The resolution of the Coldfire trilogy--spoilers

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

So, a good place to start is at the end.

The way I read, I'm constantly trying to figure out where the plot is going, and how it might resolve. One of the things I so liked about the Coldfire trilogy was that it was very hard for me to figure out how she could bring it to a satisfying conclusion. I like it when someone is able to really surprise me. So when I first read Crown of Shadows, I looked forward to seeing how it would end.

Well, most of us know how it ends, and my first response was to nearly throw the book across the room. It felt so...unfitting. I had the impression that Friedman had written herself into a corner, and that she had left plots dangling. I mean...Damien, just standing there? Surely he would've done something. Everything in my reading experience said that you don't simply leave a character standing there at the end, with nothing left to do and nowhere to go. Isn't that a story in itself? And Tarrant...egad, what happened with Tarrant? It was weird, and jarring for me. I felt terribly let down that this was how it would all end after everything that had happened.

In subsequent reads, it came together for me a bit. Or maybe I just learned to live with my disappointment. I can get behind Damien's mixture of joy and despair now. I can snicker at Tarrant's parting one-up on the ex-priest. I can look forward and wonder what Tarrant, in his new body, might be going off to do; what Damien might find to do with the rest of his broken life. Wondering what could possibly come after for them both has become part of the story for me.

But I still wonder...is that what she was trying to do? I mean really. What was the point of that ending?

Comments

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

He'd have to modify those tricks, though, because they're clearly not foolproof.

[alice_montrose]

Well he obviously did. I don't think he'd ever share a body with another soul, for example. And besides, what is he if not an example of self-improvement and adaptation? *pets Gerald's hair* So smart...