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Prince of Outcasts A Novel of the Change S M Stirling Books

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Prince of Outcasts A Novel of the Change S M Stirling Books

Since I got sucked into The Change series starting with Dies the Fire, I feel kinda stuck with seeing it all play out to the end. The universe of the change is interesting, but all the themes have been touched on before so in most ways, this is just more of the same. More food porn, more swords and edged weapon battle porn, more evil while on the good side we've just moved on to the next generation of children. I hate to say it, but it seems like Steve has a contract for 'x' number of books and he's playing them out. He's a great writer and the premise of this universe is well thought out. His research impeccable. His writing is typically Stirling with excellent descriptive language, lovable characters on the side of good and true evil characters on the dark side with a few lovable rogues thrown in along the way. Predictable, but necessary for completeness. I wonder how many more of these he will write before he decides he's played this universe out?


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Prince of Outcasts A Novel of the Change S M Stirling Books Reviews

The latest entry in the Change series focusing on new characters somewhere in the islands of Indonesia. Stirling has become an utter bore, apparently more interested in demonstrating his ability to write prose than any thought towards the enjoyment of the reader. He spends pages describing his alternate universe in what can only be described as wasted space like the pages written about the composition of a dinner among his lead characters. If you want to be bored out of your mind, this is the book for you. It is just a place maker for action that may come, but probably won't until Stirling thoroughly exhausts the reader's patience. I won't be buying any more books by Stirling.
I have read this series from the beginning and have enjoyed it, but the author now spends too many pages on fluff like character small-talk and describing in detail the meals they eat. While it is important to paint the "scene" and flesh out character attitudes, beliefs, and presence of mind, this has become a bit mind numbing to the point that I am no longer interested in reading the next book.
I have to apologize to the memory of Robert Jordan for ever saying he’s a bit over descriptive. Stirling is still describing the local flora and fauna of North America post Change in book 13 or whatever this is. I loved the early novels as we got the description of change after all tech comes to an end but at this point it could be tedious. This book takes us to some new locales but as a general rule is getting old. 2 more books to go!
This is a wonderful story on the continuing "Change" saga. if you like a story that has good fashion story telling with a mixture of very believable characters and settings then this is a story for you. If you have been following the Change Saga from the very first story then you are in for a treat as the stage is set for the next epic conflict. Japan, Australia, Korea and others will be involved in another war but now the Sword of the Lady will be joined with the Japanese Grass Cutting Sword. Enjoy a great read.
S.M. Stirling is one of my favorite authors. I have bought everything he has ever written -- even some of the forgettable stuff. I've given it to friends. I've waxed rhapsodic about his characters, his pacing, his ability to inject subjects seamlessly into the flow of a book -- military history, homages to Kipling and O'Brien, poetry (generally less successfully), food, terrain. (Want to know how a modern day Kipling would write about an alternative history of the Raj? Peshawar Lancers is for you.). Above all his books are fun; the pleasure of action mixed with some of the deeper delights of real literature. The guy is just good. And the first 6 novels of The Change were superb -- run do not walk to buy them. So it pains me deeply to say this The Desert and the Blade and the Prince of Outcasts are not up to his normal level of quality. Good news The Prince of Outcasts is better than its immediate predecessor. John is an engaging character, the Stirling talent for literate action was not lost entirely. Several scenes are gems. Bad news the completely incoherent portrayal of this generation with the last generation of characters -- the people who presumably got you interested enough to read this book -- continues. (One fears it is because this new generation is 2 dimensional and would suffer in the contrast.). Remember how every writing class tells you "show not tell?" Well, this is all tell not show. The book sets up a complex situation between Orlaith and her mother, personal conflict meets power politics, classic Stirling stuff, and then delivers (literally) a payoff that amounts to "it was complicated. But they loved each other. But it was complicated. And having the sword meant really knowing what the other one thought. Which was complicated." Ok, thanks for letting me know. In other news, I hear War and Peace is about Russia. Other bad news, this is half a book's content strung out into a full book. You get the feeling that the writer is killing time and words because of a contractual requirement with his publisher to get you to buy another 3 books. Large amounts of the book are about as engaging as planning for a summer holiday. Yes, we get it, Orlaith and the rest are going to go somewhere and it will be exciting and dangerous and important. Can we talk about that some more? Maybe hold a ceremony or two? Develop a new love interest, but not actually do anything about it? The plot line with John is actually really good -- let's stick to that. The imports from other authors (John Birmingham and Burgess's Clockwork Orange) have a freshness that Stirling's own characters do not. And, until the book ends with a ridiculously annoying and campy cliffhanger, I was feeling the old Stirling thrill.

I could go on, but it would involve plot spoilers. Bottom line a brilliant, genuinely brilliant author. A once fabulous series that seems like it is trudging along more to harvest those who just have to buy one more darn volume, even though the author has lost some interest. This book definitely marks an uptick -- it is better than the one before and there are great moments. It probably deserves 3.5 stars as a free standing book. Is that enough to warrant you buying it? Reasonable minds will differ. But Stirling can write great stuff. Maybe he will start doing so again. Love the guy. Hate what he did to the series.
I usually love S.M. Stirlings work but this volume of the change series left me wanting. The principle characters were not up to his usually high and interesting standards. The main character, Prince John was actually boring and I began to hope he would be killed off so there wouldn't be any future stories about him. The rest of the cast wasn't much better. The writing has slipped in this volume of the series reminding me of someone who needed to write an essay with a certain, minimum word count who simple threw in adjectives until that count was reached. For the first time in 12 books I had to force myself to finish the story, something that was never a problem in the previous books. I still recommend this author and these books, but hope the next one is back to his high standards.
Since I got sucked into The Change series starting with Dies the Fire, I feel kinda stuck with seeing it all play out to the end. The universe of the change is interesting, but all the themes have been touched on before so in most ways, this is just more of the same. More food porn, more swords and edged weapon battle porn, more evil while on the good side we've just moved on to the next generation of children. I hate to say it, but it seems like Steve has a contract for 'x' number of books and he's playing them out. He's a great writer and the premise of this universe is well thought out. His research impeccable. His writing is typically Stirling with excellent descriptive language, lovable characters on the side of good and true evil characters on the dark side with a few lovable rogues thrown in along the way. Predictable, but necessary for completeness. I wonder how many more of these he will write before he decides he's played this universe out?