I’m a total newcomer to Sean McMullen, the Australian writer behind the “Greatwinter” and “Moonworlds” series, the latter of which includes the new VOIDFARER. After reading, I still feel every bit as ignorant as before I started.
Being totally intrigued by reviews that have compared VOIDFARER to a mix of H.G. Wells and Alexandre Dumas, I was willing to give it the ol’ college try. But in the very first paragraph on page 1, I was confronted with a litany of made-up names that I had to read a few times just to keep them all straight. (This is a pet peeve of mine in the fantasy genre.) By page 2, I was confronted with a talking cat. (This is another pet peeve of mine in the fantasy genre. Actually, it’s a pet peeve of mine in any genre.)
The hero of McMullen’s novel is Danolarian Scryverin, a teenage constable in the year 3143 who … well, he sets off on this journey to … see, he’s got these friends and they … hell, 100 pages into it, there were dragons and there was sorcery, but I still didn’t have any clue what was going on. Don’t be fooled by the protagonist’s youth, either; this is no young adult work, as there is talk of breast-grabbing and ass-licking. I should point out that the ass-licking is courtesy of the cat. That makes it sound far less dirty, doesn’t it?
I have to admit defeat on this one. Though McMullen’s sense of humor shines through (it’d be difficult not to, since the book is largely back-and-forth dialogue with very little exposition), I personally never got a sense of a story jelling. This could be because I’m not a follower of many fantasy novels, particularly those that play out over the course of several books. Thus, I can’t really call VOIDFARER bad as much as I can simply not for me. Obviously McMullen and his Moonworlds world has its following; otherwise, this third book wouldn’t exist. I suspect they’ll find and appreciate it no matter what. –Rod Lott
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