Memory (Scavenger Trilogy) - K.J. Parker

Building up to a climax or what?

Remember how exciting it was reading the last chapter of an Agatha Christie book, with all the revelations of things that you kick yourself for not thinking of? Well just imagine spreading that over 550 pages and you've got this book. Every chapter brings revelation after revelation, but just to keep you on your toes, there's still the odd extra question thrown in too. It's just one long tease, building up to a big climax and I love it!

Actually - confession time - I've still got one-and-a-half chapters to go so I've not yet seen how it finishes. But I won't be able to write up a review for a few days after I've finished. So I thought I'd better get it down now while I'm experiencing the thrill.

THIS IS THE END

So finaly the scavenger trilogy comes to an end. To be fair I found the first two books occasionaly tough going, not because Parker is not a good writter (his world is intirely beleivable and there are no traces of the laziness that runs through out most fantasy books) but because the books did not seem to go any where, little action and even fewer answers. So what made me keep reading?

Because I WANTED the answer, I wanted to know who Poldarn was and how he fitted into the greater story. This is K J Parker's true talent in regard to these books, the ability to give you what at first seems like an unsouvable pussle and a main charcter you can emphasise with because he's just as confused as you.

The connection between Poldarn and the god in the cart was obvious from about half way through book two, but again I wanted to find out what that had to do with anything, how it all tied up with Poldarn's previouse life(which he has fogotten, having lost his memory at the start of book one).
And here it is, all the answers, was it worth the wait? Worth the fact the when you realy look at the triology nothing much happens apart from Poldarn blundering around making a pigs ear of things?

The answer is yes. Though the revelations of Poldarns previouse life are a bit mundane and spewed out in a terrible bit of exposition (one character delivering a monolgue for three pages and most of it you can peice together from the earlier parts of the book).

But that is secondary to the main thrust of the books, namely the connection between Poldarn and the god in the cart and when you finaly close the book after reading the last page you'll feel like someones bashed you round your head a couple of times and gone on to kill your favourite pet.

That is why I have given this book four stars, for that last emotional page that made the whole prevouse 1,500 odd pages worth while.