F/SF

I forgot that King Kobold Revived came before this book (there was a reference...), so that will be next, I suppose. So far, my older self is still liking these books. ( )

Even though I didn't like this book quite as much as the previous one in the series, I did enjoy it a great deal. I felt a lot of kinship with Rod and his uncontrollable anger. He's got four kids and I've only got two, but I'm not a master magician... I find myself getting angry with the children often (too often) and I'm concerned about that. So I can empathize with poor Rod.

There were more battles in this one than the previous two books which was good. But they were small and for the most part, our hero's involvement in the battles was peripheral - we find him running to help out his kids and his wife only to arrive right as they no longer need his help... Frustrating for all involved.

The previous book had a nice dose of righteous anger, but this one really turns that on its ear and condemns the anger - mostly because instead of focusing Rod, it consumes him and he's unable to think clearly while angry. In the final battle, he vanquishes his foe but it's not nearly as satisfying as the previous book. (obtw, I think I picked up on the plot twist fairly early *pats himself on the head*.)

We had a couple of nice little dips into social commentary including a really nice little piece on the nature of marriage and family that I enjoyed. There was more power and privilege, some church and state stuff, and a mechanism for restraining anger by focusing on the preciousness of human life. Interesting stuff. The only thing that I disagreed with was the way that Rod was supposed to use his knowledge of himself to control his anger - that seemed awfully contrived to fit the previously provided social commentary.

Read 6/2007 ( )