Review: 3.5 stars, actually, but it has a lot of good points and I recommend it
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 14, 2014
Generally, when I think a book falls somewhere between three stars and four, I have a hard time deciding which way to round. This book deserved the boost to four stars, I think, even though it did have some rough spots.This was...not what I was expecting. Granted, my expectations were doubtless colored by all the truly horrible books that are getting published lately - it seems like even when I find one that's readable, chances are, it's never going to rise above "average."This one did.It actually reminded me more than once of L. E. Modesitt’s Imager Portfolio. I wasn’t sure why either, at first; both books are about artists, but there aren’t many similarities to the stories beyond that. I think I finally figured it out, though: it’s similar in tone, and the tone is a unique one. This is not a book that will raise your heart rate. It’s placid, even when bad stuff is happening. (That changes a bit toward the end, which does get a bit exciting, but for most of the book…) Make no mistake, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. The book did its job in its own calm way, and ultimately, I think John Tristan’s choices in language and cadence were pleasant. He is a skillful writer.The world, too, is a huge success. Tristan doesn’t fall into the pit of overexplaining, and doesn’t leave things too unexplained to be confusing to the reader who’s paying attention, and that balance is full of uniquely interesting stuff. The god-rulers and their magic blood -  and the structure of society in general – were very well done.The characters and the plot I think fell a bit short, which is why I’m not pretending to give this book a solid four star score (or higher). The plot seemed rather rushed, honestly. I can’t believe I’m saying this, since usually I’m in the camp of people who wish authors would stop rambling and tighten things up, but this story would have been perfect if things had been fleshed out more – even as much as splitting the new much-larger book into two volumes. (I’m not sure it would have made a good trilogy, but the beginning and the end are in two clear parts, and could have been worked into a stellar duology.) As it was, we missed out on detail about the beginning while Etan is still on the street, the first uncertain times displaying, the gain in his confidence... A lot happens in the background, too – particularly the politics. Now, I’m of the opinion that badly written political intrigues are worse than none at all, but the structure of the government and the society it ruled was interesting enough that I really do wish it could have been expanded. Had it been, I expect the book would have been rather more thrilling than it ended up.I think the problems with the characters – namely that we readers had to be told of things that happened to change the characters rather than experiencing the growth along with them – was directly related to the rush of the plot. It is too bad, though. Etan goes from a frightened young man to someone rather more confident, but we don’t get to see the transition. The love story happens in the background, too, and while I’m usually the sort to prefer subtlety, we readers really had to take the author’s word for it that there was love brewing; we didn’t get to see the brewing for ourselves. Tallisk went from stern, gruff and unreachable to not without us getting to see his layers being unpeeled. And I would have loved to spend more time with the Count and the other nobility. In general, I think these characters could all have benefited from a little more nuance…which I suspect was only lacking because the framework didn’t have room for it.So. I don’t think enough time or space was given to the story and its characters to make them come alive the way they could have. However. This was still a good story. It could have been an excellent one, I think, but it was still definitely worth reading as-is. I do recommend this, unreservedly, and I’ll be looking for more of this author’s work, for sure.