Starman (Axis Trilogy) (Paperback)

The tale picks up where Enchanter left off well enough, and moves crisply along, only beginning to flag as it nears its conclusion. Even the author appears to recognize a sense of bathos, on page 579 admitting "It was a sadly anti-climatic end to what had been a sometimes grand but often tragic campaign." The confrontation with the Skraeling horde, after over 1,500 pages of buildup, is marred by the brevity of its treatment, foreshadowing the final episode with Gorgrael, in what seems a rush to conclusion. Powers are marshaled that easily dispose of both, and the final events seem somewhat unsatisfying. Nonetheless, the last chapter is one of the most poignant and strongest concluding chapters I have encountered in fantasy, and far from the weepy, maudlin sentiment expressed by an earlier reviewer, who seems to confuse the strong emotional current of the book with sentimentality. Despite the alacrity present in the resolution of certain of the elements concluding the narrative, as well as the plot's slippage into anticlimax, the last chapter does much to recover and restore the trilogy's final denouement.

Though contrivances have at times cropped up elsewhere in the earlier books, perhaps none are as bald as the inclusion of the "chitter chatterers" and Urbeth. The inclusion of the first seems to serve only as a means of driving the Skraelings out of hiding, later bundled about until they can be disposed off, and the introduction of Urbeth seems attenuated and entirely unnecessary, unless one is willing to buy the enchanted rescue of the Ravenbundsmen, which I was not. While the anthropomorphism present elsewhere in the books worked for me, the image of a talking bear conjured the atmosphere of a carney show, and our last view of Urbeth walking side by side with Arne across the snow, conversing in low and implied humorous tones, seemed ludicrous. Further, the use of Urbeth, as with the "chitter chatterers" seemed only a device to tie up loose ends, and tenuously strung at that.

Though it may seem that in large part I was disappointed with this trilogy, this dissatisfaction exists only with certain elements, and overall I found this work well written and hard to put down. Only in the elements of resolution listed above did I find it predictable or artificial, and in the main the three books forming this high fantasy trilogy contained solid and imaginative story telling. And, the last chapter, in terms of Starman, was almost worth the price of admission in and of itself. Overall, this is a strongly and emotionally told tale of love and betrayal set within the usual struggle against insurmountable odds reinvented with craft and imagination, well above the ordinary, and heartily recommended. Try to ignore the momentary failings; I believe it will reward the effort.