Review: Only thing this epic lacks is a strong bad-guy
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 30, 2011
As I sit down to write this review I struggle to find the words to say. But maybe that is the review. Siregar creates a strong world with dynamic (if not slightly plain) characters and an epic war plotline that touches the Gods themselves.However at the end of the day I just didn't feel any of it. In some ways the novel was too well-rounded. We were introduced to all the main characters on both sides of the conflict (which will bring me to anyother criticism soon) we were even allowed snippets of what the God's were up to. So rather than taking the tension up a notch and raising dramatic literary questions really we just have a story that leaves us asking "so whats the actual point of the story"Along these lines a key flaw is the lack of strong antagonist - we have the Black God, but as a said God he doesn't feature as a 'character' per se, and with main characters of both sides of the war its hard to hate anyone. A few bad apples come out towards the end of the novel, but not soon enough to save the dramatic tension.Don't get me wrong, The Black God's War is a well done novel, its just I get the impression that Siregar didn't want to get his hands dirty and thus has created a fantasy novel that ticks all the boxes but fails to hit the x-factor of a good book.