![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Sirius, the immortal luminary who rules the Dog Star, is accused of murdering another luminary and losing a Zoi, an object of nearly infinite power. Despite his protests, he is sentenced to life on Earth, where the Zoi landed. He'll be reinstated as luminary if he can find the Zoi before his natural life-span is up, and if he fails to do so, he'll die forever. Only he's reincarnated as an ordinary dog, with no memories of his previous existence.
This is a classic fantasy that I re-read recently, after such a long lag-time (because someone borrowed and never returned my copy) that I had forgotten everything but the barest plot-outline, that I had liked it very much but that it wasn't in my list of all-time favorite books by Jones, and that the ending was somewhat sad or at least bittersweet.
I did really like it, though not as much as Fire and Hemlock, Charmed Life, The Homeward Bounders, or Witch Week, say. The ending is indeed bittersweet-- and with a killer last line that I'm surprised I could have forgotten. I will add that the plot is exceptionally clever, and that the last twenty or so pages lift the story from "very good" into "extraordinary."
Who was the Master, Earth's dark child, who showed up at the end? Kathleen says he isn't Arawn, and Robin says he could be Orion or Actaeon. Is he supposed to be a specific mythological character, or an archetype who could be any and all of those, and more?
The last few pages are just heartbreaking, and some of Jones' best writing.
This is a classic fantasy that I re-read recently, after such a long lag-time (because someone borrowed and never returned my copy) that I had forgotten everything but the barest plot-outline, that I had liked it very much but that it wasn't in my list of all-time favorite books by Jones, and that the ending was somewhat sad or at least bittersweet.
I did really like it, though not as much as Fire and Hemlock, Charmed Life, The Homeward Bounders, or Witch Week, say. The ending is indeed bittersweet-- and with a killer last line that I'm surprised I could have forgotten. I will add that the plot is exceptionally clever, and that the last twenty or so pages lift the story from "very good" into "extraordinary."
Who was the Master, Earth's dark child, who showed up at the end? Kathleen says he isn't Arawn, and Robin says he could be Orion or Actaeon. Is he supposed to be a specific mythological character, or an archetype who could be any and all of those, and more?
The last few pages are just heartbreaking, and some of Jones' best writing.