Wartorn:Obliteration

Now I believe in Deux ex Machina as much as the next fantasy reader but I expect to at least be a witness when the gods strike everyone dead. I also like it when the evil wizard’s magic is used against him but the ending of Wartorn: Obliteration felt like a rip-off. Not really in Robert Asprin’s style. And what happened to Praulth’s wrap up chapter? Sorry but after this much build up, I deserve a better ending than Bryck being recognized as the famous playwright from U’delph and having a happy ever after in a cottage on the outskirts of Callah. What a cheap ending; I feel gypped. What happened with the Dardas/Weisel conflict? Raven is gone, why wasn’t Dardas expelled when the Felk magic users were killed? Were the Petgrad magic users killed too or did Praulth continue to have the advantage? I’m sorry but the ending totally ruined this duo of books for me. Now, the cover does make it sound like a series but too many things were wrapped up for it to have urgency in the continuity stream of publication. Like most of Asprin’s writing, the details are delicious and present. The cities are rich and bustling without being wordy. I guess that’s why I’m so upset about the ending. Maybe it’s the editor’s fault. Maybe the editor decided that the war was running on too long the way that Dardas wanted it too. There were so many better ways to end it. Why not have Raven/Vadya execute Dardas when she realized that his goal was continual war not peace? The angst in that chapter would have been great! Even if she banished Dardas and kept Weisel as a puppet and ruled from behind him (or realized she couldn’t rule through him since he wasn’t interested in women)? Why not have General Praulth win and receive the regard of the Cultat? There was so much that could have been done to develop Vadya, but then I’ve always been partial to courtesans. Maybe it was Eric Del Carlo’s fault. I’m not familiar with his writing; maybe he does this sort of anti-climatic ending all the time. Yes, I’m still upset about the short shrift of an ending.