Review: The Sharing Knife: Legacy
Jul. 3rd, 2007 05:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalI finished reading it yesterday finally. And for the first time in a long while, my reaction was "Meh." It wasn't structurally flawed like Diplomatic Immunity or The Hallowed Hunt, but it's probably the blandest bit of fantasy LMB has done since The Spirit Ring.
I think part of the problem was, of course, that despite being the second half of a supposed duology, it's plain that we're going to have to read through the next two books in the Wide Green World before there's going to be a resolution to Dag and Fawn's story. At best, by the end of the book they're engaged in a dignified retreat. Dag is estranged from his brother and mother, Fawn has not been accepted by the Lakewalkers, Dag's wealth is tied up in a blatant political maneuver, and the younger of the Lakewalker's are plainly outraged at the treatment of the heroes of the last malice fight.
Which isn't to say that LMB doesn't strut her stuff during the most important dramatic moments. However brief that actual battle with the latest malice is, it's plain why they terrify Lakewalkers. Most effectively when we see Dag and Mari's outright fear when the observe that this malice is building a crude tower. When in a classic fantasy epic the opponent would have them going up a nigh impenetrable fortress, the idea that a bunch of logs piled together would be thought of as a sign of an enormous threat enhances, rather than detracts from the menace of the creatures.
And as always with LMB, it isn't the battle that's at the emotional center of the conflict, it's the mess afterward, with both the Lakewalker makers trapped by the malice and the horrible toll it took on the villagers it consumed and enslaved during its molt.
But...
Here's the big flaw in the plot. The whole setup with the Lakewalkers and Farmers is the classic "Five minute talk" problem. If Lakewalkers and Farrmers could just get past each other's inherent assumptions then the problem with the malices would be infinitely eased. Which would consist of the Lakewalkers (ie: Dag and Fawn) chatting up every village they come to and telling them "You want to stop malices? Here are the signs you look for. First time you see one, come running to us." It's unlikely that there will be more to this, because what the Lakewalkers really need to do is tell every village exactly how sharing knives are, as Dar told Fawn, and then give them one to stick in the next malice that starts to appear in their neighborhood.
But that won't happen, because the Lakewalkers Are Special. They're Heralds, they're Dragon Riders, they're Jedi. And to take away their primary job is to take away what makes them unique to the landscape LMB has created. When faced with a rapidly growing malice threat, and all hands are needed, the biggest group that Fairbolt was able to muster was some seventy Patrollers. Seventy, when they needed an army of hundreds, perhaps thousands.
But that's not going to happen in the Lakewalker's universe. Farmers are not warriors. There's no mention of nations in the Wide Green World, just individual towns and regions. Between each village is a no man's land under the Lakewalker's protection. Because, notable, farmers are unarmed. The only non-lakewalker human we ever see armed in the two books is a scruffy bandit. The Lakewalkers are stretched too thin, that point is made clear. But they're never going to let the Farmers build an army or real militia, because they'd lose control over the people they're supposedly protecting. For all the talk of "Will we be Lords again?", the fact is they're lords now, as poor and deliberately backwards as they are, because they hoard their knowledge of how to fight the malices when they need to be spreading it far and wide.
In other words, they're flaming hypocrites.
Though the fact that I saw this, probably means that LMB is aware of it too. And she's too knowledgeable about the tropes of fantasy to let the Lakewalker's way of life stay as it is.
I suspect the next couple of books are going to be... very interesting.
I think part of the problem was, of course, that despite being the second half of a supposed duology, it's plain that we're going to have to read through the next two books in the Wide Green World before there's going to be a resolution to Dag and Fawn's story. At best, by the end of the book they're engaged in a dignified retreat. Dag is estranged from his brother and mother, Fawn has not been accepted by the Lakewalkers, Dag's wealth is tied up in a blatant political maneuver, and the younger of the Lakewalker's are plainly outraged at the treatment of the heroes of the last malice fight.
Which isn't to say that LMB doesn't strut her stuff during the most important dramatic moments. However brief that actual battle with the latest malice is, it's plain why they terrify Lakewalkers. Most effectively when we see Dag and Mari's outright fear when the observe that this malice is building a crude tower. When in a classic fantasy epic the opponent would have them going up a nigh impenetrable fortress, the idea that a bunch of logs piled together would be thought of as a sign of an enormous threat enhances, rather than detracts from the menace of the creatures.
And as always with LMB, it isn't the battle that's at the emotional center of the conflict, it's the mess afterward, with both the Lakewalker makers trapped by the malice and the horrible toll it took on the villagers it consumed and enslaved during its molt.
But...
Here's the big flaw in the plot. The whole setup with the Lakewalkers and Farmers is the classic "Five minute talk" problem. If Lakewalkers and Farrmers could just get past each other's inherent assumptions then the problem with the malices would be infinitely eased. Which would consist of the Lakewalkers (ie: Dag and Fawn) chatting up every village they come to and telling them "You want to stop malices? Here are the signs you look for. First time you see one, come running to us." It's unlikely that there will be more to this, because what the Lakewalkers really need to do is tell every village exactly how sharing knives are, as Dar told Fawn, and then give them one to stick in the next malice that starts to appear in their neighborhood.
But that won't happen, because the Lakewalkers Are Special. They're Heralds, they're Dragon Riders, they're Jedi. And to take away their primary job is to take away what makes them unique to the landscape LMB has created. When faced with a rapidly growing malice threat, and all hands are needed, the biggest group that Fairbolt was able to muster was some seventy Patrollers. Seventy, when they needed an army of hundreds, perhaps thousands.
But that's not going to happen in the Lakewalker's universe. Farmers are not warriors. There's no mention of nations in the Wide Green World, just individual towns and regions. Between each village is a no man's land under the Lakewalker's protection. Because, notable, farmers are unarmed. The only non-lakewalker human we ever see armed in the two books is a scruffy bandit. The Lakewalkers are stretched too thin, that point is made clear. But they're never going to let the Farmers build an army or real militia, because they'd lose control over the people they're supposedly protecting. For all the talk of "Will we be Lords again?", the fact is they're lords now, as poor and deliberately backwards as they are, because they hoard their knowledge of how to fight the malices when they need to be spreading it far and wide.
In other words, they're flaming hypocrites.
Though the fact that I saw this, probably means that LMB is aware of it too. And she's too knowledgeable about the tropes of fantasy to let the Lakewalker's way of life stay as it is.
I suspect the next couple of books are going to be... very interesting.
