Coldfire re-read: Crown of Shadows - chapters 1 & 2

[trobadora]

Posting for alighiera, who, alas, has to work tonight:

It's time to start the first book of CoS, with the end of a sea journey and a first meeting that will start an avalanche.

Plot Summary

Chapter 1
The chapter opens with Sisa - the woman we met at the end of WTNF as a gift to Tarrant - making a final decision: she'd rather go overboard and drown than feed Tarrant's need for fear a moment longer. Rather than interfere and have her rescued, he lets her kill herself.

Later, Damien tries to write a letter to the Patriarch to explain where he's been for the last two years, and explain to us what has happened in WTNF in case we missed it. But he fails miserably at not drifting off whenever he mentions Gerald Tarrant - something we really couldn't miss in WTNF. Gerald shows up for a chat and they end up agreeing that Damien is an acceptable alternative for snacking, and that they'd better be prepared for a lot of trouble. Trouble which comes to greet them once they reach Faraday, which is mostly missing because Calesta threw a tsunami at the town. Damien agrees - reluctantly - that he needs to go to Jaggonath and see the Patriarch while Gerald heads home to the Forest to see whether the trees are still growing, the squirrels are frolicking and the deer are prancing. Or rather, that no demon has interfered with his man-eating worms and Frankensteinian wolves, because we really can't have that.

Chapter 2
Andrys interrupts his brooding for a moment to go shopping for jewellery. He inevitably gets drawn into a shop by the sight of Narilka Lessing, and gets her attention because of his appearance and the unusual work he presents her with. It's not every day that she gets customers who look like the Hunter and want replicas of Revivalist-style coronets and armour, after all. Andrys gets confused enough to forget to use his regular pick-up lines and goes home without even knowing her name. And Narilka gets confused too because fantasizing about the Hunter just turned a lot easier now that there's a non-lethal alternative around who looks just the same.

Quotes

• "She has chosen," the Hunter tells them, and there is power in his voice; they cannot disobey. "Let her go."


• The last remains of his life-blood on Erna. Was it any wonder that he loved the Church as much as he hated it, and had crafted a false treachery to entrap the man who stood poised to destroy it?


• So many souls, to be sacrificed to the hunger of one demon! Never was there better illustration of why our Church is needed on this world, and why the sword and the springbolt and the gun and the shield are no more than shadows of the only true weapon on Erna, which is faith.


• "She knew what I was," he said quietly. "As do you. And I suggest you come to terms with that knowledge before we reach port, Reverend Vryce. Our enemy is dangerous enough as it is; if we allow ourselves to be divided, what chance do we have to defeat him?"


• "Will I live to see port? Yes. Will I be in prime condition to rejoin battle with the enemy when we get there? Not if I go hungry for a month, Reverend Vryce." He paused. "But you knew that when you asked, didn't you?"
  He shut his eyes and exhaled noisily. "Yeah. I knew."
  "Shall I take that as an offer?"


• "I would like to think that an act of nature could be just that, no more. But this does seem a bit of a coincidence, doesn't it? Such devastation to welcome us home. Certainly our enemy would be pleased to make such a statement."


• The Hunter would go to his Forest. Of course. And Damien would return to Jaggonath. Of course. Each of them to test out his domain, each one to ascertain what damage their Iezu enemy had wreaked in their absence. Each one alone, their alliance of two years divided... It should have pleased him; to be rid of the Hunter at last. It didn't.


• Those dreams ... they were pain and ecstasy almost beyond bearing, a catharsis so terrifying and so necessary that on the nights when Calesta did not answer him he wept, helpless and hopeless as a lost child. The dreams were all he had now. The hate was all that was holding him together.
  That and the drugs.


• Not that money had been an issue in those days, of course. The first Neocount had seen to that by sinking his wealth into investments that tripled in value before anyone could manage the legal contortions required to get at it. If Andrys had thought about it then, he might have believed that the man was trying to provide for his abandoned son by assuring wealth for his progeny. Now it just seemed like a cruel joke.


• She drew in a deep breath; he could sense her struggling to compose herself. "It isn't you," she said at last. "It's just... I thought you were - someone else. Someone I didn't expect here. I'm sorry."


• That face. So familiar. Those eyes ... she could picture them cast in a paler hue (silver, cracked silver, the color of ice and sunlight) and that was enough to transform them, because in all other ways - in shape, in expression - they were the same as his. Just as this man's hair was the same (golden brown, fine as silk), only Andrys Tarrant had trimmed his in a stylish cut, indisputably modern, while the other had let his grow to the shoulder. And so it was with so many other features: token differences, superficial, which only served to highlight the uncanny, unnerving resemblance between the two men.
  The Hunter.


• And now there was Andrys Tarrant. Here. In her world. Alive in a way the Hunter was not, solid and real in a way he could never be. Capable of living and loving with a human heat -
  Gods. She shut her eyes and tried to focus on something else. Anything else. That's not a healthy reason to want a man and you know it.

Thoughts

• What did you think of Sisa's death?


• With his writing style, Damien should take up composing bodice rippers in his spare time. He's got the purple prose down pat.


• The "writing a letter home" device must be one of the most overdone tricks in series writing. Sure, it's a convenient way to fill in new readers about what happened before, but it's such a transparent method. Besides, why would Damien write a letter when he's going to Jaggonath in person anyway? This bit never quite worked for me.


• Is there any need to even mention the slashy subtext any more?


• First that overly complex plot involving Andrys, now the tsunami in Faraday. Whenever I re-read CoS I can't help shaking my head at how much time Calesta wastes with petty vengeance when he should be focusing on world domination. Clearly he's never seen the rules of how to be a successful Evil Overlord.


• Andrys is a difficult character for me to feel sympathy for. I was willing to pity him in the prologue, but the way he thinks and acts in this chapter turned me towards dislike. There's too much passive-aggressiveness and sense of "woe is me" for me to warm up towards him.


• Ah, Narilka. Having a crush on a man because he looks just like the Hunter, only with a pulse and warmer... really not a good reason to want a man.

Next Monday we follow Gerald home as he checks up on the minions, and the Patriarch finds out what nightmares are made of. Join us for chapters 3 and 4!

(And yes, there will be a complete schedule by the end of the weekend, I promise!)

Comments

[silver-ariane.livejournal.com]

Didn't read the Andrys chapter (yet?) but chapter 1...

As for Damien's letters, I'm convinced that romance novels are how he should make some money once he settles down. There has to be a huge fanbase for bodice-rippers about the Hunter.

Oh, the slash subtext. Of course we need to mention it. Their journey back on the ship always makes me want to write the one where Damien has some kind of twisted dream about the Hunter, wakes up, goes to complain to Gerald because he thought he was only putting dreams in Sisa's head lately, and then Gerald tells Damien he is. :P

[alice_montrose]

There has to be a huge fanbase for bodice-rippers about the Hunter.

I do not doubt it. Someone on Erna must have come up with the idea of redeeming the Hunter in fiction. Unlike Damien, who chose to try redeeming the Hunter for real.

There is so much slash subtext in this book, I am pretty much willing to forgive the weird ending. *sweatdrops*

[silver-ariane.livejournal.com]

What ending? You mean it didn't end after Damien saved Gerald from the heart attack and everyone lived happily ever after? Damn, I've been reading it wrong this whole time.

[alice_montrose]

I mean the ending when they all get pulled in the Twilight Zone.

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

There has to be a huge fanbase for bodice-rippers about the Hunter.

Given how popular things like vampire novels are here, the bookstores on Erna probably have whole sections devoted to him! Damien could become so very famous that way, after all, he's the current authority on the Hunter.

Oh, the slash subtext. Of course we need to mention it. Their journey back on the ship always makes me want to write the one where Damien has some kind of twisted dream about the Hunter, wakes up, goes to complain to Gerald because he thought he was only putting dreams in Sisa's head lately, and then Gerald tells Damien he is.

*grin* Go on, write. It's such a nice bunny. And Damien makes so little fuss over letting Gerald feed on his dreams again, it's almost like he misses it.

[alice_montrose]

(Written under pain medication, sorry if my train of thought here gets really weird.)

I really admire Damien's letter writing skills. I think they show us what he really thinks about Gerald - and he knows "certain people" would disagree about it. Yes, Mer Patriarch, I'm looking at you here. Also, we find out where Gerald's loyalties lie, and how much he loves to regularly check on his experiments - as if that hadn't been obvious in the way he acted when someone tried to mess with his Church. (Amoril, you bastard, what i'm saying is that you're lucky he'll be too busy saving the world!)

Andris + Narilka = FORESHADOWING, MUCH? Though all that "love at first sight" gets a bit weird here, because we don't know if Narilka's attraction to Gerald will be enough to make her get over Andrys' moments of massive emo and angst. Yet. Though we suspect. Maybe what she really wanted was a substitute puppy/cuddle bear? At least she is woman enough to admit this won't a healthy relationship make. (Did I mention I actually like Narilka?)

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

Damien's writing reveals him as such a fan. *g* It's a good thing for him that Gerald would be too polite to sneak a peek at the letters, or he'd never live it down.

If Gerald had had the time to deal with Amoril... that explosion would have been interesting to see. He'd have made an example of him. A lasting one, to show to the minions over the next few centuries.

With Narilka and Andrys, this chapter always gives me the impression that he falls for her, while she's long ago fallen for the Hunter and now takes the best she can get if she can't have the real thing.

[fragorl.livejournal.com]

Narilka is love! and anyway if u met someone as sexy as the hunter wouldnt you be a bit interested in the look a like ancestor? especially when - as memory serves he gives a VERY good excuse to visit a certain forest...

[alice_montrose]

No, I'd just go for the actual Hunter instead of the emo wannabe. ^^;;;

[fragorl.livejournal.com]

heh! :)

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

I've never been convinced that Narilka really went for Andrys for his own sake - he's the safe and breathing variant of the Hunter, so it's fantasy fulfillment. The poor guy is just a convenience. :-)

[fragorl.livejournal.com]

actually that would make a lot of sense... also the hunter cant hurt her so even if dating future tarrants is dangerous (which it certainly seems to be) she would be safe...

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

She and Andrys are the one safe couple, at least until they have a child to carry on the name and genes. After that, Andrys would have been fair game.

I've always wondered whether it's that sense of danger that drew her to the Hunter. That and the fact that he took her seriously and showed her that she shouldn't fear the dark.

[fragorl.livejournal.com]

and he was like really really sexy... that helped..right? ;)

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

Sexy always helps. Hey, I only get to read about him and I'd take him over Andrys any day. ;-)

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

"She knew what I was," he said quietly. "As do you. And I suggest you come to terms with that knowledge before we reach port, Reverend Vryce. Our enemy is dangerous enough as it is; if we allow ourselves to be divided, what chance do we have to defeat him?"

Fun if incidental thing about this? It echoes the preparations for a Catholic exorcism: accepting and coming to terms with one's own flaws and mistakes so that they can't be used against you.

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

And yeah, Damien writes really florid letters.

[trobadora]

Wow, that is fascinating!