Duey, Kathleen - Sacred Scars
Tue, Apr. 6th, 2010 08:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterSecond of the trilogy A Resurrection of Magic. You can see my write up of Skin Hunger using the author tag to preserve the spoiler cuts.
Hahp's story in the brutal school for magicians continues as he and his fellow classmates struggle to master lessons when they are given almost no direction, have plenty of incentive to hate each other, and suffer a great deal of physical and emotional abuse.
Meanwhile, Sadima's story gets much more interesting. In book one, she was the less interesting of the two and a much more typical fantasy character—young naive girl learning about magic—but here, she is much less naive and much more active.
I complained about the prose and the characterization in the first book. The prose continues to be a bit clunky, but the second book makes me reexamine the characterization in the first book. I haven't reread it, so it's very faded in my mind, but I think the broader characterization in the first book is less authorial clumsiness and more the youth of the characters, along with the characters themselves meeting for the first time. In this book, there's a lot going on among all of the characters, and without the first book to build on, this wouldn't have worked at all.
Duey's strength lies in her relationships and her study of human weakness and abuse, which, strangely enough, reminds me of Fruits Basket. The characters are constantly playing games with each other or trying to outguess each other, and when life and death are hanging in the balance, it's difficult to put too much trust in anyone.
Spoilers
Hahp's story now becomes less about staying alive and more about how he'll get out of the place, and I find the constant doubting of everyone's trustworthiness fascinating. It reminds me a great deal of The Hunger Games, but I like how Duey handles it more. The boys don't know the rules of the game, much less what they should or shouldn't do, and the slow way the school grinds them down is less flashy but almost more horrific than Collins' arena. I loved details like their secret signals to each other, but I also liked that nothing was easy. Hahp hurts his classmates more often than not, and even though his desire to form alliances with his classmates makes him seem nicer or more honorable than Gerrard, it also illustrates the class difference between them. I love Gerrard pointing out that Wren teaching Hahp silent speech is less about helping Hahp and more about politics among the wizards; nothing is easy, nothing is harmless, all gifts have sharp edges.
Their planned murder of Luke was chilling, and I am glad Duey did not sugarcoat it by saying they were doing it for the good of others or whatnot. It is ugly and painful, and even though none of them can think of a better way, it's not presented as an optimal solution.
I remember being disappointed with Sadima's story in the first book, particularly with her continuing to trust in Franklin. In this book, she's much more awesome. I love her small rebellion against Somiss, and I love love love that when she finally realizes Franklin will never, can never abandon Somiss, she leaves and tries to take the boys with her. Go Sadima!
I don't remember anything about the religion from the first book, but I'm very interested to see if the anti-magic bit will play out in the end, or if Duey will have Sadima lean more toward making magic free for everyone. I'm almost tempted to wish for the anti-magic solution, just because you so rarely see that in fantasy books. I realize not that much happens to Sadima again after she leaves Franklin and Somiss, but since I love stories of small towns and amnesia and getting to know the people around you (and cheesemaking!), I didn't mind as much this time. And I love watching the formation of communities.
I desperately still want to know how Somiss brings magic back into the world; we see snippets of how the world changes through Sadima's eyes, but not fully because her own knowledge is so limited. Also, my theory halfway through was that Sadima somehow trained Gerrard, but now I'm not so sure. I really want her and Hahp and Gerrard to meet now!
Middle books of trilogies are difficult, especially when book one makes a splash (it was a National Book Award finalist), but Sacred Scars is a middle book done right. It deepens the world and raises the stakes, and it does so without retreading too much ground. Recommended, and I'm really looking forward to how she'll be wrapping this trilogy up.
Hahp's story in the brutal school for magicians continues as he and his fellow classmates struggle to master lessons when they are given almost no direction, have plenty of incentive to hate each other, and suffer a great deal of physical and emotional abuse.
Meanwhile, Sadima's story gets much more interesting. In book one, she was the less interesting of the two and a much more typical fantasy character—young naive girl learning about magic—but here, she is much less naive and much more active.
I complained about the prose and the characterization in the first book. The prose continues to be a bit clunky, but the second book makes me reexamine the characterization in the first book. I haven't reread it, so it's very faded in my mind, but I think the broader characterization in the first book is less authorial clumsiness and more the youth of the characters, along with the characters themselves meeting for the first time. In this book, there's a lot going on among all of the characters, and without the first book to build on, this wouldn't have worked at all.
Duey's strength lies in her relationships and her study of human weakness and abuse, which, strangely enough, reminds me of Fruits Basket. The characters are constantly playing games with each other or trying to outguess each other, and when life and death are hanging in the balance, it's difficult to put too much trust in anyone.
Spoilers
Hahp's story now becomes less about staying alive and more about how he'll get out of the place, and I find the constant doubting of everyone's trustworthiness fascinating. It reminds me a great deal of The Hunger Games, but I like how Duey handles it more. The boys don't know the rules of the game, much less what they should or shouldn't do, and the slow way the school grinds them down is less flashy but almost more horrific than Collins' arena. I loved details like their secret signals to each other, but I also liked that nothing was easy. Hahp hurts his classmates more often than not, and even though his desire to form alliances with his classmates makes him seem nicer or more honorable than Gerrard, it also illustrates the class difference between them. I love Gerrard pointing out that Wren teaching Hahp silent speech is less about helping Hahp and more about politics among the wizards; nothing is easy, nothing is harmless, all gifts have sharp edges.
Their planned murder of Luke was chilling, and I am glad Duey did not sugarcoat it by saying they were doing it for the good of others or whatnot. It is ugly and painful, and even though none of them can think of a better way, it's not presented as an optimal solution.
I remember being disappointed with Sadima's story in the first book, particularly with her continuing to trust in Franklin. In this book, she's much more awesome. I love her small rebellion against Somiss, and I love love love that when she finally realizes Franklin will never, can never abandon Somiss, she leaves and tries to take the boys with her. Go Sadima!
I don't remember anything about the religion from the first book, but I'm very interested to see if the anti-magic bit will play out in the end, or if Duey will have Sadima lean more toward making magic free for everyone. I'm almost tempted to wish for the anti-magic solution, just because you so rarely see that in fantasy books. I realize not that much happens to Sadima again after she leaves Franklin and Somiss, but since I love stories of small towns and amnesia and getting to know the people around you (and cheesemaking!), I didn't mind as much this time. And I love watching the formation of communities.
I desperately still want to know how Somiss brings magic back into the world; we see snippets of how the world changes through Sadima's eyes, but not fully because her own knowledge is so limited. Also, my theory halfway through was that Sadima somehow trained Gerrard, but now I'm not so sure. I really want her and Hahp and Gerrard to meet now!
Middle books of trilogies are difficult, especially when book one makes a splash (it was a National Book Award finalist), but Sacred Scars is a middle book done right. It deepens the world and raises the stakes, and it does so without retreading too much ground. Recommended, and I'm really looking forward to how she'll be wrapping this trilogy up.