F/SF

Probably my favorite of the Warlock in Spite of Himself novels, this one ties together some loose ends, and sets the stage for the rest of the books.

Fans of the series ought especially to read this one. ( )

A set-up book for a series and reasonable entertainment. ( )

Fun. It gets a bit preachy, here and there, about the value of education and of learning how to think for oneself, but there's a great story that the preaching is nicely intertwined with. I like Dar, and Sam (as much as we get to know of her), and Whitey of course. Lona's even more obscure than Sam. The least convincing part of the whole thing is the romances - Dar seems to be purely attracted to the physical, and I don't see much of a reason for either of the women to be interested back...but at least one of them finds something to want about him. Very abruptly, too, after spending most of the book being quite aloof. That aside, the story is improbable but fascinating. Each bit follows logically from the previous, but the entire chain of events goes off in some seriously weird directions. As a history of the Warlock universe, it's a great deal of fun - neat to see Fess' first encounter with the D'Armands from the other point of view (my latest reread was triggered by reading The Warlock's Companion, which gives it from Fess' POV). And the beginning of Gramarye, too, with a glimpse of what the SCA might become. A regular reread, in some ways better than the Warlock books themselves (less formulaic, at least). Always good. ( )

A couple of people set out from a prison planet that's reformed itself into a democracy into a galaxy teetering on the brink of dictatorship in order to deliver some important documents. But they run into trouble along the way when they're accused of being members of a conspiracy of evil telepaths. Or something like that. To be honest, the details of the story tended to slide off my brain as if they were coated in Teflon. It's primarily a humorous novel, anyway, but its sense of humor is kind of uneven and strange, ranging from intellectual quips to groan-worthy puns to broad political satire to sheer silliness. I might have gotten a chuckle or two out of some of it, especially early in the book, but mostly it didn't do anything for me. The fact that much of it consists of people standing around expositing at each other probably didn't help much, either. I can sort of see how some might find it entertaining, and some of the political commentary is still all too relevant, but it just completely failed to click with me at all.

I vaguely recall reading The Warlock in Spite of Himself, to which this is a prequel, many years ago, but I remembered nothing about it whatsoever. My conclusion now is that that's probably because it was thoroughly forgettable. I think that's enough of this series for me. ( )