Review: Not a classic, but good
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 26, 2013
If I had one major complaint about Christopher's writing it would be his inability to stick with one character for an entire book.  This is perhaps the best book of his I have read and like every other I've run into he's constantly switching the focal character.  Part of that is so that he can show events that occur simultaneously on different parts of the planet, but it ends up also allowing him to avoid building any depth to his characters.Here the plot is simple and straightforward.  A military unit is punished for having an honest commander and is sent to a border outpost just before the empire collapses.  They first must pacify the local village (I mean planet) and stop the predations of local barbarians.Interestingly enough the planet is called Avalon, the capital is Camelot, and if you think this could be based on how some historians think the legend of King Arthur is based on the time in Britain just after the Roman's abandoned it, I would actually be inclined to agree that there definitely is a huge element of inspiration from those tales.It works here.  The heroes are almost too good, their equipment makes them almost god-like at times in the battles, but the overall idea is solid and Christopher avoids some of the pitfalls of writing this kind of story.Worth a read.