Review by Dentarthurdent -- Masters and Bastards

[Dentarthurdent]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Masters and Bastards" by Christopher J. Penington.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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In the distant future, on a planet far, far away, a human empire of dark-haired, green-eyed Iberians rules over a downtrodden race of blond-haired, blue-eyed Arpathians. Emperor Constantine, being severely dissatisfied by the poor stock of his offspring, feels the need to facilitate the mating (that’s what they called it) of his bastard daughter and a bastard Arpathian, and name the emerging third generation bastard his heir. This odd decision by our bastard emperor could have been an engrossing focus of the plot, but alas, it is not accorded such an opportunity.
 
Masters and Bastards follows Andreas Marset, the aforementioned Arpathian bastard, who is also an orphan. Imagine the most attractive man you have ever seen, then the most brilliant military strategist you know of. Now picture the most unrealistically powerful fictional character. Combine these three ideas to form an accurate representation of seventeen-year-old Marset.
 
Marset has a lingering dalliance with Princess Isabella, the epitome of female beauty. He is an adolescent searching for his identity and purpose, surrounded by pricks who smugly give him cryptic hints that they know stuff about his parents, but simply won’t tell him. His persistent hitting of walls in an attempt to dig up his past while exploring his feelings for Isabella could have done well as the main plot, however, this is not the case.
 
Afterwards, Marset is unceremoniously deployed to war. The subsequent two hundred pages detail his stellar participation in the never-ending war between his overlords and their nemeses, the Scythians. Marset rises through ranks at an inordinate pace, but abhors these promotions, as he wishes to remain a humble pawn in the machinations of others, I imagine. During the war, he also meets Hannah, an enemy soldier who rivals Isabella in beauty, and promptly falls in love with her. This could do well as the plot of a fast-paced war fiction, which Masters and Bastards is not.
 
The final part of the book addresses a coup orchestrated to usurp the emperor. This here is my final attempt to illustrate my annoyance at the author’s stubborn refusal to commit to a main conflict.
 
The only characters given any sort of attention are Isabella, Marset, and Hannah. The rest had no backstories, no memorable aspects, and only the vaguest sprinklings of individuality. They served as mere props in a three-man show. The three protagonists were the only ones allowed any sort of romance, never mind how superficial it was, with emotions seemingly driven by their admiration of each other’s god-like beauty. Questionable character development also extends to the tale’s villains, who are portrayed as evil for evil’s sake. They have no backstories, and no effort was made to try and explain why they are as they are. Additionally, the female characters seemed to have been developed from a single template, all of them being entitled teases with the defining characteristic of wanting to bed Marset at his earliest convenience.
 
It was also rather difficult to root for a savant character when the evidence of his brilliance was scanty at best. Penington makes Marset out to be a genius for deducting the most basic things, or for making dramatic conclusions from the most basic evidence, in a way that does not quite add up. I hate it when characters are dumbed down to accentuate the superiority of the main character, so this was my least favourite part of the novel.

Lastly, it is exhausting to deal with a protagonist who persists on acting like all the advantages he gains are such burdens. It is terrible to attract the affections of two inconceivably beautiful women, unbearable to have extremely powerful supernatural abilities, not to mention how inconvenient it is to have your talents recognised, and to effortlessly rise in rank as a result! There is no gift horse whose unobjectionable mouth Marset fails to bemoan. Not two seconds after his invariable dose of lamentation, he easily takes the so-called challenge in stride. While it goes without saying that all these things have their own downsides, Marset’s dissatisfaction is annoying, seeing as he is also extremely good at everything.
 
Objectively speaking, there was more I disliked than I liked about Marset’s chronicles. I will allow that the scene description and subtle humour were well-executed, but on the other hand, the novel is predominantly an adventure tale with too much going on, yet still bogged down by teenage angst and unconvincing will-they-won’t-they scenarios. However, it must be recognised that Penington did write a passable, well-edited tale of nearly five hundred pages. This is no small feat, and seeing as there is nothing too glaringly objectionable about the book, I rate it 2 out of 4 stars. I would mostly recommend it to adventure and fantasy fans who are not terribly picky.  Veterans of the genre may find Masters and Bastards to be a bit sloppy, however.
 

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Masters and Bastards
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[unamilagra]

This sounds like an intriguing premise that was poorly executed. Thank you for your insightful review.

[ErikaP13]

"The final part of the book addresses a coup orchestrated to usurp the emperor. This here is my final attempt to illustrate my annoyance at the author’s stubborn refusal to commit to a main conflict."

This quote from your review summed up something that also annoyed me in a very eloquent way. I also particularly enjoyed your take on Andreas's reluctance to be brilliant. Great review.

[Dentarthurdent]

This sounds like an intriguing premise that was poorly executed. Thank you for your insightful review.

Thanks so much for the comment!

[Dentarthurdent]

"The final part of the book addresses a coup orchestrated to usurp the emperor. This here is my final attempt to illustrate my annoyance at the author’s stubborn refusal to commit to a main conflict."

This quote from your review summed up something that also annoyed me in a very eloquent way. I also particularly enjoyed your take on Andreas's reluctance to be brilliant. Great review.

I'm glad you understand what I mean! Considering the hard life faced by Arpathians without Marset's talents, I really couldn't see why he was always so distressed when good things happened to him, despite how hard I tried to understand. Thanks so much for stopping by!

[Lisa A Rayburn]

Okay, so he's a combination of Hercules (the TV show one), Hitler, and Voldemort. Ummm....ewwwww. I think he got that martyr syndrome from the Hitler part. Truly, I am laughing so hard it's making me cough. I do so love your writing style. I've had this book on my reading list for a while, but if it's this annoying, maybe I'd do better taking it off! Thanks so much for the highly informative and also entertaining review!!

[Charlyt]

The plot had a lot of layers on top on each other which can feel a bit too much. I agree that the women were made from a single template, which made me roll my eyes. I wished the author removed the superficial romance entirely. Great honest review!

[Dentarthurdent]

Okay, so he's a combination of Hercules (the TV show one), Hitler, and Voldemort. Ummm....ewwwww. I think he got that martyr syndrome from the Hitler part. Truly, I am laughing so hard it's making me cough. I do so love your writing style. I've had this book on my reading list for a while, but if it's this annoying, maybe I'd do better taking it off! Thanks so much for the highly informative and also entertaining review!!

I love your picks ( Hercules + Hitler + Voldemort)! I personally pictured Bella ( Twilight Saga) + Caesar + Chris Hemsworth
Mine are quite generic, I know.
You have no idea how glad I am you enjoyed reading my review. Thanks so much, Kelyn!

[Dentarthurdent]

The plot had a lot of layers on top on each other which can feel a bit too much. I agree that the women were made from a single template, which made me roll my eyes. I wished the author removed the superficial romance entirely. Great honest review!

Thanks for taking the time to read my review. I agree; the martial elements of the book were so well written, the book could've been better if the romance was absent altogether. Have a great day!

[Sanju Lali]

A planet far away, a human empire of dark-haired, green-eyed Iberians rules over a downtrodden race of blond-haired, blue-eyed Arpathians looks quite interesting to imagine. The authors creativity is admirable. Thanks for your good review.

[Dentarthurdent]

A planet far away, a human empire of dark-haired, green-eyed Iberians rules over a downtrodden race of blond-haired, blue-eyed Arpathians looks quite interesting to imagine. The authors creativity is admirable. Thanks for your good review.

Thanks for stopping by!

[Nerea]

The book seem to have loads of faults. And based on your review, the book needs some adjustments to meet the needs of the reader. Thank you for your thorough and profound review.

[Dentarthurdent]

The book seem to have loads of faults. And based on your review, the book needs some adjustments to meet the needs of the reader. Thank you for your thorough and profound review.

Thanks so much for reading my review!

[Irmelin]

Thank you for your review. I agree with you on the score for this book. I read it and wasn't that impressed either. I keep thinking that some chapters were there just for the sake of the size of the book. It is like author though - this book will be 500 pages! So he fills it with lots of boring descriptions and unnecessary side stories. Better book next time

[Dentarthurdent]

Thank you for your review. I agree with you on the score for this book. I read it and wasn't that impressed either. I keep thinking that some chapters were there just for the sake of the size of the book. It is like author though - this book will be 500 pages! So he fills it with lots of boring descriptions and unnecessary side stories. Better book next time

I know what you're talking about! It did have some pointless passages that didn't do much for the plot. I've got to commend the author for the difficult task of writing such a long book, though. Thanks for stopping by!