You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Scan barcode
A review by cavalary
The Cavalier Club by Stanley Goldyn
3.0
Full disclosure: I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway. This has in no way influenced the opinions expressed in this review.
The Cavalier Club starts well enough, but presenting it as an adventure may well be seen as false advertising since, past the first chapter, actual action scenes are rather few and far between, and the main character may not even play an important role in some of them, at times being a mere observer. In addition, the writing style and quite a number of the words used show that the book doesn't cater to an adventure readership, or that it definitely fails in the attempt if indeed one was made.
In terms of the writing style, it does show that this is the author's first book, and not only because of the often odd and at times clearly incorrect use of commas. For instance, there are a fair number of repetitions, and descriptions in particular give a feeling of striving to reach a certain word count at the cost of going well beyond painting a picture and helping the reader "see" the characters, places and events, and instead merely stating more or less the same things multiple times, in only slightly different ways. Also, the dialogues often don't flow or don't seem reasonable, being information dumps thrown into the reader's face or making characters reveal too much too soon to each other, especially under the circumstances. And then there are the even worse information dumps, appearing to describe actual historical events, which rather shove themselves into the story and suspend it until they exhaust themselves, which may only happen after going well beyond that particular point in time and the events which may reasonably be considered relevant.
I could probably compress much of the above paragraph into one word: verbiage. Yet that'd hardly paint an accurate picture without also stating that the author seems to make a point of frequently using difficult words that add nothing but confusion. I'm not referring to terms describing parts of fortifications, weapons, armor or clothing, which may be unfamiliar to some readers yet definitely belong in a story set in that period, but about words such as agminate, ebulliently, effulgent, fuliginous, hirsute, indurate, insouciant, lambent, mellifluous, operose, saliferous or strepitous, to name but a few. And the reason why I have the list I selected those from is that I actually wrote down these words I was picking up while reading a few of the chapters and happened to send them to an English major, who also passed some on to an English teacher, the reply being that even they didn't know some of them and, where I also quoted the context, agreeing that their use was unnecessary at best, and in a couple of cases even incorrect.
Now I don't know if this is how the author usually expresses himself or it's the result of a misguided belief that writers should show off their extensive vocabulary, but unless he actually intends his works to only be aimed at a rather specialized audience, he should strive to allow a more general one to understand him with less effort. I mean, I am quite bothered, and at times very bothered, by how dumbed down most things are these days, but something that's unnecessarily highbrow without even presenting itself as such isn't a breath of fresh air, but instead almost as bad. Once again, this doesn't enhance the story or presentation in any way, but is at best unnecessary and often detrimental.
With that out of the way, let me get back to the lengthy information dumps and detailed descriptions and state that, while I'm not exactly in a position to say whether they actually are as well researched and accurate as they appear, they certainly seem to be and they make sense. There are a few times when the characters' actions may not, but the whole is internally consistent and, for a fantasy reader like myself, neither used nor exactly wishing to check against our world's reality, that's the main requirement from this point of view. If the accuracy is as high as it appears, those who care more about real events and have a keen interest in the period in question will likely appreciate this book more than I do.
Unfortunately, all of that leaves too little room for the advertised "story of adventure, bravery and love". In fact, that last element is barely worth mentioning, seeming to have been added largely to tick another box and perhaps as another method to generate the series of fortunate events that at times all too conveniently take the story forward. Likely worse, there are a few moments when such events are used to skip or completely ignore scenes of action and adventure which should have normally followed. Add what I already said at the start of this review, namely that the main character isn't a particularly active participant in some of the action scenes that do exist, and you're left with what, at least for my tastes, is far too little adventure and character development, too few reasons to feel involved and care... Which may not necessarily be such a bad thing for me at the moment, considering the impact the last book I read had on me, but definitely is a bad thing for the book.
Overall, The Cavalier Club is slow and fragmented, focusing on lengthy and at times repetitive descriptions of events and places, and on little and at times rather irrelevant details, but it may well be a better book than reading the above review would lead one to believe. It's probably also a case of not quite knowing what it wants to be, or of trying to be too many things, especially for an author's first effort, but regardless of intent, the result seems mainly aimed at those with an interest in the period in particular and in actual historical novels in general, and who at least tolerate, and preferably even enjoy, verbosity and a lofty vocabulary.
If it does indeed accurately depict the events of the period and the life of the higher parts of the society of the time, it may be better to present it as a rather soothing tale meant to transport the reader into that atmosphere instead of a potentially thrilling story where one would expect to be excited about the events and worry and cheer for the characters. In case of those stories, I tend to feel a need to pace back and forth while reading, but I read much of The Cavalier Club in bed, at times under the blanket, and the image it invoked more than once in my mind was that it wants to be read in a large room of an old house, behind a massive, antique desk, surrounded by old books in antique bookshelves, and under the glow of a soft light. Possibly even candlelight.
The Cavalier Club starts well enough, but presenting it as an adventure may well be seen as false advertising since, past the first chapter, actual action scenes are rather few and far between, and the main character may not even play an important role in some of them, at times being a mere observer. In addition, the writing style and quite a number of the words used show that the book doesn't cater to an adventure readership, or that it definitely fails in the attempt if indeed one was made.
In terms of the writing style, it does show that this is the author's first book, and not only because of the often odd and at times clearly incorrect use of commas. For instance, there are a fair number of repetitions, and descriptions in particular give a feeling of striving to reach a certain word count at the cost of going well beyond painting a picture and helping the reader "see" the characters, places and events, and instead merely stating more or less the same things multiple times, in only slightly different ways. Also, the dialogues often don't flow or don't seem reasonable, being information dumps thrown into the reader's face or making characters reveal too much too soon to each other, especially under the circumstances. And then there are the even worse information dumps, appearing to describe actual historical events, which rather shove themselves into the story and suspend it until they exhaust themselves, which may only happen after going well beyond that particular point in time and the events which may reasonably be considered relevant.
I could probably compress much of the above paragraph into one word: verbiage. Yet that'd hardly paint an accurate picture without also stating that the author seems to make a point of frequently using difficult words that add nothing but confusion. I'm not referring to terms describing parts of fortifications, weapons, armor or clothing, which may be unfamiliar to some readers yet definitely belong in a story set in that period, but about words such as agminate, ebulliently, effulgent, fuliginous, hirsute, indurate, insouciant, lambent, mellifluous, operose, saliferous or strepitous, to name but a few. And the reason why I have the list I selected those from is that I actually wrote down these words I was picking up while reading a few of the chapters and happened to send them to an English major, who also passed some on to an English teacher, the reply being that even they didn't know some of them and, where I also quoted the context, agreeing that their use was unnecessary at best, and in a couple of cases even incorrect.
Now I don't know if this is how the author usually expresses himself or it's the result of a misguided belief that writers should show off their extensive vocabulary, but unless he actually intends his works to only be aimed at a rather specialized audience, he should strive to allow a more general one to understand him with less effort. I mean, I am quite bothered, and at times very bothered, by how dumbed down most things are these days, but something that's unnecessarily highbrow without even presenting itself as such isn't a breath of fresh air, but instead almost as bad. Once again, this doesn't enhance the story or presentation in any way, but is at best unnecessary and often detrimental.
With that out of the way, let me get back to the lengthy information dumps and detailed descriptions and state that, while I'm not exactly in a position to say whether they actually are as well researched and accurate as they appear, they certainly seem to be and they make sense. There are a few times when the characters' actions may not, but the whole is internally consistent and, for a fantasy reader like myself, neither used nor exactly wishing to check against our world's reality, that's the main requirement from this point of view. If the accuracy is as high as it appears, those who care more about real events and have a keen interest in the period in question will likely appreciate this book more than I do.
Unfortunately, all of that leaves too little room for the advertised "story of adventure, bravery and love". In fact, that last element is barely worth mentioning, seeming to have been added largely to tick another box and perhaps as another method to generate the series of fortunate events that at times all too conveniently take the story forward. Likely worse, there are a few moments when such events are used to skip or completely ignore scenes of action and adventure which should have normally followed. Add what I already said at the start of this review, namely that the main character isn't a particularly active participant in some of the action scenes that do exist, and you're left with what, at least for my tastes, is far too little adventure and character development, too few reasons to feel involved and care... Which may not necessarily be such a bad thing for me at the moment, considering the impact the last book I read had on me, but definitely is a bad thing for the book.
Overall, The Cavalier Club is slow and fragmented, focusing on lengthy and at times repetitive descriptions of events and places, and on little and at times rather irrelevant details, but it may well be a better book than reading the above review would lead one to believe. It's probably also a case of not quite knowing what it wants to be, or of trying to be too many things, especially for an author's first effort, but regardless of intent, the result seems mainly aimed at those with an interest in the period in particular and in actual historical novels in general, and who at least tolerate, and preferably even enjoy, verbosity and a lofty vocabulary.
If it does indeed accurately depict the events of the period and the life of the higher parts of the society of the time, it may be better to present it as a rather soothing tale meant to transport the reader into that atmosphere instead of a potentially thrilling story where one would expect to be excited about the events and worry and cheer for the characters. In case of those stories, I tend to feel a need to pace back and forth while reading, but I read much of The Cavalier Club in bed, at times under the blanket, and the image it invoked more than once in my mind was that it wants to be read in a large room of an old house, behind a massive, antique desk, surrounded by old books in antique bookshelves, and under the glow of a soft light. Possibly even candlelight.