
I love the world
Trudi Canavan creates. It takes a few chapters to get a sense of what’s going
on, but once you do it’s a fascinating world, geographically and culturally.
The ongoing battle between Northern Circlians, led by the White, and the Southern
Pentadrians, led by the Voices, creates a very dramatic and interesting set-up.
The Dreamweavers too are a fascinating idea, brought into focus in the first
book by Auraya’s connection with her childhood mentor Dreamweaver Leiard. I
find the idea of their dream links especially interesting, and complex moral
issues are thrown up throughout the trilogy as the White attempt to deal with
the oppression of Dreamweavers. Beyond this, I especially like the Siyee – the
winged humans from Si – and the Eli – who live half in water. They create more
and more layers to this complex place, and curious parts of the world for the
reader to explore. The magic is interesting too. How it works is never quite
explored, but having many characters able to read minds and some others able to
sense emotions makes for interesting narrative perspectives.
The characterisation
is mainly very strong. My favourite characters thorough the series were by far
Emerahl and Leiard, especially in terms of his character development later on. I
also loved Danjin, Reivan and Tryss – and I did, somewhere along the line,
especially in the final book, really come to like Auraya too. In figures such
as these, we find complex and fascinating characters, that Canavan explores and
shows well. She has a lot of characters over the three books, and manages to
keep your interest in and sympathy for almost all of them – or certainly the
ones that Canavan is most concerned about keeping your interest in.
However, I think I’m
almost most impressed by the plot itself. It’s complicated, and twists and
turns, and Canavan switches characters, sub-plot and perspective a lot – but
it’s brilliant, and it works. I was thoroughly hooked on these books,
especially when it came to the second and third. I sped through the final book
grinning as I thought I could only grin while reading nineteenth century
literature. They’re such thoroughly engaging books. They really draw you into
the world, making you desperate to find out what’s going to happen next. Because
the plot is so gripping, Canavan thereby manages successfully to make all the
deep and at times confusing politics of this world interesting too. It’s
consistently well-paced. The series is just a thoroughly engaging and enjoyable
read.
And now that I have
established how much I loved and thoroughly enjoyed these books and was
intensely gripped by them, I come to a few criticisms. For me, I’d have to say
that the writing itself doesn’t quite live up to the plot. The Age of the Five trilogy consists of fairly decent writing
enhanced by brilliant ideas. In my opinion, the writing is at times a little
clunky or clumsy, especially in the re-caps Canavan often fits in during the
first few chapters of the second and third book. They are a little too much
like “information dumps”, much as I hate that term.
I have two massive
pet peeves in literature. The first thing I hate is the over-use of the word
“which” to join two sentences who would surely be quite happy separated (an
entirely irrational hatred, and one that is perhaps mine alone). I have no
problem with “which” in essays or reviews, but the moment it appears in fiction
I for some unknown reason get really annoyed. However, Canavan isn’t guilty of
this one. She’s guilty of my second pet peeve, which I have a feeling is shared
with a few more of the world’s readers than my first. This is the constant use
of words other than “said” in dialogue tags. When I’m told that Auraya and
others warned/mused/admitted/huffed/agreed/reminded/explained/offered, I find
it really clumsy and unnecessary. “Said,” in dialogue tags are invisible, but
“admitted”, etc, can make the reader stumble. Besides that, if it isn’t clear
from what the character is saying that they’re admitting something, perhaps
that’s a problem with their speech. However, this is a very minor thing that I
get overly annoyed about it, so it shouldn’t impair your judgement of the book.
I only mention it here because I can’t help myself. I apologise for my minor
rant.
Another more serious
criticism I have is that of the representation of some minor characters. As I
said earlier, in general the characterisation in the trilogy is strong, but
there are several characters who seem present only to fill a space. Obviously
this is The Age of the Five series:
fives are clearly important. Yet of all the groups of fives we find in the
book, there tend to be two or three characters out of five who are actually
developed, while another two or three seem to be only there to make up the
numbers. Of the White, obviously Auraya is fully developed, as I would say is
Mairae, at least in the first book. Juran is one of the most interesting
characters in the series, although I do wish we got to see a little more of
him. However, Dyara and Rian never really seem to have much personality to me.
I kept on forgetting which was which as I read. I found the same with the
Pentadrian Voices. The First Voice (I won’t give a name to avoid spoilers) and
Imenja are well developed characters, and Genza is maybe half-developed, but
Vervel and Shar seem to simply take up space. I consider myself a fairly
careful reader, but I had to check the novel while writing this review because
I’d forgotten Vervel’s name. I only finished the last book two weeks ago. It’s
the same with the Gods; Chaia and Huan are full characters, but Lore, Yranna
and Saru are just names really. I understand that many of these people are
minor characters in the terms of the novels. However, they are very important
figures in the world – and in the lives of many of the central characters in
the books – so they surely ought to be slightly more developed, at least enough
to make them memorable.
However, overall the
writing didn’t seriously impair my enjoyment of the books. I love this series
for their creativity and intrigue, for the world and the characters, for the situations
and plots that they get caught up in. It’s full of great ideas and is overall a
really enjoyable read.
Greatest
strength: I
suppose the plot and pace of novel. And the character of Emerahl. I love her.
Greatest
weakness: The
writing. Ultimately it was fine, but it just wasn’t as good as everything else in the series. For me the writing lets down the power of the
ideas and plot.
Let’s
finish on a quote:
‘This is the Age of the Five, and I have no place in it.’
Next week: I’ll be reviewed A Visit From the Goon Squad, by Jennifer
Egan
I have just finished these books myself and by and large, I have said the same things about the series myself. However I personally found the second book to be somewhat of a non event. Emerhal essentially helps Leiard out at the beginning and then spends the rest of the book travelling about largely fruitlessly. I just feel she was wasted in the second book as her whole plot could have been condensed to a few paragraphs and lose none of the meaning. Danjin also in the second book just drops out of the story. Auraya makes sure she can communicate with him then never does and one of my favorite characters just dissappears. Most of the second book is taken up with too much Auraya moping about and it just feels like a middle book and not a novel in its own right. So pacing in books 1 and 3 I am right there with you but book 2...
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