Very much enjoyed Devlin’s Luck by Patricia Bray ().
Like many fantasy novels, this one follows a somewhat reluctant normal guy who is chosen by the gods to save the kingdom. What’s unusual is that Devlin, a former farmer and metalsmith, sought the post as a way of commiting suicide out of guilt over his families’ deaths. Unfortunately for him (but fortunately for the kingdom), he keeps managing to survive.
The plot was a little too simple for my taste, with an unknown enemy who is too easy to guess (although it seemed reasonable for the characters not to figure it out, as they didn’t know they were in a novel). Whenever a new character appears, it’s pretty obvious whether they are going to be good or bad based on what the plot needs. Despite that, it wasn’t ever boring or slow, and it wasn’t quite clear how it all tied together. There are still some questions (and two sequels).
For the most part, the characters themselves are well-done, and didn’t fall too badly into fantasy cliches. (Exceptions being the king and the Duke, who were weak-willed and arrogant, respectively, and without particular reason.) Even Devlin’s depression seems reasonable and is not annoying.
The prose is at times a little lengthy for the content, reemphasizing what was already clear, and the beginning seemed a bit slow, but it picked up fairly quickly.
It’s the first of a trilogy, and I plan to pick up the other two, as well as her latest. Nice thing about being years behind in my reading is that by the time I start a trilogy, all the books are out.
This book belongs to my favorite subgenre of fantasy [1], and the one which I’ve been reading the least of lately, so reading it was like coming home after a long vacation – happy to have seen new sights, but glad to return to my own bed.
[1] Dunno how it’s defined. Pick some amalgam of epic, heroic, and sword & sorcery without lots of action.