A Man Rides Through
Reviewers who found the first book of Mordant’s Need (The Mirror of Her Dreams) a tad slow paced for their taste get their rewarding pay-off here: A Man Rides Through is an action packed adventure that intelligently carries the intricate plots on to a crescendo of climactic proportions. Here Donaldson realizes the outcome of his complex plot patterns with deft skill and insight while keeping the reader on seat’s edge with brutal exemplar pacing, suspenseful fight scenes, brutal revelations, and tear-jerking heroics. The author also shows a mature sense of character developement (there are few flat characters as everyone is changed by the stories events in various ways and at various times) as well as a believable sense of human character itself. Though it’s a fantasy, and there are some strange personages in the line-up, the personalities do indeed seem believable.
However, while the second installment may have more clear strengths than the first one, it also probably has more weaknesses. There was lull a few chapters long after the first or second chapter in the book; once you know the basic “why” of Joyce’s actions and once you know that Terisa isn’t going to fall for Eremis’ manipulations a good bit of suspense and mystery is gone. And then, right when the anti-clamacticism of all starts to sink in, Donaldson starts getting mushy with Terisa and Geradon. Too much flirting and how many times they copulated on the genre, and for a moment you might think you’re reading a romance novel like the 1st edition hardcover’s picture implies. Here it becomes more apparent that Donaldson’s style is leaning more to the modern bait and suspense style a laClancy, Brooks, and Herbie Brennan than to the ancient-sounding style he used in the early Covenant series, which seemed to wax more authentic for a fantasy tale and nodded to such greats as Tolkien and Lewis.
The ending is an excellent grand finale of realization, action, and suspense. it sums the plot up nicely but is also kind of Stars Wars- several simultaneous fights/battles at the same moment that all miraculously end together. But Donaldson can jerk tears with his tellings of heroism and sacrifice; he is able to invest the reader deep enough into the characters throughout the story to enable the reader to truly understand the meaning of what those characters do at the climax.
Donaldsonm also gets high praise from me for making a two book epic fantasy instead of a nine book one, which seems to be the trend nowadays. Not only is this particular world a refreshingly unique one in the world of fantasy lit, but it is also miraculous NOT a quest tale. Though there’s some questing in it of a sort, it is more of a political plot, and yet still manages to dish out enough action, magic, wierdness, and intrique to keep you reading cover to cover to cover.