Customer Reviews

Prince of Skulls

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

 

 

Of the three new books by Barker, this is the best. The writing is not brilliant, but entertaining enough. I read these for content not style, and as such these novels are for fans of this richly detailed, very original world. Of the three new novels this one reveals the most about the history of the world, the early mythology, and the most about certain secrets which have been hinted at in the game materials since 1975. Well worth it for the game who has ever played Empire of the Petal Throne. This is a much shorter novel that Man of Gold or Flamesong, and lacks the inner dialogs and inner workings of the characters that made them very good books, but it is still worth reading. In this one Barker dared to reveal things and use a complete ending, something he didn;t have the courage to do in Lords of Tsamra and Death of Kings. Lords is a worthwhile read as well, as is Death, when it comes down to it, but one can clearly see in Death of Kings where the author chickened out and bailed from writing the more complicated, tricky ending that the book builds too and ducks, leaving the reader with the literary equivalent of Azure Spheres. If you know what I mean.

That being said, these 3 novels are indespensible for anyone who has purchased the excellent new game from Guardians of Order. Here's hoping Prof. Barker has it in him to produce another good novel or two along the lines of this book, Flamesong, or Man of GOld.

I must preface this by saying that I am a huge fan of anthropology and reading about fantastic cultures. M.A.R. (Phil) Barker has created a wonderfully alien world in Tekumel. The world is fully realized and full of mystery and a "realness" lacking in most fantasy and science fiction worlds.

With that being said, I was disappointed that the novel downplayed the alien elements of Tekumel. The writing is acceptable and the plot is not anything spectacular, but that is not the point of these novels. Experiencing Tekumel is the reason to read them.

If you are looking for a "Great read", then try something else. But if you are seeking to experience Tekumel or wish to be gently introduced to Tekumel, then this is one of the books for you.

I hope that Prof. Barker produces more works in the future. And I hope that he delves deeper and deeper into Tekumel.

This is one of three Sequels to the Man of Gold DAW book published in the 1980s. Still able to weave a realistic world view, Professor Barker continues his love of languages and his detailed fantasy world, Tekumel.

Note of caution, this is a detailed novel and not a casual read. Well worth the time to enjoy it.

I enjoyed reading this book, because I've always really liked the world of Tekumel. However, it's not one that I'd recommend to someone without that background knowledge and interest.

MAR Barker has his flashes of brilliance, but isn't a natural novelist. A little too much of the book is spent explaining unfamiliar cultural, linguistic, zoological or botanical details for the uninitiated. I'd have like more characterisation, and a better developed and resolved plot.

Still ... I've read a lot worse, and it *is* about Tekumel, which absolves a great number of literary sins.

I have to come clean and say I'm a huge fan of the Tekumel/Empire of the Petal Throne game, on which this novel is based, so I was really looking forward to reading Prince of Skulls.

On the positive side this book presents an incredibly detailed, well thought out world that is very believable.

MAR has developed the world of Tekumel for over 50 years and it shows. He knows the world inside out. This is what makes EPT such a good game, it allows players to become completely immersed in their characters.

On the negative side, the prof can't write. This is no drawback for most fantasy novelists - none of them can really do it, with the possible exceptions of CS Lewis, Philip Pullmann and Terry Pratchett. I didn't miss Tolkein out by mistake there.

For the first thing, the sheer weight of detail that makes the game so great just destroys the novel. Every sentence, it seems, we're confronted with a new and unusual word. Eventually they all begin to look the same and it becomes rather like reading a phone book in a foreign language.

This wouldn't be so bad if there were any decent characters in the story. His characters just seem to sit there while the world acts on them, they don't really do anything to let us know who they are.

In Prince of Skulls you never get the feeling 'ah, that's just like Harsan to do that'. The princess character is about the best one but haven't we seen the petulant young punk who comes good in the end once too often? There are no characters here, really as in people with difficult choices who respond to them in interesting and individual ways.

Then there's the writing. I'm afraid that when someone comes down in 'high dudgeon', I'm wont to go off in..well, you see my point. And why can no work of fantasy get by without at least one sardonic smile? I blame Moorcock for this.

Barker also seems to have done a deal on exclamation marks, which wreck some sentences that you just didn't think could have been wrecked no more. 'This was not a land for the faint of heart!' Yes, MAR, we would have noticed that was a cliche without you having stuck the screamer on the end.

He peppers the text with adverbs (quickly, hesitantly, lithely, angrily) This is lazy stuff and he'd have it knocked out of him at his first creative writing class. He doesn't even use the adverbs well - can fingers clutch at a sword spasmodically? Maybe they can but is there no better word than that?

On top of this most of his characters seem to come from that strange period known only to fantasy novelists where everyone talks like an accountant doing an impression of an 18th century wench, a sort of pseudo-epic style.

For a start this means people rarely shorten words.
The text is all 'it is,' and 'I am', which is a bit ponderous, then there's the expected reversals of 'I am' for 'Am I' as in 'Am I not..' but worst of all there's the peasantry. Fantasy writers seem to go berserk with the cliches whenever they appear.
'She be sad, Lord,' the woman wheezed (as we rather feared she might) 'Can't do aught with her.'
The peasants have been banging on like that in every cliched piece of rubbish written for years.

Barker is in good company here. Tolkein was a swine for this sort of thing and Philip Pullmann can't manage a gypsy without rattling out a few 'Tis' and 'Ayes' like a school pirate play.
Barker extends this sort of horror into his own narration too. For a linguist, he has a tin ear for language and has allowed himself to be swamped by the cliches of the genre.

In short, the book was OK by the standards of fantasy writing, which are low.

All this is a pity because I'm sure there's a fascinating novel to be written in this world. If I was Prof Barker I'd read Stephen King's On Writing, pick up a bit of Hemmingway and start thinking more about character - who the hero is and how he reacts - rather than characterisation - what he looks like, how he eats his food.

Either that or he needs an editor who's going to tell him when he produces something more normally seen dropping from the back end of a Chlen.

This doesn't detract from the game, which is fab. Buy that instead of this.