Many Partings

Whew! I finally finished the tome I have been reading for the past several weeks (months?) and now I'm really sorry it's over. Again.

This was the second time I've read the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series, The Dragonbone Chair, The Stone of Farewell and To Green Angel Tower, by Tad Williams. I had first read the books back in 1993 and had been lucky enough to have just finished the second book as the third, and final, was published. Since that time, I had forgotten what an undertaking it was/is. The first two novels are roughly 750 pages with the third being 1066, in hardbound. In fact, the third book was so massive, when it was published in paperback it was released in two volumes because it couldn't have been bound as a single book in paper which, unfortunately, meant that the people who waited for the paperback edition had to spend almost as much money, buying two books, as the people who sprang for the hardbound edition.

The story is a wonderfully expansive and detailed fantasy populated with many of the elements that have become staples in the fantasy genre, however, that is not to say that this story doesn't contain it's own inventiveness as well as some creative plot twists and involving characters.

I'm writing this as a marking of an event more so than a recommendation, even though I do recommend the series to anyone who likes fantasy. It doesn't demand a lot from the reader (except time) and it is a worthy place to wander off to and while it is much more "grownup" than many fantasy novels, it fails to invoke (at least, in me) that wrapped in a comfy blanket next to a fire on a cold day feeling that comes with reading The Lord of the Rings. But that's just me. Tad Williams is a fine writer and I fully intend to explore more of his work in the future as well as probably reading this series again several years from now. Hopefully.