Comments | shimotsuki: TSK discussion

shimotsuki

TSK discussion | Passage, ch 1-12

Aug 07, 2012 22:37

Life continues to imitate art, as today I'm traveling south toward the general vicinity of what's most likely the model for Graymouth. We're not going quite that far, though, and in fact aren't quite close enough to the actual Mississippi River (although I did see it when the plane was landing!). So you've escaped a picspam this time. ;)

( Summary and discussion -- spoilers under the cut )

sharing_knife, books

Comments 10

katyhasclogs August 8 2012, 11:05:12 UTC

I don't have my book on me right now, and I'm going to be away for the next few days, so I won't be able to discuss until at least Sunday.

But I just want to say - so glad we've got to Passage, it's my favorite of the four books. :D

shimotsuki August 10 2012, 02:26:49 UTC

I'm not exactly getting a lot of LJ time myself this week, being on a family visit (and having work stuff that needs to get done even so). Come by when you can!

shimotsuki August 10 2012, 02:45:18 UTC

I really like Passage. I like the new characters, and the return of Whit in a better light. Also, (not to be spoilery but) this volume feels more like a fairly tightly crafted plot than either of the first two books.

On the other hand, I think it's fair to say that Passage wouldn't be quite as satisfying as it is without the background from the previous two books. Particularly striking is Dag's determination to talk about Lakewalker lore to farmers now, in comparison to the beginning of the series, when he found it hard even to make himself talk about ground and sharing knives. And as hard as it was to read Legacy and see Dag's place in Hickory Lake Camp crumbling away around him, all that was a necessary backdrop to his and Fawn's current plans ( ... )

gilpin25 August 11 2012, 21:15:25 UTC

I'll be back to leave a proper comment but wanted to say it's probably as well you didn't quite get to the Mississipi - I'd be insisting you caught a giant fish and took pics!

Hope you're having a good time with all the travelling. It really does sound like life almost imitating certain books, lol.

And yes, totally agree about this feeling more tightly plotted than the previous two. Even though the riverboat adventure floats off at a leisurely pace, at least to start with.

gilpin25 August 14 2012, 20:02:45 UTC

This is where I went from liking the books to loving them, and with Passage I felt as if I could see where the whole series was heading ( ... )

shimotsuki August 15 2012, 03:35:33 UTC

This is where I went from liking the books to loving them

Ah, me too. And it's been lots of fun reading this one again these last couple of weeks.

I must admit I do enjoy Dag facing setbacks (sometimes he teeters on being Mr. Fixit, lolIndeed! Sometimes Dag has almost too many talents to be true, with the super-wide groundsense range, and this new ability to do groundwork and medicine-making almost instinctively. But Bujold is also good at showing him working things out, being wrong, and making mistakes, which keeps him human. I also like the way Dag has doubts and fears about whether what he's doing is a little too much like what a malice does, although of course that doesn't stop him from experimenting ( ... )

gilpin25 August 15 2012, 16:36:11 UTC

I have to admit that I'm running a little late with the next discussion post, which I had originally planned to post tonight at the latest. It's partway finished, though, so I do hope to have it up tomorrow (Wed) night!

You're doing sterling work with these updates, and especially with the chapter summaries, which kept me on the straight and narrow (I'm actually rereading book 4, so spoiler confusion could easily be my middle name!).

My favourite scene in the book is in the second half...

katyhasclogs August 20 2012, 12:46:30 UTC

Bujold is also good at showing him working things out, being wrong, and making mistakes, which keeps him human. I also like the way Dag has doubts and fears about whether what he's doing is a little too much like what a malice does, although of course that doesn't stop him from experimenting.

Yes, I like the way that this is quite literally a 'journey of discovery' for a lot of the characters.

Thread 5

katyhasclogs August 20 2012, 12:37:00 UTC

Here I am, finally, a mere fortnight late!

I mentioned above that Passage is probably my favourite of the four books. Part of that I think is the river-trip element, making me pine for another canal holiday, and part of it is the elaboration and exploration of the Farmer/Lakewalker issues and the beginning of hints of solutions and further questions.

A big part of it though is the characters: Berry may well be my favourite character in the whole series, I love Remo and his self-flagellating hyper-sensitvity (he'd fit right into my family, heh) and I have to confess to liking Whit even right back in Beguilement when he was a bit of a twit (it was his 'innocent' musings on how Dag fastened his trousers with no hands, lol) and it's great to watch him grow (and develop a mutual respect with Fawn) in this book.

I also think Passage has some of the best quotes, particularly "I swear with you it's 'two's partners, three's a patrol'" and the way that Fawn really develops "stands to reason" as a catch phrase ( ... )