![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Stephen Deas: The Adamantine Palace
I expected to like this a lot and I was really disappointed to find that I didn't. Before I'd reached the end I wrote the following:
I'm on page 294 of 369 and still wondering whether I should hurl this book at the wall. Not one character has yet made a bid for my sympathy. I still don't care about any of them. I have the feeling that the author will reveal something at the end that has been deliberately withheld. If he does then it may set one of the characters in a different light, but at this stage I'm not sure whether that will annoy me to death or make everything fall into place with a satisfying click.
Well, now I've finished it and I can say that there were no revelations. None of the characters redeem themselves - even a little bit - and the end is totally depressing. The bad guy (or perhaps the slightly worse guy, since there don't seem to be any good guys) wins. I found this book utterly charmless.
The plot, centres around the election of a new Speaker (a kind-of king of kings who reigns in the Adamantine Palace for a ten year term). It should be a foregone conclusion. Hyram, the outgoing speaker, is ill and according to an ancient pact Queen Shazira will be his successor, but Prince Jezal - whose own father seems to be afflicted with the same illness as Hyram (but much more advanced) - has other ideas. We know he seems to be up to something devious, but the detail of his actual intent is hidden until the end.
There's a question about whether he is or is not poisoning his (kingly) father (and Speaker Hyram). He seems to have some redeeming finer sentiments about his wife (Shezira's youngest daughter) whom he seems to have genuine affection for - but she's a dangling plot thread never followed through - as is the white dragon.
For yes, this is also a book about dragons, though their immediate plot thread seems totally unconnected to the political one even though if it is followed through it will have very far-reaching consequences... eventually. This whole society - the multitude of small interrelated kingdoms - all have huge and powerful dragons (hunting or war dragons) and the dragon-riders (all nobles, of course) are used for defence and offence (and ceremony). Queen Shezira has bred a perfect White for Jezal - a wedding present, but the convoy is attacked on the way to the wedding by dragon riders unknown and the White is lost - believed stolen. The hunt for her and what actually happens is a separate plot thread that never ties up
OK, I cracked and checked the author's website. This is the start of a trilogy - which is not obvious from my edition of the book - but I honestly couldn't face reading another one. Deas is NOT Joe Abercrombie, whose characters might be a bunch of twisted, evil bastards, but they are ones you can care about.
I expected to like this a lot and I was really disappointed to find that I didn't. Before I'd reached the end I wrote the following:
I'm on page 294 of 369 and still wondering whether I should hurl this book at the wall. Not one character has yet made a bid for my sympathy. I still don't care about any of them. I have the feeling that the author will reveal something at the end that has been deliberately withheld. If he does then it may set one of the characters in a different light, but at this stage I'm not sure whether that will annoy me to death or make everything fall into place with a satisfying click.
Well, now I've finished it and I can say that there were no revelations. None of the characters redeem themselves - even a little bit - and the end is totally depressing. The bad guy (or perhaps the slightly worse guy, since there don't seem to be any good guys) wins. I found this book utterly charmless.
The plot, centres around the election of a new Speaker (a kind-of king of kings who reigns in the Adamantine Palace for a ten year term). It should be a foregone conclusion. Hyram, the outgoing speaker, is ill and according to an ancient pact Queen Shazira will be his successor, but Prince Jezal - whose own father seems to be afflicted with the same illness as Hyram (but much more advanced) - has other ideas. We know he seems to be up to something devious, but the detail of his actual intent is hidden until the end.
There's a question about whether he is or is not poisoning his (kingly) father (and Speaker Hyram). He seems to have some redeeming finer sentiments about his wife (Shezira's youngest daughter) whom he seems to have genuine affection for - but she's a dangling plot thread never followed through - as is the white dragon.
For yes, this is also a book about dragons, though their immediate plot thread seems totally unconnected to the political one even though if it is followed through it will have very far-reaching consequences... eventually. This whole society - the multitude of small interrelated kingdoms - all have huge and powerful dragons (hunting or war dragons) and the dragon-riders (all nobles, of course) are used for defence and offence (and ceremony). Queen Shezira has bred a perfect White for Jezal - a wedding present, but the convoy is attacked on the way to the wedding by dragon riders unknown and the White is lost - believed stolen. The hunt for her and what actually happens is a separate plot thread that never ties up
OK, I cracked and checked the author's website. This is the start of a trilogy - which is not obvious from my edition of the book - but I honestly couldn't face reading another one. Deas is NOT Joe Abercrombie, whose characters might be a bunch of twisted, evil bastards, but they are ones you can care about.
