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

[(Anonymous)]

That's a very interesting point, actually. If God is created from the fae, and the fae is only on Erna...then if Tarrant were to leave the planet someday, would that rid him of the irritating problem of redemption?

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

Argh. That was me. Forgot to sign in.

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

That's a very interesting point, actually. If God is created from the fae, and the fae is only on Erna...then if Tarrant were to leave the planet someday, would that rid him of the irritating problem of redemption?

It would seem logical... so all he has to do is stay alive until he (or someone else) develops reliable ways of space travel, and then find another planet without fae or something similar. No more Hell to worry about, so dying wouldn't be quite as scary as before anymore. Even though immortality probably does become a habit at some point.

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

...You know, I was going to point out that no fae means no immortality, too. But...well, who knows what sorts of technology humans have come up with at that point? Maybe a more scientific sort of immortality does wait for him out there.

And now I'm imagining the kind of culture shock that'd happen if Tarrant ran into super-futuristic humans.

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

Culture shock to him or to the super-futuristic humans? ;-)

Actually he might not venture out to space until he is certain there is a way of immortality waiting which won't need the fae to work. He might just try to first find the technology to go to space, then figure out a way to make immortality last without the fae, then go to space. I doubt time is much of an issue for him.

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

Culture shock to him or to the super-futuristic humans? ;-)

Good question. Frankly, I'm not quite sure! :)

[alice_montrose]

*lol* My bet is, culture shock on the super-futuristic humans. Because Gerald would likely be... intrigued.