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A review by angrywombat
Harbinger by Philippa Ballantine
3.0
Strangely, this was the most dissatisfying of the Order books.
Ms Ballantine gave us more of the same in this, the 4th in the main Order books, and a semi-satisfying conclusion. I think that the biggest problem of this installment is that it is the last installment - and endings are always hard to do right.
Our ever favorite characters: Sorcha, Merrick, Raed and the Rossin are back and in top form. I really loved the challenge raised by the ending of the last book - the Rossin trying to escape - made me almost think that it was the Rossin that was going to be the big-bad of this book. But that was only a lovingly planted red herring! All of our characters were up to their familiar escapades as we followed them in the battle for the Empire against the evil geists. It was like being wrapped up in a warm blanket, having all these familiar personalities facing and overcoming challenges as they have done in previous books.
But the let down was the villain. Yes, he was powerful, and yes he was smart. But the plot he had spun, along with his motivations just didn't ring true. He felt too much like a gloating evil caricature, and quite unlike the other enemies we had seen in the previous books. I never really felt I could understand or empathize with him. Because of that, the ending felt very overdone and unbelievable. The big confrontation was very sudden, and all our characters had been moved around like chess pieces, and not truly of their own will. This really pulled a lot of the power away from what should have been the climax of the whole series.
But other than the last 1/4, the book was filled with excitement and hard choices for all the characters I'd come to know and love over this series. I think Ms Ballantine excels at writing personal stories, with the added flair of the fantastical. But the attempt to push the story into the mould of an epic fantasy did it some disservice.
That being said, I think I will look for some other stories by this author, and see how well she does there.
Ms Ballantine gave us more of the same in this, the 4th in the main Order books, and a semi-satisfying conclusion. I think that the biggest problem of this installment is that it is the last installment - and endings are always hard to do right.
Our ever favorite characters: Sorcha, Merrick, Raed and the Rossin are back and in top form. I really loved the challenge raised by the ending of the last book - the Rossin trying to escape - made me almost think that it was the Rossin that was going to be the big-bad of this book. But that was only a lovingly planted red herring! All of our characters were up to their familiar escapades as we followed them in the battle for the Empire against the evil geists. It was like being wrapped up in a warm blanket, having all these familiar personalities facing and overcoming challenges as they have done in previous books.
But the let down was the villain. Yes, he was powerful, and yes he was smart. But the plot he had spun, along with his motivations just didn't ring true. He felt too much like a gloating evil caricature, and quite unlike the other enemies we had seen in the previous books. I never really felt I could understand or empathize with him. Because of that, the ending felt very overdone and unbelievable. The big confrontation was very sudden, and all our characters had been moved around like chess pieces, and not truly of their own will. This really pulled a lot of the power away from what should have been the climax of the whole series.
But other than the last 1/4, the book was filled with excitement and hard choices for all the characters I'd come to know and love over this series. I think Ms Ballantine excels at writing personal stories, with the added flair of the fantastical. But the attempt to push the story into the mould of an epic fantasy did it some disservice.
That being said, I think I will look for some other stories by this author, and see how well she does there.