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A review by ergative
Catalyst by Brandon Crilly
2.25
This felt odd to give such a low rating to, because it had all the parts that combine to make the sort of story I usually like. We have mature characters with a variety of skills and backstory (no longer young wunderkinds who must come of age and learn things in front of us); we have an imaginative world-building that made me work to understand it; we have a conflict with an antagonist that comes down to a solution which does NOT involve fighting. We have WINDSHIPS and magic--both stage magic and also real magic. We have wandering scholars on a hopeless Cassandra-like quest; we have aging magicians and retired fighters and second chance love and friendship. I love these kind of things!
The problem is that I didn't feel any depth to the plot or emotional connection to any of this. I didn't care about the characters; I found their fumbling attempts at rapprochement frustrating, the repeated friction and reopening of old wounds unconvincing and irritating. I found the characterization shallow, too: the stage magician keeps being presented as using his unique magician talents because he's not a fighter and no longer a scholar and so cannot draw on any other special skills. But as far as I can tell he doesn't actually make much use of any of the clever gadgets he uses in his shows, and when push comes to shove the extent of his magician skills seem to come down to 'Ah, we must redirect people's attention elsewhere! Misdirection! The key is misdirection!' and so they make a decoy maguffin that misdirects the antagonist for like two seconds.
[nb: spoilers follow]
The plot felt shallow, too. The solution is literally a deus ex machina: they are in a hidden sactuary with a machine, and then the gods get involved and make everyone sit down and talk it out, like middle schoolers in detention for fighting.
The world-building had some elements of coolness to it. I liked the windships. I liked the hints of large-scale politics, how the Unity is trying to be a generalized government and the city of Farglade is trying to hold off Unity to build its own more socialist collective, but the ruling council is rotting from within. I thought the way the Raw gave Breck constant horrific hallucinations, sometimes as an attempt to warn him what to say and what not to say, but other times for no apparent reason other than to remind him of their power over him, was a stroke of genius. Not necessarily narrative genius, as the nature of their power over him was never quite clear, since they're supposed to be trapped in the dariss, but on a scene-level it was great. Every time he hallucinates something, I was caught by surprise.
Still, those flashes of excellence were too few and far between. It took me ages to slog through this book. Too bad. A valiant swing, but a miss all the same.
The problem is that I didn't feel any depth to the plot or emotional connection to any of this. I didn't care about the characters; I found their fumbling attempts at rapprochement frustrating, the repeated friction and reopening of old wounds unconvincing and irritating. I found the characterization shallow, too: the stage magician keeps being presented as using his unique magician talents because he's not a fighter and no longer a scholar and so cannot draw on any other special skills. But as far as I can tell he doesn't actually make much use of any of the clever gadgets he uses in his shows, and when push comes to shove the extent of his magician skills seem to come down to 'Ah, we must redirect people's attention elsewhere! Misdirection! The key is misdirection!' and so they make a decoy maguffin that misdirects the antagonist for like two seconds.
[nb: spoilers follow]
The plot felt shallow, too. The solution is literally a deus ex machina: they are in a hidden sactuary with a machine, and then the gods get involved and make everyone sit down and talk it out, like middle schoolers in detention for fighting.
The world-building had some elements of coolness to it. I liked the windships. I liked the hints of large-scale politics, how the Unity is trying to be a generalized government and the city of Farglade is trying to hold off Unity to build its own more socialist collective, but the ruling council is rotting from within. I thought the way the Raw gave Breck constant horrific hallucinations, sometimes as an attempt to warn him what to say and what not to say, but other times for no apparent reason other than to remind him of their power over him, was a stroke of genius. Not necessarily narrative genius, as the nature of their power over him was never quite clear, since they're supposed to be trapped in the dariss, but on a scene-level it was great. Every time he hallucinates something, I was caught by surprise.
Still, those flashes of excellence were too few and far between. It took me ages to slog through this book. Too bad. A valiant swing, but a miss all the same.