skygiants

Laurie Marks' Water Logic is not really part of sequel season, seeing as it came out nine years ago, but a.) it was a sequel new to me and b.) now that I have read it, I get to join the rest of the world in waiting for the hypothetical last Elemental Logic book! (Which in theory will be Air Logic, after Fire Logic and Earth Logic.

The structure of this book is in some ways very similar to that of Earth Logic. In the A-plot, Zanja takes a journey that leads to her being considered ambiguously dead by Karis, which will somehow lead to something beneficial because of deus ex elemental logic. In the B-plot, Clement of the Sainnites beats her head against a wall attempting to figure out peaceful solutions to ongoing problems that might not, in fact, have peaceful solutions.

( More thoughts, some spoilery )

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/454423.html

Now I have finished Earth Logic, the sequel to Fire Logic, and I am still chewing over my thoughts about it, but one thing I can say is THAT WAS A VERY ODDLY STRUCTURED BOOK.

Earth Logic begins five years after Fire Logic, when all the surviving major cast members of the last book have formed an affectionate extended family unit featuring two gay couples and one token straight couple and their collective kid. And they are all sort of hanging around having curtainfic until the time seems appropriate to ... do something ....... about the ongoing war of resistance and attrition against the invading forces from the last book, who have now been constantly invading for thirty years, and the process of waiting is DRIVING ZANJA UP THE WALL.

About a third of the way in, Zanja has a prophetic vision that one of her other slightly prophetic friends needs to murder her in order for anything to happen. What will happen if they murder her? NOBODY KNOWS, but SOMETHING IMPORTANT.

So they all have a collective freakout and Zanja is like "NO SERIOUSLY YOU JUST NEED TO MURDER ME, I don't know why but it's VERY IMPORTANT," and then they angst for several more chapters and then dutifully get ready to murder Zanja, and the one person who has truth powers instead of prophecy powers is like "awww, isn't it cute how they can't tell the difference between symbolism and reality," and quietly arranges things so all the confused and angsty but dutiful prophets, including Zanja, will THINK Zanja has been murdered but in fact she will only have been SYMBOLICALLY murdered so that while she's busy being symbolically dead her body can generate a whole new personality that will wander off to shuffle some plot cards.

All this progression have been very stressful if I thought there was a snowflake's chance in a Boston July that Zanja was ever going to be dead for real, but never for a single second did I consider that as a possibility so I was free to laugh at three people constantly agonizing about their visions while the fourth is like 'UM IT'S JUST SYMBOLISM, GUYS, IT'S GONNA BE FINE.'

Eventually The Gang pick up a new member, a cook who is UNDERSTANDABLY BEMUSED by all of this personal drama (and thus is my new favorite) but helps keep everyone sane during the waiting period by making amazing biscuits. And they all sit around stressing about Zanja and building a printing press and discussing nonviolent ways of ending conflict until somewhere near the end of the book.

Meanwhile, in the B-plot, the long-suffering second-in-command of the enemy forces has a very long slow arc of reconsidering her life and the cycle of constant violence and the way one is supposed to think about children and the future, with occasional assists from the Wandering Plot Coupon that is Zanja's Symbolically Dead Personality, and it's an amazing arc, I love it.

( Ending spoilers, some conflicted feelings )

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/448576.html

I really really liked Laurie Marks' Fire Logic, and I'm going to complain about some stuff below but I want you guys to keep in mind that overall I thought the book was SUPER enjoyable.

...overall I did. First complaint: the first seventy or so pages of the book are EXTREMELY GRIM and features invasions and conquest and genocide and a great deal of overall unpleasantness, so it took me quite a while to get into it.

However, I perked right up when after those seventy pages of despair Our Heroine Zanja, a professional linguist/spy/diplomat/warrior/semi-clairvoyant, was rescued from a tragic fate in prison by Our Other Heroine Karis, a gentle giant heroic blacksmith with superpowers!

Zanja pretty much falls head over heels in love with Karis like twenty minutes after meeting her, and really, who can blame her, I suspect basically ANY OF US would do the same. Alas, Karis has a.) a secret destiny and b.) a really overprotective friend who's like THIS WILL ONLY END IN TEARS and c.) a Tragic Drug Addiction that means that after a day's work of heroic blacksmithing she spends every night in a helpless state of stoned obedience, hence the really overprotective friend who's like NO, SERIOUSLY, THIS WILL ONLY END IN TEARS.

(I love Karis, but I will note that she is basically the World's Most Sympathetic Drug Addict. Her drug addiction is not even 1% her fault; when she is in withdrawal she suffers nobly and heroically but is never even a little bit an asshole; similarly when she is drugged-out she is helpless and lacking in agency but never an asshole, not even the least little bit, because fantasy drugs are convenient like that.)

Anyway, as a result, instead of following Karis around forever like a puppy dog as is her dearest wish, Zanja reluctantly lets Karis' Overprotective Friend have her way and agrees to ride off instead to join the underground military resistance. There she befriends Emil, the middle-aged leader of this particular troupe of underground military resistance who would really rather just be back at grad school, and has a brief fling with Annis, an enthusiastic pyromaniac, and then encounters a moral dilemma in the form of an enemy prophet who maybe just wants to be friends, but eventually Karis and Zanja are reunited and go back to taking turns dramatically rescuing each other/getting into peril as soon as the other one's back is turned/dramatically rescuing each other again.

Some more facts about this book:
- there are basically no straight people in it (well, that's not quite true, there are two straight married people and everyone spends the whole book being like 'well, that relationship is doomed')
- pretty much everyone is generally well-intentioned and heroic and self-sacrificing and trying their overall best, except for the people who are Definitely Shady
- there is a lot of very good found-family-ing
- also so much hurt-comfort, so much, MY GOODNESS the number of times Zanja or Karis are near-death and tender physical contact is the only way to help
- speaking of injuries, I would like to note that most people in this book who have injuries are eventually magically healed of them and this includes long-term disabilities
- speaking of long-term disabilities, Karis has no ability to feel sexual desire as a long-term side effect of the drug addiction, which everyone in-universe agrees is VERY TRAGIC, and, I mean, there are specific in-character reasons for Karis and Zanja to find this a.) distressing and b.) a significant relationship obstacle, but like. Kids, it is possible to have a successful relationship that is not 100% dependent on whether or not Karis is ever able to enjoy sex, I promise this is not the Saddest of All the Long Tales Ever Told.
- there's an elemental magic system underlying the whole thing but I have not mentioned it because I don't reeeeeeeally understand how it works
- and speaking of worldbuilding, there is a flashback whose sole purpose appears to be to establish the existence of a whole city that seems to be just sad drug-addicted prostitutes. A whole city. A WHOLE CITY.
- ... I mean, I mock, but CITY OF PROSTITUTES aside, Marks seems to be very interested in exploring violence and causes of violence and the possibility for non-violent responses to violence, and cultural shifts and cultural exchange, and despite the high levels of violence I would characterize the book as generally optimistic