The Teras Triumph by Lucien Burr

What the fuck happened here?

Okay regular readers will know how much I enjoy(ed) this author’s work, and will remember me positively fan-girling over the first two books of this trilogy. So, I opened the last book on New Years day, intending to start my reading year with a bang.

Instead I got a bloated, overblown mess of a book with exactly none of the characteristics that made the first two so intensely readable.

Meandering Plots

The plot is a hot mess that goes nowhere.

What needs to happen, is for our heros to find the rift, figure out how it works, and close it. With a possible side order of make the monsters already in the world go away.

But the first half of the book (which is over 500 pages long) just wobbles around tangentially. Nothing interesting happens and the things that do happen don’t help get us to the rift. Its all inconsequential.

For example:

Cass negotiates with Vengence for a ‘cease-fire’, but, I mean, what for?
a) only some of the monsters will comply, and
b) all the important people for the story, all of the people Cass cares about, are safe inside the pocket dimension. The story doesn’t need this plot point and neither did Cass.

Then there is a bunch of running around London ‘cos there is a fire, and again why? Why does Cass care? What does he imagine he can do about it that the people in London cannot?

He does find the rifters (when they rescue him from his own stupidity), and he does get the info he was looking for out of them. But its a lot of scenes that don’t relate to anything else in the story. They just sit there like a hangnail.

Then, finally (finally!), we collect the other players and begin the search for the rift. Only there is no plan here, or even an attempt by anyone to make a plan. Im sorry, but these characters were not that stupid previously. Nobody tries to work out what the rift is or wonders how they will close it. No effort is expanded in trying to get that info out of the Dean. Hell nothing interesting even attacks them in the tunnels, its just so dull.

The ‘battle’ at the rift was better, but its a climax in the middle of the damn book so what will the actual climax be?

And is there any point in the ageing up of our main characters? Does this serve any kind of story or thematic purpose ‘cos so far it doesn’t feel like it. So now at 60% we have dealt with the big-deal thing the last book was building up to. What even is the driving force that’s supposed to make me want to stay for the rest of the story?

Inconsistent Characterisation

Actually, now I look back on it, one of the fundamental problems with this story, is that it stops being rooted in character. Things are now just happening for plot purposes. Which also means they have no connections with each other. It reads like a stream of consciousness, ideas popping into author’s brain and straight onto the page.

Take the Dean – there is a grossly underused character. In the previous volumes he was built up as this powerful, sinister, Machiavelli, god-like character. In this book, he vacillates wildly between pants-wetting fear and complete supercilious confidence. But, importantly, HE DOES NOTHING. It’s like they are towing a cardboard cut-out of the character around.
And while we are on the subject why do they even take him with to find the rift, when they never bother to question him? It wasn’t like he could escape to anywhere.
A previously rather good villain is thus reduced to caricature.

The sexual chemistry, a massive part of the appeal of the story thus far, is non-existent. Firstly because the love interest(s) are off page for most of the first half. But even when they are reintroduced the author doesn’t do anything with them. The sexual tension with Don is left undeveloped. While Leo is now Cass’s puppy dog. Like you cant take away the one thing I signed up for, dammit.

Add to that the horror is now dialled up to 11. Like Cass, wimpy, sensitive Cass, is now suddenly killing 8 men a day, execution style, with barely a pause. Who the fuck is this person? How or why is he now suddenly remorseless? What has changed him – nothing that appeared in this or the last book.

None of the characters are developed any further in this story, we are just chasing disasters.

Do you have to explain EVERYTHING?

The writing in this book has all the nuance of a neon signboard.

It has lost all its bite. We are now subjected to pages and pages of Cass’ internal monologue, everything painstakingly explained to the reader.

It is the author beginning to preach through his characters. Like that scree about looted cultural artifacts that came out of absolutely nowhere. There has been nothing before this to set me up to expect an opinion like that from Cass. Nor does it feel like a reasonable take in this context. That is a modern viewpoint making a cameo where it shouldn’t.

There is over 500 pages of this drivel, and much as I was invested in Cass and Leo I dont have the energy to slog through this mess. I noped out at about 60% – its just taking way too long when there are actually exciting things to read out there.

What happened?

My first thought was that the author got excited about how well the first two books were doing and rushed out the last without taking the time to develop it properly. Without seeking input from outside sources, without running it through his internal critic and asking is that good? Does it hold up to the standard set by the others? It seemed overconfident to me.

And, actually, I think this process was starting at the end of the second book. Remember how I said the story became inconsistent (in terms of time scales)? Well actually, its more than that. The author tries to retcon by inserting a catchup in the opening of this book telling us where the story is at, only it confused me, as some of the conclusions that had been drawn were not in the second book – I have read it multiple times, I am absolutely sure of this. Further some were conclusions drawn by the characters, which I had thought might be wrong, red herrings for later. And to be told them at the beginning of this book left me uncertain whether it was the author telling me the story details or Cass’s understanding of the situation, ie were they meant to be red herrings? And actually I still cant tell.

Maybe I’m being too harsh, but I am angry about this.

But then I did a bit more research.

Before I got to this book, the author alerted his readers to the fact that Lucien Burr is a nom de plume for Seth Haddon. Which actually was rather funny given my comments previously on how overdone the name Lucien is in this field.

When I first learned this I was confused at how Burr’s work could be the same as Haddon’s as despite repeated attempts I have never been able to like Haddon’s work. How could I love the one but not the other? How could these be the same person?

Well, I have now had a chance to explore a bit more of Haddon’s oeuvre and I can say that actually this book is him reverting to form. This is what his writing is like. And Im just going to have to accept that its not for me.

It is an infuriating and frustrating experience, when you think you have found a author with a consistently good output, only to realise the things you liked were the inconsistent bits.

And I dont mean to be a complete arsehole about it. Burr has legions of fans, has won publishing deals, clearly for most of his readership the things Im complaining about are immaterial. But it matters to me. Life is too short to read dull books. And Haddon’s shallow characterisation and reams of explanations create a extraordinary dull experience.

Time to move to the scroll-past list. What a pity.