| The Troy Game IV: Druid's Sword | Contributor: Martin | Posted: 08/02/07 | 12:55 |
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page 2 of 3 Fortunately, the Blitz setting is effective in creating an air of brooding menace and danger, which helps to disguise the long gaps in the action that bedevil the novel. Druid’s Sword feels several hundred pages too long and the leisurely pace is in stark contrast to the rapid-fire events of the earlier novels in the series. As a result, Druid’s Sword typifies the best and worst aspects of The Troy Game, and of Douglass as a fantasy writer. First the good: Douglass’ characters are constructed on epic lines, with the central characters growing and developing over the course of the series. As an indicator of these changes, it is worth noting that the central characters of the series, have by the fourth book, undergone their third set of name changes: Brutus has become Major Jack Skelton; Cornelia has become Noah Orr; Asterion the Minatour of the original Cretan labyrinth, Weyland Orr and so on. Not only have the characters’ names changed, but so have their personalities, relationships and allegiances. From being the mostly off-stage villain of the piece early in the series, Asterion/Weyland has become a brooding, distrusting but ultimately loyal ally of Brutus/Jack, a devoted husband to Cornelia/Noah and a loving father to Grace. Brutus/Jack and Cornelia/Noah are also vastly different characters from earlier in the series: Brutus changing from an ambitious, selfish and brutal empire builder to a world-weary and fundamentally decent individual, and Cornelia evolving from Brutus’ sulky child-bride to a composed woman and goddess. The raft of characters in the series as a whole is stupendous, and a number of major characters from early in the series essentially fade into the background in Druid’s Sword. Some new central characters do join the ensemble; most notably Grace Orr, the pain-wracked eternal teenager who become’s Brutus/Jack’s love interest and the key to solving the Troy Game. Douglass’ strength as a writer is undoubtedly her characters. Unlike many other fantasy writers, her main characters are real people – the ‘good’ guys are often deeply unpleasant to innocents and other central characters, are selfish and struggle to comprehend the greater good. At the same time, she is willing to contemplate the notion that the ‘bad guys’ can be redeemed, which is most notable in the case of Asterion’s transformation as the series progresses. In a genre where the forces of evil often appear one-dimensional and without any motivation other than to be the most evil creature imaginable, and where the forces of good are frequently irritating in their purity and dedication to the cause, Douglass’ characters are usually believable. It’s a great strength for a fantasy writer and helps to build dramatic tension by making the victory of the forces of good seem less inevitable and also more at risk from internal dissension. That’s not to say that she is immune from the fantasy writer’s disease of seeing the world in black and whit: Catling is as one-dimensionally malevolent as villains get while Grace is by and large sickeningly noble. But the characters in Druid’s Sword are a cut above the usual paper dolls and tin soldiers that populate fantasy novels. |
