Prince of the Blood, Redux

Whatever redux means. I've never quite understood that.

I finished Raymond E. Feist's Prince of the Blood this morning, and, frankly, it did not grow on me much. The prose remained comfortably mediocre, but at least understandable. Towards the end there was less setting and more battles, which was great as Feist's battle scenes are fantastic (no pun intended), but the piles of political intrigue between characters the majority of which had only been mentioned twice took a while to sift through. Perhaps a diagram of the Keshian court structure would have been as useful as the map.

One thing Feist did particularly nicely, and something I will have to learn from, was how starkly he differentiated the two cultures. The Keshians weren't just a clone of those of the Kingdom with darker skin and more sand in their backyards: they had an utterly different value system, a distinct set of clashing cultures within the Empire, and bizarre little quirks that, while unimportant, clashed brilliantly with the actions of the protagonists. Half the setting details in Kesh were completely unimportant, but that was okay as they served their purpose: namely, helping our twin protagonists develop by forcing them to experience a world utterly unlike their own. Which taught them important lessons about leadership and they go home responsible men, etcetera. I must admit I was missing the rash redheads by the last four hundred pages. There is, as a matter of fact, such a thing as too much character development. But back to the point of this paragraph: nice culture clash. Even if the high ratio of unnecessarily scantily clad women made me feel like this was Star Trek: The Fantasy Series. FYI, fantasy writers: you cannot justify blatant objectification of women by "cultural differences". It just makes me even madder.

As I mentioned earlier, his battle scenes are also lovely. (Can you say that about battle scenes?) I am particularly fond of desert environments, and the bandit attack on the group in the middle of the sandstorm was all that I could wish for. Unfortunately, while there were plenty of fight scenes later in the book, the climax was all resolved by the two things I dislike most about fantasy novels: politics and magic. Not to spoiler, but I think bringing a character with magic powers to resolve things the protagonists could have done on their own is one big cop-out. Sorry, Feist, but there will not be any magic cop-outs in my novel. Nuh-uh.

And don't give me the "there is no magic" line, either! That was poorly set up and hopelessly explained and lampshaded when it was finally paid off, and I saw which character it would be directed to a mile away.

Since I feel the need to complain about various plot points, I shall now air my very spoilerful list of grievances. Do not read any further if you have not read Prince of the Blood.

1. Love at first sight. I hate it as a plot point in general, liked James as a character, and was infuriated when the Sueish Gamina showed up and was apparently his one true soulmate purely because she could read his mind. It felt like I was reading some warped distorted version of Twilight. And that, my friends, is not a good thing. To be fair, Gamina did grow on me, but only when she started being useful. If only she'd been useful first, then fallen madly in love with Jimmy, I'd like this book all the more. 
2. Characters picking up the infamous idiot ball and throwing my willing suspension of disbelief out the window. Do not expect me to believe, Mr. Feist, that Borric would gamble away his sword before riding through a bandit-infested desert. You've informed me that he's been a solider for the past few years; he has more common sense than that. 
3. Obvious plot "twists". I saw the culprit coming the moment he was introduced. Any character constantly described as reasonable and peacemaking has got to be a wannabe dictator planning a coup. The obvious villain is just a red-herring. Any reader with an inch of genre-savviness knows this. 
4. The very transparent bridge dropped on Locklear. 

Believe it or not, however, I enjoyed Prince of the Blood. It is a fairly terrible novel, with a lot more to dislike than like, but it's also an exciting story and quite a thrill ride. With some lovely desert landscapes. I wouldn't recommend it, but I've definitely learned something from reading it.