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On the Razor Edge Spiral Arm Michael Flynn 9780765334800 Books

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On the Razor Edge Spiral Arm Michael Flynn 9780765334800 Books

I have come to the reluctant conclusion that Michael Flynn may have some trouble with book series. I am an admiring fan of both his standalone novels, including Eifelheim and The Wreck of the River of Stars as well as his short fiction collections, such as Captive Dreams and The Forest of Time and Other Stories. I greatly enjoyed The January Dancer, the first installment in this book's series. But I read each book with decreasing enjoyment with a final, muddled finish. The same thing happened across the four books of the Firestar series.

I am willing to be convinced the fault is my own. Because I really like this author's other work. In case you would like to try to convince me, here are a couple of the things that bothered me.

By this point in the series, there are too many players in whatever game is being played. They are smart, courageous, crafty, and have historical significance to the story. They are also too hard to tell apart and fail to hold my interest. When some of them die, I lose track of which ones. And feel kind of bad about it.

Some of the things that were cool at the beginning have worn out their coolness and begun to grate. Yes, most of the characters are Bruce Lee-level hand-to-hand fighters. Many of them seem a little big-headed about it. Not interesting anymore. The special terminology also drops with lead-balloon impact. I get that there are Hounds, and Magpies, and Names, and whatever else. There's no mystery or intrigue to any of it. Just repetition.

The plot? Donovan, kidnapped, is finally taken to Earth. His daughter Bridget is coming to rescue him, and also to rescue her own kidnapped daughter. A bunch-load of their old friends and enemies are there. Donovan bumbles around the planet, learning some almost interesting things about Earth history. Then there is a big fight at the end. Some die; some don't. Don't ask me for specifics.

I am sorry folks--I really wanted to like this book. But I didn't. I finished it out of a felt duty of completion. You know that Eagles lyric, "Keep on singin' for the sake of the song?" Yeah. If you have come this far, having read the first three books in the series, go ahead and finish. That which you do is best done quickly.

Sorry, Michael. Quite possibly it's not you, it's me. Sorry again.


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On the Razor Edge Spiral Arm Michael Flynn 9780765334800 Books Reviews

This is the fourth in Michael Flynn's "Spiral Arm" quodrology. All four books are outstanding. He creates an incredibly complex and believable future civilization spanning hundreds of worlds. And his writing is poetic and enthralling. I cannot recommend this book too highly!!
In this book, Flynn ends the series that started with The January Dancer. While known more for his hard science fiction, the kind with all the scientific details in place, he shows himself to be adept with space opera with a hint of fantasy, and technology that is sometimes akin to magic. Yet it is all internally consistent and well thought out. The civilization he has created is wildly imaginative, compelling and interesting. And the characters are well drawn and compelling. By the end, they feel like people you have met, and you are glad to have spent time in their company. I cannot praise this series enough, and highly recommend it to all fans of science fiction of all types.
This book continues where "In the Lion's Mouth" left off. Donovan's daughter Mearana has conspired with Ravn Olafsdottr to be captured by her and to seek out her father who is being held captive. She does this in the hope that her mother, Bridget ban, will follow.

There is much political machinations going on and Donovan is unwillingly cast in the middle of it. At the end we learn the true nature of the Shadow War and the complete story of Donovan's past. The book comes to a satisfying ending and completes the series. But there is ample room for more books with this wonderful set of characters.

Once again Flynn's considerable writing skills are on display. Be thankful if you are reading this book on a with a built-in dictionary as you will need it.
I just finished re-reading the entire quartet beginning with JANUARY DANCER, and was surprised by how surpassingly fine these books are. I remembered them as being great; they were even better this time around. And that includes this last volume (ON THE RAZOR'S EDGE), about which I was a bit conflicted in the previous version of my review.

The author puts so many twists and turns into his narrative that it's not likely you'll catch it all the first time through, so multiple readings are highly recommended. In fact, there are some things I'll never catch, no matter how many times I read these books; Flynn is very clever--and I fear that some of his jokes are so obscure and private that only initiates will ever get them. This does not detract from the books; instead, the obscure references give texture and depth to the narrative. The stories take place in the far future, so you shouldn't expect to understand it all, and Flynn conveys some of this mystery by using language that is, at times, mysterious. In this, he reminds me of Cordwainer Smith. Like Smith, and like C.S. Lewis and Tolkien, Flynn is an author who respects Story as such; he understands the importance and the subtleties of the storyteller's art--and he tells a damn fine story.

Rereading the quartet also gave me a better understanding of why some people who pick up one of the middle books without having read its predecessors feel so at sea. People, don't do this! Start with the first book THE JANUARY DANCER. Then read UP JIM RIVER, IN THE LION'S MOUTH, and then ON THE RAZOR'S EDGE.

Some people might find my comments below to be spoilers for ON THE RAZOR'S EDGE (or even the whole series), so please stop here if you are spoiler-sensitive and have not yet read all the books.

The previous book in this series, IN THE LION'S MOUTH, raised my expectations to a very high degree. The characters and narrative took on a radiance that I can only describe as mythopoeic. I was reminded of the gods and heroes in the Iliad and the Odyssey; I felt that I was listening to a bard singing an epic. Flynn reinforces this by lapsing into meter in some of the prose, and by the presence of Mearana the harper. It is clear that the author intentionally references Greek and various other mythologies. We've got Diomedes (a.k.a. Domino Tight), Athena (whom I at first mistook for Aphrodite, for she has such a nice bower...though her "technical" role should have tipped me off). Indeed, there's a whole clutch of refugees from the Iliad, including Ajax (both the Greater and the Lesser), not to mention Odysseus, the most clever of men. It's not just Greek to me, though--the mythology of all four books is really something of a farrago, and they all commingle in the last book. We've got not only Greek myth, but the Celtic hounds come bounding in from the Gaelactic (sic) Peripheral Worlds, and there's lots of Carolingian trappings. But figuring out who's who never stops being fun. Even if the gods turn out to be minor bureaucrats. (And how ditsy is Tina really? Hmmm? Maybe she's as deep as you'd expect Athena to be. She certainly makes a clean getaway.)

The plot climax and resolutions offered by this last book are quite satisfactory, and there are plenty of mysteries left over--as there should be. What the heck is it with Matilda of the Night, for example? I've got my suspicions, of course...while addled by the bomb blast in the Technical Name's sanctum, Matilda says "She recognized me". Why would Tina the Technical Name recognize a stray hound? Why is the fact that Tina recognizes her remarkable, when the remarkable thing ought to be that Matilda managed to infiltrate the place at all? I suppose Matilda could be a Vestigial Virgin (of the most vestigial sort.)

I think we never really find out what happened to Terra, and what role the People of Sand and Iron played in the Commonwealth's downfall. The revelations offered in THE RAZOR'S EDGE (and the preceding books) concerning such questions are nothing but the wildly varying opinions or convictions of particular characters, and the contents of records that may or may not have been falsified. You can pick your truth.

I hope there is at least one more book in the series, not because I want all the mysteries cleared up, but because I simply want another fine story like these four. For one, I'd like to see Mearana get to know Dad better. And is it too much to hope that Bridget Ban will stop acting like a female Hound?
I have come to the reluctant conclusion that Michael Flynn may have some trouble with book series. I am an admiring fan of both his standalone novels, including Eifelheim and The Wreck of the River of Stars as well as his short fiction collections, such as Captive Dreams and The Forest of Time and Other Stories. I greatly enjoyed The January Dancer, the first installment in this book's series. But I read each book with decreasing enjoyment with a final, muddled finish. The same thing happened across the four books of the Firestar series.

I am willing to be convinced the fault is my own. Because I really like this author's other work. In case you would like to try to convince me, here are a couple of the things that bothered me.

By this point in the series, there are too many players in whatever game is being played. They are smart, courageous, crafty, and have historical significance to the story. They are also too hard to tell apart and fail to hold my interest. When some of them die, I lose track of which ones. And feel kind of bad about it.

Some of the things that were cool at the beginning have worn out their coolness and begun to grate. Yes, most of the characters are Bruce Lee-level hand-to-hand fighters. Many of them seem a little big-headed about it. Not interesting anymore. The special terminology also drops with lead-balloon impact. I get that there are Hounds, and Magpies, and Names, and whatever else. There's no mystery or intrigue to any of it. Just repetition.

The plot? Donovan, kidnapped, is finally taken to Earth. His daughter Bridget is coming to rescue him, and also to rescue her own kidnapped daughter. A bunch-load of their old friends and enemies are there. Donovan bumbles around the planet, learning some almost interesting things about Earth history. Then there is a big fight at the end. Some die; some don't. Don't ask me for specifics.

I am sorry folks--I really wanted to like this book. But I didn't. I finished it out of a felt duty of completion. You know that Eagles lyric, "Keep on singin' for the sake of the song?" Yeah. If you have come this far, having read the first three books in the series, go ahead and finish. That which you do is best done quickly.

Sorry, Michael. Quite possibly it's not you, it's me. Sorry again.