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Traitor's Blade (Greatcoats #1)

Sebastien de Castell

Start date: February 1, 2016

Finish date: February 28, 2016

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Aug 12, 2015 Louise Stanley rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Traitor's Blade is a book of two halves. I enjoyed it, and I read it in two days (although I didn't necessarily think it ended well), but I don't think I want to go on to read the rest of the series.

The first half of the book was enjoyable. With the second half, it became more like an interminable fairy tale, as the characters had to jump through a increasingly bizarre series of hoops, and the action got weirder and weirder, and the ending itself was an inconclusive pause in the story rather tha Traitor's Blade is a book of two halves. I enjoyed it, and I read it in two days (although I didn't necessarily think it ended well), but I don't think I want to go on to read the rest of the series.

The first half of the book was enjoyable. With the second half, it became more like an interminable fairy tale, as the characters had to jump through a increasingly bizarre series of hoops, and the action got weirder and weirder, and the ending itself was an inconclusive pause in the story rather than any significant resolution.

Also, the book didn't seem to know where it was set. Some of the atmosphere is southern European, Italian or French in inspiration, a bit like The Lies of Locke Lamora, and I enjoyed that while it lasted, because it's something different in fantasy writing. Some of it is northern European, which does ruin any sense of place/setting: one minute you're in seventeenth century France, the next in fourteenth century Britain. Then you're in some vaguely-Asian setting with the monks, which don't feel consistent with the rest of the world, and with a temple prostitute who just doesn't have much connection to the rest of the book. While I don't think the book is sexist, the women are objects; de Castell makes reference to female Greatcoats, but could have done with showing us some. The women fall into the usual roles - the vapid princess who needs escorting, the wily servant girl, the vague love interest (Ethralia - who came from nowhere and went to nowhere) the abandoned and hunted orphan, and the evil queen (or duchess in this case). While I like seeing feminine women in fantasy books (makes a change from tomboys), the casting could have been a bit more imaginative.

I also think he made the Dukes so one-dimensionally evil, powerful and murderous that Falcio couldn't win out over them. Each time he escaped, a bit of my enthusiasm for reading the book was eroded. Yes, it's probably more realistic, but the book is written in a cartoonish style in which satisfying conclusions to the Ganith Kalila event or the encounter with Patriana and Perault. I kept reading in the hope of some resolution, but was disappointed.

To be honest, I just think the book could have done with tighter editing, a bit more foreshadowing, and overall my impression is that de Castell just didn't know when to end it; it just ended up quite a surreal work. It was a disappointing read. The three star rating is averaging out the first half, which did manage to maintain some internal consistency, and the second half where de Castell just wrote whatever came into his head to try to pad it out to 400 pages. ...more

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