Ethan's Reviews > Lamentation

** spoiler alert ** Lamentation is full of the kind of cliched artifice that gives mainstream fantasy such a bad rep. Sure, there's tons of intrigue, but it's all entirely contrived; for instance, nobles speak in a complex system of hand signals when they want to make sure they're not overheard, and yet you never have a reason to suspect anyone's ever eavesdropping on these people (in fact, the one time I can recall someone's hand signals being "overheard," it was by a sympathetic character who basically signed back, "fyi, I know whut u're sayin bout me!!" I hate that glib, cutesey shit).

The characters are all entirely predictable, as are most of the major plot movements. The good guys are entirely infalliable and badass-ified (to the point where Scholes goes so far as to point out that the main character gave his wife THREE ORGASMS on their wedding night...thanks for pandering to the middle schooler in all of us, Ken, but it's really not necessary), and the bad guys are utterly ineffective and inept. Don't expect anyone to show any kind of resourcefulness or cleverness. Not that the good guys have to work very hard to outwit their enemies - not only do they win every skirmish they're involved in, they literally massacre opposing forces, and maybe incur the loss of one life in the process. I fail to see what's interesting about this kind of writing.

Scholes has an irritating habit of ending 35% of his chapters by repeating an ominous/deep/thoughtful quote someone uttered a few paragraphs ago. This is supposed to imply that his characters are reflecting on what they've learned, but really it's just lazy and banal authorship.

The POV narrative is sloppy; at least twice I got the impression that Scholes switches from the POV of the chapter's character to the character their speaking with. Since everyone's motives and thoughts are entirely obvious (except to the villains, who are oblivious to pretty much everything), it doesn't really matter. There's no stylistic difference in Scholes' writing from character to character.

The few surprises in the plot come out of the blue, from sources outside of the main story (kind of like in daytime television, where Aunt Martha's presumably dead sister-in-law knocks on the door to claim her part of the family's forture), and then dropped or resolved before they can really add any level of excitement to the story. It bears repeating: one of the characters ever did anything that surprised me.

The one potentially interesting character (and this is a bit of a spoiler), is Vlad Li Tam, who uses his legions of children as human missiles, sacrificing them for his mysterious personal goals. Towards the end of the story we're supposed to see some depth to Vlad's character in that he supposedly grieves deeply for each of his fallen children. This effort is largely toothless, seeing as how Scholes didn't even bother NAMING any of the fallen children. They're treated as extras, and we're supposed to grieve for them (along with Vlad) as if they were leading characters.

If you want us to believe a character's grief, show us a relationship that is grief-worthy. If you want us to think a character is resourceful and clever, show us him or her doing something resourceful or clever. If you want us to respect the necessity of secret tongues and hand signals, show us why intrigue is a necessary part of life in this world. Ken Scholes seems to think that it's enough to just tell us these things all exist in his novel, but doesn't do the work of actually showing situations where they take place. There is a term for this: bad writing.

This fantasy of the gutless, unimaginative kind. If you're a fan of GRRM's nuanced and surprising characters, or RJ's detailed and imaginative cultures, you'll be disappointed. If you like your stories straightforward and with no teeth, give it a shot. Maybe I'm being over-critical, but I found myself rolling my eyes a lot throughout the story.