I Read What?!

Okay, so we've made it through the Golden Queen by Dave Wolverton/David Farland.

Honestly, to misquote Gallen O'Day, it's kind of a "mixed bag of goods."

I think there are things that Wolverton does really well here. Overall, I think the world-building is decent. I still don't quite know how long the dronon have been in power. I probably missed the detail, but I feel like that sort of thing should be more obvious from context than I found it to be. A lot of the locations seemed like they'd been undergoing a societal slump for a very long time. But Everynne herself is only three years old, so the dronon rule probably wasn't that long.

I do like the idea that maybe the Tharrin weren't the perfect administrators they seemed like, but that's not really established. That said, there are still two books in the series, so it's possible that some of the timeline quirks and other mysteries would be solved later.

I think Wolverton did a good job in giving us some very distinct settings. I liked the idea of the Maze of Worlds. I liked the individual stops, which all felt very unique and alien. I like what we've seen of dronon society. They make for some scary villains.

It reminds me a little of Courtship of Princess Leia: the most interesting parts of that book, for me, was the introduction of Hapes and Dathomir. I thought both settings had a lot of interesting potential that the story didn't necessarily explore the way it could have.

I almost think Wolverton missed his calling, and he'd have really excelled as an Ed Greenwood style setting builder. I'm not really a fan of Greenwood's novels, per se, but there's a reason the Forgotten Realms is by far the most popular D&D setting.

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As for Plot...

I mean, it's not bad. Since Wolverton is working with his own characters, we don't have to wince at Han and Leia's bizarre behavior. There are reasonably high stakes, and the adventure part generally flows.

I'm not sure why Maggie had to get the brunt of the truly horrific experience on Fale though. I'm actually not sure why that whole sequence was necessary at all. It's not like Maggie shows any sort of significant trauma afterward. It did give us a look at how awful the dronons' long term plans were, but the emotional impact really lacked. Especially compared to Gallen's plot, which felt mostly aimless and casual.

The biggest issue I had, I think, is that Wolverton would occasionally choose the wrong viewpoint characters for an event.

Like, I bitched a lot about Gallen and Maggie's relationship. I especially hated how everyone under the sun acted like she owned him, when the ONLY thing he'd ever expressed at that point was that she was too young for him. Then, he sleeps with Everynne and all of a sudden realizes he loves Maggie?

Okay, fine. I can see how that could happen, but that sort of realization works better when we can see Gallen make it! If we had Gallen wake up next to Everynne and think about how it was nice, but he wished for more of an emotional connection, which he had with Maggie... If we saw him look at Maggie and think about how while she's still young, her experiences have given her wisdom and insight...

I feel like that would have worked better.

And I'm still upset to have missed out on Everynne's conversation with Semarritte or Orick. Hmph.

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For characters:

Eh, another mixed bag really.

Gallen is a decent protagonist. Usually. Except for those weird moments of callous indifference. It was kind of funny that I was reading Golden Queen alongside Jhereg, and the freaking ASSASSIN shows more hesitance and reluctance to torture someone than the more traditional hero. Especially given the tendency that Wolverton has to aggrandize him. Yes, we get it, Gallen is awesome and beautiful.

...seriously though, Gallen's hair is described far more lovingly than Maggie or Everynne ever were. (Isolder also had long blond hair. Maybe Wolverton had hair envy?)

Poor Everynne. She was actually interesting as a character, but she was never allowed to be anything but passive. Even at the end, it's Maggie who brings about their victory. It's Maggie who frees Everynne from the burden of her fate. I mean, I prefer that it was Maggie and not Gallen, but still.

Veriasse...ugh. He started out well, but the blurred lines between Everynne and Semarritte just made things gross. You can't have a heroic character think about Everynne the way he does, when she's calling him father. It just doesn't work.

Maggie is the strongest of the leads, I think. She's forceful, determined, and active. I'm just not particularly fond of her tendency toward domestic abuse.

Orick is the best, of course. Go Orick!

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So, in the end, I guess my verdict is that the story failed. It wasn't terrible. It had good points. But it never really gelled together the way it should. And the characters, though they had potential, weren't enough to carry me through the annoying parts.

I would maybe give some of his other works a shot though.

So last time, everything got quite exciting. Our heroes made it to Dronon! Veriasse had his first big fight! I think we're in the end game now folks!

( More action, less creepy shit plz! )

My week off went a little longer than planned, thanks to a fortuitous headcold. (Karma for being lazy, probably.)

Back now, and up for more boggling at Wolverton.

So last time, Orick's girlfriend died, and Everynne got a tiny tiny scar that actually might be a big fucking deal.

( to be fair, it is a big deal, I just wish Everynne got to do more than be tragic and beautiful... )

So last time, Everynne, Veriasse and Gallen entered the gate and found a very nasty shock. Then we went back in time a few days to see that Orick and Maggie are in big trouble!

( LEAVE THE BEAR ALONE )

So last time, Gallen and Everynne had a heart to heart that led to more, we learned more about how fucked up Everynne's backstory actually is, and Veriasse is actually a total fucking creep.

( Must you ruin a good character, Wolverton? )

Okay, so last time, everyone reunited, Gallen got some unnecessary praise, everyone received fancy new outfits, and Orick had what looks like a religious conversion.

( that last bit was maybe a little creepy... )

Ugh. Okay. Last time, Gallen got an infodump of interesting information shoved into his head, thereby negating any potential interesting character element of being from a medieval-esque world. Maggie got the same thing, only traumatic and rapey. The only characters with an interesting plot were here and gone again.

Bleh.

( Let's go back to tonal inconsistencies ahoy! )

So last time, Gallen, Maggie and Orick found themselves on a cool new world, and Maggie ended up in big trouble after trusting the wrong person.

Now, I've been mulling on whether or not I need a content warning for this one. There's no sexual assault, per se, but there's definitely a huge violation element. In the end, I decided to go with my only rarely used "symbolic rape" tag. You can decide for yourself if it's appropriate.

( It's definitely not fun, at any rate )

So last time, lots of things happened! As it turns out, the whole lying about the angel/devil thing is probably not going to be all that relevant. But the whole monster attack part pretty much is. And Gallen's going to help Veriasse and Everynne leave free of charge.

( I'm sure nothing will complicate this plan )

So vacation over! Now we're back to the adventures of Orick the Bear. And some other people!

( But let's be honest, we know who the real star is )