Sepherim
Imperial Shipment
Amarr Empire
3
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Posted - 2012.12.07 22:01:00 -
[2] - Quote
I believe we'll have to agree to disagree. I bought Empyrean Age the day it was first put on sale, and read it eagerly. I wasn't expecting an Asimov, or Heinlein, but I did expect something akin to some of Warhammer 40k's novels (to put an example). And Tony's writing is on par to that: clear, entertaining, and to the point. So the form was fine for me.
Problem, for me, was the plot. Too many things breaking the cannon established 'til then, too many new things coming out of nowhere, and characters that way were too powerful for what they should be, ended up making me feel completely detached from the novel. There's an element in literature called "suspension of disbelief", that makes you accept anything that happens in a novel (or film, or whatever) because it's in the universe... but if it gets pressed on too hard, it breaks, and the reader is completely detached. It's what happened to me.
And this is an important thing: to me. It's a subjective thing, I'm not saying they're bad novels or anything, I just didn't like them for the explained reasons. Surely many people liked them, and certainly my opinion can only go as far as Empyrean Age goes as it's the only one I've read.
What comes now contains spoilers, I don't know how to add that tag, so if you haven't read the novel and intend to do so, don't go on:
Some examples of what I mean, may contain some inacuracies as I read it years ago:
-The Broker: not only has more money than anything/anyone (which is something rather unbelievable), but also a doppleganger skill no one can expect and predict, the possibility to be everywhere he needs to... etc. He's very short of a God-like character. Oh, and he has a flaw, some kind of disease that gets carried on when he changes clones... which I believe makes no sense medically-wise.
-The Empress: not only gets a weapon way too powerful (okay, old tech, was established in cannon, so acceptable) but also has psychic powers (which were not), the ability to read minds, etc.
You get the point. To a minor degree, similair things could be said about how Heth overthrows the regime, or the twist in the Minmatarr plot. So, in the end, what you get is a story when all characters are worthless, except the God-like Deus Ex that propel the story in whichever direction they desire without any problem to do so (except the action of the other Deus Ex, of course).
EvE is a universe of human beings, or transhuman if you prefer, but with set boundaries to what is possible. And too many characters break those boundaries to make it believable, and thus, interesting.
Sepherim Catillah; Ex-Imperial Navy Officer |