Hammerfall, by C.J.Cherryh.

I approached this book with enthusiasm, having read and enjoyed Fortress in the Eye of Time and it's sequels. Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed. Ok, perhaps I shouldn't start with my conclusions... but I will anyway. I was bored. This was not a book for me.

The fundamental problem with this book is the story is boring and the characters are shallow, unpleasant or just non-entities. The saviour of the people, Luz, is just not very nice. The evil enemy, the Ila, was a fool and clearly so - she'd never have survived that long, and somehow does nothing with her mythical powers after the first part. The protagonist, Marak, was just yet another person, although started well. His wife, Hati was a typical strong women. His other wife, Norit, was a typical weak woman. His father was a typical egotistical patriarch. Ironically, perhaps my favourite character was 'their' au'it, who went along on their travels and said nothing, did nothing and just recorded everything in her book. I liked the way she was always there, always recording.

I would say it started well. It promised a lot, with the fallen hero, the madness he endured and hid, the difficulties of captivity. You felt for him, then. He was clearly not a typical all powerful hero, he had his failings. But as the book progressed, he lost something. Suddenly he was just another overly talented ordinary male. Yes, he lead caravans, but to be honest, you could have said to the more talented desert people "go east" and killed him off after the first few chapters.

Then there was the world. Ok, desert worlds can be interesting, and the author made a reasonable show of describing the hardships. But after a while... well, there was nothing more. And when the sci-fi parts kicked in, it was absolutely typical. They did exactly what I expected.

Now, don't get me wrong. I actually don't mind reading the same stories again. I like a familiar story set in a familiar world. Obviously, I'd like some variety, but I don't really need all that much. So, yes the world wasn't that original, yes the plot was fairly typical, this in itself doesn't make it a bad book.

What makes it a bad book is the lack of pace. I don't even mind shallow characters, but I don't want chapters devoted to saying how shallow the character is. Just say who they are and be done with it. And then... well... nothing really happens. He goes to a city, he leaves the city, he travels to a tower, he travels back to the city, he travels back to the tower. The end. The travelling isn't that interesting. And even when he gets an evil baddie to chase down (his father, in true star wars fashion), he's chased down within a chapter. And that only happened at the end of the book anyway.

Now, I suppose I have read worse. I mean, I did actually finish the book. When I say that, I found myself rushing through the last few chapters to get it out of the way so I could say "been there, done that." And so... well, no. I'd not recommend this one.

4/10