and I find planets much more interesting. they have trees.
Bren & co, having completed a strange but passably successful mission, return with potential problems in tow... to find actual and overwhelming problems at home. the government's collapsed, an ambitious fool is in charge, and nobody can find Tabini, or even knows if he is alive. lovely. well, it had to be something of cataclysmic proportions.
Destroyer (#7) is a counterpoint to Explorer (#6), much as the dynamic cornucopia of events in Explorer (#6) contrasted with the slow-paced pyschological intrigue of Defender (#5).
Explorer(#6) was very much Cameron-ci, Cameron-la, Cameron, Cameron, CAMeronnnnn... ah, to be a paidhi of quality! busy, confident Bren Cameron saving the universe and all. Destroyer (#7) pretty much turns that on its head as Bren comes to realize that he has indeed made some egregious mistakes in his thinking and now there is hell to pay (so, he hasn't gotten it, re:enculturation vs biological imperative, not nearly as well as he thought he had). before, the earth of the atevi relied on Bren and the Phoenix lot distrusted him greatly... now that's almost reversed. much of Bren staying out of the way and shutting up in this one, which means that we get more atevi. we get to see and realize more about Ragi culture than we have before, and we get to witness man'chi developing right before our eyes (while in the midst of witty politics and desperate cross-country transits, no less).
new antagonist: Tatiseigi. oh, we've met, but now we have to practically move in with the man, and hope that he doesn't poison anyone while we figure out what side he's really on.
Cajeiri starts growing up... tangibly. and in so maturing, he is not so subdued or quiet, even in the most impressive company of his overpowering great-grandmother or great-grand uncle. we get to really start understanding who he is.
and damnitall, Barb is back. she is such a pain. there's never been a more appropriately named character, I swear. will someone just toss her off the boat already? I do not trust her and I honestly do not care if she is only human--- that doesn't mean her every flaw should be overlooked. if she causes any more trouble, she'd better die of her own self-made doom, or I'm going to gripe about it even more lol.
and just for the record, I haven't ever been able to bring myself to trust Yolanda either.
"He was getting farther and farther from twenty, and he still considered himself an optimist, but lately that optimism had gotten down to a more bounded, knowledgeable optimism about his own intentions, a pragmatism regarding his own failings, and a universe-view tinged with worldly realism and personal history. He didn't believe in the impossible as wildly, as passionately as he once had. Knowing had gotten in the way of that. " (28-29)
"There was a whole world of things which, he thought suddenly, no, the boy didn't automatically know, simply by being atevi." (171) [nature vs nurture]
"'I had to try,' he said. 'But I learned absolutely nothing. Except that a great deal is still up in the air.' ... 'Baji-naji,' she rendered it, the dice-fall of the universe..." (p 219)
97. the boy is such a J.
252. the boy is such an N.
some typos are very VERY infuriating. Mt. say-what? Edo??? I don't think so.
and the book ENDS when the story is nowhere NEAR done... bah. but at least it is continued in the next book, and doesn't just leave us hanging forever.
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