Read-Along: Naamah's Kiss by Jacqueline Carey, Part 6

Welcome to week six of the read-along of Jacqueline Carey's Naamah's Kiss, the first book of Moirin's Trilogy and the seventh book of the Kushiel's Legacy series.  This week's questions cover chapters 61-74, and have been provided by me!  This read-along is nearing its end, but if you're interested in future read-alongs, you can keep an eye on our goodreads group.  Now, on to the questions and beware of spoilers below:

1) We've finally met Snow Tiger!  What do you make of her and her relationship with Moirin?  Does anything stand out in particular?

While I think it's good that Snow Tiger has someone to confide in, it's pretty rough how the dragon has forced them together.  It's a good thing they get along, at least when the dragon isn't causing problems. That must have been really horrible for Snow Tiger, when the dragon first woke up.  I don't think he really appreciates that there's no way to give back what he took from her. 

One thing that stuck out to me about Snow Tiger is that she is written as very small and dainty, and yet on par with soldiers for strength (even without the dragon, I believe).  Why couldn't she have just been strong and looked like it? I understand why d'Angelines are all beautiful, but why does everyone else have to be?

2) The dragon is a surprising new addition to the cast.  What do you think he'll do when he is free?  Will he really help in the civil war? 

There seemed to be this general assumption that the dragon would help the emperor quell the civil war, but I don't remember if he ever actually agreed to this.  He was imprisoned because Master Lo Feng stole his essence in the first place, so I'm not convinced he has any interest in taking a side in this conflict. He does have a weird fondness for Moirin, so maybe he would help just to protect her. 

3) What do you think of the Path of Dharma, as described by Master Lo Feng?  What path would you prefer to follow?

Out of the options given so far in the book, I think I'd go for Master Lo Feng's Way.  It seems like the least extreme, and is based mostly on mindfulness exercises.  I'm not particularly good at those, but I think I'd be worse at the other paths.

4) Moirin does not seem to mind Bao's jealousy.  What do you think of their possible future as a couple?

When Moirin was not wanting to marry Cillian, I thought maybe she was not into that sort of relationship.  Now that we've seen her with Bao, though, it seems like maybe Cillian was just not the right guy.  Right now, she seems to maybe want to have a traditional, exclusive relationship with Bao. On the other hand, she doesn't have a lot of willpower when it comes to desire, so I'm not sure she could handle being in a long-term exclusive relationship.  In that sense, I think they're both bound to hurt one another eventually.

5) Do you think they acted wisely against Lord Jiang's men at the temple?  Can you see any other decision they should have taken?

I feel like there must have been a better option besides "let the dragon kill everyone".  Maybe they could have kept a closer eye on the monks, so that no one would betray them.  Once the soldiers were already attacking, though, I guess there weren't really any other options left.

Other Things:

--Though I'm not convinced the dragon will join them, Master Lo could make gunpowder weapons.  He as much as said that he knew how, he just didn't think the technology should be used as a weapon.

--The walkway to the temple sounded terrifying.  I have done a cliffside hike just once in my life.  It was terrifying, but at least now I know what an endorphin rush feels like.  Just reading about Moirin stumbling on the path was a little stressful!

--It's a good thing Snow Tiger's dad backed her up instead of disowning her.  It's also a good thing she has a team helping her, because she's not much of a strategist (though it was nice of her to help those villagers).

Review: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Publish: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015

Awards Nominated: Derleth & Campbell Memorial Awards

Awards Won: Arthur C. Clarke Award

The Book:

“Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.” ~Amazon.com

I’d never read anything by Emily St. John Mandel before, and picked this one up due to the attention it received in SFF awards (as well as a strong recommendation from George R.R. Martin).

My Thoughts:

I put off reading this novel for quite some time, because I was afraid it would be terribly depressing.  After all, it is about mass death, the collapse of civilization, and the survivors who live in the wreckage.  Though the material was extremely sad, I liked that the tone felt more contemplative and hopeful than I had expected. Rather than a story about an inevitable end, it was a story of death and rebirth.  The end of our civilization was something to be grieved and remembered, but it was not the end of everything.  It was important for the survivors to remember the past, but not to let it constrain how their world would develop in the future. Just after the flu pandemic, people could only struggle to meet their basic needs.  As time passed, those remaining began to gather into communities.  Twenty years later, the success of the Traveling Symphony shows that mere survival is no longer sufficient, and that people are beginning to once again long for art and music.  Though the new world is dangerous, and though the pre-flu world will never return, the existence of Kirsten’s group gives me the sense that there is still hope for the future.

The novel’s atmosphere is enhanced by the fictional unpublished “Dr. Eleven” comics created by Arthur Leander’s ex-wife. “Dr. Eleven” ties characters together in unexpected ways, and is a kind of nexus for connecting several different storylines.  The characters in the comic are forced to build a new life in a space station, though many of them still long for the now-forbidden Earth.  The descriptions of the comic, as well as the work that was put into its creation, were hauntingly beautiful.  I found myself wondering if someone might actually create the fictional work someday, because I would love to actually see the artwork.  In any case, I enjoyed reading about the comic, and I liked the way it reflected the emotion of the story.

The story itself jumps back and forth in time, with scenes before, during, and twenty years after the pandemic.  The most continuous storyline is the one involving Kirsten and the Traveling Symphony, with difficulties they encounter in the new world.  Other scenes involve the fate of a handful of characters, all loosely connected by the actor Arthur Leander and the “Dr. Eleven” comics.  There was not a whole lot of time to become invested in each character, and some of their stories seemed to just trail off.  I was less interested in the pre-pandemic sections, which mostly followed Leander’s celebrity love life.  In the post-pandemic sections, I thought Kirsten’s amnesia and impressive knife-throwing skills felt a little clichéd, but I did enjoy her as a heroine through which to observe the slow growth of a new civilization.  For me, rather than in plot and characters, the strength of the novel was in the poetic and atmospheric depiction of the death and rebirth of human civilization.

My Rating: 3.5 /5

Station Eleven is the story of a worldwide civilizational collapse, but it thankfully avoids being relentlessly depressing or nihilistic.  Instead, it is a quiet, thoughtful book showing the death of one world and the birth of another.  The handful of characters are all connected through the actor Arthur Leander and through his ex-wife’s haunting comic, “Dr. Eleven”.  Kirsten’s storyline twenty years after the pandemic has the most conventional plot, but it is interspersed with scenes from other characters that take place before and during the collapse.  I had a hard time getting emotionally invested in the characters, but I really enjoyed the writing and the emotional tone of the story.  Also, “Dr. Eleven” is fictional, but it looks like St. John Mandel may write a script for the comics.  It would be interesting to see if the pictures match what I imagined while reading Station Eleven!

Read-Along: Naamah's Kiss by Jacqueline Carey, Part 5

Welcome to week five of the read-along of Jacqueline Carey’s Naamah’s Kiss, the first book in Moirin’s Trilogy and the seventh in the Kushiel’s Legacy series! If you’re interested in joining this or future read-alongs, please check out our goodreads group. Questions this week are provided by Susan of Dab of Darkness, and they cover chapters 49-60. Beware of spoilers below!

1) Moirin and the Circle do one final summoning. What did you think of Focalor’s choices in who to spare or not? King Daniel also has to make some choices in who to punish or not - do you think he was fair? Is he correct in that he should have given his people something greater to strive for?

I guess Focalor could see into their hearts, so he could most accurately judge their purity of purpose.  I feel like they must have all known this summoning was likely to harm or kill Moirin, though, so I don’t see their motivations as particularly noble.  I feel like he should have killed Raphael.  Raphael was a healer who forced Moirin into a potentially deadly promise as a condition for aiding someone.  That’s a fair bit worse than Claire, in my opinion.

In the human punishments, I think King Daniel was too lenient.  It is true that the summoning did not break any law.  However, I think that Raphael should have been punished for essentially assaulting a member of House Courcel, by forcing her into a situation where he knew that she would be harmed.  I’m not sure if the rest of the group knew that he used her father’s life to coerce her into serving them.  If they didn’t, then they didn’t know Moirin was not there of her free will, and therefore they at least don’t carry that particular guilt.

I disagree with King Daniel’s idea that he is partially to blame for their actions.  Plenty of people lived in Terre d’Ange with the same lack of striving, and somehow they managed not to nearly kill Alban people in the pursuit of summoning demons.  In a narrative sense, I suspect this is the seed for his planning eventual d’Angeline journeys to Terra Nova.  It will be neat if Moirin ends up going there, too.

2) Master Lo is summoned home to Ch'in to do what he can for the Emperor's daughter Snow Tiger. What do you think of her ailment? What role, if any, do you expect Moirin to play in healing her?

Maybe it involves some hidden thing that needs to be revealed?  The ailment sounds a lot like what Focalor was planning to do to Raphael, except that I got the impression that Raphael’s soul would be pretty much stamped out.  It sounds like Snow Tiger’s soul is still in there, though it gets overrun at times.  I’m not sure what Moirin could do for Snow Tiger right now, since she isn’t a healer of humans.

3) We learn more about Bao's past. Do you like him any more or any less now? We also hear some amazing things about Master Lo. Do you think any of them are true?

He seems to have led a really difficult life, and not all of his decisions were good ones.  I respected that he chose to reject the use of sexual abuse, and that this was the trigger that cause him to rethink his life.  I guess I like him about the same.  As for Master Lo, I’m curious as to why he has been able to live so long.  I expect most of the stories are true, given how much magic we’ve seen in the book so far!

4) During the lengthy voyage, Moirin has language lessons, learns a bit about the Ch'in religions, and enjoys Bao's attentions. What stood out for you?

I had been a little frustrated that Moirin seemed to lack Phedre and Imriel’s curiosity and skill in languages, so it was a relief to see her finally study Ch’in.  I was also happy to see that she was eventually able to make friends with some of the women on board.

5) They finally make land right into the middle of a civil war. What do you think about Black Sleeve? What do you think his relationship to Master Lo is?

I don’t really have a guess as to their relationship, though they clearly seem to have some kind of connection.  I don’t feel like I know enough about the people involved to say much about the political situation.  I hope they allowed at least the women from the ship to surrender.

Other Things:

--Bao’s broken d’Angeline was a little distracting, but I was glad to see it was purposeful on his part (based on how he learned languages quickly).  I’m glad that phrasing is abandoned now that they are both speaking Ch’in.

--Blossom is a very impressive horse.  After the muscular atrophy from such a long sea voyage, she was able to make a strenuous journey for Moirin.  I hope we haven’t seen the last of her.

--I hope for her sake that Moirin doesn’t get quite as disastrously entangled in Ch’in politics as she did in Terre d’Ange.