Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na SIDEBAR! SIDEBAR!
I’ll admit, I did Not like the first part of the book (the path from obernewtyn or whatever). some bits were okay, and I see the need for the book not to be a choppy action thing, but there were bits that seemed either too thorought or. . . . just plain terrible [dodges flying fruit].
The bit with Cinda and Elkar for instance. They were absolutely amazing characters, but whatever itty bitty part they played in TS just seemed plain dubious. And the goodbye they had, ugh. It went pretty much like this:"Cinda: Oh eslpeth, we’re going home only tomorrow. Elspeth: Oh dear, I won’t be able to say goodbye to you then, because I’ll be with Iriny. Elkar: We could say goodbye now? Elspeth: [glances at clock] yeah, whatever, I guess we have time. Cinda: Oh Elspeth we’re going to miss you so so so so so so so so MUCH! Elkar: YeAH SAME HERE! [gives giant hug]. Elspeth: Oh, I’ll miss you too!.†And then they all way away really normally, and then they see each other the next day so they can say goodbye AGAIN! Shoddily written [ducks to avoid rotten vegetables].
And the sex scene . . . I like the plot line connected to that in general (the bear in chains, the golden chord, etc), but it just seemed to odd to me the way it was written: for instance, when Rushton started talking about all the stuff with the seeker, as in ALL the stuff (dragon, the aggylians, darga, Daywatcher/moonwatcher, need for secrecy yada yada yada), and talking about real casually, just seems wrong. And the fact that he seems to know EVERYTHING about HER, while She knows so little in from His brain. I mean, what did she see: his mum on her death bed, going to obernewtyn, when he saw her for the first time, being tortured by Ariel, and him trying to kill her. There is a lot more of Rushtons life, but he seemed to see all of the most important stuff in her life. I mean, really, if this worked the way IC wrote that it should, she should have seen stuff about dameon loving her, selmar, his moon watching grandmama, stuff that happened while she was sick in far seekers, and being tortured by vega and alexi with Eslpeth. Yet we simply got all the stuff IC could bother to give us.
Whatever, onto other things I s’pose.
I dunno, I don’t think I’d be especially surprised if the efari are robots of a kind, but I think that there must be humans somewhere in that city, else it would be essentially impossible for anyone to escape. Plus, I don’t want elspeth to constantly be talking to machine (something tells it wouldn’t take long to get boring). I think that the city is home of the Eden project, but I don’t think it’s the free-runing barud. It just seems to neat a solution. I want it to be expanded upon dammit!
I read the dark road after finishing TS (so about two this morning) and I think everybody should read it, though only after reading the sending. If you can’t find the legends of australian fantasy in a shop or anything search up ‘the dark road legend of australian fantasy’ on google books and there will be a ‘preview' (pretty much the whole thing) . If you don’t want to get spoiled for that by reading this, than don’t go on.
Anyway, I was thinking that (whatever DID happen to her) Elspeth WILL find the rest of that letter that Hannah senior made for Hannah junior, and hopefully she’ll just read the part that we haven’t read, coz the rest is irrelevant to Elf. It will explain what the efari are, what the city is, the Eden project, and hopefully a whole lot else. I’ve got to admit, my three favourite parts in the book (besides bits with the wolves, and the bit where elspeth was looking at dameon in the pool) is the past dream within a dream thing that elspeth had of Hannah junior and Cassy, where they talk of muties, hannah senior, the great white, and (woohoo) Merimyn; and the bit where Maruman says ‘she was here’ then something along the lines of ‘hannah carrying hannahs bones to somewhere somewhere blah blah bkah’ I can’t remember the last bit but i’ll look it up; and the dream that Ana has about cassy and hannah looking at the effects of the great white and petting poor baby maruman. Most of that is explained in the dark road, like the stuff about hannah junior ‘sleeping for lifetimes in the womb’ or something like that, which clears up stuff like how the hell did al those civilisations rise up in the nine months that hannah senior was preggo, as she, hannah and cassy (and of course itty bitty merimyn/maruman) were frozen (cryo-wise) for at least maybe 100 years.
MARUMAN/MERIMYN
I think the beforetimers probably experimented on him, which allows his mind to work the way it does, and because he probably spent hundreds of years in stasis he probably had a lot of time to perfect his skill for the dreamtrails (as shown by cassy and hannah in that dream thing) he was kept asleep for so long coz cassy (though, by now I’m sure she had no future telling talent’ it was all hannah) knew that he would be needed by the Seeker. And I think if he hadn’t been traumatised enough already, with being experimented on and being asleep for hundreds of lifetimes (cat lifetimes that is), stumbling through blacklands or being carried in a net by giant birds to the land probably made him a bit closer to the crazy feline we know today.
I also think that, in some of his mad periods he flew on the dreamtrails back in time: example, in the dark road he comes to hannah junior to warn her of the efari, and he only had ONE eye, when hannah junior only knew him as a kitten (and then only on the dreamtrails) so he probably came to her either sometime during TRQ, as he would definitely know of the Efari after they escape from that weird city, but I like to believe that it was when elspeth was captured from saithwold and galtha mentions that maruman went seliga, maybe because he was distressed about elspeth and wanted to ‘check up’ in a way on one of the other few humans he had loved, to make sure the quest was going okay, and because he might have needed a bit of comfort in the fact that at least one of the good humans in his life was okay (even if it was in the past). And (along those lines) what I said before about him perfecting his dreamtrailing skills in stasis might be wrong if he can travel back in time in a way on the dremtrails, or at least meet people who had been on the dreamtrails in the past, as he might have been able to go back when he was a kitten in the land AFTER he had unfrozen.
And if he had been frozen all that time, in which he would have died many times over if he hadn’t been in stasis, then I understand why he would have been narjulk, or unnatural: a) because he has avoided the longsleep too long and beasts would not like that, b) because he is a beforetime cat, and c) because he was experimented on (not so much for what the experiments made him capable of, as other beasts have been shown to be able to go seliga, but because someone had been poking around in his brain.) maybe also because of his strange connection and openness (mind-wise) to elspeth, though I don’t think the other beasts besides the brildane would really care too much.
Maybe he has brain tumours like those that the remaining flamebirds were mentioned having in TS, though perhaps to a lesser degree or he probably would have died. They might be (partially anyway) the cause of his fey fits, and mental strangeness, and that the aggylians taught his body to heal itself shows that whatever enables him to be able to be a conduit for the aggylians (which I believe is related to his possible tumours) might not be of use anymore (meaning that they might somehow be able to reach elspeth in a different way, or that they just won’t have to communicate with her again), and that by teaching his body to heal himself they would increase his chances of surviving (both by making him more fit and eliminating his possibly life-threatening tumours).
I’ve got to admit, maruman is my all time favourite beast in the O-Chron, and I love his parts in the sending and the dark road. It is just so AWESOME! THough I guessed the you already guessed that by how much time I’ve just spent going over maruman theories and stuff.
