To finish up this series (read My Scathing Review of Jaeth’s Eye and My Scathing Review of Aina’s Breath if you haven’t, yet), I review Sapphire’s Flight, Book 3 of The Agartes Epilogues…
One thing that struck me about this novel is that it is long, a LOT longer than the two previous books. Villoso has always prided herself in writing sparsely, so I feel like this book is finally her deciding, no, fuck that, that she has nothing whatsoever to prove. If you can’t beat them, join them, am I right?
Right. So this shit goes on for like nearly twice the length of the previous book, Aina’s Breath. Which means we see a lot more of the glacial character development that Villoso so dearly loves. What are all these point of views? Why should I care about them? ARGH, give me plot!
To be fair, this book contains a lot more of that than the last two. I’d like to say “finally,” but at this point, I was starting to think this series should’ve been filed under a different category instead–certainly *not* epic fantasy. There is nothing “epic” about watching characters talk. And talk. And talk some more. There’s some witty stuff, which is overshadowed by Villoso drawing everything out and making things seem more poignant than they really are.
On the plus side, Sapphire’s Flight contains a lot more action than the previous two novels combined, which really isn’t saying much. There’s a battle scene that…hoo boy. I don’t even know where to start. I’m not sure what Villoso was trying to get at there. It’s like watching something that’s clearly lifted from Lord of the Rings and The Walking Dead while “Total Eclipse of the Heart” blares in the background on slow-mo.
The melodrama is so thick you’d need a hatchet to cut through it. Villoso advertises these books as “angst-ridden,” and in that she is at least not lying. There is a love triangle–who didn’t see that coming from a mile away?–that really cements my rather low opinion of Sume as a heroine. Why is she not carrying a sword and swearing off men forever? As the daughter of an old hero herself, she should know how to, right? Other women in this book don’t seem to have that problem. Why is she the point of view character again?
Her flatness is rivalled by Kefier, who has outdone himself in the development–or lack thereof–department. Kefier’s cardboard cut-out personality finally gets noticed by the other characters, which leads to some hilarious moments, or so Villoso would probably want you to think. But I’m not smiling. A few new minor characters are introduced, including some–I hesitate to use the word “interesting”, but certainly it’s something after pages and pages of absolutely nothing happening at all–reveals on two of the main characters’ past.
Finally, the twist. Now, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that *I* saw it coming, but that was because I got bored and skipped to the end and hit just the right page. However, the whole thing was completely ruined by my apathy.
The nice thing about this book is that it reads a lot more like a traditional epic fantasy novel than the last two. It’s twice the length, but happens in only a short span of time. There’s war and swords and (albeit admittedly bad) poetry. There’s politics, which I feel like were introduced once Villoso finally realized in a panic what genre she’s claiming to be writing in. And you finally see some heroic actions and then some. Which is great, because I really wasn’t sure how much more scenes on cutting turnips or chopping firewood that I could take.
The bad thing about this book is that it was written at all. I’m told Villoso no longer has a day job. I seriously question this decision, and would like to ask her to revisit it. Sure you may be mediocre at it, but how much worse could you be at that than *this*?
My overall rating for this series:
Jaeth’s Eye: 2/10 stars
Aina’s Breath: -1/10 stars
Sapphire’s Flight: 3/10 stars (5 stars because of the joke about the dog, but -2 stars because Sume made me mad).
