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| Source: Dawnstar Press |
My Rating: 1/5
(Note:
This review is for an audio-book version)
I
first heard about Price of Creation through one of my brothers, and
I'm always open to a new fantasy novel. Price of Creation was so
terrible, and it's one of the few novels that left me feeling angry
by the end; that hasn't happened since Angela Hunt's Esther.
First
I'll talk about the pros. I liked the idea of people being born with
stones, and the division between the land and the misunderstanding
going on between the creators and the destroyers. I thought
Sadivir's growth and training through his adolescence was well
thought-out and -written.
That
may be about all that this story really had going for it. The story
had several cons, and they mostly circled around one thing.
The
Historian.
The
Historian made this story horrible on so many levels. Firstly, he
plays NO active role. He even states to one of the other characters
that he can't interfere with events. Rather, he's there for the
“story.” None of the characters really get after him for not
helping with the situations they're put through, and frankly, he
doesn't seem to care about himself either. His lack of empathy
towards ANY character made me despise him, and more than once I
thought that he needed to just shut up.
If
the Historian had played an active role along with observing the
events, he would have been a great main character. The most he does
is pump blacksmith bellows and follow Sadivir around and offer
pretentious wisdom. I think he was meant to be an insert for the
reader, which is very needless if the author had chosen to use
third-person omniscient narrative instead of first-person limited
POV. However, he only came across to me as an author insert, so it
became a story-teller telling a story telling a story-teller's story.
My
second issue with the Historian has to do with the author's
before-mentioned attempt to make him the reader's insert. When the
Historian asks a question, others character info-dump to him, which
gives the author an excuse to tell the reader a bunch of information
about the world and characters instead of letting that information
flow naturally with the story itself. From what I could tell listening to this book, I think there are at least 2 straight
chapters of info-dumping about the destroyers. Other chapters
involve at least one character who hardly knows him confiding
important issues to him so that we, the readers, can somehow
empathize with them. Empathize, I did not.
The
Historian refused to give any information
about himself, although he never explains why he can't tell the other
characters about himself or his true nature. He acts super
mysterious, and the other characters don't really care. If he had
either been cut from the story or played an active role, Price of Creation would
have been monumentally better for it.
The
real protagonist of this story was Sadivir. I liked his progression
up until he turned 19 and he went over the destroyer's wall. After this point,
he turned into a Gary-Sue. He had insta-love with Olia (sp?), and
through her gained super SPESHUUL POWERZ via her stone. People began
to fear him instead of really love him, and he suddenly gained super
leadership qualities after living an introverted life in his village.
Towards
the end he managed to make the bad guys turn tail, and Sadivir gained
psychopathic qualities. When some of his own warriors threaten to
turn on him, Sadivir attacks them viciously to make a point about the
horrors of war. So you need to kill your own pals in order to show
your pals how bad it is to kill; that makes sense.
Here's
another situation that really messed up this character for me: when
some of his enemies finally retreat, they warn him that they'll be
ready to defend themselves. Key word DEFEND, not attack, meaning if
Sadivir were to come after THEM, they would have the weaponry and
stuff they needed to stay alive. Sadivir, who had been taught all
his life to protect people and told others he accepted that role,
puts on a display of destruction and mocks their honest and rightful
statement of defense, indicating he can come any time and crush them. He smiles about it too. Suddenly our shining SPECHSUL hero is a terrorist! Yay!
The
other character I thought had a problem was the love interest, Olia.
After she appears the first thing Sadivir does is drool over her.
Her only role is to cling to our hero's arm and grant him his SPHECUL
POWERZ. She does nothing else important. She has some of her
background explained, which is interesting in itself, but it plays no
role throughout the main story.
The
story was cliched and pretty simple. There's a misunderstanding
between two peoples, a boy goes on a journey to learn about his
heritage, the misunderstanding comes to a head, and the boy saves the
day and creates peace. There's nothing wrong with those points, but
the way this story presented was blah. If there had been multiple
character POVs instead of the single POV through our illustrious
Historian, this story would have worked out a lot better.
Price
of Creation was heavily plot-driven and, overall, pointless. We're
presented with the Historian as the main character, but he's only an
observer for Sadivir's story. Because of the Historian's passive
role, I honestly didn't care about what was going on. I wanted to be
behind Sadivir's eyes, or Olia's, or Arik's, or Sed
What's-his-name's. Why should I care about the Historian, when he
won't even talk about himself as well as the other characters?
At
the end of the story, as the Historian walks off into the sunset and
leaves behind these friends he's stayed with for decades, he suddenly
indicates that this story was about “you,” aka the reader, even
though he had never indicated in this entire story that I was
involved in any way, shape, or form. I think the author meant to
make some sort of overall moral point with this, but it only served
to top the cake of my anger with the frosting of bewilderment and
frustration.
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