Thank you, Andre! Thank you very much!
I would say this about Runes of the Earth: it demands of the reader a little of what it demands of Linden Avery.
Runes of the Earth presents an unending series of questions. And each answer to each question, generates 3 more questions. And this goes on for hundreds of pages.
Linden Avery must confront an endless series of questions and find the answers. But the answers are elusive, complicated, frustrating, and hard won.
Well, the author demands a bit of this from the reader. There is no instant gratification here. There is action, but not the sweeping, book-long action of a John Carter novel (I liked the John Carter series; this is simply a different type of writing) Answers require the readers' patience, and like Linden Avery, the reader will find frustration in dealing with the maddening wait for those answers, and the more maddening implications of those answers - that they lead to more questions.
If patience is a virtue (and in the Land, it is) then certainly patience will reward the reader of the Runes of the Earth.
If careful study and earned insight are important (and they are very important in the Land: unearned insight is a disaster there) then studious reading and studied reading of this book pays off for the reader. This is not a book to scan through swiftly, or to practice ones' speed reading on.
If understanding other people, and not rushing to rash judgements is important (and in the Land, they are important) then once again the reader will find the most reward in the rich characters and lush histories given in the book, drawing the reader in until he is living and breathing the Land and the story set within it. But for those who wish a hurry up story with scant attention paid to character development, this book will be a study in frustration.
I ask those who have already read Runes of the Earth (I am up to page 425 in it) if I am not correct?
Edena_of_Neith
