Customer Reviews

Highlander(TM): The Measure of a Man (Highlander (Warner))

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

there is a sex scene within the first minute of a film, or 5 pages of a book? Well, prepare yourself for that feeling. This book starts off with a nameless enemy fantasizing about battling Macleod, after our Hero has an intimate session within a beauty on a French beach. After that we have a long flashback to a sea battle near Venice, as Macleod defends a Turkish general and eventually finds himself confronting the evil and manipulative Immortal Machiavelli. I rather enjoyed the flashback section of the book, it was as twisty as you can imagine an encounter with Machiavelli would be, but it all felt a bit rushed. The author can only spare a few sentences to explain how Macleod came to give his friendship and loyalty to General Ali. Major emotional conflicts are resolved in the space of a paragraph.

The second half of the book is set in the present, and here the book really descends into mediocrity. The author introduces a number of characters and locations, including one who is meant to be our Heroine. None of them are really fleshed out, and I couldn't bring myself to care. Even Duncan Macleod started to seem rather 2-dimensional. "Hmm, this woman is probably lying to me, and might have been sent here to betray and kill me. On the other hand, she's sexy. Let's jump into bed!" The scene where Macleod is "surprised" to find out that Dawson cares whether he lives or dies left me in some shock. Who is this idiot posing as the Highlander?

The quality that makes the Highlander TV series really stand out is it's exploration of interesting ethical questions. The questions brought up in this book have already been better explored in the series. "What would you do for a friend?" "Is it ever right to break your word?" "What if an Immortal convinced new Immortals that He had brought them back from the dead?" Go watch the series for some answers.

I have enjoyed some of the other books in this series, such as White Silence. You might try that, or some of the excellent fan fiction on the net (...) I finished "Measure of a Man" with a feeling of deep disappointment. This book just isn't worth the price to buy it, or the time to read it.

Holder succeeds in capturing the spirit of the Highlander television series in this novel, and does so in an enjoyable fashion. She has created a memorable villain, and the glimpses inside the minds of the characters are very well done, as is the "flashback" portion of the novel. The plots within plots within plots are gratifyingly Machiavellian. I did disagree, however, with some of the historical details provided, and the ending struck me as anticlimactic - it was disappointing to see the antagonist fall prey to the hero so easily

Everyone knows MacLeod is a decent, honest, honorable man, even if he does his share of head lopping and violence. Machiavelli, presumably, was a tad more on the pragmatic sword. What if he was an Immortal? He would likely be pretty sneaky.

That is the possible scenario spunky Dunky has to face in this book.

Immortal Duncan MacLeod was traveling through 17th century Venice where he met the (in)famous Niccolo Machiavelli, who it seems, is also an Immortal. Not to surprisingly Machiavelli is a rather ruthlessly immoral one, he surrounds himself with his Court of Beauties, other Immortals, usually young ones, and mortals that he can use to fulfill his ambitions. Needless to say he and MacLeod do not become fast friends and they part on very terms.

In the present day MacLeod and Machiavelli met again to play a cat and mouse game ranging from Europe to America and then Japan and involving a web of corruption encompassing crime lords, governments and Watchers.

If you are unfamiliar with, or not a fan of, the HIGHLANDER franchise definitely give this one a miss, it will make absolutely no sense whatsoever. For fans of the series, it is always good to see old friends and in this one we get lots of Duncan, and some of Joe Dawson but of all the tie-in novels I have read this is one of the weakest. The story opens with an impassioned, overwrought 'open letter' sort of thing that would seem more in keeping with an adolescent's attempt at fanfic than in a professionally written novel. Scan through the first few pages as quickly as possible then gradually slow down, this novel gets better as it goes on but rarely gets much better that the better sorts of fanfic.

This is one of the best of the spin-off novels that have been written based on the series. It adds depth and more info to the total Duncan MacLeod Highlander legend.