In which Dove, Edgar, Zora, Chloris, and a mystery guest continue their studies, leading up to their magical thesis project, a personal examination of worthiness by the Shape of Peace, and a metaphysical transformation which they must make or die. Also, there is a unicorn.
This is the sequel to A Succession of Bad Days.![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
strikeslip described the series as "Imagine the Shire, but it's populated by six-foot-something very strong green people who drink poison, and also the rest of the world is Mordor. The shire-orcs spend their time trading pickles, designing short-range missiles, and having strong opinions about propriety re: who cooks and eats the latest giant monster. The author really *really* likes canals."
I'm re-reading this before I move on to the next book, and will put up discussion posts for the chunk I've read so far. Since I can't predict in advance when I'm putting up posts or how big the chunks will be, spoilers are likely to be incomprehensible without context, and events often only make sense in retrospect, it's fine to discuss the entire book in comments. No need for rot13 or anything like that.
They're really good about trying not to fill the link up with inarticulate expressions of joy.
The book opens with Zora taking a walk in the snow to escape the intense togetherness of the rest of the students, who have formed a polycule and are madly in love. This is probably the single most personally relatable moment for me in the series so far.
Most of this book is narrated by Zora, the youngest and least powerful of the students, the only one not in the polycule, and the only non-militant. (In this context, non-militant means psychologically incapable of using magic to kill... an intelligent being? Anything but a weed? Something like that.) Her magic involves doing things with objects and living things, and if that seems a bit vague, that's concerning to her too. The others seem to have largely figured out what their magical talents are, and she still hasn't. She's 21, everyone is in love but her, she's staring down the barrel of an immortality that means she'll outlive her family, and she has to grow up or die.
In the previous book, I liked Zora a lot but found her the least interesting of the group (well, after Kynefrid), as she had no trauma and didn't seem to have significant inner conflicts. My level of interest in her skyrocketed in the very first chapter.
And then we launch into a series of chapters which only become explicable by reading the chapter after them. This one is a starving and beat-to-hell unicorn looking for a peaceful place to die.
Worse could be, than death a little rested.
Ouch ouch ouch, beautifully phrased but MAN unicorn society is fucked. In retrospect, given how sweet and nonviolent Pelorios is for the entire rest of the book, it's only surprising that it took this long for the rest of the unicorns to kill him.
Chapter 3 is very disorienting, with Grue suddenly there and terrifying poor Pelorios. And, we learn much later, putting a spell on him to be terrified of her. Isn't that illegal interference with the will of intelligent beings? This book left me with a LOT of questions about Grue.
I enjoy how all the weirdness of what unicorns are and look like is slowly revealed. Here we learn that they can bite through steel and rock. Later it clarifies that their teeth are made out of jewels, and also they eat jewels for a snack.
Chapter 4 is Grue's POV. In which we learn that she thinks of Blossom as Spike. Not sure if that's a nickname or what Blossom was called before she chose her sorcerer name. Blossom is also there, but invisible and speaking telepathically. Grue is worried about the unicorn and Zora, who is defenseless by nature.
Blossom says, You're being absolutist about conflict.
I think she means that just because the unicorn is dangerous and Zora can't fight it doesn't mean that a conflict between them is inevitable?
Layers like an n-dimensional onion and I never quite know where Spike is inside Blossom, if the Independent is inside or outside the Goddess of Destruction.
This is an interesting thing to say given that they're lovers, they probably know each other better than anyone else, and Grue is a sorcerer too. This sort of question of identity is central to the book and it's pretty unsettling, as we know that all the students will have to make the metaphysical change and I like who they are now. Will becoming something else mean they lose a lot of what currently makes them themselves?
Zora needs protection against unicorn bites, so she conjures a magical... oven mitt. I love Zora.
Halt is also there. The three of them have a conversation which is a little hard to follow, but I think involves Grue being terrified of Halt's sheer level of power and that Mulch (currently a tree) has power but still needs to flee. Blossom thinks Mulch is safe in the Commonweal and Grue thinks Blossom is too much a part of the Commonweal to really understand it. At least I think that's what she means by "empty, sky."
Halt says, Peace, Blossom dear. The unicorn has never known any, and Zora has never known anything else.
Which is going to be key to the whole rest of the book. Also quite beautiful, as is the chapter's concluding line:
Across the pond, under Mulch's spreading branches, Zora starts unbinding scars into hale flesh down the length of the unicorn's outstretched neck.
This is the sequel to A Succession of Bad Days.
strikeslip described the series as "Imagine the Shire, but it's populated by six-foot-something very strong green people who drink poison, and also the rest of the world is Mordor. The shire-orcs spend their time trading pickles, designing short-range missiles, and having strong opinions about propriety re: who cooks and eats the latest giant monster. The author really *really* likes canals."I'm re-reading this before I move on to the next book, and will put up discussion posts for the chunk I've read so far. Since I can't predict in advance when I'm putting up posts or how big the chunks will be, spoilers are likely to be incomprehensible without context, and events often only make sense in retrospect, it's fine to discuss the entire book in comments. No need for rot13 or anything like that.
They're really good about trying not to fill the link up with inarticulate expressions of joy.
The book opens with Zora taking a walk in the snow to escape the intense togetherness of the rest of the students, who have formed a polycule and are madly in love. This is probably the single most personally relatable moment for me in the series so far.
Most of this book is narrated by Zora, the youngest and least powerful of the students, the only one not in the polycule, and the only non-militant. (In this context, non-militant means psychologically incapable of using magic to kill... an intelligent being? Anything but a weed? Something like that.) Her magic involves doing things with objects and living things, and if that seems a bit vague, that's concerning to her too. The others seem to have largely figured out what their magical talents are, and she still hasn't. She's 21, everyone is in love but her, she's staring down the barrel of an immortality that means she'll outlive her family, and she has to grow up or die.
In the previous book, I liked Zora a lot but found her the least interesting of the group (well, after Kynefrid), as she had no trauma and didn't seem to have significant inner conflicts. My level of interest in her skyrocketed in the very first chapter.
And then we launch into a series of chapters which only become explicable by reading the chapter after them. This one is a starving and beat-to-hell unicorn looking for a peaceful place to die.
Worse could be, than death a little rested.
Ouch ouch ouch, beautifully phrased but MAN unicorn society is fucked. In retrospect, given how sweet and nonviolent Pelorios is for the entire rest of the book, it's only surprising that it took this long for the rest of the unicorns to kill him.
Chapter 3 is very disorienting, with Grue suddenly there and terrifying poor Pelorios. And, we learn much later, putting a spell on him to be terrified of her. Isn't that illegal interference with the will of intelligent beings? This book left me with a LOT of questions about Grue.
I enjoy how all the weirdness of what unicorns are and look like is slowly revealed. Here we learn that they can bite through steel and rock. Later it clarifies that their teeth are made out of jewels, and also they eat jewels for a snack.
Chapter 4 is Grue's POV. In which we learn that she thinks of Blossom as Spike. Not sure if that's a nickname or what Blossom was called before she chose her sorcerer name. Blossom is also there, but invisible and speaking telepathically. Grue is worried about the unicorn and Zora, who is defenseless by nature.
Blossom says, You're being absolutist about conflict.
I think she means that just because the unicorn is dangerous and Zora can't fight it doesn't mean that a conflict between them is inevitable?
Layers like an n-dimensional onion and I never quite know where Spike is inside Blossom, if the Independent is inside or outside the Goddess of Destruction.
This is an interesting thing to say given that they're lovers, they probably know each other better than anyone else, and Grue is a sorcerer too. This sort of question of identity is central to the book and it's pretty unsettling, as we know that all the students will have to make the metaphysical change and I like who they are now. Will becoming something else mean they lose a lot of what currently makes them themselves?
Zora needs protection against unicorn bites, so she conjures a magical... oven mitt. I love Zora.
Halt is also there. The three of them have a conversation which is a little hard to follow, but I think involves Grue being terrified of Halt's sheer level of power and that Mulch (currently a tree) has power but still needs to flee. Blossom thinks Mulch is safe in the Commonweal and Grue thinks Blossom is too much a part of the Commonweal to really understand it. At least I think that's what she means by "empty, sky."
Halt says, Peace, Blossom dear. The unicorn has never known any, and Zora has never known anything else.
Which is going to be key to the whole rest of the book. Also quite beautiful, as is the chapter's concluding line:
Across the pond, under Mulch's spreading branches, Zora starts unbinding scars into hale flesh down the length of the unicorn's outstretched neck.
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Mulch is also one of my favorites, because they do want to run and that's a nice contrast to pretty much everyone else. This book as much as any of 'em has a tendency to optimism. (But that's a conversation for later books I think.) Perhaps I'm just a sucker for the garden-keepers.
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I also like how Mulch doesn't really trust the Commonweal and just wants to be somewhere safe. Which may be something they share with Grue to some extent, actually.
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What an awful thought.
Mulch is also someone to project my 'what do you mean I don't have to work all the time' confusion on, also. The rest days are a lie! Clearly! (Poor tree.)
Right! He can't believe they don't want to enslave him. And, well, they do demand those five years...
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I lack the scholarship and the ability and several other things—I do not think I know all the things I lack for the purpose—to write like Edmund Spenser after a cup of sack too many for full coherency, so my goal with Pelōŕios was to give the impression that perhaps Edmund Spenser might have done in such circumstances.
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I in no wise object to critical analysis!
(I didn't get an English degree but I was an English major for awhile.)
And I do recognize that the motivation can be, and indeed usually is, affection for the work, too.
I do feel slightly abashed about how difficult to understand Pelōŕios turned out to be for the majority of readers.
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Intriguing.
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