Guardians of the Keep by Carol Berg
Apr. 22nd, 2008 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmoorePicking up soon after the end of Son of Avonar, Guardians of the Keep starts with Seri going to her brother's household to tell her sister-in-law about the events of SoA, and being asked to stay on to help with her isolated, and often hateful, nephew Gerick, while she waits for the Dar'nethi mage, Dassine, to tell her that he's healed D'Nathiel's mind.
Now, I figured out that Gerick was really Seri's supposedly dead son when the boys were said to be the same age on SoA, so that was no surprise. I don't know that I like Gerick, but I do like his storyline, with his being tricked by Darzid and trained to be a new Zhid lord, and battling with letting his hatred win vs listening to the good inside of him, and I liked that he continued the themes of the first book, of learning through experiences that what you think about people isn't always right, and that it's easy to misjudge people, and allowing yourself to always think the worst of people can lead to trusting the wrong people, something that's reflected in D'Nathiel/Karon realizing that what he thought was childhood persecution at Exeger's hands was actually an attempt to protect him and prepare him for the world.
I don't like, though, that after Seri, Karon and Paulo went undercover as Zhid slaves, Seri was backburned in favor of the men. I like Karon and Paulo, and I found their journeys, and Gerrick's, interesting, but I find Seri to be the most interesting and compelling of the characters. Her story is nowhere near finished, and I don't like what seems to be the series shifting away from her as a focus now that she has her husband and son back. That the story was being told from the perspective of a normal, 30-something woman who had lost her husband and child and was getting them back through very unconventional means was one of the things that drew me in to the series, and it's not quite as interesting when not from that perspective.
I'm also wondering when she and Karon are finally going to get a chance to TALK. Yes, we know they love each other more than anything, and that their experiences haven't changed that, but they have a lot of issues they need to work out(read: that Seri needs to get to yell at him about.) They've also both changed a lot from before Karon's death-Seri by 10 years of loneliness, grief and persecution, Karon by losing his memories and having his peaceful soul bonded to the body of a hateful, violent man, and having to allow D'Nathiel's impulses to rule him so he could stay alive to save his family. The only time they've been together when no one was trying to kill them and Karon had his memories was at the very end of this one, but all the attention was on healing Gerick. Which, you know, is important and all, but I can't help but think that all of Seri and Karon working things out is going to take place completely off-page, or not until the very end of the series. And if it doesn't happen until the end of the series, it'll be because there's more endless pain and angst and separation.
(Yet, I have every intention of sticking with it until the bitter-or happy-end.)
I don't like, though, that after Seri, Karon and Paulo went undercover as Zhid slaves, Seri was backburned in favor of the men. I like Karon and Paulo, and I found their journeys, and Gerrick's, interesting, but I find Seri to be the most interesting and compelling of the characters. Her story is nowhere near finished, and I don't like what seems to be the series shifting away from her as a focus now that she has her husband and son back. That the story was being told from the perspective of a normal, 30-something woman who had lost her husband and child and was getting them back through very unconventional means was one of the things that drew me in to the series, and it's not quite as interesting when not from that perspective.
I'm also wondering when she and Karon are finally going to get a chance to TALK. Yes, we know they love each other more than anything, and that their experiences haven't changed that, but they have a lot of issues they need to work out(read: that Seri needs to get to yell at him about.) They've also both changed a lot from before Karon's death-Seri by 10 years of loneliness, grief and persecution, Karon by losing his memories and having his peaceful soul bonded to the body of a hateful, violent man, and having to allow D'Nathiel's impulses to rule him so he could stay alive to save his family. The only time they've been together when no one was trying to kill them and Karon had his memories was at the very end of this one, but all the attention was on healing Gerick. Which, you know, is important and all, but I can't help but think that all of Seri and Karon working things out is going to take place completely off-page, or not until the very end of the series. And if it doesn't happen until the end of the series, it'll be because there's more endless pain and angst and separation.
(Yet, I have every intention of sticking with it until the bitter-or happy-end.)