Book Review: Deathstalker War

Deathstalker War by Simon R. Green
Published: July 1997
Publisher: ROC (Penguin)
Audience: Everyone
Pages: 528
Buy the Book: Amazon
Book Rating: 5/5
Audiobook Length: 15 Hours
Buy the Audiobook: Defiance Audio
Audiobook Rating: 5/5







At last. The war that has been promised to the reader for over 1000 pages has finally arrived. Out of the three books I have read so far in the series, this is by far the best. Not only does the rising action of the first two books climax with the intergalactic war between the various rebellion factions and the empire, but we also get a fair amount of character development across the board with all of the main characters.

The book was surprising for me in that an number of unexpected twists occur in the final chapters of the novel, and that the author does a good job of setting up the series for the next book(s), and does it without taking 1000 pages to do it. The author also leaves a number of unanswered questions on a number of fronts as well. I suppose I would question the author as to why he went to the trouble of going into such detail about the empire when, by the end of the book, none of it really weighs in on the story itself and is implied by the end of the book that it will cease to be or mutate into something else entirely.

While the book was quite good, full of action and intrigue, I suppose, upon reflection, what the first three books have in common is not exactly filler, but tangential material that doesn't bear upon the plot or, if it does, to little effect. For example, the storyline of the masked gladiator that runs through all three of these books, upon its conclusion, has no bearing upon the story and served no point really in the first place. So, if that's the case, why add it? All you need to say is that Finley is a superb warrior. There. Done. I have communicated the information to you that took pages upon pages in the books. Does Finley's double personas matter? No (or at least thus far) so, why have it? It doesn't add to Finley's character, or enrich the book per-se other than. The Empire has arena battles for entertainment. Bam! Information communicated. Also, the dark void device, the MAIN plot of book 1, is not  mentioned except in passing in books 2 and 3.

I suppose the novels being a space opera in part does allow for the embellishment of the storyline, but it seems that there are just too many bells and whistles in this series that bog down the reader and slow down the story. That being said, Deathstalker War is a good read.