Customer Reviews

Springwar: A Tale of Eron

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This review covers both BLOODWINTER and SPRINGWAR.

Tom Deitz has a pretty good idea for a story in these two books, the first half of a four volume fantasy cycle. The tale has a broad sweep and conceptually, I like how the harsh winters have created a strongly regimented society in Eron, one that unfortunately has been decimated by a plague. The discovery of a magical gem with mysterious powers sets Eron on a collision course with the rival kingdom of Ixti to the south. The crown prince of Ixti and his father the king have a falling out over accidental fratricide. A secret order of priests emerges with its own agenda for the gems.

There's good raw material here. It's a shame, really, that Deitz is a long-winded storyteller with no instinct for conflict or motivation.

In the first 100 pages of SPRINGWAR, for example, there are maybe 3 important story points. The rest of the pages dwell on repetitive scenes that rehash the same personal dilemmas from Bloodwinter. How many times do I need to be told the 5 things that Avall cares about, "in that order." And can we please stop using the phrase "for the nonce"?

The fact that characters continually make very big decisions based on flimsy rationale is a problem. What would drive someone to undertake a weeks-long trek in arctic weather that would freeze dry you like Han Solo if you stood naked in it for 10 minutes? Apparently Deitz thinks you'd do it if you calmly reason out that it's the course of action that makes the most sense, because a variety of bad things MIGHT happen if you don't. He's wrong. You undertake such a trek if you're boxed into a corner, desperate, and have exhausted all possible other options.

Of course, that would require more complicated narrative. Much easier to just have the characters do what you, the writer, decree they should do because that's the way you want the story to go. The gems themselves are introduced in a particularly lazy fashion. Avall, the protagonist, just happens on one in a mine. Despite its amazing uniqueness, when Deitz needs more gems in the hands of his heroes, they too just conveniently appear.

Another problem: everyone just looooves Avall. If they don't love him, then they must be the baddies of the story. Thus, instead of encountering challenges in his personal relationships, Avall finds himself easily believed and accepted among people of power. Interchangeably fresh-faced young people yearn to be near Avall so they can help him. Where are the differing personal agendas? And why, toward the end of Springwar, does Deitz just conveniently set aside the secret order of priests, when he could have used them to raise the stakes even higher?

Let's talk about the fluid sexuality and the free love. In Eron, husbands and wives routinely sleep with other men, or women, or both at the same time. Jealousy never seems to become a factor. There are, of course, people who are able to live that way. But it's simply not believable that jealousy, insecurity, and possessiveness don't cause any tension in this story. Instead of taking advantage of the potential for conflict this kind of behavior creates, Deitz prefers to write the world of human relationships as he would like it to be. Enlightened perhaps, but... yawn. Moreover Deitz misunderstands a fundamental point: the more regimented a society is, the more harshly regulated sex tends to be as well. "So what?" you might ask. "It's a fantasy." Sorry, you still have to have believable characters with recognizable emotional dilemmas. In fact, it's even more important, because the reader is already asked to suspend disbelief on so many other things.

I turned the pages willingly enough, but found myself getting frequently annoyed. Since reviews suggest that the 3rd and 4th books in the series (SUMMERBLOOD and WARAUTUMN) are even worse than these, this is as far as I go. It's a pretty good stopping point, too, since several story arcs do resolve themselves at the end of SPRINGWAR.

There's a problem with many fantasy sequels, which is that they seem to be slapped together in a way that doesn't really make any sense, as if the author is just trying to ride the first book's success to get a few more dollars. The good thing about "Springwar" is that it doesn't feel like that. Tom Deitz clearly planned this entire series of books from the beginning, and they all fit together as a coherent story, rather than an episodic group of events where new people and concepts just spring up out of the ground. In this book, Barrax begins his invasion of Eron from the south, while Avall rushes to bring King Gynn the news about the gem. We also see more of Strynn, Rann, Rrath, Eddyn and all the other characters from "Bloodwinter" as they get drawn into the growing battle between the two nations.

All of Deitz's strengths that were present in the first book appear here again. He has some very nice character arcs in place here, and it's good to see a fantasy author who actually thinks about how his heroes and villains would be affected by the events that they take part in. The dialogue is generally well-written, although occasionally a little bit soap operaish. I also can't fault this author's pacing. Unlike certain other fantasy authors (*cough cough Robert Jordan*), all of the books in Deitz's series contain a great deal of action and plot advancement. The central conflict does actually get resolved by the end of the book, and several important things do actually happen to all of the main characters.

A final note about magic in "Springwar". One of the things that I liked about the first book was that only very minor supernatural elements were present; I think that many of the best modern fantasy authors are realizing that my including fewer mythical elements, they can focus more on the human beings at the heart of the story. In this volume, however, the presence of magical power increases quite a bit. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I think that the way the character respond to the discovery of their magical abilities is very realistic. On the other hand, the one might view the power of the gems as a contrived plot device that allows them to solve all their problems without real effort, thus rendering the series less realistic than authors such as George R. R. Martin or Robin Hobb. But despite that fact, I still highly recommend these books as one of the few intelligent and mature series in the genre.

I really enjoyed this sequel to Bloodwinter.Dietz returns us to his fantasy world of conflict and magic as forces both good and evil vie possession of the magical gems. Ixia's brutal king Barrax invades Eron and sinister priest clans plots treason.Dietz's atmospheric writing style is evident in describing use of this magical stones and some gripping battle scenes.Now bring on book 3!

Deitz has once again created a fantasy masterpiece. I find Deitz's ability to present villians as heroes when it is neccesary quite stunning. Also the rationale behind each characters motives draw the reader ever further and further into this novel. I would recommend this series to any serious fantasy reader.