Past Imperative (The Great Game #1)

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Title: Past Imperative
Series: The Great Game
Author: Dave Duncan
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 444


Synopsis:
One young man, by name of Edward, gets mixed up in a prophecy from another world, learns that his father and mother are from there, goes to the other world, meets with a young actress, who is also in prophecy and basically is the pawn of the gods of that world.

Thing is, Edward hates God, all gods and every form of institutionalized religion. And now,in this other world, he has the power to be a god. Will he survive, take his place in the pantheon or try to destroy the existing order?

My Thoughts:
Slow.
This starts out very slow, with a story in our world following Edward and another story in World2 about Eleal, the little cripple actress.
Each storyline takes its time to grow and mature, allowing us to see what makes the characters tick and just to see the worlds as they are.
They converge probably at the 75% mark and things actually start to happen then.

Sometimes a "slow" book doesn't work for me. I want to rush in, growl, shake the plot like a rat and then rush off again. However, just like in his King's Blades  books, Duncan is a consummate writer and I was glad to take it slow. It was nice to mosey along with the characters and not feel impatient to get to the end.

Edward is a stupid, honor ridden, young english chap, so that got annoying. But he was very well balanced out by Eleal, a curious 12 year old girl who gets into trouble and eavesdrops at the drop of a hat.

A very different book, in terms of plot, from his King's Blades books but enjoyable nonetheless. Looking forward to the rest of this trilogy.