The Usurper's Crown / Sarah Zettel

The Usurper's Crown
[ Isavalta (2) ]
by Sarah Zettel

fantasy
copyright 2002
read in July 2013

rated 8: really quite good

An interesting approach to a trilogy: book two is a flashback from book one... And it works. Very well. Though with some strange side-effects...

First -- and this is, I suspect, just me --there's a constant sense of deja vu.

It's a while since I read book one. I've read several books in between. I keep thinking, But wasn't that in book one ?!

No, in sure that I'm reading a different book ! In this flashback... or extended back-story... Zettel uses repetition. That is, people and places from book one are re-visited in book two. They now show why certain things were happening in book one... Same people, same places, different actions. And from the point of view of a different heroine.

All of this makes me wonder, Which book am I really reading ?! But it's all good: I *know* which book I am reading. And I am enjoying book two... even more than I enjoyed book one.

Which leads to the other side-effect...

I prefer to read books with a happy -- or at least satisfying -- ending. From book one I know that certain people will survive... or possibly not. And this gives me a certain sense of peace.

As I read book two I have the comfort of knowing that... not everything will be destroyed. Okay, it's a very limited comfort :-)  But I find it is comfort enough. And it adds to my enjoyment of this book.

On the other hand... I'm going to have to read book one again -- to remind myself what really happened... And to find out why book two really is so very familiar !

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Problems ? Solved

The Usurper's Crown / Sarah Zettel

The Usurper's Crown

category: fantasy, author:

Sarah Zettel

book 2 of Isavalta
original copyright 2002,
read in April 2011

Agamedes' opinion: 8 out of 10

An interesting approach to the sequence of books in a trilogy. And it works. Very well!

Book one is A Sorcerer's Treason. Book one is the story of a woman who turns out to be the long-awaited daughter of a famous sorcerous couple. The back-story is provided as an integral part of the introduction to the fantasy world.

Book two -- The Usurper's Crown -- now goes back to the back-story! So we know that the ending cannot be entirely happy. Nevertheless -- the ending is entirely satisfactory. This is a very well crafted novel.

Book one introduces the reader to the world of Isavalta, its magic and its key characters. There are a few loose ends. Book two provides the more tragic introduction. There are no loose ends, rather, clear launching points for the final book.

Speaking of which: It is so good to read a book which promises to provide a complete story! I'm no great fan of the franchise approach, where the reader is expected to return for the world rather than its people. And to allow "character development", characters tend to be regularly replaced...

A Sorcerer's Treason / Sarah Zettel

A Sorcerer's Treason

category: fantasy, author:

Sarah Zettel

book 1 of Isavalta
original copyright 2002,
read in April 2011

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10

This book is a lot of fun. Imaginative world, engaging characters, straightforward plot. It does seem that Zettel has been paid by the word... but at least she does know when to stop.

A young woman leaves her safe but uncomfortable everyday life, to discover that she is a super-powerful magician in another world. Nothing new so far! Yet the fantasy world has a range of interesting characters -- both human and non-human.

I recognise Baba Yaga, the name, at least. And her cottage on chicken legs, an old familiar idea. Are the foxes and crows similarly derivative? Who cares! They fit well in the story! And it's a relief to have the heroes' efforts tangled up by semi-human spirits -- rather than driven by anthropomorphic yet inhuman gods.

Playing God / Sarah Zettel

Playing God

category: science fiction, author:

Sarah Zettel

original copyright 1998,
read in March 2011

Agamedes' opinion: 9 out of 10

Right near the beginning of this book I thought, Surely these people can't be that altruistic!? Then it seems that they were. Then it was shown that they were not... An ideal plot twist that is a complete surprise -- but no surprise at all !

This is great science fiction...

First, there are the humans. They have the technology, they have the good intentions, they want to help the aliens. The aliens need help... or do they? Perhaps one character has it right, that the aliens should be left alone to solve their own problems. The alternative is to create a depressed, degraded, cargo cult culture.

Should the humans help, by protecting the aliens from themselves? The alternative is, to let the alien culture risk taking a path to its own self-destruction. Remember Knut the polar bear? It's that sort of dilemma...