Review: a bit slow to start, but worth finishing
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 4, 2013
Accurate or not, let me tell you what I expected from this book after reading the description. I thought it would be something like a steampunk version ofThe Fifth Element. You see Selaste would be Leeloo, Rook would be Korben Dallas, and there is even a arcane priesthood whose representatives could have been Vito Cornelius and his apprentice. Ok, so I was a bit off the mark. There is more going on here than in my favourite absurdist Space Opera. For one thing there is a lot of political intrigue. Understanding the numerous religious/political factions at play is imperative to following the storyline. That makes the beginning of the book a little slow. There are a lot of terms and descriptions to get through. But once the story is able to get rolling it is quite interesting.I'll also tell you what my favourite aspect of it was. With a few notable exceptions almost none of the characters are solely black or while or strictly good or evil. There is some serious moral ambiguity here. For example, it's difficult to decide who is really in the wrong between a mother/empress who is sacrificing the happiness someone else by forcing her daughter into an unpleasant arranged marriage that essentially whores her out for the good of the nation, or the daughter who refuses to tolerate the unpleasantness of said marriage in order to save the lives of tens of thousands of people. Both are wrong, but sadly both have seeds right in them too. Or how about the military general who is an unquestionable war monger, but also a staunchly loyal and religious man who thinks he is doing the best thing for the people, avoids involving civilians and never kills more than is necessary to win the battles. I think these grey characters are a real mark of the mature writer Stalbaum must be.All of the main characters, or rather main good guys, are a lot of fun. The banter between them is endless and often really funny. There are also a lot of really good quotables in this book. I highlighted more than a few passages, some because they are astute and some just because they are funny.Now, I did think that there was a fairly severe kink in the timeline. I realise, of course, that this was misdirection on the part of the author rather than an actual breach in consistency. But my brain had a really hard time catching up on the reveal. The flip side of that same statement is that I obviously didn't see that particular twist coming. I liked that. All in all I enjoyed the book. There is a lot of action, some fun characters, and more depth than I expected.