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A review by trike
The Price of the Stars by James D. Macdonald, Debra Doyle
3.0
This was a fun little read to finish off the terrible year that was 2016. As I write this, Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia, died a couple days ago unexpectedly after suffering a heart attack, with her mom Debbie Reynolds dying the very next day of a stroke. Earlier this year Kenny Baker, who played R2D2 in Star Wars, also passed. (Which was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to unexpected celebrity deaths this year.)
I made this because of that:
I started this book earlier in the month with of course no expectation that THE symbol of space opera feminism would soon be dead, especially considering this story is about a young woman of a royal space family setting out to avenge her mother's death in a thinly-veiled riff on Star Wars. I mean, come on.
Ignoring all the real-world weirdness -- the story itself is a fine adventure, competently told and well-structured. Like Mass Effect, Doyle and Macdonald have taken the basic elements of Star Wars and renamed them. Instead of Jedi and Sith here we have Adepts and Magelords. In Mass Effect instead of the Force they have Biotics. Here it's the universal connection everyone has. Even Babylon 5 played with these elements, with the Technomages. So for that I don't deduct any points.
My only real issue is that there wasn't a solid enough resolution to the story, and there is a scene that is nearly identical to the Obi-Wan/Darth Vader duel in Star Wars that was too on-the-nose derivative. Other than that, they did a decent job of keeping me interested. I never once was bored or thought it had gone on too long.
There is a bit of the cliche and stereotype here, though. The alien lizard guys suffer from the All Members of the Group are Identical problem that plagues much genre fiction. All Klingons are warriors. All dwarves are the same. And so on. But it's a minor thing.
One aspect I found interesting is that the cover accurately portrays the main character in her disguise. Not many artists do that. It's also interesting to note that this book was published the same year David Weber began his Honor Harrington series, and both share much in common. I wonder what was happening around 1990-91 to spark such similar stories? Although to be fair, the Weber stories are clearly more Horatio Hornblower In Space than the Mageworlds series is. Both sport gender-flipped protagonists, though. In this book Beka is clearly Han Solo and Prncess Leia melded into one badass pilot escaping from her privileged past. Even the description of her ship, the Warhammer, is similar to the Millennium Falcon.
Anyway, this was a fun little space adventure, with plenty of swashes getting buckled of do of the derring variety. Not super deep by any means, but sometimes one needs lighter fare.
I made this because of that:
I started this book earlier in the month with of course no expectation that THE symbol of space opera feminism would soon be dead, especially considering this story is about a young woman of a royal space family setting out to avenge her mother's death in a thinly-veiled riff on Star Wars. I mean, come on.
Ignoring all the real-world weirdness -- the story itself is a fine adventure, competently told and well-structured. Like Mass Effect, Doyle and Macdonald have taken the basic elements of Star Wars and renamed them. Instead of Jedi and Sith here we have Adepts and Magelords. In Mass Effect instead of the Force they have Biotics. Here it's the universal connection everyone has. Even Babylon 5 played with these elements, with the Technomages. So for that I don't deduct any points.
My only real issue is that there wasn't a solid enough resolution to the story, and there is a scene that is nearly identical to the Obi-Wan/Darth Vader duel in Star Wars that was too on-the-nose derivative. Other than that, they did a decent job of keeping me interested. I never once was bored or thought it had gone on too long.
There is a bit of the cliche and stereotype here, though. The alien lizard guys suffer from the All Members of the Group are Identical problem that plagues much genre fiction. All Klingons are warriors. All dwarves are the same. And so on. But it's a minor thing.
One aspect I found interesting is that the cover accurately portrays the main character in her disguise. Not many artists do that. It's also interesting to note that this book was published the same year David Weber began his Honor Harrington series, and both share much in common. I wonder what was happening around 1990-91 to spark such similar stories? Although to be fair, the Weber stories are clearly more Horatio Hornblower In Space than the Mageworlds series is. Both sport gender-flipped protagonists, though. In this book Beka is clearly Han Solo and Prncess Leia melded into one badass pilot escaping from her privileged past. Even the description of her ship, the Warhammer, is similar to the Millennium Falcon.
Anyway, this was a fun little space adventure, with plenty of swashes getting buckled of do of the derring variety. Not super deep by any means, but sometimes one needs lighter fare.