Laurie J. Marks: Earth Logic

[rachelmanija]

There's a lot to like about this book, including some luscious food descriptions and an excellent plot strand about a female commander who changes and grows. Plus babies and children described in a non-sappy manner. However, if most of the cast had climbed into an insanity-inducing Gundam or been poisoned with crazy-making drugs or had any other rationale for their sudden attack of collective nuttiness, the entire second half of the book would have made a lot more sense.



I refer, of course, to Emil, Zanja, and Medric doing a foretelling which seems to indicate that their goals will be accomplished in some nebulous manner if they kill Zanja... and they do it! (Sort of. Not quite, because Norina retains some vestige of sanity.) And Karis lets them! (By wandering off.)

This makes no sense and is not believable on any level, and it completely contradicts the characters' attitude toward foretelling in the previous book, which was that you cannot blindly follow predictions but must apply common sense, analysis, and ethics to them. What they all did was exactly like the massacre of Zanja's tribe due to the blind following of a prophecy, except that by authorial fiat killing Zanja worked out better.

Not only did this make all the characters seem to have lost their minds, but it was not necessary to how the plot actually went: Zanja's presence in the Sainnite garrison was only a small portion of what enabled the happy ending. It also was unnecessary to get her there: the foretelling could have just told them that Zanja needed to be a spy-- even a temporarily memory-wiped spy-- and then all the same things could have happened without the characters being CRAZY.

Also, it would have been nice if Garland the cook had affected the plot in any way whatsoever, because he was my favorite character.


Well, I did still order Water Logic, so this obviously didn't completely ruin the book for me. But I hope nothing like it happens in the next one.

Comments

[loligo.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning for years now to write up a little something about why I find the Insane Plot Twist quite believable in that context. But since my list of Things I Ought To Write For LJ has at least 20 items on it and is growing every day, don't hold your breath.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

...in even a few sentences?

[loligo.livejournal.com]

Okay. I think you are all underestimating the soul-shaking nature of the constantly escalating prescience of Emil, Zanja, and Medric. They're experiencing unprecedented power and they're isolated in their own little cabal. I can definitely see how that would lead to the nigh-surreal level of faith required to carry out that interpretation of their vision.

[loligo.livejournal.com]

Also (see, this is why it's going to take a whole essay to do it properly): I think it's really important that Zanja and Emil (not so sure about Medric) see their power as relational. It's not just a thing that they do or a thing that they are, it's part of their relationship with their tribal gods or with the land/goddess Shaftal. Their growing success with divination creates not just the heady thrill of confidence in their own powers, it creates trust in that relationship -- trust that no matter what happens to them, there is something *beyond* them that is working toward their goals and will find a way to carry them out. That relationship both frees them to take this risk, and *asks* them to take this risk.

(Also also, Zanja's not exactly a stranger to suicide.)