vae's review against another edition
4.0
Digital transfer isn't great - looks like it's been done by OCR and some sentences are incomprehensible. Which is a shame because the characters and story are great!
lyndiane's review against another edition
4.0
I struggled to finish this book. Having re-read the first two books in the series to re-visit the stories (I first read them both more than 15 years ago), I was anticipating the same type of complexity.
I was perplexed by the high level of seemingly gratuitous violence; at times it felt overdone and without purpose. I felt that this installment was lacking somewhat in complexity and not up to this talented author's usual standard.
That being said, I will continue with the series because Ms McKenna is certainly worth reading!
I was perplexed by the high level of seemingly gratuitous violence; at times it felt overdone and without purpose. I felt that this installment was lacking somewhat in complexity and not up to this talented author's usual standard.
That being said, I will continue with the series because Ms McKenna is certainly worth reading!
nwhyte's review against another edition
http://nhw.livejournal.com/61786.html[return][return]McKenna's work scores well above the average in at least three respects.[return][return]First, oddly enough, is the fact that the books are clearly rooted in role-playing. (McKenna makes no bones about this in any of her interviews.) It seems to me that this has a fundamental impact on the way the books are structured - you have a campaign, you have to begin it and end it, you have to provide a certain rate of incidence of exciting events, the characters are classified into particular categories (magic-user, warrior, thief) - but this is no bad thing. If the fundamentals of your universe are sound, then that provides a much firmer basis for the story. Elsewhere I've compared McKenna favourably to Raymond E. Feist, and more favourable comparisons follow below.[return][return]Second is the fact that there are no non-human nasties. All of McKenna's villains (and heroes) are people like us. The breadth and variety of human cultures depicted in her world is something I have only seen surpassed by George R.R. Martin (Tolkien loses on this score by having too many Elves, Dwarves and Ents). To this she injects a conflict between two different kinds of magic which are mutually incomprehensible. And population pressures are driving technological and economic change in a fantasy environment. On top of that, as you would hope for from an Oxford graduate in Classics, there is a whole store of knowledge from the ancients waiting to be decoded. Good stuff.[return][return]Third is the sex. McKenna is no Silverberg or Delany (let alone a Jacqueline Carey, whose Kushiel's Avatar is next-but-one on my "to read" list). But it is really refreshing to encounter protagonists who are not young folks going through a rite-of-passage narrative, but people much nearer to my own age, juggling the conflicting needs of a demanding career with the need for a decent home life. OK, so McKenna's characters are battling to save their continent from the evil invader rather than analysing the Balkan Question (like me) or writing best-selling novels (like Juliet). But I still feel a much greater sympathy for them than I do with the protagonists of Eddings' Belgariad (let alone Jordan's woeful Wheel of Time).[return][return]Anyway, The Gambler's Fortune is a worthy third book in the series, and I'll be looking out for the others.
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