The Armies of Memory (John Barnes)

The Armies of Memory is billed as the "Climactic Conclusion" to the series Barnes began with A Million Open Doors, and continued in The Sky So Big And Black and Earth Made of Glass.

The Armies of Memory (Giraut Series #4)

Barnes is an oddity in the field of SF. He writes adventure stories with supercompetent heroes a lot of the time, but often the heroes are totally ineffectual. Giraut, the protagonist of Armies, is a spy, a swordsman, a famous and widely-loved singer, composer, and musician, and as the story opens is having a love affair with a gorgeous, brilliant, utterly-desirable woman. He could be the answer to the question "What if James Bond was a musical star?" And yet, he has the attribute of so many Barnes heroes: he can't affect anything.

Yes, for all his combat skill, acknowledged brilliance, and network of powerful friends and allies, Giraut is a helpless ping-pong ball batted around by forces he is (at first) mostly unaware of. In the end, the novel is more about Giraut's reactions to events than the traditional protagonist's ability to influence them. It's rather like an Icelandic or Old Norse saga or a Greek tragedy, with the hero's fate predetermined and the story mostly about how he deals with it.

Please don't misunderstand this as saying the book isn't worth reading. I enjoyed Armies a lot. Giraut and his supporting cast are interesting people, the plot is fun even if Giraut can't control it, and Barnes does a fine job of writing. It's just not your usual adventure story. This is a recommendation, actually.

You'll notice I'm not describing the plot. It's the fourth book in a series, after all. If you haven't read the first three, you won't care about this one. If you have, all I could accomplish by describing anything is to spoil plot points.

I do have a question or two. Okay, two. For one, is Giraut meant to be Steven Brust? I mean, he's about the right age now, he's a swordsman, he's a musician, he spends a lot of time describing food in a way Steve Brust characters might ....

Second question: Is the character Raimbaut meant to be a reference to Stallone's Rambo?

As usual (and like all bloggers who aren't famous) I'm delighted to receive any comments.