War of the Maps

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book at first. I struggled to read the first chapter and had to have a few goes at it before I got into it. The language is very poetic, sentences long and twisty-turny. The storyline is a little bit like the Odyssey in that it follows a series of travels of the main character to various places - while he searches for someone else. The ending for me was a little bit disappointing because Remfrey didn't go out in a spectacular way, the Lucidor died with a whimper and didn't even get to kill Remfrey, the big bad guy that started the invasion wasn't vanquished (or we didn't see or know it if it was), and even the shatterling storyline went out with a dim blinker rather than a bang. Regardless, I enjoyed the ride itself and the unique and unusual world so much that the shortcomings of the plot haven't deterred me from giving it 4.5 stars. 

This is the second of Paul McAuley's books that I have tried, and whilst I found this one a bit more enjoyable, I struggled with both of them to varying degrees. He certainly has interesting ideas - this is a Sci-Fi setting with an oddly old school fantasy feel. The world is an alien artifact, a vast ring structure enclosing a star with various mirrors providing the reflected light. It is a fascinating world concept, but it is not really explored much in the story, which in reality could be any fantasy world.

The competing philosophies represented are also interesting, although the MC's role as a law maker on the run is again a little underdeveloped.

This is a sprawling story - a chase to hunt down a madman who has taken to experimenting on people and monsters. The chase is interesting enough and the prose is prettily written, but I found that I struggled to get gripped by the story. Ultimately this is a lot of missed opportunity. The story isn't bad, there is just a potential for a lot more...