How did you like the beginning?

Discuss the November 2016 Book of the Month, Roan: The Tales Of Conor Archer by E. R. Barr.
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kimmyschemy06
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Re: How did you like the beginning?

Post by kimmyschemy06 »

The beginning piqued my interest. I had to know who's the friend and who's the foe: the guy who bit Conor or the strange woman who bound his injured hand? Of course, the woman at the fountain was interesting enough as she was :)
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Post by Ripley3131 »

It was the intriguing possibilities of the storyline that hooked me. I enjoy reading books that have a bit of a bizarre edge, and right way it was easy to see that Roan was going to be mysterious and strange. In the beginning I could only hope that the author would come through for me and pull off what had begun to shape up as a complicated and engrossing story.
E.R. Barr had set the bar high on my expectation scale from the beginning, and this can sometimes back fire if the remainder of the tale does not fulfill. I'm at 81% complete at this time and do believe that he has followed through with the very promising beginning.
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Post by jamesabr »

I was intrigued by the use of Rory as an early catalyst to the progression of the plot. Just Rory's overall appearance of mystery at the DerryAir and later dialogue in the first chapter captured my attention, because it was different from other Hero Journey beginnings that I have read. Rory's purpose was a little unclear to me in the beginning, but as I kept reading, the uncertainty went away.

Overall, it was a good start to the story. :)
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Post by va2016 »

Browsing through it quickly, I think the beginning
is a bit slow. I don't know if others felt it too.
Thanks for asking.
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Post by cjohns105 »

The image of the woman in the fountain changing form throughout the scene was really well done. I think that part alone made me continue on to see what kind of world Conor was getting into at the time.

The first scene that we all see, with Walter Johnson, was also very fun to read. I have been to that area of the country before, so I was able to make up a fairly realistic picture in my head as the mists were creeping down the river. The bar scene later was a surprise, and only served to intrigue me further.
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Post by dosenron877 »

What do you think? When did you become engrossed in the story?
I was hooked by the story from the beginning when Walter made it to the willows and the Piasa was not able to follow. Since we knew the willows were on Indian burial grounds, I felt that the story would take interesting turns on several levels. Then the story switched to modern times but with Irish mythology under scrutiny. I wanted to see how an author could tie all this together.
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Post by Thimble »

I found the beginning intriguing, but also an omen of things to come (bad decisions). I was mostly just frustrated as the book went along and had to stop reading, but that's a different topic.
"You can never leave footprints that last if you are always walking on tiptoe." - Leymah Gbowee
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