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A review by themanfromdelmonte
Blackwing by Ed McDonald
3.0
Another from the Abercrombie-like stable. Much is made of misery, both the place and the condition. Also fighting, lots and lots of fighting. And then some more fighting. The body count is vast.
In the early stages it was quite promising as a gritty fantasy with a side order of steampunk. Rugged hero with a past goes adventuring (and fighting, don’t forget the fighting) with the trusty sidekicks. All on account of owing some very unpleasant people various debts, one of whom accesses him via a tattoo on his arm.
In the later stages it’s a siege novel and it’s possible to skip five pages at a time and still not miss anything crucial. I had to because otherwise I risked getting bogged down in yet more descriptions of fighting.
This is all to say that the last half of the book could have done with some serious editing/pruning. It’s at least 100 pages too long.
Another flaw is that there’s no character development for anyone other than the protagonist. Okay it’s a little difficult when the whole thing’s written in the first person but even Ezabeth and Nenn are barely more than cardboard cutouts. Stories are about people.
And this is about fighting. Less a travelogue more a fightalogue. We cleaves them over here, then we hacks them over there.
Oh, and a malapropism. "All out war had rescinded in living memory." I believe the author meant 'receded'. Bah.
In the early stages it was quite promising as a gritty fantasy with a side order of steampunk. Rugged hero with a past goes adventuring (and fighting, don’t forget the fighting) with the trusty sidekicks. All on account of owing some very unpleasant people various debts, one of whom accesses him via a tattoo on his arm.
In the later stages it’s a siege novel and it’s possible to skip five pages at a time and still not miss anything crucial. I had to because otherwise I risked getting bogged down in yet more descriptions of fighting.
This is all to say that the last half of the book could have done with some serious editing/pruning. It’s at least 100 pages too long.
Another flaw is that there’s no character development for anyone other than the protagonist. Okay it’s a little difficult when the whole thing’s written in the first person but even Ezabeth and Nenn are barely more than cardboard cutouts. Stories are about people.
And this is about fighting. Less a travelogue more a fightalogue. We cleaves them over here, then we hacks them over there.
Oh, and a malapropism. "All out war had rescinded in living memory." I believe the author meant 'receded'. Bah.