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I must admit
that i approached this book with some
trepidation, since i am, shall we say, not
particularly impressed with Eric Flint's
"editing" (for want of a better word) of the
rest of the James Schmitz canon, nor with
Lackey's general record lately of not even
keeping up with her own series'
backstories (see the reviews for Exile's
Valor), and because i didn't have
any idea who Freer was.
(I have not yet gotten hold of a copy of an
un-tampered-with edition of Witches of Karres
to see how extensively Flint "edited" that
volume; a quick skim of the Baen version
showed nothing immediately obviously egregious
there, though.}
That out of the way, if this were an original
story, i'd probably give it four stars, rather
than the three i have -- but if it were an
original story, i doubt it would have ever
been published; it's a niche story, and
without Scmitz's brilliant original to follow
up to, the niche wouldn't exist.
As to the story itself: it falls prey to the
most common problems writers of pastiche run
afoul of -- first of which is often trying to
put in references to everything from the
original, whether the new story needs them or
not. Thus we have references to tinklewood
fishing poles and TotiSystem Toys, among other
things. And lots and lots of vatches.
Another problem writers of pastiche may trip
over is a tendency to retcons ("RETroactive
CONtinuity") of the original story, explaining
at length things that need no explanation,
which can be particularly annoying if the
retcon involves background material that
wouldn't have been available to the original
writer (the explanation given here of the
formal name of one character from "Witches" is
one such).
But, if those are your worst problems in
writing such a work, then you're doing pretty
good, and Flint, Lackey and Freer have,
indeed, done Pretty Good.
The story is rather complex -- to say the
least -- and i wouldn't even try to summarise
it, both because such a summary would of
necessity be both long and confusing and
becuase it would, of necessity, involve at
least some amount of spoilers.
They have crested a complex political intrigue
out of characters and situations which were
basically throw-aways in the first book, and
play it out well.
Mostly they succeed in mimicking Schmitz's
almost laconic, low-key narrative style, but
depart from it in having parallel plots going
at various points -- i cannot remember any of
Schmitz's own work that do so, unless possibly
it's the story that teams Telzey and Trigger
-- and in telling parts of the story from
other viewpoints than Captain Pausert's.
Their handling of Pausert's continuing
discovery of his own abilities at manipulating
the mystical klatha energy that the Witches of
Karres use nicely mimick and continue
Schmitz's handling of similar material in the
original, and the continuing development of
Pausert and Goth's relationship rings true.
Goth's sister, the Leewit, is along to add to
the fun, and old spacer (and
burglar/spy/mercenary) Vezzarn and former
Imperial agent Hulik do Eldel, now working
with Pausert, are well used, although they do
tend to fade into the background when not
needed stage front.
Pul, the grik dog, is just a bit too too.
The sequence in which the crew of the Venture,
fleeing Imperial Security, sinister aliens and
the pirates of the Agandar (a pirate lord
vanquished by Pausert & Co in the first
book) take refuge aboard a circus ship is
well-done, though i do question whether the
plays of Shakesapparentlypeare would have
survived unchanged in the apparent
history that Schmitz set up in the first book,
with Earth a virtual legend of the distant
past, so far off that even the name has become
"Yarthe".
In the end, all comes out well and right --
though with hints of possibly another volume
in the offing, and echoes of Prisoner of Zenda
(or perhaps Heinlein's Double Star).
I do feel as if there are some inconsistencies
in continuity -- mainly that though i have the
impression that Pausert & Co were again
running under the forged ship's papers and
identities created for them by the Daal's
document specialists on Uldune, people who
shouldn't have the faintest idea that Captain
Aron of the Evening Bird out of Mulm
and his niece Dani are actually Pausert of the
Venture, out of Nikkeldepain, and Goth,
a possible Karres witch, keep calling him
"Pausert"...
One assertion i've noticed in a couple of
reviews of this book is that Schmitz never
wrote a sequel; i understand that the
situation is a bit different -- that he did,
indeed, write one, but that the manuscript was
lost and he never got around to reconstructing
it. However, the fact that H. Beam Piper's
third Little Fuzzy novel, long thought
lost, finally did materialise, gives me some
faint hope.
(And, while Schmitz had a fondness for
odd-ball names -- i still treasure "Gefty
Rammer" -- somehow, "Vonard Kleesp" seems to
me a bit over the top...) |
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