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A review by topdragon
The Jaguar Knights by Dave Duncan
2.0
I had just read a couple of very serious novels as well as one very horrifying short story all in a row and I had felt the need for some lighter-themed fantasy reading. I selected Dave Duncan's Jaguar Knights to fulfill that need, but unfortunately I needed to keep looking. This is the final book in his King's Blades series. I actually wrote him an e-mail about a month ago to see if he planned to write any more in the series and he replied with "unfortunately no." They were produced by a publisher that he no longer deals with; the contract is complete and he has moved on to other things.
Have you ever started reading a novel while in a distracted state? And then it never really pulls you in because you've really only been reading on the surface and by the time you are ready to focus you are already half way through it. This happened to me this time. I had a tough week and weekend and so my attention seemed to be elsewhere when I read this novel. Someday I may well go back and read it again because I believe it is probably a much better book than I actually experienced.
The plot is a bit different than others in the Blades series. This time the protagonist isn't nearly as likeable as the other times so perhaps that contributed to my ho-hum feelings about the entire book. The plot seemed a little disjointed as well with several distinctly different subplots trying to interact. The result seemed more like several short stories being told at the same time. To compound that problem, a large chunk of the story is told from the secondary character's point of view, the hapless younger brother of the main protagonist. It is he that encounters the Aztec-like civilization of the Jaguars, actually morphing into a cat-creature after a magical pendant is hung around his neck. To top it all off, the ending was sad. I got the distinct feeling while reading this book that Mr Duncan was merely fulfilling the last requirements of the contract rather than offering a polished work of fantasy.
Have you ever started reading a novel while in a distracted state? And then it never really pulls you in because you've really only been reading on the surface and by the time you are ready to focus you are already half way through it. This happened to me this time. I had a tough week and weekend and so my attention seemed to be elsewhere when I read this novel. Someday I may well go back and read it again because I believe it is probably a much better book than I actually experienced.
The plot is a bit different than others in the Blades series. This time the protagonist isn't nearly as likeable as the other times so perhaps that contributed to my ho-hum feelings about the entire book. The plot seemed a little disjointed as well with several distinctly different subplots trying to interact. The result seemed more like several short stories being told at the same time. To compound that problem, a large chunk of the story is told from the secondary character's point of view, the hapless younger brother of the main protagonist. It is he that encounters the Aztec-like civilization of the Jaguars, actually morphing into a cat-creature after a magical pendant is hung around his neck. To top it all off, the ending was sad. I got the distinct feeling while reading this book that Mr Duncan was merely fulfilling the last requirements of the contract rather than offering a polished work of fantasy.