Back on the Dreamtrails
Nov. 27th, 2011 08:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12So, I finished The Sending last night. I will get around to posting a proper review at some point, but these were the thoughts with which I left the book (note they are spoilery):
I think I may be Doing It Wrong. In the final chapter, when Elspeth encounters the efari, after I had got over the shock that an entire community with Beforetime technology had apparently survived just around the corner from the Land, my reaction was horror. Not because of the weapons they presumably have, not because the book closes with Elspeth incapacitated (and possibly thrown into cryogenic sleep, which is what I presume happened to Miryum), but because AN ENTIRE COMMUNITY LIVED AROUND THE CORNER AND THE WHOLE 'KNOWN WORLD' DIDN'T KNOW.
I think that's when I realised that, for all my wishing I were an Empath when I first read the books as a teenager, if I'm to be honest, I am a Teknoguilder at heart. The thing that terrifies me most about the world of Obernewtyn is not that it is post-nuclear apocalyptic, not that it is bigoted and dangerous, but that people in it live in such isolation - from each other, and from knowledge. Hell, the people of the Land didn't even know about Sador until quite recently, and it was just one bay over. I closed the book with a feeling of such visceral horror, not because Elspeth was captured and incapacitated, but because THERE WAS AN ENTIRE COMMUNITY LIVING SO CLOSE TO THE LAND AND YET NO ONE KNEW.
Other random predictions: I'm sorry to say that it's pretty obvious some of Elspeth's travelling companions are going to die, and I'm really sorry to say that Maruman is top of the list. I've read enough of this kind of story to know that the 'wise old mentor' and the 'faithful animal companion' (of which he is both) always dies. Other than that, Gavyn and Rasial are also likely candidates.
And Dameon? I've got my eye on you. I've been convinced for a while that there's more to his story than his unrequited love for Elspeth, but I'm not sure if my suspicions are confirmed yet so I'll keep my mouth shut.
I think I may be Doing It Wrong. In the final chapter, when Elspeth encounters the efari, after I had got over the shock that an entire community with Beforetime technology had apparently survived just around the corner from the Land, my reaction was horror. Not because of the weapons they presumably have, not because the book closes with Elspeth incapacitated (and possibly thrown into cryogenic sleep, which is what I presume happened to Miryum), but because AN ENTIRE COMMUNITY LIVED AROUND THE CORNER AND THE WHOLE 'KNOWN WORLD' DIDN'T KNOW.
I think that's when I realised that, for all my wishing I were an Empath when I first read the books as a teenager, if I'm to be honest, I am a Teknoguilder at heart. The thing that terrifies me most about the world of Obernewtyn is not that it is post-nuclear apocalyptic, not that it is bigoted and dangerous, but that people in it live in such isolation - from each other, and from knowledge. Hell, the people of the Land didn't even know about Sador until quite recently, and it was just one bay over. I closed the book with a feeling of such visceral horror, not because Elspeth was captured and incapacitated, but because THERE WAS AN ENTIRE COMMUNITY LIVING SO CLOSE TO THE LAND AND YET NO ONE KNEW.
Other random predictions: I'm sorry to say that it's pretty obvious some of Elspeth's travelling companions are going to die, and I'm really sorry to say that Maruman is top of the list. I've read enough of this kind of story to know that the 'wise old mentor' and the 'faithful animal companion' (of which he is both) always dies. Other than that, Gavyn and Rasial are also likely candidates.
And Dameon? I've got my eye on you. I've been convinced for a while that there's more to his story than his unrequited love for Elspeth, but I'm not sure if my suspicions are confirmed yet so I'll keep my mouth shut.