Starman, by Sara Douglass is the third novel in the Wayfarer Redemption series. The preceding books are; The Wayfarer Redemption and Enchanter. Other books in the series are; Sinner, Pilgrim, and Crusader. There is also another novel set in the same world, but different characters, called Beyond the Hanging Wall. That novel is actually the first book I have read by Ms. Douglass and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the first two books so I was eagerly looking forward tot his book. Here are my thoughts on this novel.

The plot of this book carries over from the previous books. The prophecy of the land of Tencendor has come to fruition. Axis, the Starman, is dealing with the after effects of his fight with the Plowmen. Azhure is dealing with the pending pregnancy and fledgling powers she is seeking to develop. Along with Faraday’s angst over how she was treated in the previous book and her new found friends that she is destined to help. There is also the looming threat of Gorgrael seeking spread his evil across the world. On the surface there are several plot lines that seem really interesting and worth exploring. However, while I was reading this book I was becoming more and more bogged down. It felt, to me, like Ms. Douglass completely lost the story. There were entirely too many things going on in this book. I would have preferred Ms. Douglass pick one or two of those above mentioned storylines and really expand on them while briefly touching on the others. As it stands I felt my attention drawn to too many places and found it difficult to connect with anything. This plot line was much more jumbled than the first two books, and that was a disappointment for me. I had such high hopes for this book.

The characters in this book are mostly the same cast as from the first two books. You can expect to see; Axis, Faraday, Azhure, Timozel, and several Icarii. In the first two books I really enjoyed several of these characters, there were several memorable moments. However, in this book – much like the plot – the characters were all over the place and many of their actions and decisions felt contrived and forced. For instance, the character Azhure. In the first two books she has doubts, flaws, and seems real. Yet, in this book her character development is at such an accelerated pace she comes across as way too powerful. She lost, for me, any semblance of a connection. Her quick gain of power, and her ability to get whatever she wants completely ruined the character for me. This example can apply, to varying degrees, to almost every character in this book. The dialogue is hit and miss as well. In the first two books the dialogue did an excellent job of supplementing the story. In this book the dialogue, at times, feel like an ice breaking barge that powers through everything. There is little subtly to it. All of these things combined, took away from the characters in such a way that I no longer connected, or cared, about them. The only character I had any semblance of caring for was Faraday, that others I could have cared less about.

A few criticisms about this book:

1 – The character Azhure. While I have criticisms about all the characters, Azhure’s character was just so far away from what I had read in the first two books. The immense powers she gains, becoming the best all-powerful type character just came across as wrong n so many ways. I completely tuned out what could have been a very good character.

2 – Too many plotlines. For a five hundred and fifty page book, there are too many things going on. For a novel of this length, I would expect two or three of these things to be present and a couple sub plots. As it is set up though, there appears to be about five or six main plot lines fighting for time in the book.

3 – Too many characters that the reader is supposed to care about. As I was reading this book, I felt as though the author was imploring me to care about a dozen characters. This actually caused me to careless about several of them, namely Axis and Azhure. As with the plot, I think this book would have been better served concentrating on a couple of the characters and not as much on others.

4 – The general clichéd nature of the plot. By that I mean the whole prophecy, great evil (from the north no-less), and great sudden hero who rides in to save the day. I was expecting a different twist, or at least a repackage of some sort. What I got was the same ole same ole plot lines.

Some things I liked about this novel:

1 – As in the first two books, Ms. Douglass proves once again that she is a master of world building. The world itself is steeped in history and has a feel to it like it has been around for a long, long time. This allows the reader to believe the story. I appreciate that level of depth in novels.

2 – I like the unreliability, and price, that magic is in these books. The all powerful spells are fine, but at a certain cost. Also, one could reasonably expect that not every spell will work every time, so that was a nice addition as well.

When all is said and done, after completely this book I was left feeling disappointed and unsatisfied. I expected so much more from this novel, and it just didn’t deliver. I have already purchased the next two novels in this series, but at this point in time, with as much fantasy as there is on the bookshelves, I am not sure I will revisit these characters and story. I am all for giving authors a chance, and this is the fourth book by Ms. Douglass that I have read, but when I am so under whelmed and frustrated by a book going back doesn’t seem very appealing. I will continue to recommend Beyond the Hanging Wall, but beyond that I will really have to rethink the rest of my recommendations for Ms. Douglass, and that is a shame.