PissWeakly Reviews: The Destiny of the Dead / Ian Irvine

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

The Destiny of the Dead / Ian Irvine

The Destiny of the Dead

(Song of the Tears 3/3)

by Ian Irvine

fantasy

read in February 2019

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

In fact I enjoyed this book just a bit more than 6 out of 10. It's just hard to say that it is "well worth reading". Good fun, pleasant, if you do not read it -- nothing lost.

Just recently I read another Irvine book. Re-read it, in fact. It was easy to read, fast and furious, complex. In eight years, Irvine has not changed his style -- which is fine. He writes good page-turners.

That was book one of a trilogy. This book (Destiny) is third of a trilogy, I wanted a conclusion ! Was it hard to come in after missing two previous books ? Not really.

There are plenty of characters but I quickly identified their roles. Partly because they were well introduced, partly because, well, it didn't really matter. Each character has a history but that history has very little impact on their current actions.

Characters tend to change from good to bad, from bad to good. Always with good reason, though it could be as simple as, I swore an oath which seemed right at the time. Oh, except for the *really* bad baddies: they are introduced as evil -- and ugly -- and they remain that way.

In fact... after the main action, as the book wraps up, lots of baddies join the goodies. For -- in plot terms -- quite adequate reasons. Hmmm... I can't remember anyone who -- in this book 3 of 3 -- went the other way, from goodie to baddie. And I am not complaining, I like villains who turn good :-)

The story starts as bad armies are converging on the few remaining goodies. There's no way we can escape from this, thinks the hero. Yet they do... Every chapter is like that: the hero is a full-time catastrophiser, he sees potential catastrophe on every page. Suspense building? Not after the first few times... it's more of a humorous cliché. Which is probably not intentional.

So the hero goes from one potential disaster to another. Surviving each by the skin of his teeth. All good fun :-)

Yet the author is not afraid to kill off characters... mainly, minor characters. The hero is also injured -- many times. Luckily there are magical healers in his group of survivors.

And finally, there is a distinct ending, where everything is satisfactorily wrapped up. All wrapped up but in a world which is big enough to allow for many more trilogies. The proper way to end a story.

Read this book to pass the time. Enjoy the action, adventure and well-meant heroism. It's not great, it's a lot of fun, it's a "book three" which can be read -- to pass the time -- without having read the previous two.