Revenant Gun
Aug. 28th, 2018 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraRevenant Gun, the conclusion of the trilogy by Yoon Ha Lee, previous parts Ninefox Gambit (my reaction here) and Raven Strategem (my reaction here).
I assume basically everyone who liked Raven Strategem is going to read this one and nobody who didn't like Raven Strategem is going to read this one unless/until it ends up on a ballot and they feel obligated, so let's jump right to the MAJOR SPOILERS:
Ok, wow, what?? I was really into this for the first 90% and then ended up completely thrown by the end and now I'm not sure what I think. I think all along I had been making the assumption that this ended up with the Cheris Jedao and the moth Jedao together. Not in a self-cest sense but in some sort of "two halves making a whole, filling in each other's missing pieces" way (sort of in parallel to how the split pieces of the old hexarchy, the Compact and the Protectorate, need to rejoin to be whole), or, I guess, particularly Cheris Jedao being that for moth Jedao, Cheris Jedao seems pretty complete in herself, but, like, that older version of Jedao having the opportunity to take the younger version under her wing and give him the second chance at a life not of exploitation that original Jedao didn't have? (Which is a trope I'm kind of obsessed with, yes.) So I was completely unprepared for Cheris Jedao to shoot him and tell him if she ever sees him again she'll kill him more! What?? Waah!
With the ostensible reason for Cheris shooting being moth Jedao's claim to have raped Danneth, I spent quite awhile thinking about whether I thought that was accurate. Consent is weird in mind control settings! Should moth Jedao have known that nobody in the orbit of Kujen/who had been psychosurgeried was capable of giving meaningful consent? I dunno, maybe, but moth Jedao was also literally born yesterday and in the orbit of Kujen himself. And I think it's basically impossible to know what Danneth "really thought" - unless Kujen's mind control somehow weakened once he was eradicated, it seems pretty clear that everything Danneth said/did at the end was to get Jedao into the escape capsule. As Josh put it, cutting to the essentials, do we think Danneth would have done anything different there if Jedao had not been sexual with him? Probably not? So, I dunno, while I do see character-wise why both moth-Jedao and Cheris-Jedao might have that reaction, it wasn't satisfying to me-the-reader as the determining thing for their interaction.
I was also confused about the servitors coming in at the end to kill the crew, and the Revenant taking off... I guess I thought something more was going to happen with the moths somehow. Maybe Cheris Jedao and moth Jedao would make freeing the moths their next quest, or moth Jedao would turn out to be able to be a bridge/ambassador/negotiator between the Compact and the moths or something. Jedao maybe being put to use by Mikodez just felt really random? I mean, sure, why not, but it didn't really have any resonance for me or feeling of a story being resolved. I guess sometimes things just keep happening and that's a valid narrative structure, or maybe there were things in Ninefox or Raven that if I remembered would have made that a more satisfying ending; maybe same for Cheris teaching math? I mean, sure, that's nice, and I liked the last line about carrying on with the small acts that keep civilization moving, I was just so discombobulated by that point that it was hard to tell what I thought. I haven't gone looking for reviews yet so I have no idea if this all landed more solidly with people who weren't me. And I did *like* it... when I reread the last 15% knowing what to expect, it already went more smoothly than the initial confusion... but I'll be very curious to see whether it's as popular as Raven Strategem.
I assume basically everyone who liked Raven Strategem is going to read this one and nobody who didn't like Raven Strategem is going to read this one unless/until it ends up on a ballot and they feel obligated, so let's jump right to the MAJOR SPOILERS:
Ok, wow, what?? I was really into this for the first 90% and then ended up completely thrown by the end and now I'm not sure what I think. I think all along I had been making the assumption that this ended up with the Cheris Jedao and the moth Jedao together. Not in a self-cest sense but in some sort of "two halves making a whole, filling in each other's missing pieces" way (sort of in parallel to how the split pieces of the old hexarchy, the Compact and the Protectorate, need to rejoin to be whole), or, I guess, particularly Cheris Jedao being that for moth Jedao, Cheris Jedao seems pretty complete in herself, but, like, that older version of Jedao having the opportunity to take the younger version under her wing and give him the second chance at a life not of exploitation that original Jedao didn't have? (Which is a trope I'm kind of obsessed with, yes.) So I was completely unprepared for Cheris Jedao to shoot him and tell him if she ever sees him again she'll kill him more! What?? Waah!
With the ostensible reason for Cheris shooting being moth Jedao's claim to have raped Danneth, I spent quite awhile thinking about whether I thought that was accurate. Consent is weird in mind control settings! Should moth Jedao have known that nobody in the orbit of Kujen/who had been psychosurgeried was capable of giving meaningful consent? I dunno, maybe, but moth Jedao was also literally born yesterday and in the orbit of Kujen himself. And I think it's basically impossible to know what Danneth "really thought" - unless Kujen's mind control somehow weakened once he was eradicated, it seems pretty clear that everything Danneth said/did at the end was to get Jedao into the escape capsule. As Josh put it, cutting to the essentials, do we think Danneth would have done anything different there if Jedao had not been sexual with him? Probably not? So, I dunno, while I do see character-wise why both moth-Jedao and Cheris-Jedao might have that reaction, it wasn't satisfying to me-the-reader as the determining thing for their interaction.
I was also confused about the servitors coming in at the end to kill the crew, and the Revenant taking off... I guess I thought something more was going to happen with the moths somehow. Maybe Cheris Jedao and moth Jedao would make freeing the moths their next quest, or moth Jedao would turn out to be able to be a bridge/ambassador/negotiator between the Compact and the moths or something. Jedao maybe being put to use by Mikodez just felt really random? I mean, sure, why not, but it didn't really have any resonance for me or feeling of a story being resolved. I guess sometimes things just keep happening and that's a valid narrative structure, or maybe there were things in Ninefox or Raven that if I remembered would have made that a more satisfying ending; maybe same for Cheris teaching math? I mean, sure, that's nice, and I liked the last line about carrying on with the small acts that keep civilization moving, I was just so discombobulated by that point that it was hard to tell what I thought. I haven't gone looking for reviews yet so I have no idea if this all landed more solidly with people who weren't me. And I did *like* it... when I reread the last 15% knowing what to expect, it already went more smoothly than the initial confusion... but I'll be very curious to see whether it's as popular as Raven Strategem.
