Rach's Reading Club

I don't think listening to The Talisman first would have helped. It was mainly the narration style and the fact that I had to listen to 44 minutes of description before being introduced to a character I realized mattered. Not to mention, the amount of description, to me, it was too much, but especially in the beginning. There as a fair amount of call back to the other book that I didn't notice until later on in the book, but I think it didn't cause me to be lost, though maybe I would have caught on sooner if I'd read the 1st one. But maybe that would have killed some of the suspense, though it likely would have improved the enjoyability of other aspects. I also don't care for 1+ hr-long chapters. There were 12 chapters over an hour. Ugh! Let me have a break! I mean, I definitely stopped in the middle of a chapter plenty of times, but still, I prefer shorter chapters.

Are you sure he hasn't just mutated his style into something we don't like? Or maybe his early books were when he was writing for the reader, then he saw the advice to write the book you want to read and he just has different taste in books from us. Or maybe with his big name, his editors are too intimidated to edit him much now. I did like a book of his short stories, though. I can't say I loved it, but I didn't regret the time spent listening to it.

Thanks for listening to some of his good books, in case I'm ever in a situation where I "have" to listen to one.