Friday, December 26, 2014

Review: two mini-reviews of Messenger's Legacy and The Dispossessed


Messenger's Legacy is Peter V. Brett's third limited edition novella set in the same world as his Demon Cycle series.  This one follows a young boy in a swamp after he loses his family in an accident.  It's a decent enough story at first, even with a secondary character from the main series getting his own POV, but then partway through there's a big time jump to a point past the timeline in The Daylight War effectively tying this story to the rest of the books.  None of the other two novellas were like this.  You could read them with the series or not without any difference.  If it wasn't obvious before, it should be by now that Brett has lost control of his series.  Disappointing.

Rating: 5/10.

The Dispossessed probably doesn't need an introduction!  It's another one of the classic sci-fi books by Le Guin I hadn't yet gotten around to and finally did.  There is a reason Le Guin is rightfully considered a Grandmaster of the genre.  This book is full of ideas, analyzing and deconstructing both capitalist and anarchist societies.  There is some really brilliant stuff here.  Highly Recommended. 

Rating: 8.5/10.