RogerBW's Blog

The Fiend Queen, Barbara Ann Wright 22 November 2021

2015 fantasy, last of the Katya and Starbride tetralogy. Katya and Starbride are both fighting to depose the Fiend-possessed usurper Roland, but winning that battle won't be the hardest thing either of them has to do.

Well, yes, all right. This does wrap up the personal stories; and there's tension and doubt on the way there. It doesn't drop the ball. But on the other hand the series seemed to promise so much more – a reconciliation of incompatible styles of magic, a cultural renaissance as nations merge and a political one as absolute rulers shift to a more parliamentary system – that simply doesn't happen.

What we do get is a story in multiple phases, not just a constant struggle against the same foe. Katya and Starbride fight separately through the palace and finally meet each other; then Katya's apparently killed but actually precipitated into ancient tunnels below the palace, while Starbride deals with her grief by going ever more deeply into magic; then once they get back together, there's a matter of getting Starbride back to her normal personality.

Which is not a terrible structure, and it ought to work; but for me the way Starbride fell immediately for someone's lies, raising herself towards a new Fiendish tyrant status, seemed inconsistent with what we've previously seen of her personality. Yeah, I know, she has a terribly clever presence in her head which knows where all her vulnerabilities are and is happy to play on them, but… somehow this didn't feel right for the character I've got to like over the previous three books, who's previously been very effective at resisting this kind of blandishment. There's a little more to it than "X is possessed, we need to un-possess her without damaging her", but not really all that much. And going round and round and not really getting anywhere takes quite a bit of the word count.

(There's also an unfortunate suggestion that one of the direct warning signs giving the reader a reason to be suspicious of that tempting presence is that it can choose to manifest male or female genitalia at will, a surprisingly discordant note in a series that's treated homosexuality and indeed bisexuality as entirely unremarkable.)

Katya's half of the story – as before, we alternate chapters between them – is more action-focussed, but with some delving into the history of the setting.

And then… it's done, a minor character has sacrificed the social role that her identity was tied up in but nobody seems to care, the toys are put back in the box but everything that might have lead towards a resolution rather than "things will be OK for a while" is forgotten or left to one side. The writing is decent but uninspired. After the way the quality had built up through the series I found this volume a distinct let-down. Ah well.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Previous in series: The Kingdom Lost | Series: Katya and Starbride

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime crystal cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 essen 2024 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2021 hugo 2022 hugo 2023 hugo 2024 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1