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3.0 out of 5 stars
Terisa takes action!, Mar 28 2001
"A Man Rides Through" needs something, anything to save the reader from the horrid drudgery of its here-and-now. Next to no running themes from "A Mirror of Her Dreams" survived the transition into this volume: the viewpoint shifts out of the castle, the narrative loses its air of eldritch mystery, all villains are made known, all plans are revealed, and Terisa abandons the last remnants of her passivity.The level of characterisation, the engagingly sophisticated conversations of the previous volume are gone. The relationship between Terisa and Geraden is now clearly marked as love, and their touching conversations slur into monotonous sarcasm and an excess of sex ("She would have killed for a pillow under her hips..."). Similarly, by now the readers already know what King Joyse is doing, what Eremis' plans are, who is in league with whom and what they're planning to do. Lebbick emerges as the most interesting character, but he serves no purpose in the plot save for his novelty. For the first three hundred pages, Geraden and Terisa are riding around Mordant for no reason but to make the book longer. Donaldson flirts with some elements of horror - his ghouls are definitely chilling - but that is hardly enough to capture the reader long-term. The entire second half of the book is a protracted showdown between two armies. Almost every character from both books makes a return on one of the sides, making the battle seem like a reunion of sorts. The climax itself is considerably shorter, lasting some fifty pages. It seems contrived and depends largely on a string of coincidences. Worst of all, the book ends without tackling its most interesting aspect - Imagery. Indeed, Donaldson doesn't give the reader a glimpse of more than ten or so mirrors. The characters don't get to visit alternate worlds - save for a short bit in Terisa's apartment. Furthermore, there is no hint of explanation of either Geraden's or Terisa's wild talents, which make most of the plot possible. This finale of a long fantasy novel is sadly lacking.
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by Stephen R. Donaldson
