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[stopthattime_rave]

Can''t forget ANY PART OF IT.. OMFG.. It is PERFECT.. :33
((Making up my own TROLLISH FORM OF TYPING.. DON''T ask why.. I just WANTED TO, okay??))

[Daft_Prince]

Also, I'm surprised I haven't seen any fanfiction that tries to explaint that particular image.

Nevermind, someone has. One of my favourite fanfictioners in fact, Middy Miles.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7732511/4/A_Bit_of_Tailoring

[Daft_Prince]

Anyway, just finished Specials. Unfortunately Extras isn't on the Kindle store so I don't have it yet. From the preview chapter I've read it seems to be a seperate story (correct me if I'm wrong) so I think I can safely talk about the Uglies series.
So, the big questions:
Is it good?
Yes!
Is it as good as Leviathan?
No!
Why?
The structure of Leviathan was simpler and more powerful than Uglies. Leviathan held the ending 'goal' constant through the whole series (Alek's ascent to the throne and stopping the war), but also spent the whole time secretly building and making Alek realise another 'goal' (Alek and Deryn being in love, Alek's realisation about his destiny in the Tokyo scene is a great example). Then it brought the new goal and the old goal together at the climax (think 'smoke bomb', 'Tesla' and 'walking stick') and let the new goal compeletely take over in a sudden epiphany for the final chapter ("meteoric!") (Now that I look back I realise this was mostly the structure for Alek in Goliath, I consider Leviathan to be setup and Behemoth to be more about Deryn). I remember when I read the final chapter I didn't expect Alek's decision until the very line it happened; I thought he would simply have to leave Deryn with a dissapointing ending. My mind was blank with the raw emotion that the ending conjured up.
The first book of Uglies was handling this very well for a while, but after a while the story had to move away from this structure in order to continue, and it got very complicated. The ending wasn't a surprise realisation because I had no idea what Tally's ambition was leading up to it. That's not to say it wasn't powerful, just that it wasn't supported by the entire series like Leviathan.
Put simply, compared to Leviathan's intelligently and powerfully structured story, Uglies often felt like a sequence of random events, like Westerfeld was making it up as he wrote.

That's not to say that Uglies is bad, it certainly kept me engaged. In fact you can probabely taste the sheer joy I felt when writing about Leviathan, and you'll realise I mostly just want to reinforce that Leviathan is pure dead brilliant.

[Daft_Prince]

Wow, that was almost 400 words, if only homework could be so enjoyable.

[gavinfuzzy]

Wow, that was almost 400 words, if only homework could be so enjoyable.

Thanks for reminding me... i still have a 500 word essay to write on how to plot my zodiac constellation on graph paper. 

Also, I'm not done with the Leviathan trillogy (halfway through Goliath), but books of the steampunk genre are at the top of my list, nothing comes close to beating it, except Dan Brown's novels, which are all fantastic in their own way. 

[Daft_Prince]

That sounds like a really weird topic for an essay.
I hope you appreciate the way I de-spoilered that post by making all the plot points into subtle hints instead of outright saying them.
But seriously, I would be careful about being on these forums before you've finished reading.

[gavinfuzzy]

That sounds like a really weird topic for an essay.
I hope you appreciate the way I de-spoilered that post by making all the plot points into subtle hints instead of outright saying them.
But seriously, I would be careful about being on these forums before you've finished reading.

Well, i saw the last picture of the book, flipped to the end once Goliath came in from Amazon I have a vague idea where this is going, but i've still got half a book to read before i know the read ending... 

This is the longest time I've ever taken to read a book, usually I'm done by 3 days tops.

[Daft_Prince]

I wrote 400 words on a whim and nobody has replied in the last 15¹/₂ hours?
This is unnacceptable!

*Is only pretending to care, yet still subtly bumped the thread to the top of the list*

[Bramblepool]

Yeah.  Very subtle.

[Luna Lovegood]

Anyway, just finished Specials. Unfortunately Extras isn't on the Kindle store so I don't have it yet. From the preview chapter I've read it seems to be a seperate story (correct me if I'm wrong) so I think I can safely talk about the Uglies series.
So, the big questions:
Is it good?
Yes!
Is it as good as Leviathan?
No!
Why?
The structure of Leviathan was simpler and more powerful than Uglies. Leviathan held the ending 'goal' constant through the whole series (Alek's ascent to the throne and stopping the war), but also spent the whole time secretly building and making Alek realise another 'goal' (Alek and Deryn being in love, Alek's realisation about his destiny in the Tokyo scene is a great example). Then it brought the new goal and the old goal together at the climax (think 'smoke bomb', 'Tesla' and 'walking stick') and let the new goal compeletely take over in a sudden epiphany for the final chapter ("meteoric!") (Now that I look back I realise this was mostly the structure for Alek in Goliath, I consider Leviathan to be setup and Behemoth to be more about Deryn). I remember when I read the final chapter I didn't expect Alek's decision until the very line it happened; I thought he would simply have to leave Deryn with a dissapointing ending. My mind was blank with the raw emotion that the ending conjured up.
The first book of Uglies was handling this very well for a while, but after a while the story had to move away from this structure in order to continue, and it got very complicated. The ending wasn't a surprise realisation because I had no idea what Tally's ambition was leading up to it. That's not to say it wasn't powerful, just that it wasn't supported by the entire series like Leviathan.
Put simply, compared to Leviathan's intelligently and powerfully structured story, Uglies often felt like a sequence of random events, like Westerfeld was making it up as he wrote.

That's not to say that Uglies is bad, it certainly kept me engaged. In fact you can probabely taste the sheer joy I felt when writing about Leviathan, and you'll realise I mostly just want to reinforce that Leviathan is pure dead brilliant.

I love you! that's exactly how I feel!

[Anchorgurl1]

Anyway, just finished Specials. Unfortunately Extras isn't on the Kindle store so I don't have it yet. From the preview chapter I've read it seems to be a seperate story (correct me if I'm wrong) so I think I can safely talk about the Uglies series.
So, the big questions:
Is it good?
Yes!
Is it as good as Leviathan?
No!
Why?
The structure of Leviathan was simpler and more powerful than Uglies. Leviathan held the ending 'goal' constant through the whole series (Alek's ascent to the throne and stopping the war), but also spent the whole time secretly building and making Alek realise another 'goal' (Alek and Deryn being in love, Alek's realisation about his destiny in the Tokyo scene is a great example). Then it brought the new goal and the old goal together at the climax (think 'smoke bomb', 'Tesla' and 'walking stick') and let the new goal compeletely take over in a sudden epiphany for the final chapter ("meteoric!") (Now that I look back I realise this was mostly the structure for Alek in Goliath, I consider Leviathan to be setup and Behemoth to be more about Deryn). I remember when I read the final chapter I didn't expect Alek's decision until the very line it happened; I thought he would simply have to leave Deryn with a dissapointing ending. My mind was blank with the raw emotion that the ending conjured up.
The first book of Uglies was handling this very well for a while, but after a while the story had to move away from this structure in order to continue, and it got very complicated. The ending wasn't a surprise realisation because I had no idea what Tally's ambition was leading up to it. That's not to say it wasn't powerful, just that it wasn't supported by the entire series like Leviathan.
Put simply, compared to Leviathan's intelligently and powerfully structured story, Uglies often felt like a sequence of random events, like Westerfeld was making it up as he wrote.

That's not to say that Uglies is bad, it certainly kept me engaged. In fact you can probabely taste the sheer joy I felt when writing about Leviathan, and you'll realise I mostly just want to reinforce that Leviathan is pure dead brilliant.

I love you! that's exactly how I feel!

I love all of you!!! That's how I see it too!

[gavinfuzzy]

Anyway, just finished Specials. Unfortunately Extras isn't on the Kindle store so I don't have it yet. From the preview chapter I've read it seems to be a seperate story (correct me if I'm wrong) so I think I can safely talk about the Uglies series.
So, the big questions:
Is it good?
Yes!
Is it as good as Leviathan?
No!
Why?
The structure of Leviathan was simpler and more powerful than Uglies. Leviathan held the ending 'goal' constant through the whole series (Alek's ascent to the throne and stopping the war), but also spent the whole time secretly building and making Alek realise another 'goal' (Alek and Deryn being in love, Alek's realisation about his destiny in the Tokyo scene is a great example). Then it brought the new goal and the old goal together at the climax (think 'smoke bomb', 'Tesla' and 'walking stick') and let the new goal compeletely take over in a sudden epiphany for the final chapter ("meteoric!") (Now that I look back I realise this was mostly the structure for Alek in Goliath, I consider Leviathan to be setup and Behemoth to be more about Deryn). I remember when I read the final chapter I didn't expect Alek's decision until the very line it happened; I thought he would simply have to leave Deryn with a dissapointing ending. My mind was blank with the raw emotion that the ending conjured up.
The first book of Uglies was handling this very well for a while, but after a while the story had to move away from this structure in order to continue, and it got very complicated. The ending wasn't a surprise realisation because I had no idea what Tally's ambition was leading up to it. That's not to say it wasn't powerful, just that it wasn't supported by the entire series like Leviathan.
Put simply, compared to Leviathan's intelligently and powerfully structured story, Uglies often felt like a sequence of random events, like Westerfeld was making it up as he wrote.

That's not to say that Uglies is bad, it certainly kept me engaged. In fact you can probabely taste the sheer joy I felt when writing about Leviathan, and you'll realise I mostly just want to reinforce that Leviathan is pure dead brilliant.

I love you! that's exactly how I feel!

I love all of you!!! That's how I see it too!

Well, Leviathan is one of the only books i read that alternate between the 1st person views of 2 characters, and of 2 gender, which make it all that more interesting, hearing the story from 2 perspectives, and yet they come together at times and it flows real smoothly. So... props to that.

I have not read Uglies... I would try to read the series before the movie comes out in November... (If it ever shows in my country). So no comparison here.

But overall, I love steampunk books, so naturally i find it a great book, one of the bests.

[Daft_Prince]

Ha! See, now people are replying!
FAKE SUBTLETY WORKS!

[stopthattime_rave]

Ha! See, now people are replying!
FAKE SUBTLETY WORKS!

That it does, my dear daft prince, that it does. :33
And I think that explanation was rather awesome, aye. :33

[Daft_Prince]

Ha! See, now people are replying!
FAKE SUBTLETY WORKS!

That it does, my dear daft prince, that it does. :33
And I think that explanation was rather awesome, aye. :33

Thank you for the compliment.
Leviathan was a kind of turning point for me when I realised all those english teachers and other intellectuals might have been right when they said that a good story is carried by the emotions of its characters rather than the scale of its events. I also learnt that romance can actually be really good if done well.