Review - Soldier Son 1

I have decided to do a 50 book challenge this year. That is, basically, to read 50 books between now and 31 12 2006. It should be easy; I read relatively quickly and that's a little under one book a week. So with that in mind, I present to you book number 1:

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The Soldier's Son Trilogy: 1. Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb.

Good things:
All in all this a tighter, much more tightly plotted book than her recent novels.
The depiction of the military training school, often a fantasy cliché, is one of the best I have read.
Characterisation is strong, and the relationships between Nevare (the narrator/protagonist) and his fellow cadets are well written.

Bad things:
Far too many unnecessary spelling errors and typos for a published piece of work. They tend to really distract from the prose, and that's a shame because it's otherwise good. The regular reader might not spot them, but to my writer's eye they quickly became an irritant.

Generally:
It's too soon to tell whether Hobb has repeated the success of her previous series (The Farseer, The Liveship Traders, and The Tawny Man). As is often the case with modern fantasy, trilogies need to be judged as a whole. You need to read the last words before you can decide if all that pointless exposition in book 1 or the dragging out of plotlines in book 2 were actually worth the effort. I feel now that the effort will probably be rewarded, because that was a thoroughly enjoyable and absorbing read.

It's funny, when I compare this with the other trilogy I tried to start recently -- Cecelia Dart Thornton's Crowthistle Chronicles -- I realise just what a great book Shaman's Crossing is. The gulf between these books is immense. One dragged you along with engaging characters and a refreshing set-up, the other buried you under flowery language and a romanticised attempt at fantasy that was so corny I thought, at one point, that it was parody. I'll leave you to decide which of these is which.

When is all said, I remain hopeful that series -- unlike the Crowthistle Chronicles -- will live up to all of my expectations, and look forward expectantly to Forest Mage

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See also:
Do you like playing the fool? (Tawny Man 3, August 2005)
Review - The Iron Tree (Crowthistle Chronicles 1, November 2005)

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50 book challenge 2006:

1 = The Soldier's Son Trilogy: 1. Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb

Next = The Wheel of Time: 11. Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan