Review: The Curse of the Mistwraith

The Curse of the Mistwraith by Janny Wurts

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



I'm not sure how I came across The Curse of the Mistwraith. It must be one of those Goodreads finds that unfortunately is not working out for me. I’ve fought to read this far, and I just can’t face it any longer. I took a break and tried to come back to it several times, only to find my determination to finish it waning with distance. Every time I try to start back up again, I get stuck. I keep trying to force myself through this one telling of the history of a sword, and it’s all very momentous sounding, so I feel like I can’t skip it (I get the feeling that would be like skipping the story of the Ring in LOTR). But I just don’t care and I’m bored and I don’t like anyone, and I don’t even really know anyone after 120 pages. This weighty tale is apparently a roadblock that I don’t have the strength to pass. I need to move on.

So what is so terrible about it, you might ask. The best answer I can give is that the narrative style is too scattered and random and too much is spent on background and history without forging any connection to the present and the main characters. The characters themselves are not very likable, and I really don’t care what happens to them. The POV switches all the time, most often using minor characters such as messengers, captains, servants, etc. to provide an outside view of the main characters. How are you supposed to tell who is important when you never know whether that character will be revisited again or not? How can you grow attached to the main characters when they are only seen through vignettes showing other people’s impressions of them from afar? And when you do actually get the primary viewpoints, it doesn’t help their case much. The two brothers are not very sympathetic when you get inside their heads. I did have hope that they would change, but I just don’t have the patience and don’t care enough to find out.

On top of the lack of character appeal, the world changes about 15% into it - as in, all the effort I’ve put in to getting into this story and learning about the first world is tossed out when the two brothers are sent through a portal to another world. They are apparently stuck there permanently, and this is where the true story begins. But having to start over at this point is disastrous because I haven’t learned to care yet, and I don’t want to wade through more history and portents and legends to find out what they’re doing there and how important they’re going to be. I still don’t like them, don’t know them very well, and POVs are still switching. Instead of building my attachment to the characters and this huge thing that has happened to them, the emphasis is on portents, legends, prophecies, background. I get it already. Make me care. Make something happen now.

I almost forgot to mention the excessive use of prologues and random scenes. Every freaking chapter has its own prologue. I kid you not. The flow of the main story, if it can be called that, is completely derailed by these diversions to other people, times, places that supposedly lend import to what is about to happen hopefully sometime in the next 600 pages. Then after each prologue, we get random flashes of scenes from other people, times, places that we have no idea who or where they are or whether / why they might be important to the whole. It just adds to the boredom, increases distance from the plot and characters that you're fighting to get to know.

It makes skimming difficult because you might miss something that’s actually important. What if a viewpoint that seems random and useless ends up being critical to understanding the whole? Everything has that portentous feeling, and yet somehow feels distant and trivial and is a complete slog to get through. And did I mention there’s not much of an actual story yet?

Clearly this narrative style is not for me.



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