to be an Imperial-affected city, until recent times. And though it appears that Imperial control of the city disappeared early in their childhood, it was a city of the Empire for a long stretch before that. That kind of influence just doesn't flick off like a lightswitch. It lingers and takes a log time to fully be eradicated by the new presence. So, with that, why should we expect him to "sound Argonian?" And what does that even mean, to sound Argonian? Should we expect him to talk in 3rd person and speak as though he just crawled out of the deepest marshes where the Hist live? Or should we expect him to have subtle Imperialized traits and mannerisms, because it would make sense for the area and timeframe he is currently in, as well as the people he's long associated with?

Further, I found this line

He wiggled the fingers of both hands as if trying to shake something sticky off them, a peculiarly Lilmothian expression of agitation. The membranes between his digits shone translucent green. “Have you been reading again?”

He made it sound like an accusation, as if “reading” was another way of referring to, say, infanticide.

to be of particular interest in the characterization. Aside from lilmotian gesture of agitation, the line about reading reveals some things:
1) It further accents his distaste for heroism and attempting to change things, since books are Anniag's fuel for that fire, and
2) It gives a lot more credence to a train of thought that Argonians have little use for books or writing, and that their language is dynamic and structurally different from all others. Of course, the http://www.monkeytruth.net/texts/histexploration.shtml is hardly canon, but it is interesting nonetheless and based loosely on interpretations of canon work and sources. Reading would be something useless, distasteful. Why should a word mean one thing, when a word can mean all things?

[Tarka]

Also, we don't know for certain that Annaig and Glim are talking in Cyrodiilic to each other. Maybe they're speaking in Hist. If I were Keyes, I would mention that, though somehow I doubt it's the case.

[Curveballs On Phoenix]

Using the games as a base, we do not see much difference among the races in the way they speak. Only their accent is basically different. The most interesting way of speaking are the Khajiit one and even so not all of them talk in a way that can be considered exotic.

So, yes it will be interesting to see some cats talking in 3rd person but in text the differences are less noticeable. Not all Altmer are polite soft speakers and not all Argonians talk funny. My 2c.

About the book thing mentioned above, in the Argonian Account series it is mentioned that all books sent to Black Marsh were stolen by the Argonians when the schools/Libraries were abandoned. Made of that what you will.

[Rude Gurl]

Why should a word mean one thing, when a word can mean all things?

Because you wouldn't be communicating then, you'd be making nonsense.

[Sammygirl500]

Using the games as a base, we do not see much difference among the races in the way they speak. Only their accent is basically different. The most interesting way of speaking are the Khajiit one and even so not all of them talk in a way that can be considered exotic.

I expect (in Cyrodiil, atleast) that numerous Khajiit would speak without accent.
Unless there's some sort of lore saying the contrary. Which is quite possible.

[darnell waddington]

About the book thing mentioned above, in the Argonian Account series it is mentioned that all books sent to Black Marsh were stolen by the Argonians when the schools/Libraries were abandoned. Made of that what you will.

Hm. I forgot about that. Well, were they stolen for literary value, for monetary value, or perhaps even for the purpose of destroying them?

Because you wouldn't be communicating then, you'd be making nonsense.

Nonsense to you and I. Sensible communication to them.

[Kelly Upshall]

Up and down and up and down and up and down. And up is where we're at now, thank God.

Argonian Account suggests that some Argonian tribesmen used the books to teach themselves to read. (ABCs for barbarians was apparently in the pile).

Everything stated as a reason to like or dislike the book so far has been matters of personal taste it seems. I guess, since the only way we'll know about glaring lore errors is reading the whole thing, the only real, concrete way to kill this book dead is to wait until it comes out and ask someone who read it before handing Bethesda your money. So far, it's been like/dislike the characters or like/dislike the writing style, both of which are very subjective. For example, I think the writing style is pretty good (not flawless, but pretty good) and the characters are likable and fairly well fleshed for the 1st chapter, and several people I respect (Like D.Foxy and Reds) disagree. Whoop dee [censored] doo. And who knows, maybe when the book comes out they'll love the whole thing and I'll hate it. Who knows?

[jessica sonny]

People always seem very willing to pass quick judgements. This is a few pages from a large book; there are many cases were it takes time to get into the book, the the writing style to mesh with the person.

I dont think I will like this but, but I can't say I do not like this book because I havent read it.