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A review by penguin_emperor_of_the_north
Reaper's Gale by Steven Erikson
3.0
I'll be honest, at this point, I'm keeping with this so the Canadians don't win.
But, there were things I definitely enjoyed. The world building is interesting. I liked Silchas Ruin and his story line. Partly because Silchas is operating on concentrated don't give a crap. And Beak's story line tugged at the heart strings (though his backstory was kind of designed for that).
And the Imass are still one of the coolest ideas. Cave men that zombified themselves to exterminate another race? Wow, that is a really unique idea.
But so much stuff is random, disjointed and anticlimactic.
Like Trull's storyline,. It's so anticlimactic that I can't even give a crap. I get random stuff happens in real life but fiction ain't reality. Fiction has to make sense.
Or, there's this storyline where 3 dragon shapeshifters are going to attack a village and Quick Ben, Hedge and company are gearing up to defend it. Which made for a cool fight . . . for the one paragraph it happens in. I keep running into this thing in the books where gods and monsters (and now dragons) are smacked down super easy and it doesn't make me think the person is awesome. It just leaves me thinking a god or dragon in this world ain't very impressive. Because you never see them do something.
Just telling me something is a dragon or whatever ain't enough. Have them do something awesome or have some other character at least be afraid of them. Show me a reason to think someone's a threat around here.
I'll admit, I did like the Awl story line though. The Awl are kind of fantasy counterpart American Indians and the Letheri are fantasy counterpart Americans so there's this story of the Awl fighting for survival. Which was well done, the way the battles between the two armies progressed was interesting especially with the increasing desperation of the Awl.
Then there's the resolution to Karsa and Rhulad's story. There's a thoroughly anticlimactic fight and then. Which seems like it would be important but I was too distracted wondering how the heck that works to consider the importance.
Overall, I'm confused. There's a borderline gushing community talking about how great these books are but I'm always distracted by how dumb some characters are (like Deadhouse Gates or Memories of Ice endings? those were completely unforced errors, or the Bonehunters ending? that's Laseen's screw ups coming home to roost). And it's hard to feel the tragedy when I'm wondering why these people don't all have "I'm stupid" signs.
Finally, a post script, there's a subplot with the Letheri secret police targeting intellectuals because of how pro-freedom they are. Oh you sweet summer child, intellectuals have never had a problem supporting oppressive regimes. The USSR? Red China? medieval Catholicism? everyone has some intellectual ready to explain how they need to kill a few more people till they would have their utopia.
But, there were things I definitely enjoyed. The world building is interesting. I liked Silchas Ruin and his story line. Partly because Silchas is operating on concentrated don't give a crap. And Beak's story line tugged at the heart strings (though his backstory was kind of designed for that).
And the Imass are still one of the coolest ideas. Cave men that zombified themselves to exterminate another race? Wow, that is a really unique idea.
But so much stuff is random, disjointed and anticlimactic.
Like Trull's storyline,
Spoiler
he goes on this whole quest and is able to rejoin his lady love and then dies, just gets stabbed in the back by some jerk he's never metOr, there's this storyline where 3 dragon shapeshifters are going to attack a village and Quick Ben, Hedge and company are gearing up to defend it. Which made for a cool fight . . . for the one paragraph it happens in. I keep running into this thing in the books where gods and monsters (and now dragons) are smacked down super easy and it doesn't make me think the person is awesome. It just leaves me thinking a god or dragon in this world ain't very impressive. Because you never see them do something.
Just telling me something is a dragon or whatever ain't enough. Have them do something awesome or have some other character at least be afraid of them. Show me a reason to think someone's a threat around here.
I'll admit, I did like the Awl story line though. The Awl are kind of fantasy counterpart American Indians and the Letheri are fantasy counterpart Americans so there's this story of the Awl fighting for survival. Which was well done, the way the battles between the two armies progressed was interesting especially with the increasing desperation of the Awl.
Then there's the resolution to Karsa and Rhulad's story. There's a thoroughly anticlimactic fight and then
Spoiler
Samar releases the spirits from her knife which drag Karsa and Rhulad into another realm where Rhulad can be killedOverall, I'm confused. There's a borderline gushing community talking about how great these books are but I'm always distracted by how dumb some characters are (like Deadhouse Gates or Memories of Ice endings? those were completely unforced errors, or the Bonehunters ending? that's Laseen's screw ups coming home to roost). And it's hard to feel the tragedy when I'm wondering why these people don't all have "I'm stupid" signs.
Finally, a post script, there's a subplot with the Letheri secret police targeting intellectuals because of how pro-freedom they are. Oh you sweet summer child, intellectuals have never had a problem supporting oppressive regimes. The USSR? Red China? medieval Catholicism? everyone has some intellectual ready to explain how they need to kill a few more people till they would have their utopia.