2008-10-02 A truly astonishing, mixed blessing.

Catherine Banner has an extraordinary gift. She possesses an exceptionally fertile imagination coupled with the talent to tell a fine tale. I have no doubts at all that she will write some very fine books, which I for one look forward to reading.

Unfortunately I am not here to review her FUTURE books, I am here to review THIS book - and here lies the problem.

"The Eyes of a King" contains imagination by the bucket load, and great swathes of excellent story telling, but it is a flawed creation. A book that shows the potential Catherine Bannar has for the future, but equally shows that she has not yet reached that potential yet.

There are two main problems that I see.

Firstly is the way the author has handled the complexity of the tale her imagination has created. There is a story line in England. There is the story line in Malonia. There is the story line of political intrigue, treachery and murder. There is the story line of death, bereavement and sorrow. There is a story line of sorcery. There are, in fact, a seemingly endless list of story lines, all interweaving and interacting.

This is truly an exceptional piece of imagination, but it is also a danger. With a tale of this interconnected complexity there is a need for the author to be brutally, almost ruthlessly, disciplined in order to stop the tale "running away with her" and degenerating into chaos.

Catherine Banner ALMOST manages to keep the book under control, but doesn't quite manage it. The complexities run riot and "escape" her, becoming a roller-coaster ride where you wonder whether the author really knows and guides what's happening, or whether it's careening along under it's own momentum.

This is a book that needs another re-write to just "tighten it up" and give it the discipline and structure that's missing.

It's a pity, but it's a forgivable pity because the story telling and style is generally glorious.

The second fault, though, is far more serious. Characterization. I read through this book and found myself wondering "is there ANY character I'm reading about that I actually believe in?" The answer, unfortunately, is "no."

The characters in this book are vaguely reminiscent of the style of victorian melodrama where mustachioed cads would twirl their mustaches as they planned the despoilment of the next innocent maiden - in other words a mixture of completely "over the top" and equally completely unbelievable. The worst culprit of all being the major character of the book - Leo North.

Leo is a 15-year-old lad who goes through a very rough time. He goes to a military academy that he loathes and where the staff are un-sympathetic bullies. His younger brother dies of "silent fever". His ancient grandmother, towards the end of the book, collapses into senility while all around is political turmoil, disastrous war, etc, etc.

Accepted, Leo has a VERY tough time ... but his reaction to it is nothing short of bizarre.

He descends into an almost psychotic depression where he is deprived of the power of speech (though, strangely, he can still write with lucidity!) for periods that seem to come and go to suit the needs of the tale. He does numerous totally unexplained things, for no apparent reason other than the raging turmoil in his head. He just has no connection whatever with normal human reaction.

This isn't a young man who needs sympathy - he's a young man who needs urgent psychiatric help because, trust me, he's barking mad.

Around him in the tale are other characters. Maria, the impossibly beautiful and utterly faultless young mother. Anna, the impossibly beautiful and talented young dancer. Aldeberan/Arthur Field, the impossibly prescient "magician" who, for some unexplained reason, seemed totally unable to predict or foresee the treachery of Talitha (who at 70-ish is STILL impossibly young looking and beautiful!)

You search long and hard for a single character that you can truly understand and sypathize with - and you find none. This is truly a book of VERY strange people!

So why three stars?

I just can't give more because it's got such serious flaws ... and yet the sheer level of imagination is awesome to behold. Despite it's problems this is still a book well worth the reading, but heck - I want to get my hands on LATER books by Cathering Banner, I really do.

This young lady has SUCH potential.