A Fortress of Grey Ice
(Sword of Shadows # 2)
by J.V. Jones
fantasy
copyright 2002
read (a second time) in February 2016
rated 6/10: read to pass the time
As soon as I started reading, I realised that I had read this book before. Years before. That time, I had also read book one. So I have some memory of "what came before".
What I had forgotten was, what came next.
Sure, incidents were familiar.
What I had forgotten, was the unrelenting misery. The pointlessness of this book. The individual miseries of the characters.
This book -- this series -- is set in a slowly developing war. War of tribe against tribe. War of people against demons of the underworld. The books are set in a war. The stories are about individuals.
Very few of the individuals are worth a cracker.
There are maybe half a dozen characters -- amongst a cast of thousands, with a couple of dozen "major players" -- maybe half a dozen who are worth caring about. And boy ! do those few suffer ! Physically, they suffer, though not too much. Their suffering is mainly in threats and in their minds.
Each of these half-dozen almost sympathetic characters is following their own adventure. Yes, I can see that they are all in the same war, in the same world. They think about each other. They never meet. The book follows half a dozen parallel stories. None of which has a conclusion.
This is book two of a possibly infinite series.
Ho hum.
Book one (as I remember) did have some sort of point, some conclusion. There was a task to be done and it was done. For that, I can forgive the multiple remaining loose ends.
Book two has a demon to be killed. Okay -- spoiler -- it is killed. It seems to be a tacked-on conclusion. Oh well, enough chapters written, better get a character to the hall of the demon king, pop out the demon, kill it. Yes, lots of getting that character into the killing state of mind. The action itself, is very much a tacked-on afterthought.
Meanwhile, other characters move around the world. None of them enjoy themselves. There are some minor conclusions. None particularly satisfactory. More a quick catching of the breath before the action continues.
The first half of the book is unrelenting misery.
By the second half, I'm caught up in the action. I want to read on.
At the end of the book... I am dissatisfied.
Yes, very gripping. But so what ?! A gripping story with no conclusion. Another fantasy soap opera, with no end in sight.
By now, perhaps, the series is complete. If so -- if you are absolutely certain that this series of books has been completed and published -- then read the series. It's well written, in a miserable fashion. Don't expect great enjoyment.
Here's one small example, which exemplifies the overall misery of the major characters:
One clan leader has conquered another. The defeated clan comes back and wins back its territory. The now-defeated clan leader, as he is being driven from his temporary home, swears revenge...
Swears revenge. Not on the enemy which is killing most of his clan.
He swears revenge on his own son, who rode off and left the clan leader undefended.
What a miserable old git.
And he's one of the more likeable characters in this book.
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