The Thousand Names
(Shadow Campaigns #1)
by Django Wexler
military, fantasy
copyright 2013
read in January 2016
rated 6/10: read to pass the time
It's not too bad, really. The trouble is, this book is too much of one and not enough of the other...
What I really like about reading fantasy is, the fantasy. You know... Strange worlds, unique customs, magic...Names has hints of magic. But...
There are hints of magic. References to a sorcerer. Suggestions that magic will happen. But magic does not happen -- not until just past half way. Which leaves more than 300 pages of a fantasy novel with no real fantasy.
Okay, not strictly true. The soldiers are from an imagined country, fighting an imagined enemy in an imagined desert country. Or, it's the French fighting the Arabs in Africa. There's not enough distinction, between the history and this fantasy !
If you enjoy "military" then the first half of this book is for you. It's military in the old style: hundreds of soldiers march, in step, into the enemies' guns, hoping that a few will live to actually fight back. Nasty stuff but probably realistic.
For me, there's a bit too much cannon-fodder fighting. It's well written, though. Lots of death and destruction but a reasonable expectation that the "nice people" will survive. I dislike authors who go out of their way to build a sympathetic character -- just to make it hurt when they are senselessly killed.
So the first half of the book is military fantasy. Quite well written. Realistically horrible.
Then -- finally -- the magic happens !
The second half of the book is true fantasy... A touch of magic, slow increase in the use of magic, final battle of the super-powerful magic users... A fun-filled magical romp for lovers of simple fantasy :-)
So the first half of this book is "military" and the second half is "magical". In the first half, I almost gave up reading.
I'm glad that I kept on reading !
By the time I reach the magical half, I know the characters. And have sympathy for... some of them. Not all.
The characters are well drawn but not particularly sympathetic. A few, I hoped would not be killed. None that I would really miss.
It's a cast of thousands, which could have made it difficult to like any one character. But Wexler has done well: there are clearly "main" characters. With a supporting cast who are not "main" but are clearly unique enough to be key players.
A minor grizzle at the end, when too many characters are preparing for book two. (Can't a good villain ever die ?!) But this book one finishes conclusively. And book two promises the same cast but in a brand new environment -- a great relief ! Enough of the desert, thanks very much !
If I look at this book as being an introduction to a series -- it is quite good. I'm looking forward to reading about the same cast of characters battling on in a different part of the world.
I like the main characters just enough to want to follow their adventures. (More accurately, perhaps, there are none that I dislike.)
I just wish that the "fantasy" -- magic -- had been introduced a little earlier. To avoid the feeling that this book is really two separate books: A quite good military fantasy. Followed by a wilder but almost separate, magical fantasy.
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