The Dark Lord

Rating:
Summary: Stupid ending spoils good series
Review: That author Harlan threw the character Dwyrin away at the end of the third book should have been a major warning sign. Here was a character that Harlan introduced as a youngster and made us care about. Dwyrin is then summarily killed at the close of the third book for no apparent reason other than Harlan didn't know how to fit him into the fourth book.

Further, as mentioned by a prior reviewer, a number of other characters who are nicely developed in the first three books are relegated to bit parts. It might have been better if they had been killed as well. Many are "living dead" in more than one sense.

There are also glaring logical gaps. Galen finds out about Gaius' plot to overthrow him. Does he tell Maxian (who controls Gaius utterly) or have Gais arrested ? No, he sends for the German legions, and then lets Gaius steal them away.

Another problem mentioned in other reviews is the oath not stopping magic. Harlan says "The Oath is weak in Egypt." Why would that be exactly ? Wasn't it created by an Egyptian sorceror ?

Other reviewers have mentioned the loose ends and speculated that this is really just the fourth book of a five book series. The near complete uninvolvement of Mohammed in any action could only be excused on that basis, as well as the undetermined fate of Thyatis. But even if it is a fourth book out of five, I have a major problem.

Harlan, in the fourth book, has fallen into what I call the "Song of Ice and Fire" syndrome. To draw his readers into the story, he uses his narrative skills to craft strong, likable characters and sets up mighty obstacles for them to overcome. However, the more likeable a character is, the more tragedy and failure beset the character. Further, if a character begins to acheive some success, then the personality and attitudes of that character shift so that the character becomes unlikeable.

The appeal is like that of a train wreck or burning building. You read on and on, with hope that good will eventually be rescued and someone will right the terrible wrongs. But except for very minor triumphs, things just get more and more bleak. The noble die or suffer horrible fates; evil triumphs again and again; the good who do have some meassure of success slide into evil.

It has occurred to me that I don't really need to read thousands of pages of fantasy to be depressed by the triumph of evil. I get enough of that from reading the newspaper.