http://nhw.livejournal.com/61786.html

McKenna's work scores well above the average in at least three respects.

First, oddly enough, is the fact that the books are clearly rooted in role-playing. (McKenna makes no bones about this in any of her interviews.) It seems to me that this has a fundamental impact on the way the books are structured - you have a campaign, you have to begin it and end it, you have to provide a certain rate of incidence of exciting events, the characters are classified into particular categories (magic-user, warrior, thief) - but this is no bad thing. If the fundamentals of your universe are sound, then that provides a much firmer basis for the story. Elsewhere I've compared McKenna favourably to Raymond E. Feist, and more favourable comparisons follow below.

Second is the fact that there are no non-human nasties. All of McKenna's villains (and heroes) are people like us. The breadth and variety of human cultures depicted in her world is something I have only seen surpassed by George R.R. Martin (Tolkien loses on this score by having too many Elves, Dwarves and Ents). To this she injects a conflict between two different kinds of magic which are mutually incomprehensible. And population pressures are driving technological and economic change in a fantasy environment. On top of that, as you would hope for from an Oxford graduate in Classics, there is a whole store of knowledge from the ancients waiting to be decoded. Good stuff.

Third is the sex. McKenna is no Silverberg or Delany (let alone a Jacqueline Carey, whose Kushiel's Avatar is next-but-one on my "to read" list). But it is really refreshing to encounter protagonists who are not young folks going through a rite-of-passage narrative, but people much nearer to my own age, juggling the conflicting needs of a demanding career with the need for a decent home life. OK, so McKenna's characters are battling to save their continent from the evil invader rather than analysing the Balkan Question (like me) or writing best-selling novels (like Juliet). But I still feel a much greater sympathy for them than I do with the protagonists of Eddings' Belgariad (let alone Jordan's woeful Wheel of Time).

Anyway, The Gambler's Fortune is a worthy third book in the series, and I'll be looking out for the others. ( )

The Tales of Einarinn #3 ( )