Luck in the Shadows, Lynn Flewelling

I enjoyed this book, and I will probably pick up at least one of its sequels.

But hey, I've been reading epic fantasy since 2nd or 3rd grade, and I have some quibbles.

I've read the Belgariad and the Malloreon a bunch of times, and all of George R. R. Martin's books; I am pretty good at predicting what is going to happen in an epic fantasy story. All this one was missing was a feisty princess. (Well. There was a feisty princess, but she only showed up for a couple of pages at a time. I demand my feisty princess be part of the plot, like Ce'Nedra or Eilonwy or Ehlana or Arya.) I didn't mind the rambling narrative or the epic backstory or the "first of seven volumes about the coming Great War" tone.

I did mind:

• Constant POV shifts, sometimes just for a paragraph or two, often for no discernable purpose. Don't leave the rising action for three paragraphs to have someone say, "By Bilairy's Balls, they might be in danger!!" and then cut back to them being in danger. It makes it way less exciting when they're rescued.
• I am mildly creeped out by how many people in this story wanted to rape Alec. I'm just saying.
• 12 year old me threw a SHIT FIT if I got to the end and there were barely any girls in the story. Queens and princesses and moms, but no one who got to go on the adventure and be feisty. (On the other hand, yay for sexually ambiguous heroes!)
• There is a LOT of infodumping. I know, I know; there are lots of Elvish Kings to be recounted and current political situations to be explained, and Alec keeps asking, because he wants to know. But after a while paragraphs like these start to sound like self-parody:
  
  "The festival of Sakor, at the Winter Solstice. I wonder what Nysander knows of all this? I'd never have taken Vardarus for a Leran."
  
  "What are Lerans, anyway?"
  
  "Bilairy's Balls. You mean I never told you about Idrilain the First?"
  
  There have to be better ways to introduce your centuries old conflict besides endless conversations about ancient kings and wizards and made-up oaths and the way different people in different cities behave.
  
  I'm pretty sure there was a ton of this in the Belgariad, too, but I wasn't such a critical reader at 12. Hey, I was surprised to learn that Garion was The One, and his name is in the freaking title. I am pretty easy if you just break up the endless exposition! (And the history of the different gods, and what they stand for, and their symbols, and their temples, and their acolytes... I'm sure there are people who eat this stuff up, but I need fewer things to remember and more feisty princesses.)
• Constant, constant, constant going to new places and endless travelogues. I'm interested in what the city they're in looks like. Having Alec describe it from the boat works fine. Then he travels through the city and there are three pages of "what it looks like," coupled with a lot of infodump history. Then "what the castle he's staying in looks like." Then he goes for a ride so he can describe each quarter of the city. I'm not planning a vacation there. Maybe a little less lovingly lavished details on what EVERY ROOM HE ENTERS looks like. I started skimming halfway through and just started substituting "generic castle dungeon," or "generic inn" because it was easier.
• If there is one plot I HATE, it's "I know a dark, DARK SECRET, but I am SWORN NOT TO TELL YOU, and I CAN'T TELL YOU WHY, but IT MIGHT KILL YOU." This book is full of that. I get that Seregil is a Watcher who knows a lot of shit he can't tell Alec. But his boss, Nysander, pulls the same shit on him over and over until he storms out, and I kind of wanted to storm out, too. He's cursed and dying and horrible things are happening, but Nysander can't tell him why and you just have to trust him that it's going to be important later!!!!
  
  Especially because, frankly, it's not THAT HARD to figure out which casually mentioned evil god is behind all this stuff.
• I was totally baffled by the politics of the end, which I think is because there were SO MANY things set up all at once that I lost track of what was important. I'd prefer my made-up history and countries streamlined. And I say that as someone who had notebook after notebook of made-up country maps and histories and songs doodled during math class in high school.
• I have some character quibbles, too, but it's a first novel in a series, and there's time for that later. I really wanted to adore Seregil and Alec, and there were moments when I was all, "Yay! 12 year old me LOVES YOU," but there was just so much training and traveling and set-up and exposition that I didn't have enough time with them. I think that's why I like the middle, where they're traveling and Seregil might die, and the end, where the two of them go on a risky mission, so much. No extraneous history and meeting the servant who works there and the centaur he knows and the beggar he pays off and the maid he bribes and the temple he visits and the inn he owns... Just two guys fighting bad guys and arguing sometimes and undoing magical booby traps. 

That sounded pretty grumpy, and I was up until midnight last night reading and then snuck more reading time at lunch, so it was clearly pretty good! But the further I read the more annoyed I was by those things. Quibble quibble quibble, etc.

Grade: C

Originally posted 2010