Onefinemess

Blue Adept
by: Piers Anthony

I figured I’d just killed two birds with one stone…except that our metaphorical stone here would be the same size if it was two separate stones or one big one, and I’m not sure about the practicality of hurling a huge stone and getting the birds to stay in place while it squishes them.  But whatever.

So.

I’m continuing on my trek through pulp fantasy I read as a kid – although I’m really not sure if I actually read these 3 books or not, I know I read books 4-7 of the series (I still owned them when I bought (or re-bought) these three).  They definitely have that 70s/80s fantasy cover thing down though right?  I don’t think the hero ever wears a chain mail skirt – yet there he is on the cover!  The lady in red with the demon jumping out of an amulet is actually pretty accurate though.

The story itself suffered from some of the same technical flaws as the previous volume – things that are either just obvious to me now because of the quantity of books I’ve read since then, or because I’m older and pickier.  Or both.  Some things just seem really juvenile and/or simple.  The lead character’s romances become slightly more believable – although him going after his alternate’s widow in such short time still strikes me as not very heroic.  The idiotic forced use of “the,thy,thou” etc. type stuff also gets quite annoying, and I don’t think contributed anything to the series.  Maybe it was required in all fantasy back then? :)

Still, for all its warts, I enjoyed the book.  The skeleton of the plot is interesting, even if the meat may hang loosely in parts or not at all.  The magic/tech world overlap is a good device, and that by itself keeps me going to some degree.  Also I kept waiting for an event I knew about from reading the newer books, but it never happened, so I guess that comes later.

I think this was the weakest book in the series, although I’ve already forgotten why I had that particular opinion.

Oh.  Maybe it was the ending…wow.  Even worse than the first book.  It ends at a hard cliff, I mean, shit happens, then shit doesn’t. And you don’t exactly know what the resolution is.  Sure, you can guess – and make a pretty good guess at that – but it just feels really really sloppy the way it dropped off.

TWO AND  A HALF STARS

(but still worth reading)

Juxtaposition
by: Piers Anthony

Ahh the thrilling conclusion!  At least for a few years until he decided to write 4 more volumes (which will hopefully stand the test of time and memory).

I think the cover is hideous, and the worst one of the set.  I find it hard to find Lady Blue attractive with that cover image in mind *barf*.  Or maybe that’s supposed to be Sheen the golem/machine woman?  Wait no, her horse is just a horse, so it’s not Sheen.  Either way, I can’t suspend my disbelief that far. I tried not to look at the cover before opening the book to read each time…

So, lots of wacky things happen, and there is a nice twist at the end – it was pretty well telegraphed though, but deserved. He does put an actual ending in this book – although it still leaves a ton of things up in the air – the big one being what the actual status of the world(s) is/are!!  Not to mention how they expect to force the citizens to cut down on harvesting protonite.

I seriously must have missed a major plot point somewhere…the whole ending revolves around him basically trying to smuggle what would amount to massive amount of wealth (that would be spread around amongst all his enemies as well) from one world to another.  It seems like everyone on one of the worlds would benefit…so I’m still confused as to why they were opposing him.

The writing is at about the same proficiency level as the previous volume, but it wraps up enough random loose ends that it comes off looking a bit better.  Oh wait, except we never find out about the “outcast” unicorn Belle’s resolution…she helps out then the book ends.  Hello, editors???

A closing scene with the now resurrected original Blue Adept would have been REALLY appropriate as well…but yeah, ok so I guess this ending still sucked too.  It did try to be an actual ending though instead of an abrupt smacking of the face into a glass wall, so it gets a few points for that.

THREE STARS

For quality level, but still a fun read.

Tags: Blue Adept, Juxtaposition, Piers Anthony

This entry was posted by onefinemess on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 8:15 am and is filed under Book Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.