The Destroyer Goddess (In Fire Forged part 2) by Laura Resnick
01/03/2005 . Source: Jennifer Howell 

pub: TOR. 591 page paperback. Price: $ 7.99 (US). ISBN: 0-765-34796-2.

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There comes a point when you can kid yourself quite happily about the state of the fantasy genre these days. If you're careful about what you choose to read, it's perfectly possible to believe that it consists of decent, original books trying to bring something different into the world.

Then something like this slips through the net and smashes that cosy worldview into tiny little pieces. Yes, people, most of the genre consists of formulaic pulp like this. It's hard to say exactly why trying to read a book like 'The Destroyer Goddess' is so inherently depressing. Maybe it's the stuck-in-the-Seventies luridly tacky cover art. Tor's USA edition, so only to be expected. I still felt like it needed a brown paper wrapper in public though. (publisher's note: many of us at the 'Nest actually prefer the airbrushed 'dragons & pecs' school of US cover art to the British 'photomontage of a butterfly: but it's art, love' approach, but as always, there's as many opinions on this as there are fans in the genre).

Maybe it's the truly ominous tagline 'A story so epic it had to be told in two parts'. Yeah, that's what they told Tolkien at some point, too, only Lord of the Rings wasn't self-indulgent, lowest-common-denominator rubbish like this.

Maybe it's the fact that the blurb can't be squeezed onto just one dustjacket flap (it's only 450 pages!). If I really wanted a warning, I should have taken more notice of the fact it had glowing reviews from 'Romantic Times' on the back cover and run, very fast, in the opposite direction.

But hey, I decided to review it instead.



What gets me more than the bad writing and instantly forgettable characters (never have I meant that so sincerely about a book) is that I know there are obviously a large number of people out there who will not only buy this book, but they will like it. They're the ones that give it gushing 5 star reviews over on Amazon (see, I'm trying to be fair). Maybe they're people who take notice of 'Romantic Times', too, I don't know. But they will carry on encouraging genre publishers to keep churning out formulaic pulp. Sad but true. Nothing I say will deter them in any way, so I won't even try.

For the rest of the book-buying public, however...

This being not just a sequel, but part two of a really, really long book split, there's a worse case than usual of Sequelitis. I slogged through the first hundred odd pages really not having a clue what was going on. Then I gave up trying to follow the plot and just tried to wade through it as quickly as possible. The melodramatic prologue, which I think was supposed to act as catch-up, really just throws a load of unpronounceable names at you and launches straight into what I gather is a follow-on from a scene in book one. Yay!

Apparently, there's this Destroyer Goddess, who's, y'know, destroying things. As you do. There's a whole water-mage versus fire-guardian thing going on (I think we're supposed to hate the water-mages. Could be wrong). Somewhere there's a civil war looming, the usual interminable prophecies and lots of people having affairs with someone else's spouse (which would be why 'Romantic Times' was so impressed, I guess). I wish I could be more specific, but that would really involve me caring. There goes another four hours of my life I'm not getting back...

I wouldn't mind if it was just mindless trash, though. I have absolutely nothing against pulpy, lightweight genre reads that know exactly what they are and don't aspire to be anything more than a couple of hours' brainless fun. It's when they get all po-faced and deadly serious like this that I'm inclined to be less forgiving. Not fun. Most of the time, not even bearable.

Of course, if you happened to read 'In Legend Born' and enjoy it, I'm sure you're just dying for Book Two and it might make some semblance of sense to you, that obviously being your thing already. I, personally, couldn't even remember the names of the main characters five minutes after I turned the last page.

Jennifer Howell