The war has begun, Equatoria’s armies are moving into
Europe to reclaim their long lost lands from the vampire clans and free the
herds of humanity reduced to squalor, enslavement and an early death.
But the delay has been costly, it’s a winter campaign
rather than summer when the heat makes the vampires sluggish, even with the
best weapons at their disposal it’s clear the cost of lives is going to be
extreme. Unless Empress Adele’s skills at geomancy can tip the scale and be their
ultimate weapon – but at what cost?
Of course, they could adopt the American tactic of
slaughtering the humans and starving the vampires, but then, who are they
liberating? And is it even right to commit genocide against the vampires, including
their own children? Beset by these hard questions Adele also has to consider
what future she has with Gareth, especially as Gareth looks to his own people and
the potential of him taking Britain’s crown now his father is dead.
The war has begun, but the questions of how to fight it,
how to win it and the cost of it remain to be seen.
A big epic showdown but it was so slow. I can’t even put
my finger on exactly why it was slow, I think it was several elements. We had
pages and pages devoted to single battles. Pages and pages to Adele’s angst over
the Greyfriar and the difficulties in their relationship. Pages and pages of
the Greyfriar’s own angst, pages and pages – actually pages and pages about
everything. I think everything that happened and everything anyone felt in this
book had to be accompanied by a rather long winded internal monologue.
I don’t know if this has always been the style of this
series because I don’t remember being frustrated by it before. But I think the
problem here is that the book is reaching a culmination of epic. There’s a
literal war going on. The Equatorian Empire has invaded southern Europe, they
have armies in France and the Balkans, thousands of people are dying – and against
that backdrop we have the Greyfriar, Gareth, cooking eggs for Adele. Was it a
lovely scene? Yes, it was, it was cute and romantic and funny and endearing –
but epic conflict is happening! At the beginning the war was front and centre,
an epic battle, a grand conflict, a huge show down brewing, but then the rest
of the book veered so very far away from it. It became a very personal book of
Adele and Gareth – and it was a book very much about their emotional states and
various other feelings.
Many of these scenes weren’t bad – like Gareth visiting
the King of Paris (a scene that ended up pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme
of the novel), or, as I mentioned, Gareth cooking for Adele. Adele re-uniting
with Morgana. Adele talking with Sanah. Anhalt sparring with Senator Clark.
Senator Clark’s war in the US. They were all good scenes, albeit overly written
with too much monologue, but they were great in their own right for character
development and exploration and just plain fun with this world and these people
who I enjoy. But they weren’t relevant to the plot – if they were removed the
ending would be exactly the same as it was with them. Some of these scenes
would have been wonderful to include and to underscore the difficulties the
characters faced – Anhalt’s worry over Adele’s recklessness, Gareth and Adele
worrying about the morality of the war, the difficulty of them having any kind
of relationship and Adele becoming ever more isolated by the the necessities of
state – but all of them together was just too much.
Even on the topic of the war, there were many quickly
resolved mini-scenes that could have been relevant but were brushed off so
quickly: the ruse about Simon’s assassination, the opposition questioning the
motives of the war, the industrialist traitor, the Undead, – all of these could
have been relevant to the war but they were resolved so quickly that they had
no real effect and, again, the ending would have been no different if they weren’t
included.
I think that may be the crux of why this book was slow –
beyond the internal monologues, the creeping angst and the personal, emotional
scenes when entire continents rested in the balance – there’s the fact that so
many of these scenes, while good on their own, aren’t relevant to the overall
plot. They’re interruptions, they’re intermissions and they all ended up not
mattering.
Because there’s the ending. And yes it was sweet and yes
love conquered all and the guy who probably shouldn’t be alive was alive but
damn he deserved to live and I’d have been upset if he didn’t. It was neat but
it was satisfying in many ways… but ultimately the grand victory was won
because Adele was just That Damn Special.
Not because of any of the events in the book, not because
of anything she did, not because of anything she planned, not because of the
intricate schemes she worked with Gareth, not because of the bravery and
sacrifice of Anhalt, not because of the brave fighting of the men, not because
she caught the industrial saboteur or managed to put Gareth on the throne or
defeated Flay or defeated Cesare or because of an alliance with Paris or –
well, not because of ANYTHING any of the main characters have done in this
book. Or, for that matter, not because of anything the main characters have
done in the last 3 books.
Victory was won because Adele was dragged somewhere
against her will and then Her Shiny Special Woo-Woo kicked in and did Shiny
Special Woo-woo stuff she didn’t entirely understand but it was Shiny and
Special and they all lived Happily Ever After. Everything they did in the book
was invalidated by one great big Deus Ex Machinae. Aaargh, after all their
fighting all, their courage, their sacrifice, their epic feats – after Anhalt’s
incredible moment aboard the American ship, it was all invalidated! All their
worries about genocide against the vampires as well as their herds? Brushed
over. All that masterful, epic development is just wasted.
It was supposed to be a satisfying, fluffy ending and, in
a way, it was. But I was unsatisfied, I couldn’t stand that all of the epic
battles we’ve had come down to such a simple ending. Magic Girl is Super Magic,
we win. To say I’m disappointed is something of an understatement
Inclusionwise, it’s still very straight, but the POC have
greatly increased in number and relevance. We have more references to Adele’s
Persian and Egyptian ancestry, as well as more overt influences on Equatorian
culture, architecture and clothing. We not only have General Anhalt in a less
subservient role (albeit still extremely devoted and subservient to Adele) but
we also had a large number of other POC not just in the army, but also in the
government and in Parliament; they’re not confined to a servile role or to the
role of the mystics, it’s clear Equatoria has a large POC population at all
levels. They also raised the interesting question of the necessity of going to
war with vampire held Europe – while a major goal of several of the white
characters with European ancestry who fled to Equatoria, those of African, Middle
Eastern and Indian descent had far less motive to throw away so many lives and
money to reclaim lands lost over a century ago. It wasn’t developed as well as
it could be, but ultimately it was clear that it was more a matter of
humanitarian saving the people being tortured and massacred under vampire
control than for lost lands and titles because most Equatorians simply didn’t
care about lost European territory; something the leader of the opposition, a
Somali, makes abundantly clear.
There’s some more wonderful debate about the morality of
the war, especially the idea of taking the easy option and killing lots of
humans the vampires are preying on – which, when considered with the above,
begs the question as to why they’re even pursuing the war at all. But there’s
further question about the morality of wiping out vampires entirely –
especially in a world where vampire children exist.
Some interesting issues are raised here with this – but they’re not debated enough and, ultimately, are rendered moot by the magic girl woo-woo.
So, some epic scenes – which were rather irrelevant. An
awesome world, some great characters – but some bad pacing issues and an ending
that is a severe disappointment. I’m disappointed, I wanted to enjoy the book,
but couldn’t; I wanted to skim half of it and when I reached the end I wanted
to throw away my tablet in disgust. It had some brilliant, shining epic moments
– but, alas, only moments.
