Random cover art whinge: WHY OH WHY is the cover art so boobtastic in the Baen omnibuses. WHY. Also, she's never read as Mary Sue ish to me, mostly because of the way her appearance/attitude/traumas are handled by the author.
I think Jame's initial amnesia regarding her upbringing in the Master's House is well handled, too. For one thing, it's clearly magical, and consistent with the overall effects of reading the Book and using a Master Rune from its pages, probably the one the Kencyr used to get to the next world after the Fall given that that one had to be near the front (or Anthrobar wouldn't have copied it before the Book fried his brains). That the blank period completely covered the time in the House suggests deliberate intent, though. What portion of that was Jame's own conscious or unconscious choice, and what was Gerridon'a choice, I'm not sure. Also, she has never fully recovered from it, unlike most "convenient amnesia" in fiction. Some stuff has resurfaced, but much will probably never return. And it's certainly been hinted that there may be secrets there that will hurt her. She is, IMO, clearly still damaged from this, like someone who suffered traumatic brain injury — which she kinda did.
Boobs sell, I guess? Hopefully someday there'll be a printing that has a good cover. The one I use as an avatar is the back cover picture from one small-press edition, which Pat has said is perhaps the most accurate except that the hair is nowhere near long enough. As to the Sue accusation, I don't agree either. But people mistake symptoms for cause, and Jame scores pretty highly on any online "Mary Sue Test" you can find. She's obviously a wish-fulfillment character; but unlike many writing such, Hodgell has created a world in which she's believable, a setting she doesn't utterly overpower, and realistic enemies and fears. She's always going to be essentially a "fantasy superhero" and a Chosen One, and some people just plain dislike Chosen Ones and Special Ones.
They have clearly been infected by the nature of Perimal Darkling in its partial application in the Haunted Lands, and its chaotic blending of living and dead, animal and plant, etc. Probably not really zombies, but definitely "haunts" in the sense of being not what they should be and not following the normal laws of nature. Life in the Keep was threadbare and horrifying (e.g. the randon who cooked and ate his own toes, when starving and crazed) and no wonder Jame has food issues. Probably made worse in the Master's House; I really can't see there being much in the way of good food there, though perhaps Gerridon had the Changers go out in the world to scavenge supplies; Gerridon would not have eaten Darkling-tainted food, though how much he needs to eat anymore I'm not sure.
What do you think of the most recent Kencyr book, The Sea of Time? It was okay, but it didn't grab my attention as much as previous books, even though there were some fairly Big Revelations. (And more building of the complicated relationship between Tori and Jame.)
I liked it but it ended without much of an ending; it felt like a Part 1. It also shows that, as Jame grows in power and experience and equipment, her longtime enemies are a lot less scary. Gerridon is starting to seem more pathetic than scary, even though he can still hurt Jame. It's lucky for him that he can still use the House to move in time and space; Jame could have killed him, otherwise. I felt that the sense of anticlimax after the battle was realistic, though. Honestly, Jame's bigger challenges remaining are Rawneth and Tori (and really, there, Ganth). And the true nature of the Kencyr God and its ancient enemy, because I have a strong sense that there's more going on, that the story the Kencyrath believe is not true in some major respects.
I'm wondering how she's going to eventually defeat Rawneth, or finally confront Ganth the Unfriendly Ghost. I've been having a sense that there's more going on for many of the books in the series. Jame keeps discovering new and often dismaying things about her people/the war with perimal darkling/the nature of the world she lives in. That's one of the best parts about the series I think, the continuing "nope, that's not actually true," with Jame being the official "poker with sticks" of customs, past events, legends, metaphysics and so on. (I have also noticed that sometimes it's hard to tell sometimes that an enemy is actually dangerous. The girl has no sense of fear, and from her pov monsters tend to be slightly ridiculous. Or maybe that's just me.)
Rawneth's weakness is fundamentally that her people only follow her out of terror or compulsion; she has no idea how to win true loyalty, partly because she has no loyalties whatsoever of her own, and no real cause except to have power and destroy everyone who tried to stand in her way. She seems totally shallow in motivation, but making up from that by having no conscience whatsoever, no concern for right or wrong, no respect for any rules or constraints. She's extremely dangerous because she has no limits and cares for nothing but herself, as far as we can tell, and has clearly done plenty of research into forbidden things. She's powerful, too, in terms of magic. I think she's going to need all three of the Knorth highborn to take her down; she outmatches all of them individually, I feel. As to Ganth, I suspect that's going to have to be another joint effort, though I'm not sure if Jame would help or hurt that one. Perhaps to provide strength to resist him/distract him while Kindrie and Trishien undo things?
I do personally suspect that the Kencyrath itself is spreading the infection of Perimal Darkling from world to world, through the means of the Master's House, the Builders and things like that. It may even be the case that the Kencyr temples are doing it. I'm also not sure that the Kencyr God still exists; there's little evidence for it. Something or someone set the Kencyrath going, but I'm not sure it stuck around to watch, and I'm not sure its purpose is ultimately good. Despite the opinion of the old scrolls and songs, it doesn't seem that Perimal Darkling is an intelligent entity. Really it seems to be more of an infection, a corruption via chaos, breaking down the walls between living and death, health and unhealth, and suchlike. I don't feel that it has a guiding intelligence. And fundamentally, too, the Kencyrath is broken. The Builders never finished the Temples on Rathillien, and they are pumping uncontrolled amounts of power into the environment. It seems that some cataclysm affected them, though it could be somewhat associated with the Fall; the Kencyrath lost on the previous world well ahead of schedule due to Gerridon's betrayal, and possibly before the Builders could finish setting everything up. And then the Kencyrath lost the Langadine temple. It's possible that the completely violent, destructive emergence of the temples was because they were activating in a hurry instead of how they were supposed to work. And Jame's somewhat responsible for that loss; not completely, but somewhat. Once again she triggered destruction. She's not really safe around breakable things, like cities. And yes, Jame has absolutely no fear for her own safety and little caution. She's not scared by much and mostly not for her physical safety; she's scared of attacks on her mind and inner self, to a degree, and by dangers to others she cares for, but on her own account she'll run up to gods and punch them on the nose and run away while everyone gapes in astonishment. In some ways she is the Ivory Knife, the very tooth of death, as she is fated to be. Things part to her touch as fabric parts to the killing, rotting blade of the Knife, and even accidental brushes with Jame can prove fatal. Jame's saving graces are her complete lack of ambition to control others, and the fundamental honesty of her soul. She is capable of love whereas Rawneth and Gerridon really aren't except as means to control. Jame doesn't want power except to resist the ability of others to bind her. She's barely able to accept help, even though she's come a long way on that, because she respects others' agency and empathizes with them. Nobody will ever own her. Nobody will ever tie her to them.
hey, @Morven, so i've been considering buying the series on kobo and i'd like to know which of the books available there would be the most efficient and cheap to purchase, 'cause there are a few combo volumes and i don't know whether they have everything. so yeah, i'm a bit confused. here's the link, which might not work 'cause it is a canadian version of the site but yeah...: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-ca/search?query=P. C. Hodgell&fcsearchfield=Author would the three combo volumes have everything? are there any overlaps that might be necessary in order to get the entire set? just yeah, figured i'd throw this out there, see if you had any input. i looked it up on wikipedia and just got confused, haha.
For everyone else, I answered in messages. Because I'm a drug pusher, I'll send anyone the ebook of the first one for free. Note drug is perfectly calibrated for my damaged mind; your mileage may vary.
It occurred to me the other day that Jame counts as having been a sex worker, on account of the dancing at the inn. Lust and arousal was what she was stoking and feeding upon there. That 100% counts as erotic dancing. You don't have to be naked. Though I do wonder exactly what 'much skin in unexpected places' her Senetha costume bared.
According to Pat's Livejournal, book 8 is nearly complete with the deadline of May 1. It's tentatively named The Gates Of Tagmeth. And she's always planning book 9. Given the title, my crystal ball says: Jame gets her own keep. She just has to rebuild it first ...
(there are a lot of words here and i am interested in them but cannot currently read walls of text, shall return tho o.o)
I'll be glad to see that, when you're up to it! And yes, a lot of words. I'm a wordy fucker and this series is my crazy obsessive interest for 27 years now.
focus on species, customs, mental stuff and messed up societies :3 :3 main char intrigues me too, along with this talk of powers. along with powers that...just happen to be part of their species? and godly misintervention is also a thing that makes me squeal in glee. idk just sounds like my kind of jam
