Jun 18

Jun 18 Deryni Checkmate by Katherine Kurtz

I always wish there were some dramatic reason for my abandoning a book. Decrying the morally reprehensible theme of Song of the Pearl feels … not good, per se, because I’d rather it just not exist, but at least it feels unobjectionably justified.

Deryni Checkmate just bored me.

The premise is simple: The church (and plenty of other people) loathe the half-Deryni magician Morgan.

Nothing new there, that was at least half of the plot of Deryni Rising.

The church really wants to put the screws to Morgan by interdicting (translation: temporarily excommunicating) everyone in his lands until he renounces his heritage/powers, a thing he obviously will not do. Also, looming war worries young King Kelson, and interdiction could exacerbate said looming war. Also also, someone’s going to get married, and that’s going to be a thing because characters spend so much time talking about dowries and whatnot.

What’s shocking to me is the complete lack of hooks. Deryni Rising was the master of constantly having you on the line. There was always one small, quickly summarized yet imperative problem, and the bigger plot would gain nuance in the process of solving it.

It felt akin to doing sudoku on an easy difficulty: you have to take it one step at a time, and while the solution is neither unexpected nor particularly clever, it’s also somehow satisfying to watch each piece fall into place. And after two truly rough reads in a row, that’s all I wanted. Well, that and no bizarre twists blaming teenagers for the sins of adults or glossing over infanticide as an unfortunate but necessary sacrifice.

There were no hooks here, just high-level unrest and the promise of danger and trouble sometime in the future. For much of what I’ve read, even Morgan was bored—and there are few things more boring than prolonged reading about someone being bored.

I skimmed through Morgan being bored, more dowry talk, and more discussion of vague future unrest, but nothing made me want to stop and really read what was going on. Morgan and Kelson et al. are fine protagonists if they’re questing, solving problems, and defying the odds. Their merit comes primarily from their actions. When there’s no action ... there’s not much to engage me.

And so, because it would take ages for me to force myself to keep pushing through Deryni Rising to reach the maybe better High Deryni, I’m calling it quits at page 78.

Cover art by Unknown :(