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Review - Banewreaker
Nov. 25th, 2008 11:25 pmJacqueline Carey's Banewreaker is nothing like her Kushiel books. It's written in third person, not first, which brings a lot of differences right there. You're not as close to the characters, for one thing, which makes it slightly less intense. The writing is still lovely, though. Less personal, more epic and Tolkienesque, but still nice to read.
It's an interesting concept, though: the epic like Lord of the Rings from the point of view of the bad guys, sympathetic to the bad guys. I think it's done pretty well, it's quite a good reflection of the old 'there's two sides to every story'. It actually makes me hesitant to read Godslayer, because of what's likely to happen. Doesn't good always win?
The parallels to Lord of the Rings are pretty blatant. There's a Frodo equivalent, the Nazgul equivalents, a Saruman equivalent... I didn't mind it because the point isn't a new story, it's a new side to an old story, which I think Carey brings across just fine.
The characters, as I said, you don't get as close to as in the Kushiel books, but they're still interesting characters. There's a huge range of them: humans, elf-equivalents, god-equivalents, troll-equivalents... It's going to hurt no matter which side loses, thanks to the affection I have for the some of the characters. There are a lot of interesting characters, too, despite the derivative plot -- the Three immortal servants of Satoris are pretty interesting, but especially Ushahin, with his adoption by the Were and his double heritage. Very, very interesting.
I both can't wait to read Godslayer and don't want to. I'm futilely hoping for a happy end, but I know Carey doesn't mind hurting characters she loves, so I know it's pretty much futile.
It's an interesting concept, though: the epic like Lord of the Rings from the point of view of the bad guys, sympathetic to the bad guys. I think it's done pretty well, it's quite a good reflection of the old 'there's two sides to every story'. It actually makes me hesitant to read Godslayer, because of what's likely to happen. Doesn't good always win?
The parallels to Lord of the Rings are pretty blatant. There's a Frodo equivalent, the Nazgul equivalents, a Saruman equivalent... I didn't mind it because the point isn't a new story, it's a new side to an old story, which I think Carey brings across just fine.
The characters, as I said, you don't get as close to as in the Kushiel books, but they're still interesting characters. There's a huge range of them: humans, elf-equivalents, god-equivalents, troll-equivalents... It's going to hurt no matter which side loses, thanks to the affection I have for the some of the characters. There are a lot of interesting characters, too, despite the derivative plot -- the Three immortal servants of Satoris are pretty interesting, but especially Ushahin, with his adoption by the Were and his double heritage. Very, very interesting.
I both can't wait to read Godslayer and don't want to. I'm futilely hoping for a happy end, but I know Carey doesn't mind hurting characters she loves, so I know it's pretty much futile.
