Deathstalker Legacy Book

This book is the first book of the Deathstalker Saga that changes in the time period in which it is set. Deathstalker Legacy is set 150 years or so after Owen Deathstalker's time, and let me make it clear at the starting point - the setting, not the writing, is the main fault of the book which brought me to give it a four star rating rather than my usual five for the books in the Deathstalker Saga.

The book starts of well enough - the Empire has entered a Golden Age, one not without it's problems, but one the gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling inside, knowing that Owen and his companions did not suffer for nothing. It is that which brings me to the main issue I have with Deathstalker Legacy , an issue which is twofold. The first part of the issue is that, of course, the Golden Age all goes to shit, because, lets face it, these are Deathstalker books and stuff going to shit in a variety of ways is all that ever happens. If it didn't you might say, they wouldn't make for very interesting books at all... But I don't know. It might have been a nice change, to not be heartbroken by the fact that everything that Owen and his companions worked for is going to be brought down by one "petty little shit" - Finn Durandal (who I shall return to later). The second part of the issue is, strangely enough, that there was even a Golden Age to begin with. Reading Legacy I just didn't feel as much as home anymore as I did with the others; everything has been turned on it's head. Now there is a King; the ELF's are no longer good; there are no longer singular espers, simply the over-soul; rebellion forces are the antagonists; aliens are made welcome (mostly); there are "Paragons" - who are like the Investigators of the Old Empire, just with more heart and fashion sense, not to mention far too much pre-occupation over the media; the AI's of Shub are Humanity's Children ; the Maze is off limits; and many new groups have sprung up as well, determined to tear the Golden Age apart. Some of the groups are not bad at all, just odd. For example, the Ecstatics, who are like a whole religion full of Valentine's, except far less nasty and far less amusing. And worst of all the changes... the Terror has arrived.

The problem I have with this book overall(and more particularly it's villains,including Finn) is I think best expressed in a rather amusing quote from the next book, Deathstalker Return. I'm not going to say who said the words, because that would be a major spoiler, but here goes:
Person 1: "Tell me this isn't the best you can do for villains these days. No style at all. Now, Valentine Wolfe, he had style. He could chill the blood in your veins with a casual insult. Did he make it into the legends?"
Person 2: "Oh, yes. Well, sort of. He's usually played on the stage by a woman dressed in drag, for comic relief."
Person 1: "Serves him right."

I will grant that you do get (or at least I did) nostalgic feelings relatively often, as descendants of our hero's and friend's appear, and names that you didn't expect to find in this Age crop up again. And then you eagerly watch to see how these people measure up to their predecessors.

Well now, onto the characters. First of all, Lewis Deathstalker. Personally, I'm surprised that King Robert and Queen Constance actually found another "distant branch of cousins" to bestow the Deathstalker name upon, but I suppose you couldn't have a Deathstalker book without a Deathstalker present, so there you have it. I think it was around the time that he was writing this book that Green realized all of his main characters were either "handsome", "lean", "beautiful", "muscular", "darkly attractive"... or something along those lines. So, with Lewis... he just went with plain ugly. *laughs*. Well, whatever works. Call me superficial, but I actually find it marginally more entertaining reading about attractive characters, but there you have it. It wasn't a major problem, so lets move on. Lewis is... another Deathstalker. Smart, honorable, a good fighter, entertaingly witty and with the famous bad luck of his Clan. Another character you just have to like, in spite of his deficiencies.

Speaking of deficiencies, I shall move on to speaking about Jesamine Flowers, the diva, and Queen-to-be, as soon as she is married to Douglas Campbell. But of course, things are never that simple. Jesamine would make a dazzling heroine and entertaining character, if it wasn't for her annoying tendencies to pretty much ignore lesser beings than herself, to speak (sometimes) in ways that make you just want to stop her chatter with a quick slap, to have been apparently involved in several hundred too many scandals, and to think that giving people new pretty clothes solve everything. Despite all my complaints she is a like-able sort, and my favorite quality of hers is that she cares nothing for appearances, having spent so much time as a celebrity. None of which explains how either (minor spoiler coming up) Lewis or King Douglas could have fallen in love with her. As for Douglas - a handsome (thank goodness) upright, wry man... I can't help but feel sorry for him. Forced to be King of an Empire that is about to crumble, simply because of one man's ridiculous grudge brought about by Douglas' decision to make Lewis Deathstalker official Champion instead of Finn Durandal.

Finn is one of those characters who you start off thinking - I'm going to like this guy. Marvelously handsome, a brave and canny fighter, a hit with the media and incredibly smart, if a little cold. He has a disposition both very similar and very different to Valentine Wolfe's. Both characters have a dangerous intelligence, but Valentine was more silly, more drug-soaked, and...dare I say it... probably had more of a heart than Finn ever had, if only a twisted heart. I mean, at least we know that Valentine did a lot of what he did simply because his father never loved him enough. The other difference between them, I think, is that while we have time to enjoy Valentine's disposition in the first few books as he isn't doing anything incredibly reprehensible, Finn is pretty much an arse-hole from the very start. He goes rogue when Douglas does not declare him Champion, doing all manner of nasty things to bring down the Golden Age and dance in it's ashes. Despite this I cannot help but be impressed with Finn's incredible planning, intelligence and canniness, not to mention his snappy dialogue, but I couldn't ever like him. Anyway, onto his followers - Rose Constantine and Brett Random.

Rose and Brett are like Ruby and Random both decided to run away to other ends of the scale. Rose is vicious and knows nothing of true emotion, and literally makes Ruby Journey looks timid, while Brett - despite his intelligence - is a disappointing, cowardly substitute for the Random in the previous books. Still, what they have together would almost be cute, if not for the fact that Rose disappointed me - I thought she might have learnt something from Brett, but then she went and killed a whole room of people just for the hell of it. I kept waiting for the author to clue me in that it was just Brett having a nightmare, but no... Still, I think Rose will improve more because of Brett, and eventually their relationship will become... cute, in the oddest of ways.

The last character I feel bound to address is that of Anne Barclay - and I must apologize in advance for the rant I am about to undertake. What a stupid, stupid cow! I mean, seriously Anne, come on! I grant you that Anne does work really hard, but what most annoys me is that she blames other people for the person she is and the choices she makes, and hates them for not knowing "the real her" - when in fact if she just stopped wallowing in self-pity and self-loathing she could actually become everything she ever wanted. More importantly, if she'd done that sooner she could have done it without betraying everyone who ever cared about her. She was someone who worked in the background and was proud of it, and then got all upset when no-one ever noticed her or did what they were told. Wake up, woman! In her defense, I was miffed a little (less than she was) by Lewis and Jesamine's inability to keep their hands off each other. Especially as Lewis goes "This isn't about sex! I love her!" or words to that effect, and the next time they see each other it's to screw in private when they should be attending a Parliament session. But neither can I blame Lewis and Jesamine for falling in love - and I loved Douglas all the more for his strength in being able to forgive them, albeit in his own way and a very roundabout fashion.

Last thing I wanted to mention - H Class Starships! I fail to see how in hell they managed to improve star-ships that much, even over two centuries. Anyway, does anyone else think that Green could have come up with some better name for the ships, rather than Hector? I mean, really, Hector is in no way a dignified name for a star-ship. Is it just me, or do others also think that the Horizon, the Heaven (or Heavenly *insert word here), and the Hellion would have been much more wondrous names for star-ships. Meh, maybe that's just me.

Despite all my complaints, and the added complexity that this book has, it was still a marvelous addition to the Deathstalker Saga, well earning the four stars that I gave it. It has the usual humor, wonderful worlds and characters that allow you to lose yourself in hate, rage, love and despair. Anyone who has already read the other books will feel quite at home reading Deathstalker Legacy... if a little less than we used to feel at home.