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The High King Of Montival (2010)

by S.M. Stirling(Favorite Author)

3.9 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1101460067 (ISBN13: 9781101460061)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Penguin Group (USA)

series

Emberverse

review 1: Three books it took to get across the continent. Three books. And getting home again took one.I've fallen behind in this series, even though I continue to buy the books in hardcover because I love the early books. I've decided that it's time to get caught up, starting with this one.You can't really say much about the plot without spoiling earlier books. Basically, they made it to Nantucket, where the Change spread out from, find the magic sword, and now they need to head home before the Church of the Universal Truth violently take over everything. Oh yeah, and set up Rudi/Artos as the first High King of MontivalIt took me a while to remind myself who the secondary characters are, and what their societies are like. On the one hand, I still shake my head over things like the... more Norheimers, who are all nordic, Odin-worshipers, but I kind of wonder if the event that started all this, and opened things up for the presumably supernatural thing behind the CUT, maybe made the survivors more inclined towards over-the-top religiosity of various groups.I did enjoy the completely throw-away chapter where they travel through Toronto and decide to climb the CN Tower (and find that a woman had gone up there with her cat to commit suicide in the early days). And when they reach the prairies, I like the fact that the RCMP is still around as scouts/fighters (much like the boy scout descended group of trackers in a previous book). I could have done without the fact that French-Canadians are all barbarians (Quebequois become Bekwas). So much of the province is sparsely populated that there should have been groups like the Norheimmers and so on. But no, gruesome barbarians.One thing that is a ding is the fact that every. single. time that Rudi draws the sword, everyone reacts. And every time he fights with it, he goes a little cold and all-knowing, and Mathilda has to drag him out of it. Once is fine, but over and over again got a little annoying.
review 2: My last listen to this audiobook was in March 2011, seems I forgot a lot of details and it was like a new book to me. Either I have a failing memory or it was a forgettable story. I'll just go with a little bit of forgetfulness due to the numerous series I tend to read.I know lots of people find the many descriptions of customs, food and other cultural idiosyncracies tiresome, but I love them. It makes the book come alive for me and I have learned to enjoy the narrator of the audio version.At last Rudi and Matty have come home and we will see whether the effect of the Sword of the Lady rules the day or Matty's mom's scheming will bear fruit. less

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