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Title: The Gathering Flame
Series: Mageworlds #4
Authors: Debra Doyle & James Macdonald
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 371
Words: 136K

Synopsis:

From the Publisher

The Mageworlds are plundering the civilized galaxy. One planet at a time. First, their scoutships appeared above the outplanets. Raiding parties followed, then whole armadas bent on loot and conquest. The Mages break the warfleets that oppose them. They take entire planets. Who can stop them?

Not Perada Rosselin, Domina of Entibor. She's the absolute ruler of a rich world and all its colonies, but Entibor's space fleet is too small to mount a defense. And Perada herself, just back from school on distant Galcen, is almost an outworlder in her own court.

Not Jod Metadi, the most famous - or notorious - of the privateers of Innish-Kyl. Jos can fight the Mages and he can best them one on one, but his preferred targets are cargo vessels, not the dangerous and unprofitable ships of war. Metadi stays clear of the Mageworlds' battle fleet - when he can.

Not Errec Ransome. He understands the Magelords better than anyone. But there are some things he'll never tell - and some things he's sworn to himself that he'll never do again.

Now, the Mages have attacked Entibor. That was their first mistake...

My Thoughts:

Overall, I enjoyed this prequel about the parents of the characters in the previous three books. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it as much and in some ways I was very disappointed.

Perada's two sons aren't Joss Metadi's. They were conceived for political reasons. In fact, one of them is Eric Ransome's and Metadi just shrugs it off. I REAAAAALLLLY disliked both parts of that.

By the end of the book Entibor is a slag heap and the mages did it by using hundreds of mage circles on Entibor to move the tectonic plates and thus destroy the surface of the planet. It was pretty cool if you think about it.

Then there were the 2 women who I thought were just friends. So that line got crossed and put the authors on my to avoid list. Honestly, I'm almost glad that happened so I didn't have to muster up some fake enthusiasm to continue on with the rest of the series.

While this series started really strong for me, it has gone downhill with each successive book and with this one stepped right off the cliff face. Well, time to go find another series to try.

★☆☆☆☆ ( )

http://bactra.org/weblog/algae-2015-03.html ( )

These books comprise the Magewar trilogy and the prequel (The Gathering Flame). They are just about my favorite space opera, hence the reread. They're essentially a different take on the Star Wars trilogy. Instead of a princess, a dashing starpilot and his alien sidekick, and a mystical young hero with android sidekicks, we get the Rosselin-Metadi siblings (from youngest to oldest): Beka (princess and swashbucklinging starpilot rolled into one), Owen (unassuming mystical apprentice Adept who fights with two-handed staff), and Ari (the giant but peaceful medic in the Space Force). They've got the political, religious, and military angles all covered amongst themselves.

Like the original Star Wars trilogy, these books represent the second generation. Their parents are the famous Domina Perada Rosselin and General Jos Metadi, who were instrumental in stopping the Mages from taking over the "civilized galaxy." Their story is told in the prequel, which I always find interesting for the "continuity errors" between its narrative and the legends/history as portrayed in the main trilogy.

Anyway, Beka is the main plot driver, and most (but certainly not all) of the action revolves around her, but the story jumps around among the three siblings and their important supporting characters. It's a fast-paced action story with some very amusing dialogue.

Beside the main character differences from Star Wars, these books also differ on the story angle. Rather than being a battle between good and evil (or the Dark Side of the Force), it's really about two different cultures and philosophies/religions: the Adepts believe in a kind of metaphysical noninterference policy and are essentially individualists, while the Mages (who fight with one-handed staffs) believe in manipulating space-time/reality for higher purposes and work in groups ("Circles"). The battles with staffs involve just as much light show as lightsabers, but it's generated by each individual's own power rather than a little gizmo. So the Mages aren't evil, per se, just different, and from a different part of the galaxy.

Those are the reasons why I like the stories.

Problems: well, once again, an entire galaxy of white people, even from two apparently completely distinct civilizations. Only one person in the entire series is described as being brown, and with all of the extras involved in such an epic tale, there's plenty of room for more. And of course, as far as we know, everyone is straight.

However, I must say that a definite strength is that there is about a 50:50 gender ratio in terms of characters. If anything, when two secondary characters are presented, the woman is more likely to be in the leadership position. So lots of strong women characters as both protagonists and window dressing. Definitely passes the Bechdel/Wallace test.

Nonhumans get pretty short shrift too; I mean, really, an entire galaxy full of two human civilizations? The Selvaurs are the only ones that get any playtime in the story, since one of them is Jos Metadi's engineer during his privateer days during the Magewar (pilot with alien sidekick, check) in the prequel. It was this relationship that allowed Jos and Perada to begin to form an allied space fleet to kick Mage ass, so the Selvaurs played a pretty pivotal role in the historical context.

And since Ari, the oldest sibling, was fostered on the Selvaur homeworld to cement that alliance, the Selvaurs do turn up as relatively minor characters throughout the trilogy. The only other aliens who make a very brief appearance are the Rotis, who show up in By Honor Betray'd during a key plot moment. That's it? C'mon. What's the use of space opera with some aliens if you don't have fun with it?

And what's with this "civilized" space thing? The Mages are barbarians? They clearly have better technology in a few different fields. They're a unified culture, as opposed to the hodgepodge of independent planets of the Adept territories. And if they were so hurting for goods in their home territory that they needed to start raiding "civilized" space (Vikings, anyone?), how the hell did they get the advanced technology in the first place? So some flaws to basic underlying premises and the way the story is framed.

But hey, if you ignore subtext (subtext, what's that?) and lack of representation and the general shallowness of the story, characters, etc., it is entertaining. And like I said, an interesting spin on Star Wars, defects aside. ( )

swashbuckling Space opera. Ho humm ( )