Review: A few flaws, but an enjoyable read!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 27, 2013
Very beautiful stylistic writing, and very well edited. There's some bumpy spots in the pacing and world building, spots that drag on too long, or spots where the unique aspects of the world are not as well articulated as they could be, but the story is very well done, and most aspects of the characters are thoroughly considered and presented.To me, that made the rough spots feel all the more glaring, because the prose was very visual, and so many of the relationships and banter were convincing. There were two romantic subplots, one was very well done, but the other, more central, one felt forced, in comparison. There was less time spent on those two characters' interactions leading up to their romantic involvement. I would have liked to see Blaisdel explore how much of their relationship is originally mistaken for liege loyalty, or a sense of obligation toward someone who has saved your life, or any number of things those characters might consider while falling for each other. The end of that relationship, too, felt abrupt because the conflict between the partners was not articulated very heavily. Some aspects (such as one main character having a child) were, but any actual conflict between those two characters was not, up until the end of the relationship.Andiene's character felt a little one-note to me. All of her vassals were thoroughly characterized, down to personality foibles and arguments, and it made her character feel less considered. It's understandable, from the point of view that she did not grow up around people, to have social niceties, but there's only a few spots in the story where this is actually mentioned, and none of the follow-ups to that (social anxiety, social awkwardness, changes in her conversational voice as she adjusts to group interactions, learning royal behavior or manners from her noble vassals, etc.) I'm sure it won't surprise you to note that Andiene was one of the characters whose unsatisfying romantic involvement I mentioned above.The worldbuilding was visually and culturally very thorough, but there were some confusing points, where I discovered that my understanding of the world was fundamentally flawed. For instance, in the beginning, Ilbran talks about his family spending all of their savings to shelter in someone's cellar for the summer. I did not realize until most of the way through the book that the unsurvivably hot summers were actually a unique worldbuilding element, not simply a realistic note about peasant life. For most of the book, I thought Ilbran's mother's name was Maya, and her last name was Kare, rather than realizing that Maya was her world's word for Mother. There were just some little bumpy spots in the worldbuilding, that could have been smoother.There were many well done elements to The Song of Andiene. It's a very enjoyable reading experience, if you enjoy high fantasy in the realm of Tolkien, Weis, Hickman, and Williams. But it doesn't have the complexity and psychological realism of Williams, the loving enthusiasm and momentum of Weis and Hickman, or the clear worldbuilding of Tolkien. Blaisdel's writing has a lot of potential, and I look forward to reading more of her work. Her characters are, for the most part, well written and characterized. Her prose is flowing and has a beautiful tone for the genre, but is easy to read. The Song of Andiene has a few flaws, but it's overall one of the better fantasy novels I've read.