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published 1997; paperback 1997, Avon
Yadda, yadda, yadda. Blah, blah, blah.
Sharon Green's latest novel, Competitions, talks so much about how the characters think and feel that they never get a chance to think and feel much of anything. It talks so much about what they're doing that they never do much. And it talks so much about the motives of its villains that they are rendered totally devoid of interest.
Competitions is the second book in The Blending. To recap this book's predecessor, Convergence, Lorand Coll is a salt-of-the-earth farmer, Jovvi Hafford is a prostitute with a heart of gold, Rion (formerly Clarion) Mardimil is a spoiled nobleman, Vallant Ro is a rough-hewn sailor, and Tamrissa Domon is a woman who is trying to escape an unwanted marriage. These five are talented in one each of five types of elemental magic, and have been brought together by a mysterious prophecy to ultimately save their world. But first, they must prove their power by competing in a tournament that has been rigged for years to favor members of the ruling noble class.
Sharon Green has latched onto a good page-generating idea here: Take five major characters, follow them separately through several rounds of tests and competitions, and by the time you're done describing it all, a whole book has gone by. Not a bad shtick. Low on dramatic tension, since we know these folks are guaranteed success, but clever in its own way.
The tricks and ploys of the testing authority are so transparent, however, that anyone with half a brain could have seen through them years ago, so why is this bunch the only group so far to have done that? I suppose it's because of that mysterious prophecy, which hasn't yet been fully articulated. These five are the hope of the world, and all that.
Above all, the five chosen ones are Good, with a heavily emphasized capital G. They are all physically beautiful and naturally brave, honest, and upright. Even their small, carefully contrived faults are charming and sympathy-inducing. Their opponents, of course, are Bad. Besides having a higher percentage of ugly people among them, they are also self-centered, rich, vain, sexually voracious, and cowardly.
The parts of the story that are not given to repetitious testing tales, tedious recounting of events that have already happened, or the machinations of a series of cardboard villains are taken up largely with the budding romance between Tamrissa and Vallant. If there ever was a bud in need of a nip, it's this one. First Tamrissa tries to get Vallant uninterested in her by sleeping with someone else, then he decides to trick her into sleeping with him, then she agrees to sleep with him, then he doesn't want her, then she decides she really wanted him after all, then he's not sure, and on and on. What is this, a rerun of Three's Company? Where's the laugh track? Where's Don Knotts? Where's my TV Guide and remote control?
Review by Sara Lipowitz
Reviewed April 20, 1997
ISBN 0-380-78415-7
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