Falcon at the Portal questions
(I opened this window to post, and then decided I needed a coffee by my side before I typed anything, hence the icon.)
Nearly a week since reading The Falcon at the Portal, I am still obsessing. I have two questions hovering around in my head that I hope will be answered by the next installment. Comments welcome, but spoilers beyond this book are not!
First of all, I want to know what Nefret was thinking when she first encountered Sennia. I'm not sure whether to buy Ramses's interpretation -disgust at him for rejecting the child - and I have gone back to reread the relevant scenes. He does seems to have grasped that Nefret didn't believe the little bird wasn't his, which his parents did, but I have to admit that my only clear recollection of my reaction at when we first meet Sennia was 'and now the fat is in the fire', rather than assigning paternity in my head. I mean, it didn't matter if he was the father for that, and then I remembered Percy (and, in fairness, Ramses's reaction to prostitution earlier in the book.) So I'm not attacking Nefret from some high ground. As Katherine Vandergelt said, the foundations of her world had been utterly shattered, and that more so than Katherine could know - Nefret uses near enough the same metaphor to Lia when she's describing her realisation that she loves Ramses and he her. (Having said that very understandingly, it serves her right for marrying in haste to have got a murderous, drug-dealing criminal mastermind as a husband, and I was gunning for him to have TB when he started coughing, which is nice and vindictive of me). I rather thought Nefret was reacting purely on instinct and feeling to the Ameliaesque appearance of Sennia, her unfakeable recognition of Ramses and grasping that her mother was a prostitute; without thinking it through, she thought the worst.
But then, betrayed as he must be feeling, Ramses is still likely to think the best of her (though he is at times understandably malicious to her afterwards) (double swoon) and he does know her best - he precisely foretells Nefret's reaction to learning the truth about Percy's novelisation and reworking of events. (And someone really should tell Ramses about that, ie Nefret bringing P to account and, to his mind, threatening him with public humiliation, was what instigated Percy's behaviour. Promises schmomises, but I suppose it's for Nefret to do eventually.) Actually, I'm sure that this will be sorted out - and that Ramses/Nefret will be properly reconciled, although I hope that it's in due course with everything that's happened: her lack of faith, the miscarriage, Geoffrey's betrayal and manner of death.
Also, that baby was so Ramses's, wasn't it? I was assuming so because it would be right, and a reskimming suggests that Amelia's suspicion that Nefret and Geoffrey aren't sleeping together/intimate would back that up, as well as Nefret's reaction of guilt to losing the baby/having a bad choice of rebound guys.
The second question was about Geoffrey's criminal activities - the characters deduced and set out his involvement in tomb robbing and Maude's fakes and dragging David's name into it, but I was confused about his role in the drugs trade. However, reskimming suggests I was reading too hastily (Falcon was SUCH a page turner) there are mentions of his involvement in drug running and he likely gave Jack and Karl the hashish etc. etc. I think I wanted Percy to be involved somehow, because that would be a little delicious, even though it was a surprise to see Ramses set him up as the next enemy, though I steadfastly think he's dangerous because he's mean and has a grudge rather than due to innate ability.
Not a question, but an observation, what's going on in Emerson's head? (Actually, that was a question.) Katherine has long had it sussed that Ramses loves Nefret and that they suit. Emerson seemed to have twigged this too in the previous book, and then, after the Sennia discovery, apart from being even more considerate of Ramses than Amelia, it was as if he'd forgotten. I kept thinking he'd say something to Amelia - but then Peters wrote her way out of that by having Abdullah allude to the heartache between them and say it was a good thing she didn't have a clue, or she'd try to help and make it worse. Which is true and maybe Emerson had sussed as much (and written it in a sealed envelope?). Having said that, it's obvious in Amelia's reactions that she subconsciously knows what's going on, but hasn't admitted it to herself.
Nearly a week since reading The Falcon at the Portal, I am still obsessing. I have two questions hovering around in my head that I hope will be answered by the next installment. Comments welcome, but spoilers beyond this book are not!
First of all, I want to know what Nefret was thinking when she first encountered Sennia. I'm not sure whether to buy Ramses's interpretation -disgust at him for rejecting the child - and I have gone back to reread the relevant scenes. He does seems to have grasped that Nefret didn't believe the little bird wasn't his, which his parents did, but I have to admit that my only clear recollection of my reaction at when we first meet Sennia was 'and now the fat is in the fire', rather than assigning paternity in my head. I mean, it didn't matter if he was the father for that, and then I remembered Percy (and, in fairness, Ramses's reaction to prostitution earlier in the book.) So I'm not attacking Nefret from some high ground. As Katherine Vandergelt said, the foundations of her world had been utterly shattered, and that more so than Katherine could know - Nefret uses near enough the same metaphor to Lia when she's describing her realisation that she loves Ramses and he her. (Having said that very understandingly, it serves her right for marrying in haste to have got a murderous, drug-dealing criminal mastermind as a husband, and I was gunning for him to have TB when he started coughing, which is nice and vindictive of me). I rather thought Nefret was reacting purely on instinct and feeling to the Ameliaesque appearance of Sennia, her unfakeable recognition of Ramses and grasping that her mother was a prostitute; without thinking it through, she thought the worst.
But then, betrayed as he must be feeling, Ramses is still likely to think the best of her (though he is at times understandably malicious to her afterwards) (double swoon) and he does know her best - he precisely foretells Nefret's reaction to learning the truth about Percy's novelisation and reworking of events. (And someone really should tell Ramses about that, ie Nefret bringing P to account and, to his mind, threatening him with public humiliation, was what instigated Percy's behaviour. Promises schmomises, but I suppose it's for Nefret to do eventually.) Actually, I'm sure that this will be sorted out - and that Ramses/Nefret will be properly reconciled, although I hope that it's in due course with everything that's happened: her lack of faith, the miscarriage, Geoffrey's betrayal and manner of death.
Also, that baby was so Ramses's, wasn't it? I was assuming so because it would be right, and a reskimming suggests that Amelia's suspicion that Nefret and Geoffrey aren't sleeping together/intimate would back that up, as well as Nefret's reaction of guilt to losing the baby/having a bad choice of rebound guys.
The second question was about Geoffrey's criminal activities - the characters deduced and set out his involvement in tomb robbing and Maude's fakes and dragging David's name into it, but I was confused about his role in the drugs trade. However, reskimming suggests I was reading too hastily (Falcon was SUCH a page turner) there are mentions of his involvement in drug running and he likely gave Jack and Karl the hashish etc. etc. I think I wanted Percy to be involved somehow, because that would be a little delicious, even though it was a surprise to see Ramses set him up as the next enemy, though I steadfastly think he's dangerous because he's mean and has a grudge rather than due to innate ability.
Not a question, but an observation, what's going on in Emerson's head? (Actually, that was a question.) Katherine has long had it sussed that Ramses loves Nefret and that they suit. Emerson seemed to have twigged this too in the previous book, and then, after the Sennia discovery, apart from being even more considerate of Ramses than Amelia, it was as if he'd forgotten. I kept thinking he'd say something to Amelia - but then Peters wrote her way out of that by having Abdullah allude to the heartache between them and say it was a good thing she didn't have a clue, or she'd try to help and make it worse. Which is true and maybe Emerson had sussed as much (and written it in a sealed envelope?). Having said that, it's obvious in Amelia's reactions that she subconsciously knows what's going on, but hasn't admitted it to herself.