Limits of Power
(Paladin's Legacy #4 of 5)
by Elizabeth Moon
fantasy
copyright 2013
read in February 2015
rated 7/10: well worth reading
This book is the fourth in a series of five. There are three more books before that, an independent series which leads into this series. So, in effect, this book is number seven of eight.
Can it be read as a one-off book ?
I read book one of the eight. I clearly remember one of the characters. Wow ! has she developed and changed ! So I know the character's name -- but I don't know the character. Everyone else is a stranger.
This book begins with the aftermath of an assassination... I just missed the big fight scene. I don't know the person who was killed. I don't know the people who survived.
I read to the end of the book and... well... nothing much has happened ! A few marriages, a few births, a king discovers that he actually does have the magic powers that are essential to the survival of his kingdom. Oh, and a murderer is unmasked. If I had read the previous books, I might know who she is.
Some young prince is captured and threatened. He's the son -- one son -- of someone that I don't know. The prince gets a couple of chapters... More than is given to the book's villain.
So the story starts in the middle, wanders round with a few dozen characters and goes nowhere. It's just one chapter of a series. I should hate it.
And yet...
I really did enjoy this book !
I don't know any of the characters. Some, I do get to know. And they are all so... nice :-)
The entire book is so... positive :-)
It's like an annual family get-together. Catching up with people you know (except that I don't). Finding out what they have done in the last year. You get just a brief snapshot of their lives: continuations of what they were doing the previous year.
Are you a stranger at another family's reunion ? It can still be interesting... Someone was married. Children were born. Same jobs or new jobs. Started, continued or ended schooling...
You don't really know these people -- but it's fun, to listen and learn.
And that's how I read this book. A confusing mob of pleasant people telling me what they have been up to. It doesn't mean much to me but I can tell that it's all rather nice, for those in the know.
Sure, there's no way that this book can make sense if read alone. But really, it's such fun... that who cares. It's complex entertainment, a massive saga, in a nice, nice world.
"If he had a mind, there was something on it." PG Wodehouse, of a troubled Pongo Twistleton
====
Problems ? Solved
No comments:
Post a Comment