Reading
There's often a point when a series settles into a routine. The Chronicles of Elantra has done that for a while. Kaylin will be compassionate, focus on her powerlessness while fumbling her way to success using the unique powers she does pocess, be subjected to a lot of explanation from others (especially discussions about differing perceptions), and still generally be entertaining. Cast in Oblivion isn't really anything new even as it gets into more of the powers hidden beneath the Barani High Halls. It was a comfortable read, at least.
Chasing Graves, on the other hand, had the bonus of being something new. It also kind of annoyed me by the end.
It sets forth a world with some loose borrowing of Egyptian mythology and terms that centers heavily on "shades" - dead bound to physical-ish form, usually indentured to the living. There are plenty of rules about it, with a spirit rising after a death in "turmoil" and being bindable via a ritual performed with so many days. They're vulnerable to copper and bound to a coin and its owner via that ritual. There are various laws, and free shades are possible, but it also sets up many laws being overlooked and under enforced to the point where thugs can murder newcomers to a city, raise them, and sell them off as slaves. That's a mess, clearly.
I found myself sort of liking Caltro, at least. One of the main POV characters (and strangely, the one written in first-person), he's a skilled criminal locksmith who gets ganked and sold into slavery. Some powers seem to be pushing him toward something greater, but he's not really empowered to do much about it. Then we have political-criminal interplay with the princess and her court as well as a gang leader and his people. Another major character is Nilith, who's quest to bind her recently-slain husband is... frankly pretty boring and repetitive in my view, and her relevance is only made clear at the end of the book.
And that is sort of the problem. Chasing Graves is clearly the start of a series, but it's so much the start of a series that it doesn't really accomplish anything on its own. The situations set up at the beginning are pretty much the same ones at the end. You can see things may be moving toward something else, but the book has no real climax of its own. That bothers me, though I'm not sure how much so. I'll have to ponder that.
Chasing Graves, on the other hand, had the bonus of being something new. It also kind of annoyed me by the end.
It sets forth a world with some loose borrowing of Egyptian mythology and terms that centers heavily on "shades" - dead bound to physical-ish form, usually indentured to the living. There are plenty of rules about it, with a spirit rising after a death in "turmoil" and being bindable via a ritual performed with so many days. They're vulnerable to copper and bound to a coin and its owner via that ritual. There are various laws, and free shades are possible, but it also sets up many laws being overlooked and under enforced to the point where thugs can murder newcomers to a city, raise them, and sell them off as slaves. That's a mess, clearly.
I found myself sort of liking Caltro, at least. One of the main POV characters (and strangely, the one written in first-person), he's a skilled criminal locksmith who gets ganked and sold into slavery. Some powers seem to be pushing him toward something greater, but he's not really empowered to do much about it. Then we have political-criminal interplay with the princess and her court as well as a gang leader and his people. Another major character is Nilith, who's quest to bind her recently-slain husband is... frankly pretty boring and repetitive in my view, and her relevance is only made clear at the end of the book.
And that is sort of the problem. Chasing Graves is clearly the start of a series, but it's so much the start of a series that it doesn't really accomplish anything on its own. The situations set up at the beginning are pretty much the same ones at the end. You can see things may be moving toward something else, but the book has no real climax of its own. That bothers me, though I'm not sure how much so. I'll have to ponder that.
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