Review: War Maid's Choice by David Weber

[miko]

War Maid's Choice is the fourth (and most recent) book in the War God series. Up front, I like this series and recommend it... but since I've already talked about that for three books, take that as the baseline while I complain about a few things.

This book generally follows three character viewpoints: Bazhell, the lead for all of the books and champion of the war god; Leanna, who was a teenager when we last saw her and is now an adult war maid; and the villain of the moment. Like previous books, the villain sections remain a bit of a slog - they're where I most often put the book down, because I obviously don't like the character. It's not my favourite form of exposition.

The relationship between Bazhell and Leanna (you may recall my cringing at it while she was younger) is still incredibly meh. At least it's not really drawn out, but I didn't believe them as a pairing and it reads a bit creepy the same way Sparhawk/Ehlana did (if you're unfamiliar: young girl puts designs on older warrior and eventually "traps" him into marriage as an adult). Not as bad, but... eh.

Overall, the series may have hit its peak already for me. There were to many characters with similar names to try to keep straight, the stakes are getting unreasonably high and the battles unpicturably large. It's pretty clear there's another book planned to follow, and I'll probably read it, but it's getting too high fantasy for me if this is any indication.