Customer Reviews

The High King of Montival: A Novel of the Change (Change Series)

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Looks like I'm going to express the minority view. So be it. This is an engaging story, if you've read the rest, but the introduction of the deus ex machina-cum-Sword makes everything much too pat.

And, since some have complained (and it's a fair observation): ** spoiler alert **. Reading past this point will reveal the setup for the next set of books in the series.

Rudi suddenly has the Sword - though a good deal of time passed in an instant, and Nantucket has changed - and begins to make his way back across country. Along the way he, strengthened by the Sword, is able to bring just about everyone he meets into line on the side of the good guys, and armies assemble to attack the CUT from the east. There are a couple of set battles, one with the Cutter's allies in the East, one with the Cutters themselves in the Canadian Midwest, but thanks to the Sword and its immaculate gifts the good guys win convincingly. Amazingly, in a world where radio and other long-distance communications are long since gone, the Montivalians and their allies have precise timing and everything falls into place *just so*. An attempted assassination against Artos and his allies takes place in Iowa, but is easily foiled when Matti spies a reflection of one of the assassins just in the nick of time. About the only sign of trouble for Artos is that each time he uses the Sword, it seems harder for him to come back to himself. No doubt future books will continue to take us down that path.

Back out west, in Montival proper, things aren't going nearly as well, though Artos' capture of the Sword means the Cutter mystics can no longer infiltrate the minds of our heroes. They still have to deal with the disciplined armies of the United States of Boise and their copious military output, and are fighting a losing battle. Once Artos starts heading back in earnest, however, we don't hear much more about what's happening in on the home front.

The book ends with a happy event (after which the Sword shows its approval), Rudi is back in the PPA with basically his entire team intact (Odard died in the previous book), and so we're set up for another set of books detailing the Cutter-Montival (& ally) War.

I do have to take exception at the ease with which our protagonists use the rail network for transport. After nearly 30 years with very little maintenance, most rail in remote areas would be in a very bad way. There is some provision made for light repairs, and of course some areas have been maintained, but in the wilderness it would be no easy task to ride the rails any more.

It's a decent book, with lots of what we've come to expect from Sterling; vivid descriptions of home life after the change, banquet after banquet, lots of gods from many pantheons getting involved. At the same time, the level of action suffers - with all of that other stuff, there's not much room for battle.

Like everyone else, I'll be waiting for the next volume ... but hoping that we'll see a little less florid prose and a bit more action.

Before I write anything else, I want to make a formal complaint to ROC and SMS, who approves the covers for these books? Why is Rudi/Artos NOT in a KILT, why is his hair SHORT and Black, and why for all the GODS is he standing in front of a DC-3 which they stopped building in the 1950s? Doesn't anyone look at the covers before they print the books?

Like a TV series that has to have some 'filler' episodes, this book is just a rehash of the previous stories. OK, 1)Stirling has to get Rudi/Artos back to Montival, but did it have to take 476 pages! 2)Once again the
covers SUCK, 3) you don't have to describe every piece of armor that Rudi puts on him or Epona, 3) I don't want to read about all the ingredients that go into the food, 4) please don't name every freeking tree along the way, 5) enough with the going back to describe what's already happened (let those laggards read the other books), 6) enough with describing things in Sindarin, 7) stop talking about the "Sword of the Prophet" and tell us what's going on with the 'evil' that's got Corwin under it's spell, 8) this is not 'America's Next Top Model', I don't care what the woman are wearing (unless of course they're naked), 9) stop with the puns based on stuff no one born before the 'Change' would understand (it sounds like the side comments from Rocky and Bullwinkle), and 10) don't write two (2) more books, just finish it up in one (This IS beginning to be a tedious as Robert Jordan).

Just my two euros.

Zeb Kantrowitz

I won't give cliff notes...those can be found among many other reviews.

First, the good: Let me say that Stirling, as always, creates an entertaining read centered around characters who have been imbued with plenty of depth.

Now, the not-so-good: If you aren't entertained by repeated descriptions of armor and banquets, High King doesn't offer very much. If you've read the previous 3 "Rudi Books", it offers no surprises. None. By now in the series, you are accustomed to Stirling's style, and it's like nougat...you either love it or hate it. Some people love reading endless descriptions of armor, weapons, and banquets. However, if you were expecting some resolution, what we got was 450 pages of "fight, have a banquet, describe scenery", rinsed and repeated. It further doesn't help that the greatest examples of the PPA, MacKenzie, Rangers, etc are really beginning to look more like the Get Along Gang rather than the circle of advisors to the first High King. It really, really doesn't help that after reading Meeting at Corvallis, you KNOW what Stirling is capable of, and after reading it, you are left with the empty realization that it was nothing more than filler to pay the bills before the series is concluded. In short, this experience was just like a Milky Way...a little bit of meaningful chocolate and a bunch of cheap, crappy nougat filler...a sore disappointment if you were expecting to finally get a Snickers with lots of tasty caramel and filling peanuts.

The straw that breaks this camel's back is that in addition to this gang of nimrods dog-paddling in a sea of nougat, Stirling insists on concluding some serious "WTF are you doing" moments. I understand that a massive army (2 of the largest armies on the continent joined together) is heading for the west coast. I understand that Rudi needs the Sword to ascend to demigodhood. I understand that Rudi needs to get Iowa (the biggest, baddest boy on the block) to join with the Corvallan Conglomerate in order to defeat the huge combined army of CUT and Boise. What I don't understand is how a wad of hangers-on from Jake Sunna Jake (a bunch of savages with a year's worth of training) and some neo-vikings from the northeast coast (who have a LOT more to worry about from north african raiders than they do from anyone west of the Mississippi) will in any way effect this battle. This makes NO sense at all. To defeat an army of 10,000, you get another army of 10,000. Or 15,000. Or maybe even just 5,000. You don't get a couple hundred people, half of whom have no business in an open field battle in the first place and the other half who should've stayed home to keep raiders from killing or carrying off everyone left behind. The only purpose I can think of for this was to give the reader a sense of Rudi's greatness, and if you haven't gotten anything else from the 3 books preceeding this one, it's a sense of Rudi's greatness. It's like letting a 200 pound hot fudge sundae melt while you try to get one more cherry on top. Enough already. Rudi could've assisted the Jakes and the vikings like the good guy he was, and left them behind. Why rail them all the way across the country to be a chipmunk in a fight between 4 pitbulls?

In closing, the only reason this book gets one star is that I can't give it zero. I admit, I reviewed other "Rudi" books critically based upon incredulity...from Mathilda sporting titanium maile to Rudi playing hopscotch across a stampeding buffalo herd. This time, however, I can honestly give this book the rating I did because of lack of content, even incredulous content. I will purchase the conclusion to this series; however, I think Stirling may have painted himself into a corner...I'm not sure there is enough story left for a 450-500 page book (there certainly wasn't enough for this one), but given the excellence of Meeting at Corvallis, I'm willing to roll the dice. Or maybe since I've gotten burned on books 2-4 of the Rudi Series, I no longer have any great expectations.

ETA: Okay, I read it again, just to make sure I wasn't being uncharitable, and maybe I was a bit harsh... so I upgrade to a solid "1", rather than the zero after my initial impression. It does have some action. Enough to warrant over 450 pages? Certainly not. Compared to the earlier trilogy, this series is lacking in resolution, entirely predictable and far too wordy. The Dies/Protector's/Corvallis trilogy covers the rise of three major "chiefdoms" and their principle characters over 10 years, along with a helping of the politics and history of the "supporting cast", if you will (Mt Angel, Corvallis, etc). So far, it has taken Stirling FOUR books just to get Rudi to Nantucket and back. This one basically covered a cross-country train ride. The expected fifth book, probably another 450 pages, will cover what? The final battle? Are we going to get entire pages dedicated to describing the mole on the nose of the Sword of the Prophet? Sheesh.

Again, this book is a "5" if you want nothing more than Super Rudi and his Magic Sword. However, if you are expecting a resolution and a maybe even a plot twist or two, you are going to be gravely disappointed.

ETA2: I can't help it. It's like watching wrasslin' on TV...you can't help but flip back to it. I read it again, hoping that my method of reading (I read fast) was the source of the plot holes and lack of anything stimulating (except the ending, which we saw coming in the Protector's War). Nope...this book does a fantastic imitation of a well-respected hobbit...that is, never having any adventures or doing anything unexpected. I can't believe that the same author who turned out Dies the Fire and Conquistador cranked this out. I changed my mind...I'm not buying the last book of this series. We already know how it will end; thus I see no reason to spend $20 and read 500 pages to find out. Want me to spoil it? The good guys defeat the bad guys in the final epic battle in which Rudi dies (after personally slaying the Prophet), he ascends to godhood to guard over the summerlands with the earth mother, and closes with Mattie giving birth to Rudi's son...paving the way for the next series of Emberverse books.

After watching redlettermedia's reviews of the new Star Wars trilogy, I realized what the problem was. The first trilogy was a lot like the first Star Wars trilogy. Stirling was a lot more careful when he did the first 3 books. The scenes are more memorable (you even remember what books they're from and why the scenes were important to the stories). The characters seem to be "just enough". Deep enough to get you interested in them, but not so detailed you get lose interest. The next series relies on more flash to cover up the lack of substance. Why does Rudi need to surf across a buffalo herd? Why does he need to be "Lugh come again" every time something more threatening than a praire chicken shows up? It's like the overdone lightsabers, CG/greenscreen and "turbo yoda" that everyone except 12 year olds got tired of by the end of Revenge of the Sith because someone couldn't even figure out what story they were trying to tell.

Oh well. Stirling will get our money for the last book, just like Lucas got our money for Sith.

Bottom line: if you've stuck it out with the Emberverse this long you probably won't bail because of this book, but the story arch with Rudi and the sword has dragged on too long for my tastes.

I think this world still has a lot of fertile grounds for exploration but the whole Sword Quest thing just doesn't resonate with me as much as the original series with the Bearkillers and MacKenzies vs. the PPA.

Briefly, what began as a compelling epic of survival, intrigue, and magic, has devolved into a medieval fashion magazine travelogue. Were it not for the flowery description of characters' dress, armor or the color of their eyes, this novel would have take up 50 very predictable pages. And that would have been an improvement. In the interest of full disclosure,this novel should be printed in magazine form on glossy paper with lots of pictures.
Had I not loved the previous novels, I wouldn't care that this series is heading for disaster. But I did, and I do. And because of that love, I am holding out hope that the author S.M. Stirling can gather himself, return to his roots and finish this series with a hint of former greatness, and not another pile of renaissance boutique fluff.

Please Mr Stirling, come home. It's not to late. All can be forgiven...

Finally, the audio version of this book only adds insult to injury with nearly 15 minutes of repeated phrases on two separate occasions. Is this novel so bad that not even the audio engineers would listen to it prior to shipping?

The Lady of the Lake is now just The Lady and has given Excaliber back to Arthur when the World is in need. What does the world need? It needs authors that have a clue. Muscle powered railroads? SMS shot himself in the foot back when he decreed no steam power. He should have used the Moorish ship to travel down the coast and up the Mississippi to Iowa. The 500 Vikings will not make a dent in the manpower required for the coming battle. Stirling, crawl underneath that Land Rover you're driving, yank out a spring and make one of the weapons you've described. I've been a fan of SM Stirling since Go Tell The Spartans and the Draka(except for the last one)and I've always forgiven his civilian ignorance of military ways because of his characters, but this is too much. There is some kind of disease affecting too many SF authors these days. It started with Turtledove(REH is howling at the Void about his Conan story) and the late Robert Jordan(the only non REH Conan I can stand) a decade ago and has now infected Weber, Ringo and Stirling. I pray The Lady (CS Friedman) doesn't let me down as have this crew. Is your library card up to date?

Having made it to Nantucket and obtained (and become) the Sword of the Lady, Rudi (who now goes by Artos) and his band of questers now have to figure out how to get home as quickly as possible to deal with the menace of the Cutters. To his credit, Stirling figures out a (slightly unbelievable) way of expediting this, and we also don't get detailed descriptions of every scene along the way. We get to see characters introduced in the previous volumes (Kate Heaselroad has come a long way), a shout-out to some characters in the first trilogy and a welcome view of what's going on back in Montival. My favorite scene actually took place on the trip back, when the group visits a pre-Change artifact.

The book wasn't without its flaws, namely:

- The edits made the story a bit choppy.
- As another reviewer pointed out, I thought the method for speeding up the trip was somewhat unbelievable
- The action seemed a bit thin. A few battles, some meetings (lots of meetings), Rudi figuring out how to cope with the Sword
- The ending was quite derivative.

The largest flaw, from my perspective, is that the Sword has made Rudi more irritatingly perfect than ever. He was already gorgeous, which Stirling rhapsodizes about in every book; a tremendous swordsman, oozing with charisma, politicaly savvy (though not as savvy as Mathilda), wise beyond his years, and so on. Now, he has a magical sword and, yes, has to struggle to learn how to use it, but it makes him pretty much super-human and invincible - and boring, sad to say. In the interests of full disclosure, I must admit, I never really liked him all that much, but now I found myself skimming over his scenes to get back to something more interesting. One of the things Stirling did, with Mike Havel in particular, but, also, with Lady Sandra, Conrad and Tiphaine, was to make heroes and villians alike flawed and believable. Rudi just isn't.

I'll keep reading the series, but I hope future volumes cut to the chase a bit more - and a bit more from the supporting characters and/or a human Rudi would be great.

Having looked forward to a new book in this series, I must say I am very disappointed. In The Sword of the Lady, Rudy and company travel from the west to the east, being chased by the bad guys and picking up new allies. In the High King of Montival, Rudy and company travel from east to west, being chased by bad guys and picking up new allies. Oh yes, he does get the sword and is learning what capabilities lie within it. New developments within this book seemed to be far and few between. I felt like I was reading The Sword of the Lady, in reverse.

I, like others, hoped that this book would be the conclusion to this series. Needless to say, I was disappointed, as only one thing of note happens in this book, and that in the very last chapter.

Like all of Stirling's books, this book is very well written. It has wonderful descriptions of the landscape, arms and armor, people's clothes, and, of course, the food. Unfortunately, that is pretty much all that is has.

Rudi's journey from the east coast to the west coast should not have taken an entire book to describe. Given the complete lack of anything of import happening in this book, I don't even think that it would merit a whole chapter in most books. The vast majority of this book is given over to fluff and filler.

The only reason that I can think of for this book to even exist is that the author had two more books on contract after the last one, but only enough story left for one.

I will read the next book, but I will either buy a used copy of the paperback, or pick it up from the library.

I will be exiting this series after finishing The High King of Montival - Main reason the plot isn't advancing. For the last few books the author has been teasing us with maybe finding a cause for the change and confrontation with the cutters. But alas he leads us on for a whole book and finishes the book about where it should of started. What started out as a good alternate world type of book with action and plot is turning into some sort of mumble jumble religious mystic world. It would of be nice to of continued the plot of the change with some reason other than The gods are angry. I am tired of book after book where the plot fails to advance much and none of the basic questions are answered or only answered in double talk.