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Seventh Decimate by Stephen Donaldson (view source)
Revision as of 16:45, 29 August 2020
, 16:45, 29 August 2020no edit summary
The people of Amika have found the ultimate weapon; it's called the seventh decimate and it has the power to render enemy sorcerers completely inert. As such, there is absolutely nothing to prevent the sorcerers of Amika from desolating Prince Bifalt's armies from Belleger. They have no defences against such awesome power, and their recent discovery of gunpowder can only assist them so far. They need to get their hands on the same weapon their enemy has recently acquired so they can, once again, balance the scales of war.
Prince Bifalt is sent on a mission, with a few followers, to acquire such a power. And despite the interesting premise of the novel, this is where the problems began for me. The story developed into a linear quest type narrative, which in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, but what prevented the novel from becoming exciting, dramatic and even entertaining was Bifalt's lack of personality. Simply put, he just not a very likable likeable character because he possesses very little character. I could not tell you anything of remark about him because he has nothing remarkable about him. Seeing the world through his eyes was the biggest hindrance to the story.
His attempts at leadership resulted in many cases of generic and clichéd dialogue. I also took issue with his complete lack of knowledge about his own world, his enemy and the ultimate purpose of the war he was fighting? How can the Prince of the land not know what's beyond his borders? He was also fiercely gullible and overly trusting. How can a man in his position lack all political savviness that any leader would need? But this is only the tip of the iceberg. All these things are fine if the central character grows through his journey. Unfortunately, Bifalt did not which made the quest feel incomplete and a little pointless.