Song of Homana - Book One - Chapter Four
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i_read_whatSo last time, Carillon managed to imply that Finn both engaged in bestiality and that he was jealous about it. Also, the harper, Lachlan, disappeared into the night. During a snowstorm.
Finn leads the way to the Keep, but unfortunately, night falls before they get there. (There are no main roads or well traveled tracks to the Keep, understandably.) They make camp, only to be attacked. Carillon starts fighting them off. He offers his gold, but they're not here for robbery.
This is kind of a repeated scene. Carillon thinks that they recognize him, but actually, when they say they want Bellam's gold, they're after Finn. But the scene with the harper reading the bounty gives it all a bit more context. They are about to kill Carillon, when suddenly Lachlan appears, playing a single note on his harp that freezes them in place.
Lachlan identifies Carillon by name and notes that if Carillon had identified himself, the robbers might have knelt instead of threatening him. (They'd still be genocide-assisting racists, though.) Carillon tries to deny it, but Lachlan tells him that he can conjure up his life. He starts to play, and the Homanans stumble away.
Carillon thinks Lachlan is after the bounty himself, but instead, he offers men to fight under Carillon's standard. (They've been sent home to wait for now.) But he won't release Carillon from his thrall.
Then Finn arrives, breaking the spell. Apparently, he killed the men that Lachlan sent away, preferring not to take chances. Lachlan protests that he's taken five men from Carillon's army. Finn doesn't trust him. Neither does Carillon. But Lachlan makes an offer: Finn can look into his mind, and without his harp, Lachlan doesn't have the magic to stop him.
So Finn looks. He can verify that Lachlan is a harper, healer and priest, but he's too well shielded for anything else. He doesn't APPEAR to serve Bellam or Tynstar. Carillon wonders whose man he is, then, and acknowledges that Lachlan could have killed him at any time.
Finn offers to kill Lachlan for Carillon, but Carillon is hesitant. Apparently harpers are traditionally immune from assassination, though they are always involved in petty intrigue. He thinks Lachlan may be a spy rather than an assassin, which could be useful.
There's a bit of an "as you know, Bob" conversation where Carillon reminds Finn how five of Bellam's spies actually found them, and they were sent back with false information or killed. It's useful information for the reader, but Finn already knows that.
So Carillon intends to use Lachlan, which makes Finn unhappy. He thinks it's risky. They bicker a little about how long it took Finn to rescue him, and Carillonflirts with accuses him of getting old. They release Lachlan from the mind control and demand answers.
Basically, Lachlan wants to help Carillon because it's "a harper's life to make songs out of heroes and history." Both Carillon and Finn are apparently infamous already, and he wants to gain his own fame by singing about them.
There's a weird moment of almost camaraderie, when Lachlan notes they have a lot in common. Carillon challenges him: what does a mercenary have in common with a harper? Lachlan just says that he's many things and one day he'll share his story.
Gosh, a duplicitous Ellasian, who could have predicted this?
Carillon warns him about the whole secrets thing, and Lachlan notes that if he wanted to kill Carillon, Finn would kill him. Carillon points out that Lachlan has his harp, and wants to know what else he can do with it.
There's a weird exchange, where Lachlan notes that using his magic on Finn is difficult, because his mind has layers, with iron underneath. He compares Finn to iron: Hard, cold and strong. I think Carillon might have competition. Lachlan then demonstrates his magical ability by lighting a fire by playing on his harp.
Lachlan and Carillon have a moment of connection, where Carillon realizes that while they're strangers now, they won't always be so.
Anyway, there's more info about Lachlan: he rides a "blooded horse" that he apparently got from the High King. He notes that harpers are welcome anywhere, and he could probably even go to Homana-Mujhar. That seems useful.
There's also someflirting banter about food, when Finn brings back some coneys. Carillon begrudgingly accepts. And Finn is amused because once Carillon would have demanded venison. Carillon claims that he's matured since then. And really guys? Get a room.
Later, they share wine, and Finn "invoke[s] his Cheysuli gods with elaborate distinction", which Carillon reads as mocking Lachlan's beliefs. It's good to know Finn's still an asshole, albeit a much more entertaining one in this book.
Lachlan decides to ask about the qumahlin, noting that a saga is built out of fact, not fancy. (During this discussion, it must be noted that apparently while [i]n the shadows, [Finn] seemed more alien than ever, part of the nighttime itself. Get a room.)
So now we get the story of the qumahlin as told by Finn and Carillon. It's the first time we're told it in this book. And I think it might even be the last time!
"My uncle, Shaine the Mujhar—who wanted a son and had none—tried to wed his daughter to Ellic of Solinde, Bellam's son, in hopes of ending the war. But that daughter sought another man: Cheysuli, Shaine's own liege man, turning her back on the alliance and the betrothal. She fled her father, fled Homana-Mujhar, and with her went the warrior."
"My Jehan," Finn said before I could continue. "Father, you would say. Hale. He took Lindir from her tahlmorra and fashioned another for them both. For us all; it has resulted in disaster."
He stared into the fire. "It took a king in the throat of his pride, strangling him, until he could not bear it. And when his cheysula died of a wasting disease, and his second bore no living children, he determined the Cheysuli had cursed his House." His head moved slightly, as if to indicate regret.
"And he declared qu'mahlin on us all."
I hate to say it though, but the retelling here is quite good. I mentioned when reviewing Shapechangers that getting the backstory of Hale and Lindir would have been far more powerful if it came from Torrin first, rather than Finn or Duncan, because Torrin was there and has that emotional bond with Alix.
Here, both men are approaching the story from the part that's most significant to them. Shaine is the Mujhar and a monster, but he's also Carillon's uncle. Lindir is his cousin. And the political ramifications of Lindir's act, the war it didn't stop, are now resting firmly on Carillon's shoulders.
For Finn, it's deeply personal. It's his father who acted, apparently in violation of destiny, bringing a lifetime of persecution directly onto their heads. I complained in Shapechangers that it felt pointless to make Finn and Alix siblings, when Roberson never once treated them that way. And, until that confrontation with Shaine, Finn's own connection to Hale might as well have been meaningless.
Finn's FATHER caused the qumahlin. He abandoned Finn's mother, Duncan and Finn. And at no point in Shapechangers, do we ever get an idea how Finn FELT about that. There is no point in Shapechangers where we see Finn look at Alix and acknowledge that this woman is the product of the affair that caused the qumahlin. There were sporadic hints that Finn's behavior toward her may have been sparked by anger and hate as much as lust, but nothing was ever truly explored. Finn was a cartoon character, not a man.
I honestly think that Finn as Alix's brother was something added to Shapechanger at the very last minute, when Roberson realized that a confrontation between Alix and Shaine or Carillon and Shaine wouldn't have the same impact. It had to be a victim of the qumahlin, and while Duncan suffered, there wasn't enough of a PERSONAL tie. So Finn was made into a last minute half brother. I think that's why the book kept ignoring that their consanguinity should have been a bar for marriage, and why Finn's feelings as Hale's son were never really addressed. I bet she wrote those "will they force her to marry him" parts before she decided that they're related.
This is the first time that I've felt like Roberson actually THOUGHT about the ramifications of what it means to be a Hale's son. Also, for the first time, we're actually hearing about the qumahlin from a victim's point of view, and NOT as a justification for horrible acts. It's infuriating that this is the SECOND book.
So they tell Lachlan about Lindir's return, after Hale's death, about Alix's birth, and even a bit about why Finn serves Carillon. (Finn basically blames destiny for that, but it comes across more wry than bitter.)
Lachlan is intrigued:
"It would make a fine lay. A story to break hearts and rend souls, and show others that hardships are nothing compared to what the Cheysuli have suffered. Do you give me leave, Finn, I will—"
"—do what?" Finn demanded. "Embellish the truth? Change the story in the interests of rhyme and resonance? No. I deny you that leave. What I have suffered—and my clan—is not for others to know."
My hands, hooked loosely over my knees, curled into fists that dug the bluntness of my nails into the leather of my gloves. Finn rarely spoke of his past or his personal feelings, being an intensely private man, but as he spoke I heard all the pain and emotion in his voice. Raw and unfettered, in the open at last."
...you know what? I hate to praise Roberson, I really do. But I genuinely love this. I love that Lachlan is ASKING to tell the story. And I love that Finn is saying no. I love that the narrative, and Carillon, are not judging him for saying no.
Lachlan tells him that he'd embellish nothing, and Finn's response is in the Old Tongue, which apparently he resorts to out of anger, frustration or high emotions. We're told the lyrical syllables become slurred and indistinct, but clearly convey feelings.
Honestly, I kind of want to post ALL of this. I genuinely love this. But I'll restrain myself to a few bits.
Finn gets quiet, exchanges a glance with Storr, then starts to speak:
"I was a boy." The words were so quiet I could hardly hear them over the snap and crackle of the flames. "Three years old." His hand tightened in the silver fur of Storr's neck. I wondered, with astonishment at the thought, if he sought support from his lir to speak of his childhood clearly. It was not something he had said to me before, not even when I had asked "I had sickened with some childish fever, and kept to my jehana's skirts like a fool with no wits." His eyes hooded a little, but he smiled, as if the memory amused him. Briefly only; there was little of amusement in the tale. "Sleep brought me no peace, only bad dreams, and it was hot within the pavilion. It was dark, so dark, and I thought the demons would steal my soul. I was so hot." A heavy swallow rippled the flesh of his throat. "Duncan threw water on the fire to douse it, thinking to help, but he only made it smoke, and it choked me. Finally he fell asleep, and my jehana, but I could not."
Finn tells them about how the Mujhar's men came, sweeping through the Keep like demons, and set fire to the pavilions.
"Aye," Finn said grimly. "Ours they knocked down with their horses, then they dropped a torch on it." His eyes flicked to Lachlan's astonished face. "We paint our pavilions, harper. Paint burns very quickly."
Finn then says that Duncan pulled him out of the fire, and Raissa took both children in the forest to hide. When they made it back in the morning, the men were gone, but so was most of the keep. Finn was too young to fully understand, but did learn how to hate.
And then this:
"I was born two days before Hale went away with Lindir, and still he took her. Still he went from the Keep to Homana-Mujhar, and helped his meijha, his mistress, escape. And so Shaine, when he set his men upon us, made certain Hale's Keep was the first."
Why didn't we get this in Shapechangers? We could have, you know. If Roberson were interested in writing Finn and Duncan as more than just cartoon characters. If she truly wanted to explore the horror of the purge from the point of view of its victims.
And I mean, it was ALIX'S STORY. Alix's story IS the qumahlin. It's her sibling, in a way, born from the same romance. Where was this then? We got a version of this event from Raissa, sure, but it was so impersonal! She could have been talking about the weather, since it was so much less important than Duncan fucking around with Alix's emotions.
And we definitely should have known that Finn was born two days before Hale took Lindir, because that is a huge unspoken element in their dynamic. Finn was essentially abandoned by his father, at birth, because his father found a family he liked better. Duncan, we're told, had some relationship with Hale. He got to go to the castle, for example, and Hale treated him as a son. But Finn never had that chance. There's no indication that Hale and Lindir came to the Keep, so Finn may never have even seen the man. The ONLY thing he has of his father is the memory of a burning pavilion.
This doesn't excuse the cartoon character that Finn was in Shapechangers, but if she'd actually bothered to TRY, this would have been a vitally important part of understanding Finn's fixation on Alix, both in terms of wanting a relationship with her (she may represent a connection to the father he never knew), and his crueler behavior (an expression of the hate and resentment of what she represents.) I mean, if you think about it, Alix's existence is the direct result of the acts that destroyed Finn's life.
THIS MATTERS AND IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN SHAPECHANGERS.
I think it's also a tiny bit of a retcon. Shapechangers had implied the attack on Raissa's tent was at the beginning of the qumahlin. But apparently, Shaine waited three years to retaliate against the Keep. I wonder what prompted it. (It also reduces Duncan and Finn's ages by three years each. Meaning that Finn would have been twenty-five and Duncan twenty-seven during Shapechangers. It's a small reduction, but I'll take anything that makes the age gaps slightly less creepy.)
So anyway, Lachlan reacts and I kind of love him:
Lachlan, after a long moment of silence, shook his head.
"I have gifts many men do not, because of Lodhi and my Lady. But even I cannot tell the tale as you do." His face was very still. "I will leave it to those who can. I will leave it to the Cheysuli"
Imagine, an artist realizing that, despite his talent, and despite the fact that he could make something beautiful out of this, it's NOT his story to tell.
I don't know what Ms. Roberson's ethnicity is. Perhaps she is Native American herself. But if she's not, then maybe, just maybe, she didn't have to write a story about thinly veiled Native Americans facing genocidal oppression. Maybe she could have learned her own creation's lessons.
Finn leads the way to the Keep, but unfortunately, night falls before they get there. (There are no main roads or well traveled tracks to the Keep, understandably.) They make camp, only to be attacked. Carillon starts fighting them off. He offers his gold, but they're not here for robbery.
This is kind of a repeated scene. Carillon thinks that they recognize him, but actually, when they say they want Bellam's gold, they're after Finn. But the scene with the harper reading the bounty gives it all a bit more context. They are about to kill Carillon, when suddenly Lachlan appears, playing a single note on his harp that freezes them in place.
Lachlan identifies Carillon by name and notes that if Carillon had identified himself, the robbers might have knelt instead of threatening him. (They'd still be genocide-assisting racists, though.) Carillon tries to deny it, but Lachlan tells him that he can conjure up his life. He starts to play, and the Homanans stumble away.
Carillon thinks Lachlan is after the bounty himself, but instead, he offers men to fight under Carillon's standard. (They've been sent home to wait for now.) But he won't release Carillon from his thrall.
Then Finn arrives, breaking the spell. Apparently, he killed the men that Lachlan sent away, preferring not to take chances. Lachlan protests that he's taken five men from Carillon's army. Finn doesn't trust him. Neither does Carillon. But Lachlan makes an offer: Finn can look into his mind, and without his harp, Lachlan doesn't have the magic to stop him.
So Finn looks. He can verify that Lachlan is a harper, healer and priest, but he's too well shielded for anything else. He doesn't APPEAR to serve Bellam or Tynstar. Carillon wonders whose man he is, then, and acknowledges that Lachlan could have killed him at any time.
Finn offers to kill Lachlan for Carillon, but Carillon is hesitant. Apparently harpers are traditionally immune from assassination, though they are always involved in petty intrigue. He thinks Lachlan may be a spy rather than an assassin, which could be useful.
There's a bit of an "as you know, Bob" conversation where Carillon reminds Finn how five of Bellam's spies actually found them, and they were sent back with false information or killed. It's useful information for the reader, but Finn already knows that.
So Carillon intends to use Lachlan, which makes Finn unhappy. He thinks it's risky. They bicker a little about how long it took Finn to rescue him, and Carillon
Basically, Lachlan wants to help Carillon because it's "a harper's life to make songs out of heroes and history." Both Carillon and Finn are apparently infamous already, and he wants to gain his own fame by singing about them.
There's a weird moment of almost camaraderie, when Lachlan notes they have a lot in common. Carillon challenges him: what does a mercenary have in common with a harper? Lachlan just says that he's many things and one day he'll share his story.
Gosh, a duplicitous Ellasian, who could have predicted this?
Carillon warns him about the whole secrets thing, and Lachlan notes that if he wanted to kill Carillon, Finn would kill him. Carillon points out that Lachlan has his harp, and wants to know what else he can do with it.
There's a weird exchange, where Lachlan notes that using his magic on Finn is difficult, because his mind has layers, with iron underneath. He compares Finn to iron: Hard, cold and strong. I think Carillon might have competition. Lachlan then demonstrates his magical ability by lighting a fire by playing on his harp.
Lachlan and Carillon have a moment of connection, where Carillon realizes that while they're strangers now, they won't always be so.
Anyway, there's more info about Lachlan: he rides a "blooded horse" that he apparently got from the High King. He notes that harpers are welcome anywhere, and he could probably even go to Homana-Mujhar. That seems useful.
There's also some
Later, they share wine, and Finn "invoke[s] his Cheysuli gods with elaborate distinction", which Carillon reads as mocking Lachlan's beliefs. It's good to know Finn's still an asshole, albeit a much more entertaining one in this book.
Lachlan decides to ask about the qumahlin, noting that a saga is built out of fact, not fancy. (During this discussion, it must be noted that apparently while [i]n the shadows, [Finn] seemed more alien than ever, part of the nighttime itself. Get a room.)
So now we get the story of the qumahlin as told by Finn and Carillon. It's the first time we're told it in this book. And I think it might even be the last time!
"My uncle, Shaine the Mujhar—who wanted a son and had none—tried to wed his daughter to Ellic of Solinde, Bellam's son, in hopes of ending the war. But that daughter sought another man: Cheysuli, Shaine's own liege man, turning her back on the alliance and the betrothal. She fled her father, fled Homana-Mujhar, and with her went the warrior."
"My Jehan," Finn said before I could continue. "Father, you would say. Hale. He took Lindir from her tahlmorra and fashioned another for them both. For us all; it has resulted in disaster."
He stared into the fire. "It took a king in the throat of his pride, strangling him, until he could not bear it. And when his cheysula died of a wasting disease, and his second bore no living children, he determined the Cheysuli had cursed his House." His head moved slightly, as if to indicate regret.
"And he declared qu'mahlin on us all."
I hate to say it though, but the retelling here is quite good. I mentioned when reviewing Shapechangers that getting the backstory of Hale and Lindir would have been far more powerful if it came from Torrin first, rather than Finn or Duncan, because Torrin was there and has that emotional bond with Alix.
Here, both men are approaching the story from the part that's most significant to them. Shaine is the Mujhar and a monster, but he's also Carillon's uncle. Lindir is his cousin. And the political ramifications of Lindir's act, the war it didn't stop, are now resting firmly on Carillon's shoulders.
For Finn, it's deeply personal. It's his father who acted, apparently in violation of destiny, bringing a lifetime of persecution directly onto their heads. I complained in Shapechangers that it felt pointless to make Finn and Alix siblings, when Roberson never once treated them that way. And, until that confrontation with Shaine, Finn's own connection to Hale might as well have been meaningless.
Finn's FATHER caused the qumahlin. He abandoned Finn's mother, Duncan and Finn. And at no point in Shapechangers, do we ever get an idea how Finn FELT about that. There is no point in Shapechangers where we see Finn look at Alix and acknowledge that this woman is the product of the affair that caused the qumahlin. There were sporadic hints that Finn's behavior toward her may have been sparked by anger and hate as much as lust, but nothing was ever truly explored. Finn was a cartoon character, not a man.
I honestly think that Finn as Alix's brother was something added to Shapechanger at the very last minute, when Roberson realized that a confrontation between Alix and Shaine or Carillon and Shaine wouldn't have the same impact. It had to be a victim of the qumahlin, and while Duncan suffered, there wasn't enough of a PERSONAL tie. So Finn was made into a last minute half brother. I think that's why the book kept ignoring that their consanguinity should have been a bar for marriage, and why Finn's feelings as Hale's son were never really addressed. I bet she wrote those "will they force her to marry him" parts before she decided that they're related.
This is the first time that I've felt like Roberson actually THOUGHT about the ramifications of what it means to be a Hale's son. Also, for the first time, we're actually hearing about the qumahlin from a victim's point of view, and NOT as a justification for horrible acts. It's infuriating that this is the SECOND book.
So they tell Lachlan about Lindir's return, after Hale's death, about Alix's birth, and even a bit about why Finn serves Carillon. (Finn basically blames destiny for that, but it comes across more wry than bitter.)
Lachlan is intrigued:
"It would make a fine lay. A story to break hearts and rend souls, and show others that hardships are nothing compared to what the Cheysuli have suffered. Do you give me leave, Finn, I will—"
"—do what?" Finn demanded. "Embellish the truth? Change the story in the interests of rhyme and resonance? No. I deny you that leave. What I have suffered—and my clan—is not for others to know."
My hands, hooked loosely over my knees, curled into fists that dug the bluntness of my nails into the leather of my gloves. Finn rarely spoke of his past or his personal feelings, being an intensely private man, but as he spoke I heard all the pain and emotion in his voice. Raw and unfettered, in the open at last."
...you know what? I hate to praise Roberson, I really do. But I genuinely love this. I love that Lachlan is ASKING to tell the story. And I love that Finn is saying no. I love that the narrative, and Carillon, are not judging him for saying no.
Lachlan tells him that he'd embellish nothing, and Finn's response is in the Old Tongue, which apparently he resorts to out of anger, frustration or high emotions. We're told the lyrical syllables become slurred and indistinct, but clearly convey feelings.
Honestly, I kind of want to post ALL of this. I genuinely love this. But I'll restrain myself to a few bits.
Finn gets quiet, exchanges a glance with Storr, then starts to speak:
"I was a boy." The words were so quiet I could hardly hear them over the snap and crackle of the flames. "Three years old." His hand tightened in the silver fur of Storr's neck. I wondered, with astonishment at the thought, if he sought support from his lir to speak of his childhood clearly. It was not something he had said to me before, not even when I had asked "I had sickened with some childish fever, and kept to my jehana's skirts like a fool with no wits." His eyes hooded a little, but he smiled, as if the memory amused him. Briefly only; there was little of amusement in the tale. "Sleep brought me no peace, only bad dreams, and it was hot within the pavilion. It was dark, so dark, and I thought the demons would steal my soul. I was so hot." A heavy swallow rippled the flesh of his throat. "Duncan threw water on the fire to douse it, thinking to help, but he only made it smoke, and it choked me. Finally he fell asleep, and my jehana, but I could not."
Finn tells them about how the Mujhar's men came, sweeping through the Keep like demons, and set fire to the pavilions.
"Aye," Finn said grimly. "Ours they knocked down with their horses, then they dropped a torch on it." His eyes flicked to Lachlan's astonished face. "We paint our pavilions, harper. Paint burns very quickly."
Finn then says that Duncan pulled him out of the fire, and Raissa took both children in the forest to hide. When they made it back in the morning, the men were gone, but so was most of the keep. Finn was too young to fully understand, but did learn how to hate.
And then this:
"I was born two days before Hale went away with Lindir, and still he took her. Still he went from the Keep to Homana-Mujhar, and helped his meijha, his mistress, escape. And so Shaine, when he set his men upon us, made certain Hale's Keep was the first."
Why didn't we get this in Shapechangers? We could have, you know. If Roberson were interested in writing Finn and Duncan as more than just cartoon characters. If she truly wanted to explore the horror of the purge from the point of view of its victims.
And I mean, it was ALIX'S STORY. Alix's story IS the qumahlin. It's her sibling, in a way, born from the same romance. Where was this then? We got a version of this event from Raissa, sure, but it was so impersonal! She could have been talking about the weather, since it was so much less important than Duncan fucking around with Alix's emotions.
And we definitely should have known that Finn was born two days before Hale took Lindir, because that is a huge unspoken element in their dynamic. Finn was essentially abandoned by his father, at birth, because his father found a family he liked better. Duncan, we're told, had some relationship with Hale. He got to go to the castle, for example, and Hale treated him as a son. But Finn never had that chance. There's no indication that Hale and Lindir came to the Keep, so Finn may never have even seen the man. The ONLY thing he has of his father is the memory of a burning pavilion.
This doesn't excuse the cartoon character that Finn was in Shapechangers, but if she'd actually bothered to TRY, this would have been a vitally important part of understanding Finn's fixation on Alix, both in terms of wanting a relationship with her (she may represent a connection to the father he never knew), and his crueler behavior (an expression of the hate and resentment of what she represents.) I mean, if you think about it, Alix's existence is the direct result of the acts that destroyed Finn's life.
THIS MATTERS AND IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN SHAPECHANGERS.
I think it's also a tiny bit of a retcon. Shapechangers had implied the attack on Raissa's tent was at the beginning of the qumahlin. But apparently, Shaine waited three years to retaliate against the Keep. I wonder what prompted it. (It also reduces Duncan and Finn's ages by three years each. Meaning that Finn would have been twenty-five and Duncan twenty-seven during Shapechangers. It's a small reduction, but I'll take anything that makes the age gaps slightly less creepy.)
So anyway, Lachlan reacts and I kind of love him:
Lachlan, after a long moment of silence, shook his head.
"I have gifts many men do not, because of Lodhi and my Lady. But even I cannot tell the tale as you do." His face was very still. "I will leave it to those who can. I will leave it to the Cheysuli"
Imagine, an artist realizing that, despite his talent, and despite the fact that he could make something beautiful out of this, it's NOT his story to tell.
I don't know what Ms. Roberson's ethnicity is. Perhaps she is Native American herself. But if she's not, then maybe, just maybe, she didn't have to write a story about thinly veiled Native Americans facing genocidal oppression. Maybe she could have learned her own creation's lessons.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-09 08:39 pm (UTC)On the other hand: WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK? I HATE THAT BITS OF THIS ARE ACTUALLY GOOD BECAUSE I STILL REMEMBER SHAPECHANGERS AND HAVE A LOT OF BUILT UP RAGE.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-10 02:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-27 09:42 am (UTC)Lachlan continues to be interesting; he does seem to want to help Carillon, but he has no problems with using magic on him, so I suppose that he wants something we don't know yet from Carillon? And it seems he's more powerful than I'd thought, if he can control a group of bandits like this.
From your summary, the three of them seem to have a genuinely nice interaction here, which I really like seeing! (And I find I don't mind the lack of much plot progression so far, which speaks well to Roberson's writing of character.)
It is good to see the qu'mahlin treated as seriously it should be, and I hope that Roberson manages to keep this up for the entire book. For the present chapter, I like the exchange between Lachlan and Finn you quote, too; I can see why Lachlan would want to use it, and spreading the story of the Cheysuli might move people to help them and thus be beneficial to the Cheysuli... but it's still the story of the Cheysuli, so they should get a say in how it's presented, and even if Lachlan presents it accurately, he'd still be performing a quite private part of Finn's story. Given that it's not strictly necessary to do so, I'm on Finn's side here (and that's something, given how bad he was before now!).
I'm impressed by the way Finn tells his story; it's much better than we got before, and it does a good job at conveying how bad it was for them.
But if she's not, then maybe, just maybe, she didn't have to write a story about thinly veiled Native Americans facing genocidal oppression. Maybe she could have learned her own creation's lessons.
As I don't remember the qu'mahlin being that relevant to the later books, it would probably have been better if Roberson had indeed done so; the better treatment of the issue here isn't quite worth how badly it was done in Shapechangers for me yet.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-27 03:27 pm (UTC)Track of the White Wolf onward though, the main characters are descendants of survivors of the qu'mahlin rather than survivors themselves, and with the added element that the ruling House of Homana is Cheysuli. (And in a subtle-for-Roberson touch, it's implied that Niall's reign is a lot less turbulent than Donal's, possibly because Niall looks more white and is thus more acceptable to the Homanan people.)
The racial tension between Homanans and Cheysuli do play a part as late as Pride of Princes (though not so much in Daughter of the Lion - which might make sense as Keely takes after Niall more in appearance, is not a ruler of the country, and her issues are more gender based than race based.)
no subject
Date: 2026-01-27 04:33 pm (UTC)Yeah, I didn't think through what I was saying very well, and I'll probably have more relevant things to say later on. In any case, thanks for the refresher on the series (and good to see that Roberson kept the qu'mahlin in mind for the rest of the books)!
no subject
Date: 2026-01-27 05:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-27 08:37 pm (UTC)Good to know; I was a bit nervous about the quality of my comments. And knowing lots about the series is definitely an asset (fortunately I can say the same about my own series).
(I'm also kind of annoyed by how little it came up in Daughter of the Lion, in retrospect)
Now that you say it, it bothers me a bit, too... It makes sense for a book that focuses on Keely quite a bit, but while I don't mind her, I do care more about the larger story.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-29 05:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-29 07:55 am (UTC)I'll comment on the next chapter today!