Interesting. The overtly religious aspects of the series came into focus, and actually weren't quite as bad as I feared. But … too often I found myself unable to tell which character was doing what – there's not much differentiation between the various characters, and their voices, actions, and motivations all blur into one. While Leith is (sadly) believable, the female characters in particular seemed pretty two-dimensional. Beautiful? Check. Willful? Check. Punished for their willfulness? Check. In love with the appropriate male hero? Check. By the time the Ice Queen arrived, it was a bit like watching a doll being unpacked. Need to ramp up the Girl Power quotient? Insert gratuitous exotic powerful female in the last few chapters.

The other bit of tokenism that annoyed was the Children of the Mist. I don't know if non-New Zealanders would pick up that they were based on Maori (complete with bits of dialogue in Te Reo, which I really loved). The trouble is, the main character we meet as a representative of the people was even more of a stereotype than the female characters. Dark-skinned savage? Check. Goes off about honour? Check. Has a big club? Check. One of the most interesting aspects of the series was the points it raised about colonialism. Which were completely undermined by making Te Tuahungata such a cliché.

Another problem I had was that I kept hearing the echo of other fantasy series behind various sections – a common grumble with fantasy. Although it was less annoying here than it can be (don't get me started on His Dark Materials), it was something that interfered with the pleasure I had in the story. Strong echoes of both Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time and Tad Williams’s Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series, and even stronger echoes of CS Lewis's Narnia books. And if the arrival of the southern fleet seems familiar but you can't place it, reread The Return of the King.

My final complaint was that the ending was too pat. Too much was resolved without anything actually happening to bring it about. Deus ex machina is one thing, but this felt more like the author realising he'd left three or four dozen loose threads, and no ideas left about how to tie them up. (Not helped by Orbit sticking a couple of pages of Kirkpatrick's next novel in the end of the book!) Again, the annoying thing is that Kirkpatrick obviously has good ideas, and is capable of good writing.

Having said all that, it's an interesting debut, and did deliver things it promised – just not all of them.
I will keep my eyes open for his next books. ( )

Orbit,fall07,fantasy,epic, ( )

Orbit,fall07,fantasy,epic,