Extremely condensed reviews: Daughter of Regals, Dzur, and Our Man in Camelot

Apr. 8th, 2009 06:06 pm
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Daughter of Regals and Other Tales (Stephen Donaldson)

I have the same comments as of Reave the Just and Other Tales, namely that I much, much prefer his short stories to his novels, because they all have very interesting ideas, however I find it very draining that they're all about nasty people, nasty situations, and depression.

Roll on disfiguring diseases, people wallowing in self-hate, people cavorting in casual mistreatment of others, destruction of beautiful creatures and last shreds of hope, etc, etc. Obviously great literature is stereotypically associated with black despair, but I get a certain "unhealthy obsession" vibe.

Dzur (Stephen Brust)

I have the same comments as of the last few Vlad Taltos novels. It was fascinating for what it revealed about the overall story of the series, but I didn't really find the novel itself as engaging as some of the others.

Our Man in Camelot

I have the same comment as I really loved all the previous Anthony Price novels, even though friends have warned me that the couple immediately preceding this weren't necessarily up to snuff, but although it followed in the general practice of Price novels, and was fairly interesting in the characters and history, I didn't really engage with it as much as the others.

( Major spoilers for Our Man in Camelot and War Games )
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Mordant's Need: Mirror of her Dreams

Dec. 10th, 2006 10:20 pm
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The magic is very nice. Imagers craft mirrors which show scenes from alternate worlds, and with appropriate ritual can have things called through, or put in. Some mirrors are powerful weapons if they can call destructive forces, lava, or vicious magical animals, etc, and others can provide endless fresh water, etc. So with a lot of time and skilled work, you can do an awful lot. But also what mirrors you have can be improvised into use for other things if you've ingenuity.

And I quite like the characters and the world and the politics and the plot.

However, I feel like I ought to empathise with Terisa, who is forcing herself to believe in herself and be effective. But in fact I feel annoyed because I felt as if the entire book were people keeping secrets from each other and whining. I understand not knowing who you can trust, but it seems like if everyone suspected of being a traitor was followed round by a guard for a few weeks it'd all get sorted out.
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