The Secret Text By Holly Lisle Review

Reread

Book: Vincalis the Agitator
Author: Holly Lisle
Pages: 301
Hard Core Scale: 1.5/4
Normal Scale: 7/10
Publish Date: 2002
About:  The boy Wrath can walk through the gates that others cannot. Born in the warrens he wanders into the noble boy Solandar and becomes friends. Together both will start a dream to aid the impoverished people of Wrath’s part of the city, but at what cost?
Review: I remember likening this book twenty years ago up and remember its beginning and end with perfect clarity. Its middle though escaped my brain and played out very differently then I remember. This is something I would call writing savant. Sometimes the prose is brilliant and other times an editor should have been “WHAT are you DOING!” Sentences randomly garble themselves with something off randomly and lack a subject or purpose. The story hits some amazing beats and then there are things that conflict with the work’s purpose of could have been cut entirely. However, I am going to put pause on that as this is a prequel to a larger series that I never read and will be reading those to see if this makes sense. A lot can be cut in the middle for this thing. The end seemingly rushed and a True Deus Ex at the end of part 3 really dampens character agency and purpose and leads to the bad disbelief zone. Some characters flip between likeable and not, all hinging on the plot. Some are very unlikeable, weirdly enough the two female leads to take on the painful wandering uterus in classic love triangle and their agency is quite dependent on that. Plot movements also do not line up naturally with the end versus the beginning. It gets a bit rush and weird. Though, there is an uncanny cultural lens reflecting on our own political/entertainment climate that is both freighting and filled with purpose. Where the book shines though is its world design and that sucks me in. The story being about the world is the winning point and does actually make me excited about the actual series. 

 

The secret Text trilogy: Diplomacy of wolves, vengeance of dragons, courage of falcons.
Author: Holly Lisle
Pages 1117
Hard Core Scale: 1.5/4
Normal Scale: 6.5/10
Publish Date 1999.
About: On the world of Martin Royal families battle for control. On a day of diplomatic intrigue, the ancient mirror of souls awakes and with it promises of dead family members returned to life, immortality, godhood, and power. At the same time an ancient order of sorcerers prepare for the return of their God onto the world with a great promise to the world.

Review: After rereading Vincalis I had questions and wanted to see more about the world. Things did not line up. It’s a major problem when the prologue does not line up with the rest of the work, it makes everything fall flat. The world is addictive fascinating, we saw cool things in Vincalis and stuff in the other novels that seemed interesting, but we don’t get any depth. Holly grasps interesting world concepts really well. She is great at creating fascinating worlds. However, her myth work does not stack up. She also at least in this series tap into the depth and excitement of such world because she burns it on the bad myth.

Again, lots of large telling swaths that needed cut, often inverted tags were common. Her character’s personalities would change on a dime. The romance sat on terrible cliché of bad boys triangulation and it was painful. Agency and Freewill come into question with plot. I do like the savior is killed and people have to pick up the pieces, but it is always prophesied and overlooked prophecy. A lot of plot points could be cut. So many unneeded things, to many elements flitting about. This on top of the characters skitzo nature hurts build up. Holly has a weird aversion to violence and will skip scenes until she gets insanely violent. Its an odd thing she does. Her work also fails the naming convention rules and modern curse words creep in because the myth is not established.

The plot points really just solve themselves with little agency, especially with Kait that could be debated worthless the entire dam series. I do like she tried to make use and not waste plot points, but they just don’t line up or make sense, or were of convenience, especially in resolution of conflict. Plenty of Deus ex in tow.

Its again an odd savanty mess. What is done well is done very well, but what is not done well nukes the whole thing asunder.

                                                        Book Cover: Fred Gambino, Warner Books.