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Needless Sacrifices
Sep. 24th, 2008 06:27 pmI spent much of the last week tearing through a fantasy trilogy that I was enjoying very much. I finished it this afternoon, and I'm more than a little upset at the author.
By the end of the third book, all but two of the main characters were dead.
What made it worse was that their deaths -- and the suffering that accompanied their struggles -- were pointless in the end. Pointless from my perspective.
The book is about a war between a goddess named Lyana and a demon named Maliz who is the champion of the god Zarab. Zarab is entirely absent from the story, but Lyana and Maliz are locked in a series of ongoing conflicts that occur every few centuries. Each time the goddess tries to rise through incarnation in the body of an avatar, Maliz is also present in a body and fights her. Lyana has champions and allies who rise with her; Maliz has only himself.
We are presented with the idea that Lyana is a good goddess, that the worship of Zarab in this land was brought about through the triumph of the demon -- so of course we're supposed to want Lyana back.
Except that Lyana's primary agent -- and ultimately the goddess herself -- manipulates, lies to, and ultimately does not prevent the deaths of most of those who serve her. And in the end, when half a dozen of those who loved her, trusted her, and devoted themselves to her are dead, all there is to show for it is that there are now temples to her in the city.
But nothing of the fabric of the society has changed. Not really. There really isn't any difference between the worshippers of Zarab and the worshippers of Lyana. There is no actual, visible benefit to having her in ascendence. We are told that women had more respect when Lyana was ascendent, but aside from the priestesses who keep a low profile, there doesn't seem to be any more sexism in this culture than most. The ruling Zar has a harem, which is a nasty place, but it's never strongly tied to the religious beliefs of the rulers.
In short: good people have their hearts broken, their bodies tortured and destroyed, and their loyalties to each other mangled for the sake of a goddess who seems far more concerned about having temples than about taking care of those who actually worship her -- and whose worship seems to make little difference to the culture of the realm under dispute.
I feel betrayed by the author and by the goddess whose cause I was supposed to be cheering for. Those the author caused me to love died for no good reason.
Yes, I could draw parallels to real life, but I'm too weary overall to bother.
By the end of the third book, all but two of the main characters were dead.
What made it worse was that their deaths -- and the suffering that accompanied their struggles -- were pointless in the end. Pointless from my perspective.
The book is about a war between a goddess named Lyana and a demon named Maliz who is the champion of the god Zarab. Zarab is entirely absent from the story, but Lyana and Maliz are locked in a series of ongoing conflicts that occur every few centuries. Each time the goddess tries to rise through incarnation in the body of an avatar, Maliz is also present in a body and fights her. Lyana has champions and allies who rise with her; Maliz has only himself.
We are presented with the idea that Lyana is a good goddess, that the worship of Zarab in this land was brought about through the triumph of the demon -- so of course we're supposed to want Lyana back.
Except that Lyana's primary agent -- and ultimately the goddess herself -- manipulates, lies to, and ultimately does not prevent the deaths of most of those who serve her. And in the end, when half a dozen of those who loved her, trusted her, and devoted themselves to her are dead, all there is to show for it is that there are now temples to her in the city.
But nothing of the fabric of the society has changed. Not really. There really isn't any difference between the worshippers of Zarab and the worshippers of Lyana. There is no actual, visible benefit to having her in ascendence. We are told that women had more respect when Lyana was ascendent, but aside from the priestesses who keep a low profile, there doesn't seem to be any more sexism in this culture than most. The ruling Zar has a harem, which is a nasty place, but it's never strongly tied to the religious beliefs of the rulers.
In short: good people have their hearts broken, their bodies tortured and destroyed, and their loyalties to each other mangled for the sake of a goddess who seems far more concerned about having temples than about taking care of those who actually worship her -- and whose worship seems to make little difference to the culture of the realm under dispute.
I feel betrayed by the author and by the goddess whose cause I was supposed to be cheering for. Those the author caused me to love died for no good reason.
Yes, I could draw parallels to real life, but I'm too weary overall to bother.
