Title: Not a character worth caring about
Product review: I read this book solely because my husband was impressed with it, and it turned out to be the dreariest reading experience I've suffered through in years. "Devices and Desires" is a beautifully-written story about an assortment of people who are either too weak-willed, too incompetent, or too boring to care about.The only exception, Parker's protagonist, Ziani Vaatzes, is interesting but morally repulsive. He is bright enough to see outside the box that his culture tries to keep him in, but is amoral enough to use his impressive skills literally to start wars and pull down nations to achieve his own personal objectives; "sociopath" would not be too strong a word to describe him. Parker does nothing to make Vaatzes more sympathetic to the reader as the book proceeds.In short, if you enjoy well-crafted prose but do not demand characters worth caring about, you may enjoy "Devices and Desires"; otherwise, I'd recommend avoiding it.
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