Irving Wishbutton and the Revision Ravine by Brian Clopper
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Meh.
The second entry in Brian Clopper’s meta fantasy series finds Irving and zombie-turned-vampire Roon reaching Revision Ravine and learning more about Dean Harmstrike and the Questing Academy.
Let me start by saying I had low expectations going into this book as the first book failed to tie up many loose ends, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt. I shouldn’t have.
All the issues from the first book are present here and turned up to eleven. Irving and the other characters are never in any danger, as either Irving’s wish jacket or his author save the day.
Moreover, this book, like the first, failed to tell a self-contained story. Instead, what you get is an incomplete story and you come away feeling like you only got the second act of a book. The books don’t make sense narratively when separated as they are.
My other issue is with Irving himself; he’s the definition of mediocre and lacks any distinct personality and is little more than a plot device to experience the world. The other characters don’t fare much better. While Roon is slightly more developed than Irving, she’s still very generic. Knarl and his axe wife were so one note they were completely forgettable, and I felt the same about the denizens of Revision Ravine.
I could have forgiven all this had Clopper answered more questions than he raised in this book. Unfortunately, that is not the case. While we get a few more tidbits about Dean Harmstrike and the world of the Questing Academy, we’re left with far too many loose threads to justify slogging through the rest of the series.
I won’t bother with the other books in the series and will just look up the ending online.
I give Irving Wishbutton and the Revision Ravine 2.0 out of 5.0 stars and don’t recommend it. Either look up the ending online or skip it altogether.
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