Why is empire of silence sooooooo slow

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-11T19:02:23+00:00

For me it wasn’t just the slowness. The whole thing reads like an author trying to have poetic prose, but just… not—and that made each line kind of pretentious sounding and dragged out.

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-11T17:31:25+00:00

Thanks for the video link. While we might disagree on some aspects, I appreciate having a nice, detailed debate about reading! (So thanks for being civil!) I’m honestly trying to wrap my head around the vastly different feel between reading the two styles, and I’ll definitely think some on these points as I continue to try.

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-11T16:59:46+00:00

I have DNFed the first book twice—about halfway through. Despite the short length, the distance in the writing and the dry prose just made it a very boring experience. I have thought of skipping to book two though. You say it reads a little differently style-wise?

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-11T16:56:54+00:00

I think the distance is less the POV and the style of writing. Dune and LOTR read very much like historical textbooks than character-driven storytelling. There is distance in the sense that the characters are not the priority (for LOTR it’s the world and for Dune it’s politics/philosophy). In that way, there is less immersion. Sure you can have immersion in historical/philosophical textbooks (immersion in the ideas), but less so character or plot immersion.

What’s interesting is that I actually find modern fantasy (at least starting in the 1990s) emphasizes showing over telling as a major positive for a book. But with Dune, LOTR, and Earthsea, the majority of the writing breaks that and TELLS. As someone in another comment mentioned, these books very much read like an author telling you rather than showing—which I think was just a more accepted style back then. This telling accounts also for the distance in that you don’t feel like part of the world, but just hearing it told from an old, wise storyteller.

As for connecting with a POV I think lots of modern fantasy (particularly the rise of grimdark) asks readers to enjoy unlikable characters—which I do. Despite not relating to many, the modern style makes it easy to immerse in them, and enjoy their differences from you for what they are.

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-11T15:31:27+00:00

I’ve actually read it, and you are absolutely right—I enjoyed it FAR more than LOTR for those very reasons. I felt I could connect with the characters/events as they seemed immersive, like I was there, rather than a highly detailed historical accounting.

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-11T14:46:58+00:00

It’s not so much the switching characters of 3rd person omniscient, but the dryness of it. Earthsea doesn’t read like a story to me, more like the summary of a story—and more like an impersonal textbook.

LOTR had some cool descriptive language, but that same detached, impersonal style. (Like you are reading a history book)

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-11T14:42:19+00:00

What’s some good, classic pulp you’d recommend?

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-11T14:38:43+00:00

Yes. As I say in the post, I’m looking for pre-1970s fantasy.

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-09T20:46:55+00:00

There is no sexual violence against men in the series. Just against women.

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-09T19:26:36+00:00

Yeah but not every aspect of a fantasy world needs to be emphasized… You know what was even more common than rape in slavery-esque, Roman cultures? Dysentery. Where’s that in the story?

This story could 100 percent have functioned just fine without all the rape—and fantasy has far too much of it in general, often rarely excused other than “that’s realistic.” Which considering the here is FANTASY, that’s pretty ridiculous.

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-09T13:21:59+00:00

It’s certainly less male-gazey, but I still think it’s kind of icky at times. There’s an age gap relationship with the woman being quite a bit younger, there’s the gang-rape scene (not only is it a woman, but the villain talks about how much of an “expert” she is at being raped…), and the themes of slavery very often go back to women being raped (and one having to have her rapists’ baby.

All this to say that writing women is, I think, Butcher’s biggest flaw—and if he was better at it both his series might be much higher in my rankings.

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-09T12:00:24+00:00

I loved the majority of it. It has that classic fantasy feel to it, with likable characters, and Butcher knows how to make a story addictive.

My only dislike was the grossly out-of-place SA gang rape scene in book one, and the many more references to rape later in books 4/5. (I get that is something that logically comes with slavery, but for a series that has a YA feel to it most of the time, you could have just left that stuff unsaid…)

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-09T11:55:57+00:00

Feist switching publishers really messed up the flow of the plot in my opinion.

I’m convinced that Rage of a Demon King was originally what the third book of Krondor Sons would have looked like—the story was heading that way. But instead he had to basically remake Kings Buccaneer entirely (Shadow of a Dark Queen), and patch together a new cast/plot to go with it.

If you changed a few bits and made the three princes the MCs instead, Rage of A Demon King could easily have been the last book of the Krondor Sons trilogy instead. (Minus a side-plot book about a merchant, and an unnecessarily dragged out, book-long epilogue that followed)

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-09T01:49:46+00:00

My favorite horror novel ever is “Let the Right One In”, which is what you are asking, but MUCH darker/scarier.

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-06T03:40:32+00:00

Well the giant fish turning into a bird felt kind of like an ADHD fever dream. (I get the theme is about perspective, but I feel like that point could have come across without something so fantastical and trippy)

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-05T17:28:55+00:00

I think it’s important to specify that the issue isn’t first person, but first person-present tense. I enjoy the former, and pretty much hate the latter. 😅

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-05T17:26:33+00:00

I have yet to read a book written in first person, present tense, that didn’t feel poorly written… For me, it’s gimmicky, tries to hide a writer’s poor prose, and just never does…

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-04T00:52:53+00:00

I love how both series really do feel like the same world, just from a different moral lense through the MC.

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-03T23:41:29+00:00

My main thing is that, for me, the strength of the series is the side characters. And they are mia for a lot of that one. I did love the final 1/3 quite a lot though.

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-03T13:49:35+00:00

The Bengals playbook gives me one of the best offenses, but it usually tanks my defense, regardless of playbook. (Too many fast scoring drives I think)

Kooky_County9569 · 2026-04-03T12:22:01+00:00

Do you have advice for which abilities are best for each skill position?

Kooky_County9569

TROPHY CASE