I finished re-reading the Coldfire Trilogy last night. I have reversed my stance on the end of book 3. I am not only no longer bitterly disappointed with it, but while I still think I probably wouldn’t have written it that way myself, I suspect that it is in fact the best possible ending for the series. I suspect that if I had written it, and not written it that way, I would have been making a mistake.
I also suspect I didn’t read it very carefully the first time I read it (a decade ago?) because it makes a *whole* lot more sense to me now than it did then. The last third of the book, in fact, is a great deal more clear to me. I’m not going to go in to any more detail about it, because they books are *way* too good to spoil. If people want to talk about ’em, email me. (I will in fact delete any spoiler-like comments with prejudice!)
Anyway, the whole re-read spawned this conversation this morning:
Catie says “How’re you? :)”
Sarah is pretty good. How’re you?
Catie says “Vacillating wildly between great cheer and terrible despair. :)”
Sarah says “Writing again, I see.”
Catie laughs out loud.
Catie says “Worse than that. I finished re-reading the Coldfire trilogy last night. :)”
Sarah says “Well, see, there’s your trouble.”
:)
Tangential post: Questions for you.
1. What would make you put down the pen, or step away from the keyboard, and make you never write another word in your life. Is there anything?
2. Who’s the better kisser, Gambit or Wolverine? :) Purely speculation, of course. We all know they’re not real.
3. Just how much *is* Legion worth? Did you ever decide whether there was a number large enough that would make you wash your hands of creative control?
4. Reincarnation exists. You’ve lived past lives. Who have you been in ages past that has most shaped the person that you are now.
5. What’s the one question you never want to get asked in author interviews? Not because it’s been asked a million times, i.e. how’d you get your start, but because it’d chase readers away?
Thank you for fending off spoilers….Since I’m about to embark on reading them for the first time, and since both you and the Laura-Monster enjoyed them so much, I am looking forward to the books…
I’m generally resentful of spoilers about contemporary books, but in this particular case it’d be criminal. *Criminal*. *nodnod*
I agree, which is why I won’t tell you that in the end… ;)
Good books. I’m still on book two, having been forced to devote my tiime to dull, and equationy papers about hierarchical models instead. They, unlike those books, have NO character development to speak of (I feel no attachment whatsoever to Gamma or its buddy Tau) and a very predictable ending. *shakes head in dispair*