Definitely more able to appreciate this now that I understand a touch more about some of the forms of cavalry and infantry tactics in play. ( )

Take one War Maid determined to get her man, a bunch of squabbling gods, a handful of Champions, some giant, very intelligent "horses" and their riders, an evil magician or two, various demons and dark powers, and mix well. The result? One surprisingly readable epic fantasy. The fourth installment in the War God series didn't disappoint, and I hope it won't be the last. ( )

(This is a review of the ARC. Spoilers to follow.)

War Maid's Choice was... fine, I suppose. It does a lot of things that Wind Rider's Oath did, and in much the same ways. The one really notable thing it did was widen the scope of the series - we've gotten mutterings that something is going down, but now we get to see some pretty broad hints as to what it actually is.

My main problem is, of course, that the hints are so broad, and so obvious, that they're almost insulting. And what they're hinting at just doesn't look that interesting. If I didn't know it was coming, it might work better, but... now I do.

My various lesser problems: the "epic battle" was sort of ludicrous on a number of levels. Much is made of this new enemy that was maybe named in passing once but never actually described, so they appear to pop out of nowhere. The main enemy deity had the potential to be the most interesting, for a number of reasons, but he never actually appears and his minions are disposed of quickly and efficiently. The political maneuvering managed to be both absurdly byzantine and laughably unsubtle.

And the romance. Good god, the romance. Look, you can't just say "Oh these two characters that we know intimately, who have had close-third-person viewpoints through the whole of the last book, have actually been in love that whole time and just didn't want to say anything about it." It doesn't work. It really doesn't. If Weber intended for those two to end up together when he was writing Wind Rider's Oath, he botched the job, badly. (Also? Much is made throughout the series of just how huge Bahzell is. 7'8", 400 pounds of muscle, etc etc yes-your-dick-is-bigger. Except... it apparently isn't? Because, proportionally speaking... I'm just sayin')

Also, just send Brandark offscreen on a mission or something, will you? He's too good a character to waste like that. ( )

Interesting - a slight change in emphasis, I think. It's much less about Bahzell - he's not even the viewpoint character for much of it. The Dark Gods do quite a lot of talking, and we see things from the viewpoint of their - not champion, but...head agent? Arm Shahana, a champion of the Mother, has a few parts. Leeana has quite a few, important, viewpoint scenes. Lots of other people, on all sides of the conflict - heck, we get into a devil's head for a while! Bahzell is important, as a pivot point for a lot of the action and for a final battle scene, but he's really not the protagonist of this one. As the title indicates, this one is Leeana's book - though even she doesn't have the majority of the viewpoint scenes. She does have quite a few exciting changes happening to and around her, though. This book is set six years (or so) after the end of Wind Rider's Oath, so there have been time for some interesting plans to develop and characters to change - or not, as appropriate. Nice to see Gayrfressa again. Lots of gods popping in and out. But even though this seems to be a "cusp" - an important battle in the fight for this world - it's not finished; the world is not completely for the Light, by the end. And there's lots of interesting little hints being dropped...just why is Wencit so interested in Leeana? And Brandark's still at loose ends. And...yeah. Lots more. Next, please! ( )

David Weber is a frustrating author for me to read. He has developed over the years a need to bloat, to pad, to use a thousand words to describe something when ten would. Or, if it was there in the beginning of his writing career, I over looked it when I first started reading him long long ago.

Somewhere in the reading of his books I think to myself, no more, never again will I read him. He has slowly driven me from his series. I've read my last Honor Harrington book - holding out longer than many others. I've read my last Safehold book. Maybe. Probably. The bloat finally overwhelmed me in that one. I keep saying to myself that I'm done with Weber, but he keeps doing stuff that brings me back. I do not recall the order now, but several books back I was done with Weber. Then he released his next Honor book and I had to read it. Then he released his next Safehold book, and I had to read it. Then an extended version of his short work involving Stephanie Harrington. And I had to read that one as well. There, at least, finally, I found something worthwhile. Probably because he wrote it and released it as a young adult book. Maybe. That or the story was good enough to get past the massive overuse of words. Well, I figured I was done with Weber except maybe for his next Stephanie Harrington book. He kept releasing things in series I previously enjoyed, so I'd give him another chance. Which lead to War Maid's Choice. I rather enjoyed the previous books in this fantasy series.

The bloat? The need to write every bloody person’s thoughts, including parts where the person told himself to stop it? Yes, it was there. So tired of internal conversations. So tired of people berating themselves internally. bah. Ok, the book worked well enough for me to give it 3.4 out of 5 stars. Mostly the ending pulled the rating up. But I'm done with this series as well.

I'll probably get pulled into another Weber book; there are other series he wrote that I enjoyed. He could release something in one of those series. Entice me back. Though, in those series, he had a co-writer, just like his next Stephanie Harrington book has a listed co-writer. The bloat does seem to happen more often in his solo work. So I'm probably done with Weber as a solo author. Maybe. I should probably note somewhere that David Weber had, at some point, been on my list as a favorite author. It's the reason I keep giving him another chance, though he has long since fallen off the favorite author list.

Right. I would only recommend this book to those who previously read and enjoyed the series. Otherwise I'd advise to steer clear. ( )