Tag Archives: fantasy

Book Review: The Prophecy Con (Rogues of the Republic book 2), By Patrick Weekes

Book Review: The Prophecy Con (Rogues of the Republic book 2), By Patrick Weekes

Chaos Abounds

What you should know

Read The Palace Job (Rogues of the Republic book 1) first.  It introduces all of the important players and is a better book all around.

The Prophecy Con picks up in the epilogue of The Palace Job an continues to tell stories about many of the characters introduced in book 1 and re-introduced to an extent in book 2.  To appreciate the full backstory and understand who the characters are completely, you have to read book 1.  But that’s a good thing.

In a realm where one part of the world is governed by an empire, and the other a republic, a war is building that could determine the future of both societies, and everyone in them.

What I liked

Author Patrick Weekes proved his ability to write enjoyable dialogue in book 1.  The more of that I found in The Prophecy Con the more I liked it.  The Palace Job introduced us to some very interesting, humorous, multidimensional characters, who are easy to appreciate.  Weekes writes about them and takes great care in keeping them consistent to their values, as he reveals more about them, and as they deal with growing challenges in their relationships, and their struggles to survive against difficult odds.

What I didn’t like

There just wasn’t enough down time for me.  The author seemed obsessed with frenetic action to the point where he gave no breaks between one violent conflict after another.  But that wasn’t the worst of it.  Even within each fight, he kept raising the stakes, doubling and tripling down within the combat to add doubt about the outcome and heighten the intensity.  The problem with doing that, I found, was that not only did it seem like the characters needed more than two arms, two legs, and one head to cope with all the simultaneous assaults, I needed to be two readers to keep up with what was happening.  That, I’m afraid, didn’t happen.

I want to be fair here, but book 1 didn’t fall into that trap.  I’m reading, believing that the heroes will survive each onslaught, they got through the first book didn’t they?  Yet with every line Weekes seems to try to get me to believe they have to do the impossible in order to be alive in the next chapter.  If I was one of the characters, I’d offer to sacrifice myself, just to avoid all the suffering I’ll have to endure in the remaining chapters.  Can a brother get a breather?

Another problem with the plot is that one, or more, its hard to tell at times, of the characters has the apparent ability to disguise themselves while knowing what everyone else is doing.  Sort of like the fly on the wall, or having the ability to be completely undetectable.  Some not only disappear, but they disappear into other beings.  It’s a problem because these characters leave the reader guessing too much.  Who are they?  How many are they?  They were so hidden I had trouble distinguishing them from each other.  What is they’re agenda?  Whose side are they on anyway?  These secret characters wield so much control it seems like they’re outside the story.  You never get to know what rules govern these mysterious beings, certainly not the same rules that apply to the more or less human characters.  So they provide mostly frustration when I think they’re supposed to be adding suspense.

Not as much fun reading.
Questions raised in The Palace Job included what separated these two major powers, and how would the future be impacted by their differences?  The Prophecy Con addresses these to some degree.  However, the real question the book emphasized was who were the real puppet-masters?  The significant leaders in the republic and the empire did not have enough intelligence or integrity to prevent them from being manipulated by anyone with more than an adolescent level of maturity.

Recommendation: Maybe Read

The Prophecy Con

Book Review: The Palace Job, by Patrick Weekes

Book Review: The Palace Job (Rogues of the Republic book 1), By Patrick Weekes

Nice magical adventure

What you should know

The fantasy primarily revolves around magic. A quite imaginative repertoire of charms and gifts are displayed not only to add entertainment, but also to stand in for modern earthbound technologies. So with magic, the society was advanced yet preindustrial at the same time.

In a realm where one part of the world is governed by an empire, and the other a republic, a dispossessed aristocratic ex-military vet of the republic serves as the heroine who seeks out vendettas against those whom she thinks have taken what she seeks to restore.

What I liked

From the beginning I found a steady plot development with pleasant surprises in every chapter. The level of intrigue was fairly high, with plenty of conflict between multidimensional characters. And there were multiple characters with multiple conflicts between them. Fiction writing is part gift, part skill, part craft, and part discipline. What I mean by that is I can pretty much divide fiction writers into two camps. Those that write great dialogue, and those that don’t. I appreciate quality dialogue in a novel. While tastes differ here, I found Weekes in the former group. I found chapters full of very smart dialogue. These conversations were intertwined around decent action set pieces, which were handled skillfully. As for the romantic readers, there was enough sexual tension to heighten the interest.

What I didn’t like

The passage of time and events is narrated by a plot device. The author used a puppet show as the form of official news media. During a time in a place most closely identified as medieval, where there is no written newsprint, crowds gather in the public square to hear the news told in the form of puppets on a stage.  The  players are composed of standins for the actual political rivals and are represented by a griffon, a manticore, and a dragon. While they are certainly inventive, I found myself straining to follow these vignettes. We never find out who the sources were for these pundits. Perhaps that could have helped.

Just a lot of fun reading.
It’s hard to imagine how the author could follow this effort up with something equally entertaining. Since this is book one, readers will have a chance to find out the answer to this proposition. My curiosity was perked concerning the political rift between the republic and the empire as little was explained about the structure of the republic and nothing at all about the makeup of the empire. Perhaps Book two answers a few of those questions. Let’s hope my curiosity will be satisfied by another good read

Recommendation: Good Read

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