Sometimes a book tells you - more or less - what it's all about in the title.
Time of Omens is all about characters who find themselves living in those grand fantasy tales we all love so much - kings claiming the throne! ladies running away to be princesses! prophecy and high adventure! - the gap between expectation and reality. Or, characters in times of omens. If Time of Exile was about loss, this is about getting too much, or getting the wrong thing. And adventure!
Which, for those of you who've read the previous Deverry reviews is about as much as I need to say, other than I liked it a lot. It does what it does very well.
That's a very short review though, so lets waffle some more. For those who don't know Deverry, it's a series of books that straddle the line of the various trad fantasy genres, with signature traits of a pseudo-Celtic accent and culture, very character development-led arcs, a mix of a mystical and semi-religious style of magic with primal, brutish politics and warfare, and most crucially, looping narratives that sweep in and out of history as it follows its key characters' various incarnations. Time of Omens features all of those in spades and it's one of the best mixes of the core concepts since series starter Daggerspell.
In fact, everytime I praise the book, I look back and think I'm underselling it. I'm split as to whether this is merely very good, or in fact excellent. Part of that is the story's fractured narrative causing an absence of powerhouse weight of momentum behind the ending. Scenes from Time of Omens live longer in the memory than the whole thing. Part of that's maybe not enjoying certain parts of the narrative as much as others. The middle part in particular feels like the sort of connecting part that maybe should have been skipped and dealt with in flashbacks.
So why do I think it might be excellent? There's an immersive, addictive quality into how deep she takes you into the character's mindsets. Kerr writes manly men better than most men; she captures the nerves, the bravado, the strange curiousities, and the sudden sober looks at the world. I presume she captures women just as well; she's convinced me at least. The characters feel human (well, they feel their own species) and yet they feel real living examples of a society a long way removed from our own.
In any case, I suggest anyone looking at the series, or wondering how deep to continue, to read on and find out for themselves.
Second Time:
The great thing about sequels is getting to revisit old friends and see how they've grown. Rhodry and Jill really come of age here. Jill reminds me of Pratchett's Granny Weatherwax - very much intent on doing right by people, but impatient and cold-hearted and very much aware that right isn't always nice. I saw one person complain about this on Goodreads, and the complaint makes sense to me, but at the same time it's the logical conclusion of the arc to me and entertaining to read. Jill's incarnations always needed to learn how to stand up for themselves without losing control of themselves. Jill does that.
Rhodry, by contrast, is a long way from being done. He has lost everything twice and he's now quite clearly not fully in control with himself and tired of life. He's not suicidal; he talks about longing for Lady Death, but it'd be very easy for him to get himself killed if he was. But he's the next best thing. There is, in retrospect, something of a missed opportunity here, as we see most of Rhodry's despair through the eyes of others. I'd have liked to see a bit more of his thoughts, and a bit less of the berserk howls of laughter, which should truly be up there with braid tugging for the overused tags of the fantasy community.
Of course, there's another side to the whole seeing old friends thing, and that's when it feels like a twee reunion tour. I'm not entirely sure what seeing Perryn added to the book, other than "yay it's the weird guy who raped the MC". Maybe these are famous last words, but that's not usually the character readers are hankering to see again.
Which, for those of you who've read the previous Deverry reviews is about as much as I need to say, other than I liked it a lot. It does what it does very well.
That's a very short review though, so lets waffle some more. For those who don't know Deverry, it's a series of books that straddle the line of the various trad fantasy genres, with signature traits of a pseudo-Celtic accent and culture, very character development-led arcs, a mix of a mystical and semi-religious style of magic with primal, brutish politics and warfare, and most crucially, looping narratives that sweep in and out of history as it follows its key characters' various incarnations. Time of Omens features all of those in spades and it's one of the best mixes of the core concepts since series starter Daggerspell.
In fact, everytime I praise the book, I look back and think I'm underselling it. I'm split as to whether this is merely very good, or in fact excellent. Part of that is the story's fractured narrative causing an absence of powerhouse weight of momentum behind the ending. Scenes from Time of Omens live longer in the memory than the whole thing. Part of that's maybe not enjoying certain parts of the narrative as much as others. The middle part in particular feels like the sort of connecting part that maybe should have been skipped and dealt with in flashbacks.
So why do I think it might be excellent? There's an immersive, addictive quality into how deep she takes you into the character's mindsets. Kerr writes manly men better than most men; she captures the nerves, the bravado, the strange curiousities, and the sudden sober looks at the world. I presume she captures women just as well; she's convinced me at least. The characters feel human (well, they feel their own species) and yet they feel real living examples of a society a long way removed from our own.
In any case, I suggest anyone looking at the series, or wondering how deep to continue, to read on and find out for themselves.
Second Time:
The great thing about sequels is getting to revisit old friends and see how they've grown. Rhodry and Jill really come of age here. Jill reminds me of Pratchett's Granny Weatherwax - very much intent on doing right by people, but impatient and cold-hearted and very much aware that right isn't always nice. I saw one person complain about this on Goodreads, and the complaint makes sense to me, but at the same time it's the logical conclusion of the arc to me and entertaining to read. Jill's incarnations always needed to learn how to stand up for themselves without losing control of themselves. Jill does that.
Rhodry, by contrast, is a long way from being done. He has lost everything twice and he's now quite clearly not fully in control with himself and tired of life. He's not suicidal; he talks about longing for Lady Death, but it'd be very easy for him to get himself killed if he was. But he's the next best thing. There is, in retrospect, something of a missed opportunity here, as we see most of Rhodry's despair through the eyes of others. I'd have liked to see a bit more of his thoughts, and a bit less of the berserk howls of laughter, which should truly be up there with braid tugging for the overused tags of the fantasy community.
 |
| It's been a long time since I went to memetown for a review, but Thor damn it if this wasn't the right time |
Of course, there's another side to the whole seeing old friends thing, and that's when it feels like a twee reunion tour. I'm not entirely sure what seeing Perryn added to the book, other than "yay it's the weird guy who raped the MC". Maybe these are famous last words, but that's not usually the character readers are hankering to see again.
Speaking of not quite grasping the point, I'll be mogadored if I ever get what the Civil War arc brought to the Deverry Cycle other than a lot of very enjoyable story. Yes, that is the main point, but in a story that layers meaning after meaning through its use of incarnation jumping and theme, it's far from the only one. It's a shame I've got to poke at that because it really is a fun read, just... someone explain it to me, damnit!
That's actually the summation of my feelings here. The sense of cohesive theme that I'm such a sucker for is kinda AWOL here. Time of Exile was an uneven story that really achieved a great resonance of theme. Time of Omens is a great story that is missing some glue.
Time of War? We will see.
If you can find the point, that'd be awesome. The best I've got is "Kerr needed some backstory for the expanded version of the story so wrote a damn good story".
ReplyDelete