Marks, Laurie J. - Water Logic

[oyceter]

Spoilers for the first two books

It was good to return to the world of Shaftal; I had missed it and the characters in it.

This time around, Karis is trying to build up peace by dealing with the distrust on both sides; Clement is also having a difficult time dealing with suspicion both from the Shaftali and from her own troops. It doesn't help when it looks like a Sainnite mutiny is at hand.

There were some bits of this that I disliked, particularly the plot device regarding Zanja. I get that she is a hinge of history, but if she is separated from everyone again next book, it will feel a bit too similar.

That said, I LOVED that Marks addressed Zanja as a POC; the very beginning, when she asks about the border people and is met by blank stares? That was perfect. That and Emil telling Zanja that she was Shaftali. I love Emil, but at that moment, I wanted to punch him. And the doubt and fear and the feeling out of place, all of it felt so true.

I'm still a little nidgy about the fact that the story is about the Shaftali and the Sainnites and not about the border people; I wish they had more of a voice and agency and that we got a viewpoint character from them. And I'm also still nidgy that Zanja is the last of her people.

Mostly, though, I was happy to spend time with Karis and Zanja and Emil and Medric and Clement again, and I loved the new POV characters.

Spoilers for this book

I am still not sure what I think about the Big Revelation. Thematically, structurally, plot-wise, and symbol-wise, it is really cool. But on a very kneejerk emotional level, I recoiled. I did not want the Shaftali to have originally been Sainnites; I wanted them to have been them, or for the Sainnites to have been Shaftali, or something other than a colonized group of people originally being the colonizers.

I've been talking with coffeeandink about this, and I still can't quite pinpoint my reaction. Part of the nidginess is that it is presented as a Big Revelation that I think will greatly inform Air Logic. rilina sums up some of my potential issues with that: "But wait, should that make a difference? Should it really be easier to welcome people because they come from the same stock way back? If it does make peace easier, that peace is going to feel a bit like a copout to me."

It's also a little early for the nidginess, as only reading Air Logic will settle some of my doubts.

I suppose a comparison that doesn't make me nidgy is saying that it's like how the Taiwanese in Taiwan used to be Chinese from China. It's true. And yet. If that were a Big Revelation in terms of the current politics on Taiwan and China and Taiwanese and Chinese in Taiwan, I would feel like slapping people. And of course, like in Shaftal, it is almost completely ignoring the displacement and near extinction of the aboriginal people of Taiwan.
So I don't know.

Links:
- rilina's review (spoilers under a cut)
- rachelmanija's review (spoilers)

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I've been thinking and thinking about Water Logic and I'm starting to feel rather unsettled by it. I like that there are certainly main characters of color, but I'm beginning to feel like all the indigenous people - the browner ones - are getting saddled with being extra-magical and spooky (like the Water Witch). Zanja has had to die about three times now, and her clan have already all died and are there as a kind of Greek chorus. Meanwhile, the whiter folks seem to be doing...well...the empire-building stuff, I guess you'd call it. Not that it's more important - I'm not saying that - but I feel like I'm noticing this really huge divide between the indigenous/brown folks and the whiter folks in the way that they're treated and characterized.

What do you think? I desperately want to bounce ideas off someone with this stuff!

[oyceter]

I like that there are certainly main characters of color, but I'm beginning to feel like all the indigenous people - the browner ones - are getting saddled with being extra-magical and spooky (like the Water Witch). Zanja has had to die about three times now, and her clan have already all died and are there as a kind of Greek chorus.

Yeah... I very much dislike that the indigenous people feel like they belong to the past, and not the present, thanks to the genocide of Zanja's people and the lack of other POC in the main cast. I'm really hoping that this comes up in Air Logic, which is why I'm withholding judgment so far.

But that was partially why I was so disturbed by the Big Revelation; it's something that connects the Shaftali more with the Sainnites, and not with the indigenous people, and... I don't know. It feels off.

[seitzk.livejournal.com]

[PROBABLY SPOILERS]

Right - so the (genocide of) indigenous people then becomes an extended plot device to create Zanja, so that she can rescue the Big Revelation. Ugh. At least, if you read it that way, which I do.

And you're right - the indigenous people are so out-of-time, with seemingly no connection to the dominant culture. Why? It seems like a completely unrealistic situation.

And finally - when has learning you're distantly related to someone ever helped you understand them or want to get to know them better - or made you forgive them for having done horrible things? And doesn't that mean that the Shaftali conquered and drove out the indigenous folks then? Awesome. I hope Marks is able to figure her way out of this in some fashion, but...I doubt it.

[seitzk.livejournal.com]

I think I'm so frustrated about this because she gets it so *right* in parts, too. It's almost easier to watch an epic fail, because I'm not left trying to sift out the pieces I can stomach.