I love S.M. Stirling‘s Change series. I enjoyed the first trilogy, seeing people pulling together despite incredible adversity after the collapse of civilization as we know it, and I enjoyed the later transition to a more classical epic and mystical fantasy adventure with post-apocalyptic trappings. But I did not like how slowly the story moved along in the later books. I’ll do my best not to spoil anything, but once you get close to the end of the second Change series you’ll understand what I mean; Stirling’s story doesn’t move quite as slowly or impenetrably as Jordan‘s Wheel of Time once did, but the comparison of pace is almost appropriate. Despite the trudging sense of gradual story progress, I still really liked the story that was being told. And I’ll freely admit that Stirling at least made good use of the pace to lay the foundation for elaborate and interesting future story developments and character interactions.
All of this is meant by way of comparison: after the previous few books in the series, The Given Sacrifice moves like lightning. The characters forge ahead at full speed, even as nearly all of their previous adventures are called back to our attention in a rapid-fire barrage that just helps to anchor our sense of the heroes’ earlier accomplishments. And the second half of the book seems to move faster than that, if that’s even possible. I almost felt as though I’d gotten plot-whiplash. It was actually rather refreshing to find things moving so quickly, though what I’d like most is if Stirling could perhaps find some sort of middle ground in his next few books. In the end, despite the sudden change of pace, I have to say that this was a fitting and good finish to its section of the series. More on why after the break.
