This was my first acquaintaince with The Change series, but the series' tenth book, so my review has that giant caveat. Stirling was pretty good about cluing me into the past histories, enough that I know a Big Change occurred which destroyed all computers, possibly all machinery. The US broke into smaller fiefdoms, and Stirling in this book concentrates on a western fiefdom, The High Kingdom of Monteval. It subsumes Oregon, Idaho, and central California, among other places, and is led by High King Rudi, empowered by a magic sword. Although the "good guys" led by Rudi, allow freedom of religion, Rudi's Nordic and Celtic gods dominate much of the rituals and ceremony expressed in the book. The political system is a basic feudal system, with women allowed to fight and hold power directly. The "bad guys" or The Church Universal and Triumphant are religious in a bad way, as well as being sexist, dogmatic, and just bat-shit insane. Apparently, they have tapped into the power of (and are controlled by) ancient gods who war with Rudi's gods and the general Christian gods. They war with Rudi (several of the battles form key parts of the book) and also frequently try to assassinate him and his daughter Orlaith. Stirling has created an interesting world. That having been said, this book is largely 3 stories in one: in the first, a young enemy, whose army is allied with the evil Church, is captured and must decide whether to betray his former bosses and friends or allow the Church to probably wipe them out later, after King Rudi has fallen. In the second story, Rudi battles a mighty army and there is much description of the battle strategy. In the final story, Orlaith, Rudi's daughter is all grown up and must fight in her first battle, which is a turning point in more ways than one. It was an OK read, and I might be more invested in the characters if I had read the first 9 books. Stirling is a good writer. Another typical entry in the series, with the slim characterization and adequate prose (laden with info-dumps and 'as-you-know-bob's'). The pacing in this one suffered for being a bridge novel between the last sequence of books, starring Rudi/Artos, and the next series which will apparently feature the next generation. Even so, however, the pacing was uneven, with a lot of time spent in the build-up to the attempt to liberate Boise, and pretty much everything afterward coming as an afterthought, including the battle against the big bad of the last sequence of books, who was dispatched without ceremony in less time than it took for Stirling to write about a stray encounter with a group descended from the Boy Scouts. Rudi's end, likewise, occured in a summary fashion after a minor skirmish in a manner simply intended to build up the threat to be faced in the next set of books.Ultimately a little disappointing.
What do You think about The Given Sacrifice (2013)?
This book moved along much better than the last 2-3 in this series. I enjoyed the faster pace.
—MaeKayla
loved it! cried, but loved it. I hope there will be another book
—toks
a bit of a disappointing end to the series
—DeadlyRija
