Firstborn

You may recall that I was concerned about how well this book would stand on its own. Indeed, since Firstborn is essentially the first half of War, which grew too big to be published as a single novel, my fears seemed justified. This is a recurring problem for Michelle West, for The Sun Sword was also split into two installments and The Hidden City was turned into no less than three books. I was hoping that this one would be akin to The Riven Shield and thus a worthy addition to the series.

Alas, it was not to be. Although Firstborn features some of the best stuff in the House War sequence thus far, it also features some of the worse cases of West totally losing herself into pointless extraneous storylines. Given how bad the author has been in that regard in the previous volumes, that's really saying something. I figure that a good fourth, if not a third, of this novel could have been excised without the reader losing anything important as far as the plot is concerned.

Here's the blurb:

Jewel ATerafin has never wanted to be a power. What she truly wants, she built in the streets of the poorer holdings. To protect what she built, to protect what she values above all else, she has accepted that power is necessary.

But with power comes responsibility.

Jewel has forced herself to do what would have once been unthinkable: She has surrendered her den-kin, Carver, to the wilderness, because she must if she is to have any hope of saving the rest of her family, and the city in which they dwell.

But she cannot leave him with nothing. Into his hands, she has placed the single, blue leaf that came from the wilderness and the dreaming combined. She doesn't know what it does or what it was meant to do--but it is the most powerful item on her person, and it is the only thing she can leave him.

That leaf, however, was created to serve a purpose that Jewel does not understand. Nor does Carver, who now possesses it. With Ellerson by his side, Carver intends to traverse the wild Winter in an attempt to reach home--and the people who are waiting for him.

There are those who do understand the significance of Carver's gift, and the disaster that will prevail if it remains in his hands. But time is of the essence. These lands are not unclaimed, and the Lord of these lands is waking from his ancient slumber.

Nor is the Lord the only threat. Firstborn, demons, and wild elementals are swirling around two mortal men in a storm that threatens to end the only chance the city of Averalaan has of surviving what is to follow.

As is the author's wont, the worldbuilding remains the most amazing aspect of these books. And in my humble opinion, it's the only thing holding the story together at the moment. It's obvious that there is a depth to Michelle West's universe that rivals those of Tolkien, Erikson, and Bakker, and it's a depth that keeps growing with each new installment. The previous volume, Oracle, raised the bar in a way we hadn't seen since Sea of Sorrows. New revelations about the firstborn, the Ariani, the Sleepers, the gods and goddesses, the cats, Meralonne, the Oracle, the Winter Court, the Sen, the Cities of Man, and more added yet new layers to what is already one of the most convoluted fantasy series of all time. Firstborn continues to shine in that regard, which is great.

Unfortunately, the characterization is severely lacking. To claim that it leaves something to be desired would be a gross understatement. As fascinating as some worldbuilding elements are, the poor characterization that leads to bad execution often undermines what should have been key and emotionally charged moments in this grand saga. As mentioned in my past reviews, I believe that your mileage will vary regarding this. Readers who love Jewel will likely enjoy them as much as the others. Perhaps more. For those for whom, like me, Jewel is just one of the protagonists and not their favorite by far, it remains quite tricky. I claimed that I doubted that Jewel could carry this series on her own, ever, and I will stand by those words until proven wrong. With a single volume to go, I doubt it's going to happen. More's the pity. I continue to bemoan the absence of thoughtful perspectives of such flawed protagonists as Diora, Teresa, Kallandras, Margret, Valedan, Alina, Ser Anton, and others. With each new installment, West continues to give more importance to Finch and Teller, yet both den members can't seem to come into their own. House business and commercial ventures and unending conversations meant for the younger ATerafin to be brought up to speed by more experienced people make me want to throw the book across the room. I've officially add it with both characters and dearly hope they die as soon as possible. Sadly, West appears to suffer from the Robert Jordan syndrome. Even with the looming apocalypse, it's evident that the vast majority of the main protagonists will live through it. Like its predecessor, the addition of new important POVs, the perspectives of both Carver and Ellerson, was a welcome change. Once more, as Jewel walks the path of the Oracle, we see events unfold through the eyes of her companions nearly as much as her own, which helps a lot if you've grown to dislike Jewel as much as I do. What hurts the characterization aspect to such a degree in Firstborn is the fact that every single den member suffers from bouts of nostalgia throughout the book. They all reminisce about Duster and the others, for some reason, and these inner monologues go on for page after page after page, killing the momentum of every scene in which they are involved. One after the other, they regurgitate their feelings about Duster's sacrifice and the death of the others, which are things we've known since the Sun Sword series. Why Michelle West felt it was important to go through all this again as we approach the end of the House War sequence, I'll never know. But all that waxing philosophical made me want to open my veins.

There is no way to sugarcoat this. The pace throughout Firstborn is awful. Which is too bad, for the plot was quite fluid to begin with. The first few chapters dealing with Carver and Ellerson, as well as the ones featuring Jewel's companions while she was unconscious moved at a good clip. Alas, Jewel had to regain conciousness at some point and it goes downhill from there. As was the case with the previous entries in the series, everything that has to do with the greater scheme of things is interesting and the implications for the future quite engrossing. New secrets are revealed and I can't wait for the ending. And yet, dealing with the minutiae of House business continues to make for long and boring chapters. As mentioned before, the rationale behind spending so many pages (in both series) elaborating on House Terafin business/members/what not is that Jewel will need something she loves and cannot stand to lose to stand up against the forces of evil that will try to destroy the capital and the rest of the world. We've known this since the very start, so I'm wondering why West feels the need to "waste" hundreds and hundreds of pages over the course of numerous books just to hammer this into readers' minds. We get it. Seriously, we got it many books ago. Another thing that I can't stand anymore is the cats. They were fun to begin with, but they've got to go. And the mystery hanging over them is just annoying. Every elder being knows who/what they are. But when Jewel asks them to tell her, they just reply that she must work it out on her own. Stupid and boring, the cats keep repeating. Well, that's what they have become over time. But what totally kills the rhythm of this novel is the sequence occurring in the Tangle. As good as some of the scenes turned out to be, there's no denying that it was overdone and overwritten.

Unlike The Riven Shield, which featured a rousing endgame and a thrilling finale, as the first half of what was meant to be one novel Firstborn doesn't benefit from the same sort of ending. Nevertheless, it is more exciting than the rest of the book and sets the stage for the final installment in the House War series. One has to wonder why so much focus was put on seemingly irrelevant scenes and plotlines when the end of it all is so near.

So there's only one volume to go. I'll be bringing War with me on my month-long trip to Asia in January. Hopefully Michelle West can close the show the way she did with The Sun Sword. But the fact that many fans gradually lost interest with this series and that most of those who started it never finished it (until West announced that she was being dropped by Daw and that the numbers were dwindling for each new House War installment, I had never encountered a fantasy series that lost popularity as time went by. Usually, it's the other way around.), I'm wondering if the author can knock it out of the park again. All the ingredients are there, no question. If she could just let the story unfold instead of focusing so much on the den and their past, this series could swing with the best of them. We'll have to wait and see. . .

The final verdict: 7.75/10

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