A Peace Divided

Another fun entry into the Torin Kerr series (I know Goodreads is calling it “Peacekeeper #2”, but it's really the seventh book in the overall series). The action scenes in this one were a little more sedate than in the previous books, but the major themes were presented interestingly. The idea peace as something that has to be actively defended is an important one, as is the look at how we treat (or ought to treat) soldiers after the war has ended.

I had several problems with this book that makes it my least favorite in Torin's saga to date.

First of all, the number of characters. Oh my gosh. Okay, there is a list in the back that tell you the ‘major' players in the story as well as their race (and, almost without fail, nothing else). This is sort of nice, but only if you want to flip to the back of the book every three pages to remind yourself who these seventy people are. Yes. There is literally seventy names on this list. That is beyond overkill, but what makes it even worse is the way they are handled. In the narration, you are introduced to a minimum of thirty-one of them as three groups. (It takes until well past the halfway point for me to realize there are actually four groups.) Each individual is described only minimally, (to the degree that I got gender's wrong) and they will also often be referred to by race (which I would often get wrong) - though the actual, individual races are described even less than the individual. Some of these characters we actually met three books ago and they are described not at all.

(There is a reason that frequent writing advice is to not introduce groups of people at once. This book is an example of that reason.)

Next, this book is not fun. Not only do the ‘characters' not use humor to lighten things as much as they usually do, the very plot doesn't allow much humor. (Perhaps this is why, until this book, my least favorite had been the ‘rescue Craig' book. Because when attention is all on how worried we all are (or not) about someone, there are much, much fewer wisecracks.) What also contributes to this is the lack of di'Taykan's. We have four. The three on planet are...there. For a long time, I thought one of the Krai was a di'Taykan - which I think illustrates how di'Taykan the di'Taykan's were acting. Alamber was relegated to support with Craig (thankfully) and we hear him over comms only occasionally.

So, what about all the death, destruction and mayhem, what ex-Gunny Kerr does best? Yeah...First of all, there was none in the first nine (of eleven) chapters. This is a rescue mission. As such, once the skirmish starts, the battle will be, essentially, over. Then, when people do start dropping like flies, I don't care. Because this list of ‘characters' are little more than names on a page to me, even by the end of the book. I haven't been able to keep a third of our thirty plus supporting cast (everyone except for Torren & Co.) straight. Without having to think about it, I actually know who three of the hostage-takers are. Out of fourteen. I only remember who three out of fourteen are. Also, I've been known to confuse hostage for hostage-taker and vice-versa. I don't know them so I just don't care.

About out main group? Well, I dislike Craig. Always have. He's...so bland and nothing. If the gender's were reversed, Craig would be every ‘girl' the ‘hero' gets at the end of his quest. As it is, he's so boring. The rest of the characters...I like them, but we know nothing about Mashona, nothing about Ressk, that Werst grew up station-side, that Torin grew up on a farm (and, I think, has a brother) and barely a little more about Alamber. That's tolerable when we had a full company in the military that we were following. Now that we have six people and they have more of a job and less of a calling... To still know nothing about them is a problem for me.

Finally, a problem that was not the book's fault, I was doomed just a little from the start because the last two Huff books I read have been the first two in her Vicki Nelson series and they worked out poorly for me.

All in all, I will be finishing this series, but this author is yet another ‘favorite' that is falling in my estimation.

(Final notes: I do not like the relationship between Craig and Torrin. It's a little too...traditional for me. There are pet names and professions of love around near death experiences and I just don't like it. And the literal ending of this book, like the last page, was seriously creepy. I mean, super creepy. Not the best thought to leave me with.)