Outside of a Dog: Baker, Kage: (08) The Sons of Heaven (spoilers)

David Tate

David Tate wrote on July 22, 2008 at 3:03 PM:

OK, we agree on pretty much everything. I can't believe that a series that started so well finished so badly. And your reactions are pretty much exactly what I expected. (I didn't disagree with Konrad's prediction; I just didn't think it very polite of him to express it to you before you read the last book.)

Things I personally hated the most:
1. The objectification of Mendoza. Actually, that's probably the top 3 things. I had exactly the same reaction to Mendoza's rape-denial, plus throwing the book (library copy, shame on me) across the room.
2. The magic telepathic idiot-geek-savant-pixies. In hindsight, I think that's where the series jumped the shark. That, or the UFO.
3. The glaring inconsistency between how allegedly indestructible the immortals are, and how easily destroyed they are. Was it really that hard to get the idea of dropping them into volcanos, or subducting trenches? If the material of their braincases is impervious to any known heat and acids and such, how exactly do they machine it?

That'll do for a start. I really enjoyed the first 3 or 4 novels. There were occasional moments in the later ones; I thought the aggressive vegetarianism of the future was an inspired bit of extrapolation. The last couple of books read like an elaborate practical joke on the reader, though.

Kate

Kate wrote on July 22, 2008 at 8:45 PM:

You know, I was willing to roll with the not-aliens (imagine my surprise when they turned out to be one of the least over-the-top elements of the series!). And I thought the time-travel field in the skull was a neat bit of handwavium around the problem of killing immortals.

But Mendoza plus a literal deus ex machina ending? Sorry, no.

Perhaps the worst part of this is now I'm really highly reluctant to read the forthcoming prequel to _Anvil_, which I had been looking forward to.

(Okay, second worst. First worst is that our fetal nickname is FutureBaby, and at present all our silly jokes about FutureBaby are giving me flashbacks of the NO BAD WRONG of Mendoza's pregnancy.)

Here I schal biginnen a rym

Here I schal biginnen a rym wrote on July 25, 2008 at 10:53 PM:

Hi there. I've seen your journal around for a while, and this post inspired me to comment.

I do actually like Sons of Heaven -- except that I have to stick my fingers in my ears and sing, "La la la, I'm not listening," whenever the narrative turns back to Mendoza and her peculiar family. If I ignore that plotline entirely, I can enjoy Lewis reciting "The Highwayman" to Princess Tiara Parakeet and Victor taking his long-delayed and dramatic revenge to the tune of the Discworld Symphony. (Of course, only about a third of the book remains once you ignore the Holy Incestuous Trinity Plus Mary plot, alas.)

~Rymenhild @ LJ

Kate

Kate wrote on July 26, 2008 at 9:10 AM:

Rymenhild: alas indeed, because I can and do enjoy those things, but the OH KAGE BAKER NO of the main bits just keeps distracting me and wrecks the book for me overall. It's really too bad.