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Jump to navigationJump to searchBeyond the Wall of Time (Broken Man) by Russell Kirkpatrick (view source)
Revision as of 20:01, 29 August 2020
, 20:01, 29 August 2020no edit summary
In terms of the story itself, ''Beyond the Wall of Time'' is the weakest of the trilogy, but that's akin to choosing the least sweet spoonful of sugar. It does feel like Kirkpatrick maybe brought the characters a little too far with the earlier books, which were sizable tomes, not leaving himself enough of their journey to fill the final part. There is still a lot happening here, but the group seem to be lurching from one set piece to another, without really making progress. This is no bad thing, but after the earlier parts, it feels less convincing.
One thing that remains the same is Kirkpatrick's inventiveness. He always manages to find ways of keeping his characters and his readers off -balance. Unfortunately for the characters, he usually achieves this by springing nasty surprises on them. This time, Kirkpatrick doesn't just stop at physically tormenting his characters, as both Husk and Lenares have psychological issues to deal with and the group have to contend with the loss of some of their number. But thanks to Kirkpatrick's fertile imagination and the magic that abounds in this world, sometimes even death doesn't prove to be the end.
The reason this matters so much to me hasn't changed, either. Kirkpatrick has built some wonderful characters into this trilogy that I've come to know well. They're not always likable likeable and they don't always act with the purest of motives, but the major characters are wonderfully drawn and each one is distinctive. From the beginning of the trilogy, it has been easy to separate one from the other, so well are they all written and it's tough not to pick favourites and to feel a little something for them when they are in danger. Indeed, such is the quality of Kirkpatrick's writing, it's often difficult not to feel things alongside them, as well as for them.
Although the world has always been well drawn, in ''Beyond the Wall of Time'', it appears especially so. It could be that Kirkpatrick has made the scenery a larger part of the book here as there wasn't quite enough story to go around, but for whatever reason, you get to see the huge contrasts in the land here. One moment the group is in the forest canopy of Patina Padouk, not long after they are deep underground in the hidden mining community of the Zizhua Valley. You can almost feel the trees swaying in the breeze before worrying that the mountains above are going to fall down and bury you alive once you follow the story into Zizhua. The writing is as powerful as ever, even if some other aspects of the book fall a little short.
