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Sep. 29th, 2020 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsWhen I read Silver in the Wood last year, I was excited for a sequel but found it difficult to conceive of what it would look like, since the story felt so complete in and of itself.
Now I've read Drowned Country and it did more or less the best thing that a sequel can do, which is make me retroactively belief that Silver in the Wood would be thematically incomplete without it despite having previously felt that it stood alone perfectly well.
The thing about Drowned Country is -- I'm going to do my best to do this without spoilers -- Silver in the Wood ends a certain way, and, at the time, it seems like a right and appropriate ending, and even a happy ending. And Drowned Country takes that ending and complicates and re-examines it in ways that I really appreciate and that it would have been easy not to do.
First of all, more serious: immortality is an awful deal and humans are really not built for it and I really like how much Drowned Country digs into that, thematically!
Second of all, less serious: oh HOW funny is it that the wood puts up with Silver moping around as its avatar for two years and then is like "actually ... no. Not this. Really, anything but this. I will rearrange whatever metaphysics are necessary to make sure NOT THIS." Perfect ending. Impeccable. I hope the embodiment of the wood and the sad elf are very happy together.
Also, while Silver in the Wood was probably a more straightforwardly enjoyable read (for me) because Tobias is both a more unusual and more congenial narrator than Silver, the way that Tesh draws out Silver's flaws and fallibility when seen up close rather than through Tobias' affectionate gaze is also extremely fun; also, I love how much the friendship between Tobias and Adela Silver is a throughline! I did like Maud too, I would have liked to see her actually interact with Adela Silver after Silver decided it would be convenient if Adela adopted her, but this is a short novella and one can't have everything.
Now I've read Drowned Country and it did more or less the best thing that a sequel can do, which is make me retroactively belief that Silver in the Wood would be thematically incomplete without it despite having previously felt that it stood alone perfectly well.
The thing about Drowned Country is -- I'm going to do my best to do this without spoilers -- Silver in the Wood ends a certain way, and, at the time, it seems like a right and appropriate ending, and even a happy ending. And Drowned Country takes that ending and complicates and re-examines it in ways that I really appreciate and that it would have been easy not to do.
First of all, more serious: immortality is an awful deal and humans are really not built for it and I really like how much Drowned Country digs into that, thematically!
Second of all, less serious: oh HOW funny is it that the wood puts up with Silver moping around as its avatar for two years and then is like "actually ... no. Not this. Really, anything but this. I will rearrange whatever metaphysics are necessary to make sure NOT THIS." Perfect ending. Impeccable. I hope the embodiment of the wood and the sad elf are very happy together.
Also, while Silver in the Wood was probably a more straightforwardly enjoyable read (for me) because Tobias is both a more unusual and more congenial narrator than Silver, the way that Tesh draws out Silver's flaws and fallibility when seen up close rather than through Tobias' affectionate gaze is also extremely fun; also, I love how much the friendship between Tobias and Adela Silver is a throughline! I did like Maud too, I would have liked to see her actually interact with Adela Silver after Silver decided it would be convenient if Adela adopted her, but this is a short novella and one can't have everything.
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Date: 2020-09-30 02:20 am (UTC)I gave this book to my mother to read first and I HAVE NOT GOTTEN IT BACK.
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Date: 2020-09-30 02:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-30 03:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-30 03:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-30 07:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-01 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-02 05:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-02 05:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-04 06:35 pm (UTC)I did and I read it last night and it was great and I am very frustrated it says so cheerfully "Greenhallow Duology" on the frontispiece because I want the next one! (WHERE IS MAUD AND ADELA'S BOOK.) I am not surprised you liked it: it is what happens after the happy ever after. The Fairyland interested me by not being something I had been before, except maybe in Machen.