Review: Battle's Legacy

Battle's Legacy by Darian Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a tough one to review. I've met Darian Smith a couple of times in person, and he's a great guy. I've also enjoyed the previous books in the series (with a couple of reservations), and included them on my Best of the Year lists. And from a storytelling point of view, it works: the characters have arcs, they struggle, they use their alliances and their skills and their history and determination and courage to persevere and succeed, they're determined to do the right thing even if it costs them. All of this is good, and would normally get it an automatic spot on my Best of the Year for 2023, with no hesitation.

On the other hand, it could do with a lot more polish, which was one of the reservations I mentioned regarding the earlier books. This one is even worse than the others, though. The whole ebook is formatted as one long "chapter," so the "time left in chapter" and "time left in book" numbers are the same, and what should be em dashes are all hyphens, inconsistently spaced. There are a number of small words missing out of sentences (a hard error to spot) and occasionally added to sentences, "let's eat Grandma" errors (missing comma before term of address), missing question marks, and a remarkably complete collection of other common errors, over 100 of them, which is more than I spotted in the other two books put together (see my highlights and notes). Towards the end, the continuity gets a little suspect, as well, and at least one person misses something that should be completely obvious to him so that an enemy's move can succeed.

My other big reservation about the earlier books was that they are darker than I prefer, with a lot of death, tragedy, pain, and overall angst. That's a personal taste thing; other people will find that a feature, but I don't, and that's the main reason (along with the low standard of editing) that I won't be getting the fourth book when it comes out. I'm pretty confident I can see some of where that book will be going, and I have no desire to experience it.

So where do I land in terms of a score and a recommendation? I've been privately judgmental in the past of authors who are, I think, too kind when they review books by their fellow authors who they like as people, and I don't want to fall into the same behaviour. On the other hand, I have allowed some books onto the bottom tier of my Best of the Year list this year that, while they have terrible mechanics and/or are darker than I prefer, are well-told stories, and this is one of those.

In the end, because I know that there are people who will enjoy this more than I did (not noticing the many errors and not minding the death and dismemberment), it just barely squeaks into the very bottom of the Bronze tier of my 2023 list, and I still feel conflicted about letting it on there. In a year where I was judging more harshly, it would get three stars.

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