Customer Reviews

Pilgrim - Book Five Of The Wayfarer Redemption

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I must say that one of the reasons I love Sara Douglass is because I never know what to expect when I pick up her books. Ms. Douglass does not fall into the trap of writing "formula" books and Pilgrim is no exception! The character development of Drago, which was really begun in Sinner, continues, and will surprise and I think delight many fans of the series. Unlike some other reveiwers, I found the development of the more well established characters (like Faraday and Axis) added significanly to their depths, (even if one would like to shake them on occasion!). After reading Pilgrim, both Faraday and Axis seem more "human" in their reactions to the situations and choices they face. Readers will not find Pilgrim disappointing, though they may be saddened that there is only one book left to this great series!

This book is extremely well written. Sara Douglass obviosly knows how to enthrall the reader, making that person want to know what happens next. This story weeves a kind of enchantment, it swirls in your mind making it seem as though this could acualy happen. It forces the mind to expand upon it, to change it, to live it. The sweeping plot, the characters interactions, the pain, and the joy. Forces the reader to laugh with Caelum's joy and to weep with Azhure's pain. To sing well and fly high, to know the pain, the sorrow, the heartbreak, and the betrayal. One must read this book.

Pilgrim is to be published later this year in the US as part of a six part series under the banner of The Wayfarer Redemption. Though this is a prophecy driven fantasy (with some science fiction blended in), it is stunningly original. It has great characters (including some vile villians), triumphs and horrible tragedies, amazing mysteries and exciting scenes that you will want to read over and over. For those of you who are agonising over impending Wheel of Time books (myself included), Battleaxe, Enchanter, Starman, Sinner, Pilgrim and Crusader were originally published in a Australia over a five year period. Sara Douglass is one prolific writer. Stuff the bloody Olympics, read this for some Aussie gold!

Pilgrim is as good as "Sinner". I don't know how a person who
suffered through 40 years of hate and fear could be so loving,
kind, compassionate, and forgiving as Drago is in this book. Other than that the storyline is great. I never understood why
Axis was forgiven for trying to kill Azhure towards the end of "Enchanter" but they never forgave Drago for doing something when he was a baby. Not only was he punish for his crime then but for the next forty years. Axis even sticks a knife in Drago's neck at the beginning of this book to try to kill him. I was really surprise who actually murdered Riverstar, Drago's twin sister. I knew that it wasn't Wolfstar. That would have been too obvious. It just shows you don't really know people at all sometimes. I do love the storyline in this book and the way they explain how Drago gets his powers back and become Dragonstar again. If you like, the other books in this series
you will like this one also. Again, I could not put this book
down and I am looking forward to reading "Crusader" when I get it. I should warn you though that there is a lot of violence in this book as there were in the other book of the series.

I seriously have a bad love-hate relationship with Sara Douglass. Her books are filled with violence, irritating male characters, and various one-sided characters. But her stories and her wolds are absolutely incredible.

Pilgrim is no exception. Every time one of the Wayfarer books comes out, I hope and pray that Axis will stop acting like a jerk. Still hasn't happened, and with only one book to go, I don't think it will. But to counteract him, we've got the awesome Faraday (fans- she plays a big part here, woohoo!) and the ever-suprising Drago. Zenith is shoved in the background, complaining about how prudish she is, and Wolfstar (thank god) grumbles while following people around and only contributing a small part in the events.

Although I swear the violence got even worse in this book, if you've liked Douglass' books up til now you should enjoy "Pilgrim." As usual, she leaves lots of cliffhangers for you to wring your hands at and tempt you to buy the Australian version. But just a warning- anything you didn't like that you'd hope Douglass would change, probably didn't.

The ties that binded this mythology together begin to unravel. As I enjoyed the first three, it is a sad thing to have to say, but the characters leave much to be desired, the story is splintered, and the brutality is often unnecessarily gruesome.

When I first started The Wayfarer Redemption, I fell in love with Sara Douglass' writing and especially the character Faraday. As Faraday suffered more and more I began to hate the series, yet had to read more of it so I would know how it ended for them all. I expected little from Pilgrim, except perhaps a bit of satisfaction in Faraday's new found abilities. What I got from it was a new love for the series. Some of Douglass' characters are unbelievably evil or unbelievably good, making them somewhat unrealistic (I can't help disliking black/white characters), but there are also some excellent 'gray' characters, with a mix of talent and wisdom and interesting quirks as well as hatred and foolish choices. What I love about many of them is how their hatred or fears are the direct result of what they've been through (in many books the character's life is the explanation for various parts of their personality, but the author rarely makes the explanation work for the character). Faraday's fear of love is utterly foolish from the reader's perspective and yet completely understandable and fitting when considering what happened to her in the past because of her love for a man. Anyone who found themselves disliking the series before (especially if its for similar reasons) should give Pilgrim a chance, they might just find it to be Wayfarer's redemption.

I will say it again that Sara Douglass's breadth of vision is amazing. She has complete control of the world she writes in and you can tell that she knows every tiny detail of Tencedor down to the very insects that inhabit the dirt. Pilgrim is an impressive addition to the Wayfarer Redemption series and contains some of the best writing we've seen so far.

What hurts this book more than many of the others is the treatment of the characters. Axis and Azhure have become angry and malicious people, which is very much out of context with the previous trilogy. Drago has risen from being a depressed outcast to an almost God-like character, which as it did with Azhure, ruins their personality and likeability. Drago already seems invincible so I'm much less concerned about the final outcome of the series than I should be. Isfrael has become Barsarbe incarnate which has become extremely repetative.

With only one book remaining, I am very disappointed with the complete underdevelopment of the Avar. Here an entire race of Tencendor barely get a chapter's worth of importance and development. Isfrael is basically written as the representative of the Avar as a whole, but his character is so unlikeable and you learn nothing of his people. Its a tragedy that the Avar have been so forgotten.

Despite these issues, the sweeping plot and story lines are extraordinary. Both Caelum's story and the subtle linking of events back to another planet (Earth?) are brilliant. The use of magic continues to be impressively original and I am very excited for the coming of the final installment.

Just 30 minutes ago, I was saying to myself, "this is probably the best book of the series." I couldn't put it down. Work suffered. Sleep suffered.

And, then the author did something really stupid, IMO.

*** SPOILER ALERT ***





I can accept that the demons could cause madness in people and animals. I can accept that they could plant new purposes and rough instructions in the maddened animals.

But, I cannot accept that through the madness, an animal (which is what the book described -- but, not even the demons) can take absolute control of 400 men and their horses, and make them talk and act completely normal enough to fool people into thinking they had not been touched. It's ridiculous, and it has absolutely RUINED this book for me.

IF the demons had that power, then it's obvious to me they would use it extensively, instead of being frustrated that they couldn't touch those waiting in the shade!

Very dissappointing.

*** END SPOILER ***



Actually, I also really hated what the author did to Axis and Azure. These were highly intelligent and thoughtful characters in the earlier books, and somehow, they just both became absolutely pig-headed and stupid in this book.

All that said, if you've read the earlier books, you really do have to read this one.

Sara Douglass has taken her own spin on the plot twist, the character twist (wherein a character previously assumed to be the reincarnation of Sliced Bread is discovered to actually be secretly eeeevil, while characters everyone reviles as a cross between Osama bin Laden and a child molester are revealed to be the salvations of man-, bird-, and tree-kind) and moved it beyond perfection into predictability. Rest assured, if you are introduced to a character who appears to be a pretty decent guy, that he will eventually turn out to kick puppies or something. On the other hand, previously kickass members of the Hot Cover Art Girls With Swords and Halter Tops Club are now reduced to vapid, simpering sidekicks who sigh a lot (I'm looking at you, Azhure and Zenith). And then Faraday - who from Day 1 has been the most boringly consistent character of all, with her interminable sulky, self righteous martyr complex - drops the F-bomb out of nowhere, and you know you're in the presence of a master. Still, after the first 87 times the monster rips off his mask to reveal he's really kindly old Mr. MacGregor, you get the point.

But then, Douglass has never been accused of being too subtle. She will take a horse and beat it, not only 'til it's dead, but long past its expiration date. Take Zenith, who's really starting to tick me off. See, Zenith and her grandfather StarDrifter are in love, which is OK because they're both SunSoars, which is like being a Bush in that you rule the world and you can pretend things like the Constitution don't exist, much less apply to you. (Does that make WolfStar Karl Rove?) Except Zenith is all angsty over the fact that she wants to boink granddad, and so she spends the entire book agonizing over it. Seriously. Every. Single. Time we cut to Zenith, that's what she's doing. She serves absolutely no other purpose in this book except to conduct a tortured inner dialogue: "But I love him! But it's gross! But he's so hot! But it's naughty!" Fish or cut bait, honey.

But you know, detailing everything wrong with a Sara Douglass novel is a little mean, plus way too easy - like shooting fish in a barrel. The truth is, I've hung in for 5 books so far, and am planning on the 6th, so obviously she's doing something right. I'll admit that the sheer soap-opery melodrama is, in its own way, a delightfully guilty pleasure. I also like the fact that, for the most part, Douglass has managed to maintain a level of coherence and internal continuity in an astonishingly complicated and twisting series of books; any surprises she reveals about events that occurred in the first three books generally hold up on further inspection. This makes for a fairly longish series that works as well on the fifth book as it did in the first, quite an accomplishment these days.

So these eeeevil demons have crashed through the Star Gate and rendered all of Tencendor's likely heroes useless. The Enchanters are disenchanted, the StarMan is starless, and the StarSon is... Wait, who's the StarSon again? That distinction plays a huge role here, as professional underdog Drago leads a ragtag band of humans to Save the World. Trite, but true. Anyway, a lot of the book is spent describing the horrors that the Demons visit upon Tencendor, and the utter helplessness of most of the population. There's less of action here (save for the fleeing) than of revelations. Such is the fate of the middle book of the trilogy. So we get more on the mysterious 'craft' that crash landed millennia ago; the origins of the various species of Tencendor (except the Avar - I want their story!); the whole StarMan/StarSon controversy; the potential power of the Acharites, &c. All to set up the final book, really, although the ending of "Pilgrim" is delightfully cliffhangerish.

So yes, I mock, but at the end of the day I really do get a kick out of these books. I wish to God Douglass were a more consistent writer, or at least had a decent editor, but I don't look a gift novel in the mouth. "Pilgrim" is an enjoyable, entertaining continuation of the Wayfarer Redemption series.