Review - Silver On The Tree
In this last book, everything comes together. All the characters, all the plots and threads, all the separate pieces of mythology. Again, it's a beautiful book, and again, as always, there is some amazing characterisation. The things that catch my eye especially in this book are the initial awe/resentment of Bran from the Drews, Gwion's loyalty to and grief for Gwddyno, and John's grief when Blodwen betrays him. There's a lot of complex emotion going on here beneath the actual plot, and parts of it really, really hurt. There are also some parts that never fail to make me smile, like Barney's enthusiasm, and Bran and Will's Arthur/Merlin dynamic.
The actual end of the book and sequence both is at once exhilarating and hurtful. "Five shall return, and one go alone", says the prophecy, but I can't help but think that is ambiguous. Is it that Will, Jane, Simon, Barney and Bran return to our world, and Merriman goes alone? Or is it that Jane, Simon, Barney, Bran and Merriman return to where they belong, while Will is left alone? I suspect it's the former, but there's truth in the latter too: when you imagine how abandoned Will is.
I do love Bran's choice, despite what it leads to, because that's realistic. An adopted child doesn't lose their feelings for their adoptive parent just because they meet their biological parent. Bran still loves Owen (and, arguably another father-figure, John).
Merriman's last few speeches are amazing, but particularly this, and this is how I'll end my reviews. It's a very appropriate thing to be saying to a child, I think, after a book in which two moral opposites clash over and over. It leaves you to think.
"For Drake is no longer in his hammock, children, nor is Arthur somewhere sleeping, and you may not lie idly expecting the second coming of anybody now, because the world is yours and it is up to you."
The actual end of the book and sequence both is at once exhilarating and hurtful. "Five shall return, and one go alone", says the prophecy, but I can't help but think that is ambiguous. Is it that Will, Jane, Simon, Barney and Bran return to our world, and Merriman goes alone? Or is it that Jane, Simon, Barney, Bran and Merriman return to where they belong, while Will is left alone? I suspect it's the former, but there's truth in the latter too: when you imagine how abandoned Will is.
I do love Bran's choice, despite what it leads to, because that's realistic. An adopted child doesn't lose their feelings for their adoptive parent just because they meet their biological parent. Bran still loves Owen (and, arguably another father-figure, John).
Merriman's last few speeches are amazing, but particularly this, and this is how I'll end my reviews. It's a very appropriate thing to be saying to a child, I think, after a book in which two moral opposites clash over and over. It leaves you to think.
"For Drake is no longer in his hammock, children, nor is Arthur somewhere sleeping, and you may not lie idly expecting the second coming of anybody now, because the world is yours and it is up to you."