Chapters 1-5, what do you think?

[Overlord]

So, initial thoughts?

The first person narrative is pretty tough to get used to at first!

[Arry]

I had a hard time for about the first 50 pages (5 chapters). It was very slow reading for me, I may have just had too many external distractions here, but I feel like I have adjusted to his writing style and am finally into it, reading at a much faster rate now (I'm on chapter 16)

[Langolin]

Sorry, still waiting for my copy. Damn Darwin and it's remoteness!

[Langolin]

Okay, my book finally turned up, I will get into to it tonight. How is everybody else finding it?

[Arry]

Okay, my book finally turned up, I will get into to it tonight. How is everybody else finding it?

It's a slower read than I thought, very well written, although either there are a lot of esoteric words, or my vocabulary is smaller than I thought it was (OK ... maybe not "a lot", but enough for me to notice)
 I have enjoyed it, but it is not action packed like alot of the books I enjoy. I'll reserve much more than that until there is a topic open where I can post more details for what I have read (no spoilers here).

[Dan D Jones]

It's a slower read than I thought, very well written, although either there are a lot of esoteric words, or my vocabulary is smaller than I thought it was (OK ... maybe not "a lot", but enough for me to notice)

You might find this site useful:

http://www.pannis.com/SFDG/specific-Shadow-2.html

There might be some minor spoilers there but I'm reasonably sure there is nothing significant.  (Don't shoot me if there is!)

[Arry]

You might find this site useful:

http://www.pannis.com/SFDG/specific-Shadow-2.html

I feel better now seeing some has compiled a list, calling the words "excrutiatingly arcane"

[Nighteyes]

Initially this almost feels like reading Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.  The troubled older narrator recalling his youth, and the lessons he learned as a young man from various mentors, but with various foretelling of what is to come.  "It was in this fashion that I began the long journey by which I backed into the throne."

But along the way we have hints that something more clever and extraordinary is happening, read carefully the description of the painting Rudesind the Curator was cleaning

"The picture he was cleaning showed an armored figure in a desolate landscape. It had no weapon but a staff bearing a strange, stiff banner.  The visor of this figure was entirely of gold, without eye slips or ventilation; in its polished surface the deathly desert lay in reflection and nothing more."

Could it be describing this?

[RobJHayes]

Didn't pick up on that but it makes a certain kind of sense. Good spot.

[Arry]

I also thought it was most likely describing that pic

[Idlewilder]

Ok - finally I have gotten around to reading this! And I just blew through a hundred pages in a couple of hours. It took probably 2 chapters for me, and then I was hooked. I've tried reading it a few times before and the 1st chapter just made little sense to me, so I always gave up. But this time I stuck with it and got into it quickly after chapter 2.

I don't actually find his writing style that difficult to get into - it's just different. I do find I have to concentrate fairly hard on everything going on, but only really because I don't want to miss anything. (As I have heard that is fairly easy to do)

And yeah, Hound, I agree that has to be the picture he was talking about.

Read upto the end of Chapter 11. At this rate I'll be through it pretty quickly. 

Curious about this Vodalus fella. Onwards...

[Arry]

I don't actually find his writing style that difficult to get into - it's just different. I do find I have to concentrate fairly hard on everything going on, but only really because I don't want to miss anything. (As I have heard that is fairly easy to do)

This is why i have a hard time reading this one. With two boys ages 7 and 9, i have very small windows where the house is quiet enough for me to concetrate as much as i feel i need to for this book.

[Jeni]

I got to the end of chapter six yesterday. Yay!
I'm getting on with it much better this time round. I didn't actually get the reference to that particular picture although if  I'd seen it more recently I probably would have.
There are a couple of things that have struck me already about this book. The first is the language and style. I don't have a problem reading first person narrative but I think one of the reasons I didn't make the connection  with the picture is that I thought the book had been written a lot earlier than it was. Like, decades earlier - way before any manned space flight happened! But it was written in the 80's!! . Oops  
Also I might be being deliberately thick but does this really mean what it suggests??

Re: The Bear Guild
' at some point in life each brother takes a lioness or bear-sow in marriage, after which he shuns human women '
  

And the whole eating a mouthful of corpse flesh in order to relive the life of the deceased was an unexpectedly gruesome yet strangely fascinating idea.

Yep. Definitely qualifies as weird, lol.

[Arry]

Yes, it is a bit odd/different/weird and strangely intriguing

 And I believe that passage means exactly as it reads

[Tsariloth]

Ah, The Shadow of the Torturer, I loved these books in the late 80's where I picked them up at a used book store. I stole the name Urth for my D&D campaign. Just recently picked up the reprints. The language is strange at times but that is due to the book being an ancient manuscript. The appendix can be helpful and doesn't contain spoilers, if I remember correctly.

<goes to bookshelf, grabs book, starts reading>

Well, maybe the appendix to book one would just confuse you.

Terminus Est-This Is the Line of Division, one of the best named swords of all time.