Abyss, on 07 November 2022 - 02:42 PM, said:
Halfway thru Jen Lyon's Chorus of Dragons bk 5 THE DISCORD OF GODS, am enjoying it. ...
Just Finished.
She sticks the landing very nicely, thank you. Some massive battles, some nice twists, solid resolutions to the major plotlines, satisfying ends to character arcs big and small, enough left open that 'the story continues' even tho it doesn't.
This series is not very dark. It treads on the edges at times, but never goes full Erikson or Abercrombie. Action scenes are well written and visual enough. Pacing is good, if it drags here or there to infodump it corrects quickly.
To her absolute credit, the author consistently winds all the many plot threads and character groups together. It's a big cast and events are spread out, but somehow come together not just at the finale of each book, but at various, logical points. By the middle'ish everyone has met, groups have been mixed up, and - unlike many fantasy epics where distinct plotlines are parallel but never meet - the story falls into a coherent whole. Supporting characters in one book become pov characters later, rolls shift, we get different perspectives on events that change the reader's impression of wtf just happened.
The characters are a nice mix of archetypes and 'real'ish, very engaging, fun to read. The world(s) are well thought out but not overdeveloped - some authors explain the major export of a city and its geography to justify its existence, but Lyons doesn't leave any plots lying around that require that, so the reader doesn't need to care.
The magic system is fun, not original but very very flexible without feeling deus ex. 'Death' in particular is both important and potentially transitory... i have to give Lyons credit for setting up situations where knowing they might die isn't just a motivator to stay alive but potentially part of a bigger plan. Resurrections and past lives are active plot points that often do not work out. The gods, god-kings, wizards, witches, immortals interact w 'normal' people and are far from all powerful. People change sides and their motivations make sense. Perfectly good plans go horribly horribly wrong.
One villain in particular has an excellent Xanatos thing going. I don't think i've enjoyed a master baddie type this much in a long time.
I loved her dragons... genuinely magic, original, 'fun' and a real threat, even creepy at times. Her not-quite-human races are mostly more or less elves but for reasons the story explains they aren't very non-human, except for some that are nicely alien. There's a shapechanger who is an absolute scenestealer. There are demons who are not just there to be evil. The 'magic items' are pretty great.
No issues w the five doorstopper book size, each book's story has a logical space to fill.
The narrative structure, each book told as stories by the survivors to someone else who plays a role in it, is very engaging and enjoyable. The earbook narrators make good use of this most of the time.
Cons... not much... the main characters start out a bit young and give the early two novels a YA vibe that fades reasonably quickly. There's a tendency to use colloquial slang... 'let's kick his ass'... works fine for me but might throw some out of the story. Some twists are less clever or more obviously foreshadowed to the point that the reader might be surprised something was as obvious as it was but that's a rare foible.
Earbook narration is done by teams of 2-3 people. It is generally good, sometimes great, sometimes it takes close to half a book for a narrator to hit their grove and keep voices distinct, which can be annoying when a narrator, who is also a character in the story being told, interjects into the story and it's unclear whether they are commenting as a participant or narrator. The flipside to this is books 4 and 5, where the narrators and well in the zone and the interjections are great, sometimes extremely funny.
It's a fun, enjoyable fantasy series, and if you're feeling like an epic, i think it's worth the eyes, brainz, and money. You'll know by mid the first book if you want to keep going. I'm glad i did.
Up next, semi reluctantly bumping Jemisin for Sanderson's THE LOST METAL.
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