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Review: The Court of the Air
I am rather disappointed in my book club's January selection. The Court of the Air, by Stephen Hunt. It suffers from a very common shortcoming, but one usually found in film and comics rather than prose: it has almost no character development.
No, the focus of this book isn't the characters, it's the world those characters populate. Indeed, Mr. Hunt spends so much time developing his admittedly unique blend of steam punk and fantasy setting and various races that he forgets to develop his actual characters. Molly and Oliver are the two leads in this book, yet we know next to nothing about their personalities.
Instead of showing us their temperaments, and hobbies, and daydreams, and what they find amusing or insulting, we read endless paragraphs about each country's politics, the various and different religions, how life and perceptions differ between the four intelligent races (humans, steammen, crab-like humanoids, and some type of mining animal humanoid--mole maybe? My mind must have been glazed over by then.) We know more about the morbid history of Molly and Oliver's home country than we do about them.
And then, in chapter 19, wave your magic wand because Oliver suddenly inherits magical senses for good and evil, battle ESP, and perfect aim with his sparkly new pistols. I suppose his inherit abilities were snapped awake by said sparkly new pistols, but it seems awfully thin.
*drums fingers* As I said above, I've encountered lack of character development many times, but always before it was for the sake of action, in a limited medium like film and comics. To find it here, in a 600 PAGE BOOK, and taking a back seat to WORLD BUILDING...it kind of boggles my mind. I've skimmed over the reviews left on B&N.com, and my opinion is in the minority. I've said many times I read stories for characters. When I write, I always start with my characters and plot, then construct the world around them. Mr. Hunt has clearly taken the opposite track and rendered his people has a mere afterthought.
To be fair, it isn't just the world building that has taken away from time better spent on character development, it's the extensive cast as well. Mr. Hunt switches from point of view to point of view in a 3rd person extremely unlimited omniscience orgy. With all that flitting from character to character, it's not too surprising the reader barely gets to know anyone. He also tends to kill characters off right after we meet them. It's almost a joke for me by this point. "Okay, I give this new guy here 10 pages to live! *7 pages later* HA! I win!"
I am not finished with the book yet; I'm just over half-way through. T.T At least I WANT to finish it, if only to see what's going to happen now that a handful of the key players are coming together within the plot, instead of running all over the pretty shiny sparkly world so we can learn even MORE about it! X3 </sarcasm>
As an interesting contrast, Inda also has massive world-building and a large 3rd person unlimited omniscience cast, but Ms. Smith remembered to developed her characters. THEY drive the world, not the other way around. (Yes, I am gushing over Inda AGAIN. You know I like that series!)
Mr. Hunt needs to learn some restraint, I think. Meh. The Court of the Air is the start of a series. I'll bet you can guess if I'll be reading vol 2 or not. :P Maybe the ending will save it?
I wonder what my fellow book club members will think of this one? This is the third fantasy I've read with the club, and I've noticed fantasy book month meetings tend to be smaller than the sci-fi ones. In regards to my opinion of the three fantasies in question, this is the 2nd bomb. (The first was Book of the Dun Cow. UGH.) At least Inda was wonderful. They can't all be great, everyone can't like everything, I suppose.
I WANTED to like this one. *grumble* I hope I can manage to finish it before the meeting, b/c I probably won't if I don't. (My eloquence! Let me show you it!)
No, the focus of this book isn't the characters, it's the world those characters populate. Indeed, Mr. Hunt spends so much time developing his admittedly unique blend of steam punk and fantasy setting and various races that he forgets to develop his actual characters. Molly and Oliver are the two leads in this book, yet we know next to nothing about their personalities.
Instead of showing us their temperaments, and hobbies, and daydreams, and what they find amusing or insulting, we read endless paragraphs about each country's politics, the various and different religions, how life and perceptions differ between the four intelligent races (humans, steammen, crab-like humanoids, and some type of mining animal humanoid--mole maybe? My mind must have been glazed over by then.) We know more about the morbid history of Molly and Oliver's home country than we do about them.
And then, in chapter 19, wave your magic wand because Oliver suddenly inherits magical senses for good and evil, battle ESP, and perfect aim with his sparkly new pistols. I suppose his inherit abilities were snapped awake by said sparkly new pistols, but it seems awfully thin.
*drums fingers* As I said above, I've encountered lack of character development many times, but always before it was for the sake of action, in a limited medium like film and comics. To find it here, in a 600 PAGE BOOK, and taking a back seat to WORLD BUILDING...it kind of boggles my mind. I've skimmed over the reviews left on B&N.com, and my opinion is in the minority. I've said many times I read stories for characters. When I write, I always start with my characters and plot, then construct the world around them. Mr. Hunt has clearly taken the opposite track and rendered his people has a mere afterthought.
To be fair, it isn't just the world building that has taken away from time better spent on character development, it's the extensive cast as well. Mr. Hunt switches from point of view to point of view in a 3rd person extremely unlimited omniscience orgy. With all that flitting from character to character, it's not too surprising the reader barely gets to know anyone. He also tends to kill characters off right after we meet them. It's almost a joke for me by this point. "Okay, I give this new guy here 10 pages to live! *7 pages later* HA! I win!"
I am not finished with the book yet; I'm just over half-way through. T.T At least I WANT to finish it, if only to see what's going to happen now that a handful of the key players are coming together within the plot, instead of running all over the pretty shiny sparkly world so we can learn even MORE about it! X3 </sarcasm>
As an interesting contrast, Inda also has massive world-building and a large 3rd person unlimited omniscience cast, but Ms. Smith remembered to developed her characters. THEY drive the world, not the other way around. (Yes, I am gushing over Inda AGAIN. You know I like that series!)
Mr. Hunt needs to learn some restraint, I think. Meh. The Court of the Air is the start of a series. I'll bet you can guess if I'll be reading vol 2 or not. :P Maybe the ending will save it?
I wonder what my fellow book club members will think of this one? This is the third fantasy I've read with the club, and I've noticed fantasy book month meetings tend to be smaller than the sci-fi ones. In regards to my opinion of the three fantasies in question, this is the 2nd bomb. (The first was Book of the Dun Cow. UGH.) At least Inda was wonderful. They can't all be great, everyone can't like everything, I suppose.
I WANTED to like this one. *grumble* I hope I can manage to finish it before the meeting, b/c I probably won't if I don't. (My eloquence! Let me show you it!)