Slow Going - A Progress Report

It's been slow going on two books that I've been reading, Slathbog's Gold and The Crown Conspiracy. Both of them have two primary problems, in my opinion. Interestingly, they both share the same problems.

The first is a lack of women. In Conspiracy, there are four characters traveling together. In Slathbog, there are eight. I really haven't had patience with such female-exclusionary plots since The Lord of the Rings. (And to be honest, it made me impatient, as well.) I mean, come on. Eight characters, and not one of them could have been a female? Not even a token female? I don't find eight men traveling together very interesting to read about, even if one of them is a boy from our world. I don't find four men traveling together interesting to read about either, but at least Conspiracy does have a major female character.

Both books might have been a bit more interesting if they both didn't also suffer from the second problem.

Lack of conflict. Conflict propels a story along and makes it interesting. In Slathbog, the eight characters get along perfectly. If there is any dissension, it hasn't shown up in 91 pages so far. They just travel and talk, and show the new kid cool things. Whatever the leader says goes with hardly a murmur of discontent. And there's no sign of a woman anywhere. Conspiracy is a bit better at conflict, and I have gotten a lot further along in this novel, but I still think there should have been a lot more tension, especially between a certain royal and his two abductor/rescuers. And I would have liked to seen some conflict between the rescuers as well. There is some interesting conflict elsewhere in the story, but a case of authorial bait-and-switch made me put the book down for a while.

These two novels are also heavily Tolkein-derived. This probably accounts for the male-centric plot. Both have elves and dwarves. One has a dragon. Elves and dwarves definitely seem to be out these days, with the notable exception of books for the Young Adult and Middle Grade age groups (which Slathbog is). The only exception I can think of is Magic Lost, Trouble Found and its sequels--and I bet Lisa Shearin has a lot of YA readers. The only other new book I've read recently with elves in it was Griffin's Daughter. And that was published by a small press, like The Crown Conspiracy.

This isn't really a review--more like a progress report. I'm sure I'll finish Conspiracy--things are heating up for the final conflict now--but I'm not so certain about Slathbog. There's just not much to interest me there. And The Stranger by Max Frei is calling.