Riddle-Master Review

A whole trilogy of only five hundred odd pages, I expected to finish Riddle Master within a week, and I certainly did not expect to take multiple weeks to get through it.  It took me until probably week three of reading it to realize that I wasn’t really engaging with the story, because whenever I picked it up, I enjoyed it.  Puzzling out why it was that I struggled to engage with a story I enjoyed while I read it took writing this review, though I still lack a complete answer.  There was something missing in it for me, something difficult to precisely define.

When I began it, I was reminded of Wizard of Earthsea.  The style was quite different, but something about the plot and the pacing and the characters put me in mind of that story.  Considering that the forward spoke of being inspired by The Lord of the Rings, a story that resonated with both of those masterpieces seemed certain to be enjoyable.  Nor is it derivative, with its diverse magic systems that aren’t really magic, the omnipresent riddling that doesn’t really refer to riddles as we think of them, and magical harps.  Even if the first book can be seen as a somewhat standard farm-boy fantasy, there are enough unique aspects to keep it interesting, Morgon’s conflict is well-wrought, and the first book ends with a dramatic twist that sets us into the more unique second installment.

The magic is somewhat confusing, with many parts, abilities, styles, names, and so forth that do not connect and seem somewhat arbitrary in their extents and limitations, but that is not what kept me from engaging with the story.  Plot, character, world-building: all of it was genuinely enjoyable and interesting…and somehow never quite hooked me on the story.  After much reflection, I think the problem is simple, if subtle.  What kept me from enjoying Riddle Master as much as I expected, as much as I wanted to, as much as I thought I should, is presentation.

Don’t get me wrong: the writing itself is pleasant enough.  When I say presentation, I mean the way that the story is told, not the technical aspect of the prose construction.  Something about how the story is presented keeps the reader at a certain remove and dilutes the immediacy of the action, and that is why I struggled to engage with it, no matter how much I wanted to.  It’s not the tense, the writing style, or anything so large-scale or overt.  Rather, it’s the small-scale way action is presented, all at a remove, so that it feels like you’re reading a story, instead of being drawn along through it.

If I could establish exactly what it is about the writing that does this, maybe I could give a more straightforward explanation, but I have not.  Again, therefore, I can only provide an ambiguous recommendation, because you may not experience the story in the same way I did.  It is entirely possible that you pick up Riddle Master and never notice the engagement issues that I experienced.  Of course, you could also decide that the pacing is too slow for you, whereas I thought the pacing was excellent.  This is always the issue with picking up a book based on someone else’s recommendation, of course, but it seemed more pertinent here.

I really want to recommend this book, because I did enjoy it.  I didn’t just want to enjoy it – whenever I was actively reading it, I enjoyed what I was reading and wanted to find out what happened next.  Yet, I kept finding myself picking up other books and reading other things instead.  That is what eventually tipped me off that I wasn’t enjoying Riddle Master as much as I thought I was, and what prompted me to ponder throughout this post why that might be.  There’s only one way for you to find out if you’ll feel the same, though, so as odd as it might seem, I hope that you give Riddle Master a try.