native wrote:I promised the publishers a review in return for my ARC. Here it is. I'll amend and republish it in the main section here after publication, but I'd welcome the thoughts of those who've already read it in the meantime....
Who is your intended audience? As mentioned repeatedly, most people who haven't already read a book aren't going to appreciate a review talking about who dies and how.
I also feel that your review is as much about you and your guilt for enjoying fantasy writing as it is about the book itself. It's kind of written in a style of "This is way too uncool for anyone to like, and yet I like it anyway despite knowing all its flaws." This makes it appear to lack sincerity and conviction, whether that is actually the case or not.
This book for me is all about women suffering.
I would say that as a Donaldson book, it is about everyone suffering, reader often included
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potterishly called 'She Who Must Not Be Named',
Or maybe Lovecraftianly called such, since Donaldson is more likely to have read Lovecraft than Rowling. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastur
He's always used pretentious vocabulary, [...] What purpose does this curious vocabulary serve?
He has explained in his Gradual Interview that he uses "elevated" (or fine, pretentious) vocabulary on purpose as part of a "High Fantasy narrative style" for this series.
I think at least in part it's to disorientate the reader, to distract from the fundamentally ridiculous genre so that he can try to elevate his writing above it.
If that was your central thesis, I guess I just sunk your battleship.
Esmer, Anele, Liand? Is that it for them? Pretty underwhelming character arcs if so.
I do kind of agree, and I think Esmer in particular will annoy people who found him so fascinating, but on the other hand if every character gets a perfectly rendered arc that climaxes somewhere around the last chapter of the last book, isn't that a little bit contrived too? We have all read series with a main character body count of zero from start to end and I find it greatly diminishes tension. I think authors end up in a no-win situation where if things go as people expect, it's just formula, but if they shake it up, it jars people out of their comfort zone. I guess Esmer, Anele, Liand, and Galt all have to die so that Jeremiah can get his mind back. Is that too much or worth it? I guess we'll find out in three years. But clearly "the hope of the land" was all about Jeremiah. It's hard to render judgment without knowing what is yet to come.
Jeremiah and the Ranyhym are used to take the story forward without any kind of convincing narrative motive or logic or relevance to what else has passed, with Deus ex Machina efficiency.
I would agree that it's curious that the magic horsies knew what to do, but they've been like that ever since the first chronicles when they could tell they were going to get summoned before they were. I don't think SRD has suddenly imbued them with any prescience that is "out of character" with what potential they may have had. He's just using them a bit more as a plot device and I think he kind of has to. In the original chronicles, a few times when something needed to happen an Unfettered One would show up to move things along. He has done this now with a few Insequent but after the fourth one I guess it was time for something else.
I guess one thing worth exploring would be both Linden and Covenant's choice to take care of personal matters / loved ones first. It is sort of covered under "We have 15 different things to worry about right now, where should we begin?" and this is what they do. Does this serendipitously help in solving the larger picture? Is this showing that you can't help others until you get your own house in order? It seems if they were chiefly concerned with the fate of the Land they'd be getting their asses over to Melenkurion Skyweir and figuring out a strategy on the way. I do think they're going to show up in time to face the Worm, and when they do, will these choices prove to have been wise? I am guessing so, since Jeremiah having his mind back is probably going to be key, and not to get all Dungeon Quest but they have some extra white gold now and that might come in handy.
The reason is a good one though. This book has strong psychological undercurrents that are much more important than the plot. If the theme of the first chronicles was that guilt is power, the theme here is that you have to accept the pain of the guilt or face impotence. It’s no co-incidence that most of the male characters are rendered ineffective by their introspective psychological conditions, while the women and the horses make the tough choices.
And yet sometimes the women are indecisive (hi Linden) and sometimes the men are not impotent (the Covenant sausage fest that went off to save/kill Joan, although maybe some of the Feroce were chicks). And if the two main characters don't fit neatly into the theme, the theme may not fit neatly into the review.
One cannot help feeling that the author approves of this peculiarly male paralysis – that he feels it is the only way towards a sane answer in a mad world.
I believe he has written that one of the themes in the earlier Covenant books (and that he does not refute now) is the need to take personal responsibility for a situation, so I would have to disagree with this conjecture.
And yet one hardly cares whether they save the Earth or not in a sense, because it’s all going to end anyway within the next 700 pages. My feeling is that saving the planet would just be too predictable at this point, and simply wouldn’t accommodate the climax of themes that have been set in motion. Donaldson is preaching resolution, acceptance and the perspective of age, not rebirth or redemption. These are after all the last chronicles.
Maybe SRD will also "do something they don't expect." We'll see!
Anyway, hope I wasn't too much of a dick and I might have read you wrong in a few places, but it's late and I'm sure you'll let me know if I've done you wrong. I do like someone taking the material on seriously, and my nature would not allow me to like any book without some qualification myself. But I think the next draft of your review could really kick ass if it lost the spoilers, and the snark. Cheers
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In one scene, where Covenant 'brings her back' from a - lets say - mental breakdown caused by the escape from She-who-must-not-be-named, she is thrown for a loop by the fact that Covenant will not embrace her! She thinks and internally whines about it incessantly even though she should know it is NOT because he has lost his love for her ... but it is to allow him to remain 'in control'. She thinks the worse of his 'rejection' and I felt she should know better!
