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Post by louisehigden on Jan 25, 2010 10:42:41 GMT
[glow=red,2,300]
**DO NOT READ THIS THREAD IF YOU HAVE NOT READ/FINISHED THE BOOK!**[/glow]
Hi all,
Just finished HDW (brilliant!) and have some questions, who can help me?
Mainly I wanna know why Joseph would kill Rebekah knowing she was pregnant with his child? I felt very much sorry for Samual and Joseph by the end, but it was kind of his fault!
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Post by krillman on Jan 25, 2010 15:57:52 GMT
SPOILERS!
She'd just been bitted by the theriope (?) and would have 'turned'!
I'm pretty sure he thought the baby would be born a monster because of this.
I loved the way Samual was revealed slowly throughout the book. I had guessed that he was a spirit of some kind but not that he was Gabel's son. Lovely and surprising.
Hoping to finish the book this week, nearly there!
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Post by louisehigden on Jan 26, 2010 11:06:07 GMT
Oh yes! Rather obvious really, I don't know why I missed it.......
Mutant babies aside, what d'you think is the main themes of the book? It seems to deal with more than a lot of fantasies I've read, which tend to be basic "good vs evil" or sometimes about politics. I was actually quite impressed with the underlying content.
There seem to be a few recurring themes. One is transformation, in that most of the characters change at some point - but I think I read that somewhere else! Gabel and Tegue (Teage?) are the obvious examples, but if you think about it Isaac "changes" upon his mother's death into the assassin that she was, and Rowan has her changing point in the burning township.
Like I say, I think I read that somewhere else probably on this site, but I did notice another theme: parenthood. Gabel and Samual, Isaac and Sarai, and - if you don't mind a ***SPOILER!***, Gabel and the Daemon. Teague was 'turned' by his mother. Even the priest is called simply "Father" and acts as a father figure to Rowan (and I got the impression Gabel's earlier love too).
What does everyone else think?
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Post by jacobnorway on Jan 28, 2010 11:04:48 GMT
Louise and I are in the same writing group and she kindly lent me the book, so I've only just finished it and it's fresh in my head.
I can say that I did see the theme of transformation developing and was interested to hear Louise's extension of that to Isaac and Rowan. It is interesting that the theme is threaded so tightly through all aspects of the book and is more impressive now my attention has been drawn to it. It is a good thing that the theme lies in 'the background' as themes should.
Perhaps the parenthood theme is an incedental thing? Although as the war reflects a 'sins of the father' attitude perhaps not!
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Post by jacobnorway on Feb 2, 2010 12:55:07 GMT
Lou, lost your mobile number.
It sounded like you had another question at the beginning there?
I'd be interested to hear from the author on the discussion, see if we got it right! Or if anyone knows David, it sounds like one or two on the forum do...?
Still thinking about the ending, it's not so much a twist by the time it happens, as we see it developing in the last few chapters, but it does make you view the rest of the book in a different light doesn't it?
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Post by krillman on Feb 3, 2010 12:47:19 GMT
Agree it's definitely a story about change and transformation - the big one not mentioned yet being the transformation from the old world to the new world as a result of the Conflict! The story uses that war as a hinge to bring the other elements together and I think this works out pretty well by the end.
I liked the book and recommended it to a friend.
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Post by louisehigden on Feb 5, 2010 9:44:50 GMT
No more questions, your honor.
I kind of wanna read it again, but I've never read a book twice and I'm not going to start now.
When's the next one out? I'd be well interested to see where he takes it from there, considering the ending.
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Post by jacobnorway on Feb 5, 2010 17:02:31 GMT
No indication on the site that this will ever get a sequel ... Some of them look connected to each other, but it's like they're loosely connected without being sequels etc.
Even the sci-fi's seem connected! Maybe set during the time of Caeles' flashbacks?
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Post by Mister S on Mar 16, 2010 16:43:39 GMT
Anyone else think the two violinists were sanguilacs/vampires?
I got that vibe at the end - was this obvious? I sometimes miss obvious things.
I got the feeling that all the characters had much deeper back stories than he was letting on, maybe if there's asequel we'll see more of those. Gabel's story seemed pretty much ended though, maybe Teague will be the main character?
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Post by krillman on Mar 23, 2010 14:47:49 GMT
I think it was "sanguisuga" for the plural  Yes I got that impression too and I think they mentioned something about the sunlight or the dawn coming at the end. It's all in that final scene, if there's any suggestion at all. I suppose there's potential for Teague as a hero, but I think we've seen enough of him. Gabel could continue to address the revelations of the book but I got the impression his story was done and over. Anyone else think the underground facility in the desert stood out? There must be more behind that, maybe there's an interconnecting story out there? |
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