The Vampire Diaries 2x02-2x05
Sun, Oct. 10th, 2010 03:24 pmTags:
Sun, Oct. 10th, 2010
Cherryh, C.J. - Cuckoo's Egg
Sun, Oct. 10th, 2010 10:00 pmThorn is taken in as a baby and raised by Duun, a hatani who trains Thorn to be a hatani as well. I am still not entirely sure what a hatani is—it seems like some sort of combination of judge, super tracker/hunter, and master reader of emotions and motives. In short, almost all the stuff I tend to associate with good court intrigue and/or assassination and/or spy narratives. And although his hatani training makes Thorn different from everyone else, it doesn't explain why he doesn't look like anyone around him.
This book reminded me of Ender's Game, and![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
coffeeandink mentioned it reminded her of Octavian Nothing. All of them are about children used as experiments, some for purposes crueler than others; they are about living in a lie, being deceived by everyone, and being isolated from everyone. I think Ender and Thorn feel the pressure to succeed far more than Octavian, but Thorn and Octavian's loneliness and isolation is more real. Ender's Game is the fantasy version of the scenario while Octavian Nothing is the cruelest; Cuckoo's Egg strikes the balance in between where I can see it fulfilling some adolescent wishes (as Ender's Game did for me) but in making the psychological weight of the deception and Thorn's dependence on Duun much greater. Thorn is always more at a loss than Ender, and the reader feels just as lost as he does—either Cherryh's prose is particularly elliptical here, or it just seems that way to me because this is the book that started my grand Cherryh read.
On a superficial note, Thorn's constant worried monologues were a little difficult for me to read, partially because they were italicized and partially because we were so much in Thorn's head that I had a difficult time figuring out what exactly was going on outside of it.
( Spoilers can't say can't )
In conclusion: good ending and good take on a particular SF trope, but it doesn't feel quite as substantial as some other Cherryh's I've read.
This book reminded me of Ender's Game, and
coffeeandink mentioned it reminded her of Octavian Nothing. All of them are about children used as experiments, some for purposes crueler than others; they are about living in a lie, being deceived by everyone, and being isolated from everyone. I think Ender and Thorn feel the pressure to succeed far more than Octavian, but Thorn and Octavian's loneliness and isolation is more real. Ender's Game is the fantasy version of the scenario while Octavian Nothing is the cruelest; Cuckoo's Egg strikes the balance in between where I can see it fulfilling some adolescent wishes (as Ender's Game did for me) but in making the psychological weight of the deception and Thorn's dependence on Duun much greater. Thorn is always more at a loss than Ender, and the reader feels just as lost as he does—either Cherryh's prose is particularly elliptical here, or it just seems that way to me because this is the book that started my grand Cherryh read. On a superficial note, Thorn's constant worried monologues were a little difficult for me to read, partially because they were italicized and partially because we were so much in Thorn's head that I had a difficult time figuring out what exactly was going on outside of it.
( Spoilers can't say can't )
In conclusion: good ending and good take on a particular SF trope, but it doesn't feel quite as substantial as some other Cherryh's I've read.
Tags: