After several days of interrupted reading, I finally finished Pagan in Exile by Catherine Jinks (Book #45 for 2009).
The Pagan books have been in my wishlist for some time now, and I was surprised to come across Pagan’s Crusade (book 1) at Book Sale last year. Cecille got me Pagan in Exile for Christmas.
After two books in the series, I still pretty much don’t get it. The past few days have been busy for me, but if Pagan in Exile was interesting enough, I’d have finished it the first day.
I was really interested in the series as I have never read any Templar knight novels before, but I had several problems with this series.
First, I really hate it when books do not provide enough context into the central ideas that form the backbone of the story. This series, for instance, is set some time during the Crusades, but assumes the reader knows all about the Crusades.
I blanch at books like this, which plunge you right into a foreign concept, because it’s difficult to get into the story and even more difficult to imagine it. Style-wise, it’s okay if concepts are explained along the way, e.g. Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, which takes some getting used to but makes it all worth it in the end. But if the author simply expects you to make conjectures out of the meager information provided, it’s just plain annoying.
Second, Pagan, the protagonist sticks out like a sore thumb in this series. He is supposed to be a wisecracking teener who serves as a squire for a Templar knight. Annoying wisecracks notwithstanding, he doesn’t sound like someone from the period in which the book is set. However vague the time period is, I’m sure they weren’t quipping Wham! or hups-a-daisy! or God, how I hate monasteries in the Crusades.
Yawn, yawn. What a bore. Nothing to look at. Nothing to eat. Not much of a road, this one. A real goat track, hemmed in by scrubby forest: the occasional oak, lots of sweet chestnuts, wild thyme, campions and other things I don’t recognize. Little brown birds. Twit, twit, twit. Enough to drive you crazy.
Speaking of speech, the series contains a lot of cuss words (not to mention sexual content) that makes it inappropriate for young readers.
Finally, the storyline is frustrating. After two books, I felt as if I’d been led around in circles. There is no clear plot developmen, no goals for the protagonists to achieve, no rising action or climax, and the books just make you plod on and on and on.
It hits another of my pet peeves — I get really annoyed when I don’t know what the author is driving at. I have hundreds of books waiting to be read and I devote time to your book, the least you can do is to let me know that there is a point to reading it.
I tried to like this series, but come on, throw me a bone here…
I don’t think I’ll read the rest of the series.
***
My copies: Pagan’s Crusade, trade paperback, from Book Sale (~P80); Pagan in Exile, trade paperback, from Cecille — both mooched already.
My rating: Pagan’s Crusade 2/5 stars; Pagan in Exile 2/5 stars; Pagan series 2/5 stars