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“Finished the Scavenger trilogy by K.J. Parker: Shadow, Pattern and Memory. This is the series she wrote before the superb "Engineer" trilogy. This trilogy is still very good by normal fantasy standards, though not quite as good as the Engineer. The plot relies heavily on fate causing a series of coincidences that would otherwise be completely unbelievable. The protagonist Poldarn is believed by some to be a god sent to cause the end of the world: however he's an amnesiac and unaware of who he is. This means that Poldarn wakes up in a river surrounded by bodies, with no memory of how he got there. He then wanders around, leaving a trail of devastation and death behind him, without any intention of doing so. There are a few fantasy elements, but they're kept mostly in the background. There aren't any dragons or elves or wizards or suchlike, which seem to me the MSG of fantasy: cheap way to boost the flavour, but gets boring once you're used to it. There's some good world-building, especially the society of the raiders' island and the guild town. Parker's also unsentimental in giving terrible fates to her characters here: not quite at Donaldson levels but she's trying hard to get there. Plot-wise they're very compelling despite the repetition and coincidence: read them all in a few huge sittings. Overall, very good immersive reading if you can suspend disbelief for the plot coincidences. Not best read by the easily depressed though.”
TheophileEscargot wrote this review Monday, March 24 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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