 |
Never Trust an Elf | Rating | |
| B | |||
| Robert N. Charrette | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| Shadowrun | Never Deal with a Dragon, Choose Your Enemies Carefully, Find Your Own Truth, 2XS, Changeling, Never Trust an Elf, Into the Shadows, Streets of Blood, Shadowplay, Night's Pawn, Striper Assassin, Lone Wolf, Fade to Black, Nosferatu, Burning Bright, Who Hunts the Hunter, House of the Sun, Worlds Without End, Just Compensation, Black Madonna, Preying for Keeps, Dead Air, The Lucifer Deck, Steel Rain, Shadowboxer, Headhunters, Stranger Souls, Clockwork Assylum, Beyond the Pale, Blood Sport, Technobabel, Wolf and Raven, Psychotrope, The Terminus Experiment, Run Hard, Die Fast, Crossroads, The Forever Drug, Ragnarock, Tails You Lose, The Burning Time, Born to Run, Poison Agendas, Fallen Angels, Drops of Corruption, Aftershock, A Fistful of Data | ||
Orcs in general are at the fringes of society - ignored and unwanted by society at large, scraping to get by on odd jobs and the not-so-ocassional crime. Kham has risen above that. He does shadowruns, not penny ante gang bangs. But times have been tough lately, and he's getting desperate. So when a bunch of elves hires him for muscle, he takes the job despite some misgivings. But when they want to kill him and his team to cover up their run, Kham starts wondering just what it was he helped them steal. And when they make a play for Kham's family, things get very, very personal.
I've always been a bit unclear on what the role of orcs is in the Shadowrun universe. You have the human norms as a baseline, you have mysterious and mystic elves, trolls for dumb heavies, dragons provide the intrigue, and dwarves are great with gadgets. But Orks are just as ugly and unwanted as trolls, still no geniuses, but not as strong. They end up as something between a troll and a human. So what's the point?
But although they may not have a real niche to fill, the orcs under Charrette still manage to come alive in a way that makes them seem real. Kham in this book is one of the most real characters in the entire setting, rising well above his origins as a gruff heavy in the setting's opening trilogy. While I'm still not sure what role orcs fill that another race cannot, it seems to work here. Kham is a very deep character - surprising, given his role in those books.
I also rather enjoyed all the double-crosses, lies, and twists the story included. First we think one group is the good guys, then another, then possibly a third. By the end Kham and the readers are left wondering just what the right path to take really is, and who to trust.
There were, however, some problems. Most notably, Kham leaps to conclusions over that crystal and what its purpose truly is, and nobody calls him on it. The first I can certainly understand, but the other just made no sense. surely at the very least the calm and thoughtful Neko would have pointed out that there is no evidence to support his reasoning. For that matter, what the crystal does do remains mysterious until almost the very end of the book. Several times people tell Kham that he just did a great wrong and now he needs to correct it by doing this or that instead. At some point Kham should have refused to play along until some explanation of what the thing is for is given to him. It's well within his character to make such a demand, and it's not like the explanation has to be the truth - he's dealing with some pretty deceitful folks. But he never does.
The ending, too, is a little... ambiguous. Kham says he's getting out of the business because he's getting too old and it's getting too dangerous. He wants to be with his kids and the rest of his troupe. Very admirable, I thought. Then he thinks that the responsible thing to do is stay in the business and keep being the good provider. Also noble. But which is it? I honestly couldn't tell what he chose. And while it's an important personal decision, it's not an immediately dramitic one. There is no "Lady and the Tiger" choice here, it's just left up in the air, and I didn't much like it.
This is a decent book, at its heart. Kham and the orc society he's a part of is very well portrayed. And this novel is a perfect example of the machiavellian manipulations that characters in Shadowrun (or at least their authors) seem to love. It had a few too many problems though for me to really love. Like, yes, but not love. It's definitely a good addition to the series, however, and should not be skipped by Shadowrun fans.
| By Title | By Author | By Rank |