Ahira's Hangar

Well, I'm about halfway done, and Earthy is done, so I thought perhaps it might be a good time to start a new thread, for discussion with spoilers.

My first thoughts are on Linden's son Jeremiah. His construction efforts with blocks and legos, etc. have made me wonder if there is a possible link between him and the Creator?

I am vert touched by the way Linden took care of Joan with so much kindness, as a way of expressing her love for Thomas. Something that the Linden haters should perhaps think about.

Also, I am very glad that the Ranyhyn are still running free!!! ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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With FR coming out next week, I am rereading Runes, perhaps about a third of the way into the book.

I had forgotten how it is a bit irritating in how many mysteries in both the real world and in the Land Donaldson has introduced, with so few answers. In addition, all of the other six novels in the Covenant series could be read individually. I know this is true, as the first time I read them as a teenager, they were out of order. Sure, I did not pick up every nuance, but I could comprehend enough that I could more or less understand The Illearth War without ever having read Lord Foul's Bane. This is simply not true of Runes. It is not a complete story on its own.

So many mysteries:
* what is the significance, if any, of the faerie castle that Jeremiah made on the same day he made Revelstone and Mount Thunder? Is it significant that Jeremiah himself took down Mount Thunder and Revelstone, putting their materials safely away, while Roger Covenant destroyed the faerie castle? Is it significant that Linden had a feeling of safety from the Castle and had wanted it left up?

* what is the deal with the race track Jeremiah makes, and the toy car?

* how and why is Roger so violent and crazy?

* how long has Joan been possessed by a Raver? If it was in our world, how did the creepy thing get here, or have power here?

* how did Joan know that Covenant goes somewhere he is important? how does Roger know? how can Roger reach Joan in the mental hospital?

* why are so many characters - Joan, Roger, Jeremiah, Esmer, and Anele - mad or otherwise abnormal mentally/emotionally/socially?

* what is Kevin's Dirt? who has made it and why?

* what are the skurj? I can tell that they are connected to Kastenessen and the fire in the north that could destroy the Earth, but what exactly are they?

etc. etc. etc.

One thing is clear - while the First Chrons focus on individuals and the Second on couples - the Third appears to be focusing on family relationships - particularly between children and parents. Perhaps especially mothers.

I do not think that it is any small matter that two characters - Roger and Jeremiah - do not have fathers (Roger was taken away from Thomas when he was too young to remember his father; Jeremiah's father left his mother when she was pregnant with him), have such troubled biological mothers, and are raised for at least part of their childhoods by people who are not their biological parents.

I also do not think it is any small matter that when Linden first sees Anele on Kevin's Watch that she is reminded immediately of Hollian - not Sunder, but Hollian. This is, of course, long before she knows who Anele is.


** sigh **
I am hoping that at least some of these mysteries will be solved in FR. I am also hoping that there will not be another cliff hanger ending.

I am reminded again on why I did not want to take part in the dissections. While there is a whole lot to speculate about, there are few real answers.

Ugh. About halfway through now, and I realize that part of my brain had probably supressed Esmer, and how truly irritating a character he can be. Most annoying character I can think of in a fantasy book, other than some in Steven Erikson's Midnight Tides.

Yet we have found out that family is very important to the Ramen (I had forgotten that the cords who accompany Linden are family to each other).

And Esmer, obnoxious as he is, goes right back to the importance of family relationships, with Cail and the Merewives, and Kastenessen as his heritage...

I have gotten once more to the place where Linden violates one of the keystone ethics of medicine as currently practised in the US - she forces treatment upon a legal adult of sound mind. That, of course, would be Stave of the haruchai. She would be forced in front of the disciplinary commitee of the hospital where I work for forcing treatment upon a patient.

Remember - adult patients of sound mind have the legal and ethical right to refuse any and all treatments - even if it means that they will die.

I wonder if something important will come of this later on in the Third Chrons?

And in my final push to get the reread done before FR arrives in the mail - once more the focus in on families as Anele reads the rock of Revelstone. Fathers. Sons. Daughters. Love, accomplishment, betrayal, pain, desecration, faithfulness.

I got the email yesterday from Amazon saying that Fatal Revenant has been shipped. Yet yesterday was a federal holiday, with no mail service. So who knows when it will actually get here? Nonetheless, I am glad my reread is done so that I am now ready.

I'm re-reading RotE now myself (maybe a third of the way through). One thing that stands out to me is the each series has started off with a quest for the Staff of Law. In LFB, they go into Mt. Thunder to get it from Drool. In TWL, they start a quest to make a new one, and only accomplish it at the very end of the series. And in RotE, Lindon starts a quest to find the new Staff after it's been lost by Anele. It's kind of weird to me that SRD decided to go back to the well a third time. At least the initial quest is accomplished in this book, and it doesn't take the entire final chronicles.

Also, the names are pretty damn annoying. Anele is pretty silly, but Liand is just downright awful. I don't know what SRD was thinking when he came up with that one.

Anyway, I loved the book the first time through, and my opinion hasn't changed so far during the re-read.