This book provides answers to some of the long-standing questions about the world, while at the same time revealing that its secrets are grander and more mysterious than any of the characters -- and perhaps even the author -- had at first imagined.
Jun 28, Joe Crow rated it it was amazing. Nice to return to Tai-tastigon, and see some old faves, too. Shocked, I am, no really. Tai-tastigon is where this series began, in the brilliant "God Stalk". You've read "God Stalk", right?
If you haven't, seek it out! Its protagonist is Jame, who cannot walk past an apple cart without upsetting it. If she turns to avoid it, turning will cause the cart horse to spook, and set off an apple-cart armageddon. It's a combination of personal and mystical propensities. Tai-tastigon is a city with numerous Gods. That's not "people worship many Gods", but "there are many actual Gods and Tai-tastigon is where this series began, in the brilliant "God Stalk".
That's not "people worship many Gods", but "there are many actual Gods and they are accessible. Jame's people, the Kencyrath, got drafted by their God millenia ago to stop Perimal Darkling, and they've been losing ever since, retreating and leaving behind a chain of unmade worlds.
The city is - literally - falling apart and Jame, who has urgent responsibilities elsewhere, has been coerced to come and help. The reader is expected to understand statements like "the Builders were destroyed by rathorns whose screams were amplified by imus". So the target audience consists of readers following the entire story. This is the wrong book to advance that story. From the perspective of the overall plot, the book starts with Jame being about to go south to establish her status.
She has a side-adventure in Tai-tastigon. She returns late, and will have to hurry or pull a mystical rabbit out of her hat to get south in time. From the perspective of that larger plot, it's the wrong side-adventure. Much of Jame's growth in the earlier books comes from acquiring connections to the larger Kencyr society. She has friends and allies. She has responsibilities. She has Gods help her relatives. This book is a reversion to the young Jame who dashes about alone trying to put out more fires than she starts.
The elements of this book that do advance the overall story are contained in three conversations - perhaps two conversations and an audience - about the nature of the Gods. The conversations are extremely important, because they raise doubt about the war for which the Kencyrath were drafted, but it feels as if this book was written just to provide scaffolding for those conversations.
View 1 comment. Maybe a 3. On the one hand, the plot felt a bit meandering in the beginning despite taking place in the middle of a crisis, and yet also too abrupt, as Hodgell starts yanking the many loose plot threads Maybe a 3. On the one hand, the plot felt a bit meandering in the beginning despite taking place in the middle of a crisis, and yet also too abrupt, as Hodgell starts yanking the many loose plot threads from previous books into some order, as if to ready the stage for the closing act.
Blink and you miss it cameos from various characters appeared in flashes, like Penari. Jun 08, brian dean rated it really liked it. As I noted before, this was a strange book for me. I started the series around the time the first book was published - in , I think.
I was around 16 years old and really just interested in the weirdness and the fighting. This book is a return to the setting of that first one, Tai-tastigon. Many loose ends from that book are tied up and the story returns to present concerns with the most cliff-hangery ending of the books so far. May 24, Eden rated it really liked it. I adore Hodgell's writing, and will always buy her books no questions asked, but this one is a little more disjointed than usual.
Still better than most writers out there, but not her best work, and clearly didn't spend enough time with either proofreader. Feb 23, Jm rated it it was amazing Shelves: literary-fun , women-writers. The latest in the Kencyrath saga, in which Jamethiel returns to the beginning.
The gods of Tai-tastigon and the souls if its inhabitants are being eaten to fuel demons. Jame gets word of this as she prepares to set out out for her military review at the Randon college, where it will be decided if she will be deemed fit to lead the Kendar who have trained with her. Loyalty, trust, and obligations pull her in several directions. And lurking in the corners and over all, drawing ever closer, the ult The latest in the Kencyrath saga, in which Jamethiel returns to the beginning.
And lurking in the corners and over all, drawing ever closer, the ultimate destruction that is Perimal Darkness. So many waiting for her, So much depends on her. What's a girl to do?
Plenty, when you are Jamethiel Knorth - Dream Weaver, an unfallen Darkling, and emerging avatar of Regonereth, That-Which-Destroys of the Tyr-Ridian, which is both the apocalypse and hope of triumph over darkness and evil. I enjoyed this book very much and devoured it in less than 24 hours.
Tai-tastgon and it's chaotic panoply were unique, bewildering, and engaging - much like the heroine. It was a joy to revisit this troubled yet joyous town and its inhabitants. I found this to be one of PC Hodgell's more engaging books, with less side fritterings that are charming, but whaaaa?
One can sense that the story is drawing to the ultimate confrontation and showdown. While Pat still has the capacity for dark and shocking descriptions of the decay and fall of all things mortal and organic it feels to me in this book more like controlled storytelling and less a sucker punch. Near the end of this book, Jame refuses to be used, and draws first blood or something similar with her mortal nemesis, Gerridon.
They prayed the sinner's prayer with her. It began with the lust of demons and the corruption of a young boy named David Glatzel. It ended with a murder trial that made headlines across the country--the trial. The idea of people possessed by evil spirits against their will is as old as the hills.
Often there is thought to be a special way a person has become possessed. It might be the result of a curse cast on them by a sorcerer, or some unfortunate mishap such. Shows from theology, the Bible and counseling experiences that Christians can be affected by demonic activity.
Equips believers to fight spiritual battles--and win. A fascinating, wide-ranging survey of the history of demon possession and exorcism through the ages. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the era of the Reformation, thousands of Europeans were thought to be possessed by demons.
In response to their horrifying symptoms—violent convulsions, displays of preternatural strength, vomiting of. Jame is a Kencyr. Kencyrs are not native to the planet where they now live. For thirty centuries they have been the weapon that their Three-Faced God has used against the power of the Perimal Darkling.
And though they have fought well, the Darkling has come to planet after planet,. Which means something is taking—or destroying—souls in the city. Some have become so diminished they hide in the robes of their priests like mewling babes.
Across the city, murder and mayhem have erupted. But whatever demon-wrought madness is afoot in Tai-tastigon will have to face the ultimate avatar of god That-Which-Destroys Itself. Some of the affected have gone mad. Some wander like ravening wraiths, attacking even family members by tooth and nail. Which means something is taking—or destroying—souls in the city. Some have become so diminished they hide in the robes of their priests like mewling babes.
Across the city, murder and mayhem have erupted. But whatever demon-wrought madness is afoot in Tai-tastigon will have to face the ultimate avatar of the god That-Which-Destroys. That would be one Jame Knorth. Aunties Books. Mysterious Galaxy. Powell's Books. Uncle Hugo's.
University of Washington University Bookstore.
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