Hodgell, P. C. -- Honor's Paradox

Of the last book, I said: "...it wraps up the Tentir storylines and advances the series arcs.... We have strong hints that Jame will be off to the north in the next story." Turns out I was completely wrong. All of that applies to this book. (Except south, not north.) So, no points for pacing. It remains true that "Jame hits Tentir" works better as a single (enormous) novel than as three, and it might have been better if it were edited that way, too. As it stands, it feels like a quarter of this book's wordcount is spent explaining what happened in previous books. Actual events are packed in like eggs, off-kilter; either their setups have been hanging too long (since To Ride a Rathorn), or the setup and event come on the same page. Hodgell is best when she can work a few strange details around from "quirky background" to "oh god the plot" at leisure, and this book lacks enough leisure.

All that said -- still a great story.

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