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A review by midrel
Hammer of God by Karen Miller
2.0
The ending of this book was disappointing.
Which is a shame, because for most of its length, I think the book managed to combine the best things of the first and second books, while for the most parts avoiding its flaws. But the pace, awkward from the very first book in the series, faltered again, getting increasingly worse as the story neared its climax, until near the very end it started skimming and summarizing and jumping around like a monkey only at the last realizing he had squandered his allotted length of rope and had to make for a crash landing.
Thats how the ending, and in some regards most, of Hammer of God felt to me.
There was so much wasted space. So much time spent either on unimportant details or on hyping and building up Mijak's invasion- only to have that invasion summarised and fast-forwarded in the most unappealing of ways. Some plot threads also felt unimportant on the whole. Like the trip to Mijak's base, the scorpion knife, Ethrea's god telling the true to Zandakaar's father and his subsequent promise to help. That one never really pays up. Sure, we get to see Vortka's frustration and grief, but that in itself is nothing new. He has always been, as Hekat would say, a soft man. There really isn't any new development in him.
Seeing him come to the realization that Mijak's god was a demon would have been worth it, except again the scene is Deux-ex-machina'd in a way that while perhaps not boring, does steal some of the climatic feeling by stealing some of the conflict from the story. Honestly, I loved Dexterity's character. He and Vortka are probably my favourite ones, but I really hate the fomer's miracles, and I never failed to feel like they were doing more harm than good to the story.
I also particularly hate-loved the resolution between Zandakaar and Rhyan.
Which is a shame, because for most of its length, I think the book managed to combine the best things of the first and second books, while for the most parts avoiding its flaws. But the pace, awkward from the very first book in the series, faltered again, getting increasingly worse as the story neared its climax, until near the very end it started skimming and summarizing and jumping around like a monkey only at the last realizing he had squandered his allotted length of rope and had to make for a crash landing.
Thats how the ending, and in some regards most, of Hammer of God felt to me.
There was so much wasted space. So much time spent either on unimportant details or on hyping and building up Mijak's invasion- only to have that invasion summarised and fast-forwarded in the most unappealing of ways. Some plot threads also felt unimportant on the whole. Like the trip to Mijak's base, the scorpion knife, Ethrea's god telling the true to Zandakaar's father and his subsequent promise to help. That one never really pays up. Sure, we get to see Vortka's frustration and grief, but that in itself is nothing new. He has always been, as Hekat would say, a soft man. There really isn't any new development in him.
Seeing him come to the realization that Mijak's god was a demon would have been worth it, except again the scene is Deux-ex-machina'd in a way that while perhaps not boring, does steal some of the climatic feeling by stealing some of the conflict from the story. Honestly, I loved Dexterity's character. He and Vortka are probably my favourite ones, but I really hate the fomer's miracles, and I never failed to feel like they were doing more harm than good to the story.
I also particularly hate-loved the resolution between Zandakaar and Rhyan.