Customer Reviews

The New World: Book Three in The Age of Discovery (Age of Discovery Trilogy)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Rather than review this final volume in the series by itself , I will review the trilogy as a whole.
I felt there were some good sections in this trilogy, with some fascinating, well fleshed out characters. Stackpole creates a fantasy world which is initially believable and quite interesting. I liked the idea of Jaedun, a sort of magic that comes to some who attain total mastery of their craft or skill. The interplay between the bureaucracy and the rulers of the nine kingdoms was also a nice idea with some fine moments , such as Grand Minister Pelut Vniel's attempts to out maneuver Prince Cyron .
Unfortunately, there is a great deal of odd terminology , which , even after nearly 2000 pages , I found to be confusing at times. There were also so many characters it was difficult to keep track of who was who until nearly the end. The series would have benefited by a glossary. This was only a minor annoyance for me , the real problem was the "gods". We find characters such as Keles and Jorim/Wentoki , who start out as believable characters, turning into gods . This begins to give the whole story a cartoonish character as they bring down moons , raise mountains , travel through time , rise from the dead etc..The gods , we are told , exist only because people worship them . This makes no sense to me. The struggle between the minor gods and Nessagafel, the first god , struck me as a poor imitation of Greek Mythology. The rules of the game were unclear , what the gods could or could not do in relation to each other was never clarified . This left me uninterested in a struggle I could not really follow.
Jorim and the Maicana seemed too much like Cortez and the Aztecs , and Jorim's journey through the nine hells was too much an imitation of Dante's Inferno.
If only the author had kept the magical elements of this trilogy subtle , left out the gods entirely and concentrated on the struggles between the principal , human characters, I would have given it 4 stars. As is, it becomes too much a silly cartoon. A shame.

Remember the last season of Buffy? There were so many characters going through so many things - and so much backstory - that trying to explain it to anyone who wasn't already a fan usually ended up with handing them sets of DVDs.

You'll be just as enthralled with these characters - and drawn along through the vast problems they face - due to thier wonderful and vivid characterization. And there are a LOT of problems. And that's my gripe.

This book should have been two. Or three. Don't get me wrong, it's a fine book, and worth reading. Its presence as the capstone of a good series definitely makes it worth the time to find out what all happens - and a LOT happens.

And that's really the problem. Stuff happens a little too fast. Whipsaw changes in characters - and the world - are fascinating, but they're piled on thick and furious. All of them are consistent with the world and the characters themselves - there are just so damn many that it becomes hard to keep track.

I'm sure that, due to the publishing world, he was locked into a three-book contract. I just wish he'd been able to make this arc span out across a fourth book.

I loved the first two books, but this one doesn't hold my interest. A little too much deus ex machina and the story gets muddled due to all of the plots Stackpole has going. I do love his imagination, but i wished he would've kept it a little simpler in this final installment. Overall, a great series though and would recommend it to friends or anyone else who loves fantasy with a twist.

Will have to agree with the First reviewer that this is the best of the three books.

Unlike most trilogies where the second book is a filler book, Michael has written a trilogy that started out slow (if you can call the first book slow) and builds in anticipation.

I will say cudos to Michael on a excellent series, and am glad to see that he continues to grow as a writer. From the days that we would talk with Michael at Game Depot in Tempe after the first couple of novels in Battle tech, in the early 90's to today. I miss those chit chats and have only kept up with you through your writings so if you read these good job and a very compelling series, one of your best works to date.

Douglas,

How unfortunate that a writer of Stackpole's talents should expend so much creative energy on the tangled mess this series has become. The first book was a promising start, the second a disappointing sprawl, and the third (and hopefully final) volume is a total waste of any discriminating reader's time and effort. It should come with an Excel spreadsheet to help you sort out the tangled morass of characters and plot lines that run together like an acrylic masterpiece left out in the rain. I have read several hundred thousand pages of fantasy and sf over the years, and this stinker rates well toward the bottom of the pile. I enjoyed Stackpole's Star Wars efforts, which led me into this series. I had to force myself to finish volume two, and at the halfway point of volume three I find myself thinking my time would be better spent watching reruns of some hackneyed TV show. It is not the lack of innovative ideas that ultimately dooms this series. Quite the contrary, there are so many good and clever ideas in this book that they run together into a hopeless quagmire. He would have been well advised to pick a few central characters and actually develop them, rather than submit his readers to a relentless barrage of twists and turns and placenames that ultimately leave you stranded in verbal limbo. It is hard to really care about the fates of any of these cardboard cutouts, despite the clever grandeur of the stage Stackpole has created for them. Spend your time and money on something truly satisfying, like the brilliant first novel from Patrick Rothfuss.

Having enjoyed A Secret Atlas and Cartamancy, I greatly anticipated The New World and was mostly satisfied with its content. Overall the book was a fun read. The plot was interesting. Most of the major and minor characters were realistic in the depth of their motives and desires.

Now for some minor issues...

A minor frustration was that the author spent several pages detailing a mysterious transformation that one of the heroes undergoes in the midst of combat. Much is made about this transformation at the time and the character's confusion and concern should it happen again. Unfortunately in subsequent chapters the event is forgotten and left unresolved.

The overall conflict was resolved much too quickly and conveniently at the end. As I neared the last thirty pages of the book I knew that the end had to be near, but a climax to the action still seemed far away. Then all too suddenly the major plotlines got resolved, the villains vanquished and the book ended. I would have liked the final conflict to have been more drawn out and more time devoted to followup of the characters afterwards. At least one major character was shortshrift in my opinion, with little more than a paragraph devoted to his situation in the aftermath. I'm not asking for a 100 page 'Raising of the Shire' substory, but a little more would have been nice.

Don't let these criticisms fool you, however. Overall I enjoyed the book and the series. The author did a great job creating a world filled with real characters (heroes and villains) that I came to care about.

I enjoyed the entire series and was not disappointed in the final book. When I first finished the book, I was slightly disappointed at a couple of the storylines. But the more thought I have given theses storylines, I have came to the conclusion that they ended the way they should have given the entire series.

Others might not feel this way, but the way things in this book were described painted me the ideal fantasy world. The way magic is maniplulated, the visualization of golden Moriande, it was all excellent.

Magic in this story is a lot different than most. The only traditional 'sorcerors' are the Vanyesh, of which there are only about a hundred of and everyone hates and fears them. The average Joe aspires to become a 'mystic' that is, someone who is so skilled at something, that they can work magic in conjunction with that skill. You can be really good, and not be a mystic, you have to be one of the best.

I never read a Stackpole book until I started this triology and was a little wary of the idea of reading three books about cartographers, but I've been engrossed with every page. The final instalment, this book follows several twists and turns to their conclusion within the world. The triology reads as one giant book bound in three sections so start with the first and read all three; Stackpole does not dissappoint.

Remember how your literature teachers used to heap scorn onto compositions they disliked by referring to implausible resolutions failing to relate to previous plot points as "deus ex machina"?

And do you remember that that term refers to a technique used in (bad) greek plays (that we barely like well enough to preserve) where the gods would appear above the stage, move pawns around on a board, and that would be the (cheap gimmick of a) motivating factor in some large event in the characters' lives?

Well... that's what this book is. Not even figuratively, it's a literal deus ex machina.

Having really loved the first two books... blech. Wish I'd missed the publication of this one.