Review: Time Of Trial

Time Of Trial by Michael Pryor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm doing a reread of the first four books in preparation for completing the series, and reviewing as I go. My rating when I read this first in about 2010 was three stars, and I now see why; I'm going to be retaining that rating.

So far, the even-numbered volumes in the series are particularly messy. Volume 2 had even more instances of the copy editing issues that plague the entire series; this one adds a couple of new issues, like using "St Alban's" as the plural possessive when the name of the place is St Albans and the apostrophe should come after the "s" (also "Hollow's" when the man's name is Hollows), and splitting both "nothing" and "another" into two words, as well as the usual "may" when it should be "might" and "is" when it should be "was," too many commas between adjectives, singular where it should be plural, occasional missing words or punctuation marks, dangling modifiers, repetitive phrasing, and unclear referents for words like "it" and "that".

It had the feel of being rushed, and having missed at least one round of revision, not only because of the copy editing but because of many small infelicities of other kinds, like moments where I didn't believe that a person would act the way they had to act in order for the plot to happen. For example, a Might-As-Well-Be-German policeman is handed a parcel by a foreigner he's never seen before, and told it's a magical bomb found behind the venue where the dignitaries are, but it's been rendered safe and should be disposed of; he instantly believes this, blanches and rushes off without any attempt to argue, or secure said foreigner for questioning. Admittedly, the setting is not actually early-20th-century Germany, but it's a very close analogue, and if you read, say, Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men on the Bummel , about an actual trip to pre-World-War-I Germany, you'll get a very different picture of how German officials behaved. Aubrey, the main character, is twice mistaken for an arms dealer (who hasn't shown up to meetings for reasons that are never explained), on very little evidence and despite being 17; he plays along and gets away with it (and there are several other coincidences that assist the progress of the plot). I didn't believe the general reaction to the revelation that Prince Albert had a claim to the Not-French throne, either.

George, who has no talent for languages and doesn't understand Not-German, contributes to a conversation presumably in that language as if he'd been following it fine.

There are also moments of implausible physics (mostly to do with how much could happen, and be said, while something or someone fell, or flew across a room), and moments where something directly contradicted what had been said earlier. A minor, but particularly clear, example of that last issue: at one point Aubrey reflects on a farmer he had known who could "reliably" cast a spell to locate lost sheep. Two sentences later and still in the same paragraph, it's described as "an erratic, fugitive talent".

Another example that combines both plausibility and continuity issues: Aubrey phones round hospitals pretending to be a visiting foreign medical student, and the hospitals are happy to divulge the names of their coma patients, no questions asked. He begins with Western Hospital and finds the place he's looking for on the third phone call, but when they visit (and aren't asked for any proof of their identity), the hospital is... Western Hospital. The first one he called.

Alongside this, Aubrey is behind the beat on figuring out what's going on a lot of the time. Perhaps I was remembering bits of the plot subconsciously from my previous reading more than 10 years ago, but I could see looming problems several times when he was clueless, and he's supposed to be brilliant. Part of the group's aim is to confront the villain, but despite having plenty of time for preparation, when the villain turns up they're taken by surprise and unprepared.

Finally, there's the issue of Caroline, which other reviewers picked up on earlier in the series than I did. In this book, I finally reached the point of being tired of the fact that we can't just be told that Caroline did something (anything) without also being told that Aubrey found it charming and admirable and was, in general, mooning over her. I mean, I've been 17 with a crush on someone; it was a long time ago, but I still remember it, and yes, it makes you kind of an idiot, and you can get a bit obsessive about it. And yes, the point of view throughout is close third person focused on Aubrey, so naturally we get his perspective on everything that happens. And yes, Caroline is awesome; she's cool-headed and multi-skilled (crack shot, ornithopter pilot, martial artist, can pick locks) thanks to her late father getting his many interesting friends to train her in the hope, presumably, that she'd become an international spy. But it still gets wearing that she can never just do something and have it be about her; it's always about how Aubrey admires her for it.

I will carry on and read the last two books, since that's why I started the reread in the first place, and there are things to enjoy about them; the author can write a great action set-piece with spectacular magic, and there are some wonderful phrases scattered about, like "All of these groups had axes to grind and there were plenty of shady business people ready to sell them bigger and better axes," but they are badly outnumbered by issues that the author and/or editor should have picked up on and fixed. It's scruffy and lacking in professionalism, and it frustrates me.

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