Frieda A. Murray

I've read this a few times over the years. It has been one that I considered giving 4 and a half stars out of five, but now, I am down a bit on that. I purchased this and read it when it was first released, and the man I was at 23 to the man I am now at 50 sees things in a different way.

There is action, and there is warfare, but it is handled poorly. There is intrigue and there are politics, and the mistake that David Weber has begun to make, is foretold here.

First the action. We open with a secondary character, who is much more interesting than the hero of the piece, being set upon.

That is action (and this is a spoiler) He is set upon by children, barely teenagers. We are shown that this is because the armed men of the area have gone to the capitol for the king is dying and who shall succeed him is a question. That is the politics, that is good.

But the action ended quick. Then there is warfare. An enemy that often causes problems is coming, near the end of the book where the battles are rushed and the hero is not threatened or involved. His henchmen are, but not he. So why have a hero?

And more maps would have helped. There are two, but that is not enough for all that is shown to be happening.

So then where does the mistakes of Weber come about. Naming. We have a mythical, magical ancient arabic type of land, and these names become convoluted enough that they are confusing and slow the pace of the reading down. Give me one or two that I will learn to think of, but not so many that they stop me far too often.

From a four and half to a three and half I think as the years have passed. Further, this was to be a 3 book series, and the other 2 never came out. Green is still around and with the aid of the internet, surely he could wrap up the tale, yet I expect that the plot tied itself into knots, and the other faults in the story could not be undone.

There were even some gaffes of interpersonal, man to woman issues that took pages to smooth over that probably would not have come up at all in a world that had been crafted. The magic as well seems to be problematical as the enemy have it but we don't see our friends using it. I think that I have read it enough times now, that I shall never read it again unless those other two books appear.… (altro)