/lit/ - Literature

>>20284522
Imager's Battalion, Imager Portfolio #6 - L.E. Modesitt Jr. (2013)

The previous books have had war as part of their narrative, but this was a military campaign from start to finish. The war to unite the continent had begun. I think it suffered somewhat for that as the other books had more of a variety to keep them fresh. While the abilities of imagers were primarily used for destructive purposes, they were shown to be constructive as well. I would've liked there to be more variety to use their use, as it's rather limited overall. I guess once you have a highly successful tactic there isn't really much reason to try much else. There were various teases about a past civilization and even further back in the past, but it seems they'll remain only that.

Quaeryt has been changing a lot over the course of his story and that's especially the case here. Maybe it's because he's mostly a military commander now is why his personality has changed so much. It's better for him as to accomplish his goals, though for me it makes for a less enjoyable read. The POV isn't as closely held on him, but that's mostly because he's consistently eavesdropping on conversations which allows for conversation without him being strictly present. That's one of several unfortunate habits. Now that assassins are being used against him and his allies he continues reassess whether casual assassinations were really for the best or not. At the end other end of the scale I have to wonder how much his single-handed atrocities are going to affect him in the next book, if at all really. His body count by the end of this book is the several tens of thousands, though it's all very impersonal and at a distance. Very powerful imagers are like pilots dropping weapons of mass destruction on a target, or as a more modern case may be, like a remotely operated UAV with hellfire missiles.

This was the weakest of the Quaeryt books thus far, though it's looking like the next one may even weaker, which is disappointing, but it should still be sufficiently enjoyable. I understand trying to be realistic about how long wars can take, but I would've preferred it to be less so in that regard about this and possibly not have rest of the series be war. It would be nice to see what comes afterward, though even if it doesn't, which would be disagreeable, it's still worth reading.

Rating: 3.5/5