Subject: The Sword of Heaven (spoilers)

From: [email-masked] (Dani Zweig)
Date: Mon, 5 Jul 1993 00:06:32 GMT

This is as good an example as any of a book that's better than its
predecessor, but also less enjoyable.  Kate Elliott's "Jaran" gave
us an all-too-common sf/f milieu of idealized horse-nomads.  In 
"An Earthly Crown" and "His Conquering Sword", they're doing what
horse nomads have frequently done through history, which is to swoop
into settled lands, leaving a wide trail of corpses behind them.
(For a culture that wouldn't dream of harming women, they're proving
exceedingly flexible.)

In parallel with this story is the barely-started story of Charles's
plan to disrupt the Chapalii empire, doing however much harm that entails
to however many billions or trillions of its inhabitants.

The most poorly-motivated plot element so far is the notion that
the Tai-En Mushai's information could enable such disruption.  For one
thing, the notion that there's enough commerce for its disruption
to cause serious harm seems incompatible with the notion that when
a large portion of the Empire was lost, the remainder didn't have
to revise its schedules.  For another, it assumes that the Chapalii
will be exceedingly inflexible in reacting.

(Maybe they will be, but that reduces them to another science-fictional
opponent which can be defeated by exploiting a single weakness.  The
"he put all his power into the ring, so if you toss it into the
poorly designed heart of the Death Star it'll start a fire, and these
people have never heard of fire and won't know how to combat it"
school of writing.)

There's some hope that things won't be so simple-minded:  Either
Naroshi is very stupid, or he's a potential ally.  (Another possibility
is that he's the Emperor's agent:  While the chance of the League's
getting its independence is less than 10%, the chance of Charles or
one of Tess's heirs becoming Emperor is probably closer to 50% by
storybook logic.)

The other major poorly-motivated plot device the notion that it
matters to Charles whether Rhui is united or not. 

Still and all, the main characters are still interesting and likable
(well, some of the are likable), and the less idealized picture being
drawn here earns the author more respect.  But it is a lot less fun
than the first book to just wallow in.

-----
Dani Zweig
[email-masked]

   'T is with our judgements as our watches, none
   Go alike, yet each believes his own
		--Alexander Pope