The Sharing Knife: Passage...
Apr. 29th, 2008 09:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fajrdrakoI finished reading The Sharing Knife, vol. 3. Passage today. This is the third of four volumes in "The Sharing Knife" series, set in a sort of low-tech post-holocaust America, a world that reminds me of the 17th century American frontier. The hero Dag is a Lakewalker, his wife Fawn is a Farmer - and the two groups of people live contrasting lifestyles. The Lakewalkers use their magical powers - or their superpowers, take your pick - to fight the Malice who threaten the world. The Farmers barely believe in the Malice.
Which, given the devastation that we've seen the Malice cause, I find a little hard to believe, but it's one of the premises of the novel and I can live with that.
Generally speaking, I like Bujold's science fiction more than her fantasy. Colonial America (especially rural colonial America) is not a setting that excites me. I have no interest - less than no interest - in the Malice, which is an amorphous bogeyman. But I love the characters in these books, and their personal story, and I thoroughly enjoyed this volume - in which the presence of the Malice is barely mentioned. I had thought the Malice would turn up towards the ending, as a climactic surprise. I was so pleased it didn't. The enemy in this book is human, and I loved it as such.
In this volume, Dag has left his people to make his own personal journey in an attempt to reconcile the Lakewalker and Farmer schism, at least enough to strengthen both groups in the ongoing battle against the Malice. They take a flatboat to follow the river to the sea - one can't help picturing the Mississippi - in the company of a young female captain who is in search of her missing betrothed and her father. Along with them comes Fawn's brother Whit, a runaway Lakewalker and his former partner, and assorted crew.
As they travel, Dag reveals more and more of Lakewalker's secret ways to the Farmers as he experiments with his own ground sense, healing Lakewalkers and Farmers both in his attempts to become both a healer and ultimately a knife-maker. That was the part I liked best by far; Dag's experiments in his craft, going further and further with it. And getting his own entourage of acolytes at the same time.
I thoroughly enjoyed the battle that becomes the climax of the book, and its aftermath as well. I hadn't previously been very interested in this making of the sharing knives, but the outcome of Dag's fight with Crane had me riveted.
Which, given the devastation that we've seen the Malice cause, I find a little hard to believe, but it's one of the premises of the novel and I can live with that.
Generally speaking, I like Bujold's science fiction more than her fantasy. Colonial America (especially rural colonial America) is not a setting that excites me. I have no interest - less than no interest - in the Malice, which is an amorphous bogeyman. But I love the characters in these books, and their personal story, and I thoroughly enjoyed this volume - in which the presence of the Malice is barely mentioned. I had thought the Malice would turn up towards the ending, as a climactic surprise. I was so pleased it didn't. The enemy in this book is human, and I loved it as such.
In this volume, Dag has left his people to make his own personal journey in an attempt to reconcile the Lakewalker and Farmer schism, at least enough to strengthen both groups in the ongoing battle against the Malice. They take a flatboat to follow the river to the sea - one can't help picturing the Mississippi - in the company of a young female captain who is in search of her missing betrothed and her father. Along with them comes Fawn's brother Whit, a runaway Lakewalker and his former partner, and assorted crew.
As they travel, Dag reveals more and more of Lakewalker's secret ways to the Farmers as he experiments with his own ground sense, healing Lakewalkers and Farmers both in his attempts to become both a healer and ultimately a knife-maker. That was the part I liked best by far; Dag's experiments in his craft, going further and further with it. And getting his own entourage of acolytes at the same time.
I thoroughly enjoyed the battle that becomes the climax of the book, and its aftermath as well. I hadn't previously been very interested in this making of the sharing knives, but the outcome of Dag's fight with Crane had me riveted.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-30 08:52 pm (UTC)I still feel sorry for the world come end-game - how do they know when they've killed the last Malice? Herself has said that they have a limited population, but the way they pop up is essentially random. The last few are probably going to be generations - even Lakewalker generations! - apart, so how do they keep the knowledge on finding them and killing them sufficiently ... present? - can't think of a better word - so that they can win.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-30 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-30 09:35 pm (UTC)One of the big end-game problems is sharing knives - how long will a sharing knife keep? How difficult will it be to keep the knowledge of how to make them alive? Will you get enough assisted-suicide volunteers to prime them if you know how to make them? How many is 'enough' to have on hand? This last ties in to geographical coverage and speed of transport. Given that they have carts, glass, and brick now - what is their speed of technological development likely to be over the next 200-400 years? I notice that they don't have gunpowder - are they likely to develop it?
One of the options that has - I think - been discussed elsewhere (on the LMB list, maybe?) is the development of other forms of sharing weapons. Could you make a sharing cross-bow bolt? That would help with the end-game - another problem there is that uniformity of education leads to a big jump in the early capabilities of a newly-born Malice. Including knowing that sharing knives exist, and some basics on how they work. This is going to lead to very paranoid Malices!
Herself has admitted that I have a valid set of concerns about killing the last Malices - and also that it's their problem, and she's not worrying about it!
no subject
Date: 2008-05-03 12:10 am (UTC)My current interpretation is that because with their current techniques the Malice problem does not really have a solution, is that something is going to happen to change the situation as it stands - that Malice might transform into something else, or turn out to be vulnerable to something besides sharing knives, or some such thing.
Could you make a sharing cross-bow bolt?
I can't think of any obvious reason why not.