A review by sambora
To Green Angel Tower: Storm by Tad Williams
3.0
Finishing To Green Angel Tower: Storm marks the end of a series that I've been following for the past 6 months.
I have enjoyed my time with Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, but - in my opinion, it suffers a slight dip in quality going into it's second half.
These books were written in the early 90's, and BOY has the genre evolved since then. The audience and their tastes have also grown and changed.
What at one point was new, creative and distinct now reads as cliché and trope-ish. This isn't meant as much of a criticism, as I grew up on fantasy much like this and the story telling characteristics and style gave me a strong sense of nostalgia for the fantasy genre pre-grimdark.
Kitchen boys turn hero's, dark and mysterious overlords of bygone eras returning, soft magic systems, quests for magical swords imbued with powers enough to thwart the enemy and a variety of races - inspired by elves and dwarves, falling on one side or the other of a world shattering fight between good and evil.
It's classic and a lot of fun.
But, as I said, the past two entries, (Part 1 and 2 of To Green Angel Tower) seemed a little stale to my mind.
Many of the POVs we've met throughout the world start to merge, the stage gets smaller and smaller and characters, both those fighting for good and those fighting for power, congregate in the capital of Osten Ard for the final confrontation.
Somehow despite this convergence, it still seemed as though the plot had been spread a little too thin, therefore the culmination of the story felt a little lackluster.
Keeping it spoiler-free, I shall just say that maybe the story would have benefitted somewhat from a character/POV culling? Maybe that's the modern expectation of darker fantasy talking, but our primary characters DID feel very safe, so this last book felt a little cluttered from all the overlapping scenes.
Of course, the ending is a very important and difficult thing to pull off with a series of this size. This ending in particular didn't fail... but neither did it wow me. It wrapped up a great many of the characters plot lines, leaving a couple open for the obligatory connections to a following series set in the same world, but it was all a bit predicable, or at least predicable in it's attempts to be unpredictable.
The characters and their evolutions are always one of my favourite elements of epic fantasy, and Williams did this very well with his chosen few characters; Simon, Miriamele, Tiamak, Elias and Rachel. They all grew and changed and reacted on a personal and emotional level to their situation.
The rest, however, I felt didn't change at all over the course of the books.
They certainly learned and achieved a lot (and failed at times too!), but knowledge and experience didn't change their outlook or behaviour. I shall admit, it frustrated me at times, particularly as some of these were my favourite characters; looking here at Cadrach, Binabik and Jiriki.
This book, To Green Angel Tower: Storm, I have given 3 stars.
The series on a whole, I believe, deserves the same.
It's good. It's fun. It's nostalgic. However, unfortunately, I can't see it being very memorable for me.
I don't think I'll be reading anything else by Tad Williams, but as I said in the opening of this review - despite what may seem like harsh criticism throughout, I have enjoyed my time with this series.
____________________________________
Thank you for reading my review!
Feel free to add me as a friend here on Goodreads - I am always looking to connect with more SFF people and check out what everyone else is reading. And, if you have any reading suggestions, be sure to comment them below! I'm open to any and all!
I received some more proofs and ARCs recently too, which I'm 100% sure will be a VERY mixed bag. I'll have them read and reviewed pre-release.
Next review: Count Zero by William Gibson.
Thanks again and I hope you have a good day!
I have enjoyed my time with Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, but - in my opinion, it suffers a slight dip in quality going into it's second half.
These books were written in the early 90's, and BOY has the genre evolved since then. The audience and their tastes have also grown and changed.
What at one point was new, creative and distinct now reads as cliché and trope-ish. This isn't meant as much of a criticism, as I grew up on fantasy much like this and the story telling characteristics and style gave me a strong sense of nostalgia for the fantasy genre pre-grimdark.
Kitchen boys turn hero's, dark and mysterious overlords of bygone eras returning, soft magic systems, quests for magical swords imbued with powers enough to thwart the enemy and a variety of races - inspired by elves and dwarves, falling on one side or the other of a world shattering fight between good and evil.
It's classic and a lot of fun.
But, as I said, the past two entries, (Part 1 and 2 of To Green Angel Tower) seemed a little stale to my mind.
Many of the POVs we've met throughout the world start to merge, the stage gets smaller and smaller and characters, both those fighting for good and those fighting for power, congregate in the capital of Osten Ard for the final confrontation.
Somehow despite this convergence, it still seemed as though the plot had been spread a little too thin, therefore the culmination of the story felt a little lackluster.
Keeping it spoiler-free, I shall just say that maybe the story would have benefitted somewhat from a character/POV culling? Maybe that's the modern expectation of darker fantasy talking, but our primary characters DID feel very safe, so this last book felt a little cluttered from all the overlapping scenes.
Of course, the ending is a very important and difficult thing to pull off with a series of this size. This ending in particular didn't fail... but neither did it wow me. It wrapped up a great many of the characters plot lines, leaving a couple open for the obligatory connections to a following series set in the same world, but it was all a bit predicable, or at least predicable in it's attempts to be unpredictable.
The characters and their evolutions are always one of my favourite elements of epic fantasy, and Williams did this very well with his chosen few characters; Simon, Miriamele, Tiamak, Elias and Rachel. They all grew and changed and reacted on a personal and emotional level to their situation.
The rest, however, I felt didn't change at all over the course of the books.
They certainly learned and achieved a lot (and failed at times too!), but knowledge and experience didn't change their outlook or behaviour. I shall admit, it frustrated me at times, particularly as some of these were my favourite characters; looking here at Cadrach, Binabik and Jiriki.
This book, To Green Angel Tower: Storm, I have given 3 stars.
The series on a whole, I believe, deserves the same.
It's good. It's fun. It's nostalgic. However, unfortunately, I can't see it being very memorable for me.
I don't think I'll be reading anything else by Tad Williams, but as I said in the opening of this review - despite what may seem like harsh criticism throughout, I have enjoyed my time with this series.
____________________________________
Thank you for reading my review!
Feel free to add me as a friend here on Goodreads - I am always looking to connect with more SFF people and check out what everyone else is reading. And, if you have any reading suggestions, be sure to comment them below! I'm open to any and all!
I received some more proofs and ARCs recently too, which I'm 100% sure will be a VERY mixed bag. I'll have them read and reviewed pre-release.
Next review: Count Zero by William Gibson.
Thanks again and I hope you have a good day!