This book surprised me again and again. The beginning brings Insects back to the fore--as they were in "The Year of Our War"--and introduces a plot concocted by the immortal Circle to push the Insects back into the Paperlands and reclaim territory lost in centuries past. Jant and his immortal companions jest, talk about the past, and prepare for battle. It was all familiar, and it was all a welcomed read; I figured that I had a good idea as to where Swainston was going to take the story, and I was content.I was also flat out wrong. Just as it looks like battle is nigh, Swainston pulls a fast one: Lightning is having family problems and asks Jant to intervene. Jant agrees, and he takes flight to the town of his youth, bringing the story in tow. From here, Swainston dives into teenage angst; more anecdotes from the past; more visits to the Shift; and more pieces of the cosmology that underlie the Castle books. Some weird characters and events surface, tear up the scenery, and disappear.Insects? Battle? Where were we?To be frank, there were moments when I felt puzzlement alongside my surprise. I wondered what Swainston was up to, and I wondered if she wasn't getting too exposition-heavy for the series. Heretofore, she moved things along at a nice clip and dropped tidbits of history into places where they became invaluable; now, she was diving into long conversations and tangential plot lines that moved away from what I had thought would be the main story. In short, I had an "uh oh" moment.Shame on me--and shame on my lack of faith: Swainston does all of this because she is telling a different kind of story entirely. Why--given the vitality of the first two books--suppose that Swainston would write a third volume that wraps the series up into a nice, neat trilogy? Conclusions are reached, but I was way off as to what they were, and what they meant. In fact, Swainston takes the Castle story to depths and places that I could never have guessed, and when it ended, I felt a part of myself stay with Jant, standing on that shoreline, watching a dear friend row out of sight.
I enjoyed this a lot, which means I'm going to have to go back and read the first two in the series: The Year of Our War, and No Present Like Time. Here we follow centuries-old Jant Comet, the winged messenger, as he flies around, into and out of trouble taking messages for the emperor and doing battle with the insects. Lots of interesting characters inhabiting a very interesting place as they struggle to hold off the insect hordes. Despite the sweeping storyline the focus is really on the characters and their relationships and somehow manages to get into an interesting discussion of teen angst right in the middle of a struggle for survival. Good, good stuff if you like heroic battles against encroaching hordes.
What do You think about Dangerous Offspring (2007)?
Nelimaa-sarjan yhtenäisen juonilinjauksen muodostavat ensimmäinen osa Kuolemattomien kaarti ja Uusi maailma. Toinen osa Aika on lahjoista suurin vaikuttaa enemmänkin irralliselta välinäytökseltä. Uudessa maailmassa käydään sotaa turilaita vastaan ihan urakalla, mutta silti Uusi Maailma on ehkä sarjan syvällisin osa. Kirjan kantavana teemana on nuoren tytön kasvutarina. Salaman teini-ikäinen tytär Cyan kapinoi ja kokeilee rajojaan ja uhmaa vanhempaansa. Toisaalta kirja kertoo myös vanhemmuuden vaikeudesta sekä elämän muutoksesta ja sen aiheuttamasta luopumisen vaikeudesta tai helpotuksesta. Cyanin lisäksi tarinan keskiössä on Salama (yksi luku keskellä kirjaa on poikkeuksellisesti nimettykin Salman luvuksi). Myös parantajanaisesta Raynestä sai hyvän kuvan ja hänen puhettaan elävöitti kivasti murteellinen käännös suomennoksessa. Minulla jäi tunne, että kirjasarja loppui ennen kuin ehti alkaakaan ja mielenkiintoisimmat vaiheet olisivat vasta edessäpäin. Sen verran nautittavaa lukeminen on tähän asti ollut, että jatkoakin mielellään lukisin. Toivottavasti Swainston vielä palaa Nelimaahan ainakin yhden kirjan verran ja kirjoittaisi sarjalle kunnollisen lopetuksen.
—Eija
This is the third in Swainston's Jant Comet series, which adeptly combines elements of fantasy and sci-fi. In this volume, Jant and his fellow immortals must deal with a desperate crisis. Their brilliant engineer has built an innovative dam and created an artificial lake with the intention of flooding out the insects from the land they have claimed. However, this project backfires horribly: the large standing pool of standing water causes the Insects to go into a breeding phase (which no one had ever seen before). This novel focuses mainly on the resulting military campaign, which is given a very gritty and suspenseful treatment. SAwainston also works in an very interesting subplot regarding one of the immortal's wayward daughter and the growing conflict between themSwainston's writing and skill with narrative structure have improved a lot since the first book. In addition to its good action and suspense, Dangerous Offspring deals with the issue of new people and ideas challenging the old order of things.
—Carol
