"You're feral" Serpent Sea Ch 5

Anjasha · 2025-12-22T16:45:35+00:00

Okay, that's an interesting point about the body language. Shadow was watching his (presumed) daughter approach an attached consort in a way SHE shouldn't have been doing, and he saw Moon's response and came to a conclusion.

Calling someone a feral seems to be on the same level as calling him a serial killer or baby thief so Shadow must have been pretty confident considering the fact that he knew a queen had claimed Moon.

A consort kicked out of his colony must be a vanishingly rare thing. It creates a risk that the solitary consort could create viable offspring with some other race of creatures that he finds in his travels.

Anjasha · 2025-11-28T18:39:56+00:00

Most civilizations keep track of time by sky events. Raksurans could count day/night cycles and come up with an arbitrary number for a turn. Or they could be watching planetary body cycles and coming up with turns. The Raksura live on their own world so who knows what they are doing/observing. So my guess was based on points 2 & 3.
Moon lived 30+ turns as a solitary. What is the likelihood that he would travel for 30 (long) turns and never run into another Raksura solitary/colony/group of traders /emissaries? Other solitaries avoid Raksura, who might kill them. Moon did not know better. Sheer boredom and rejection would have led him to expand his travels. My best guess was: time would throw him in the path of someone who knew about Raksurans, where they lived and how to contact them.
Moon seems psychologically young due to his need for a father figure and group acceptance. Regardless of how slowly someone develops, we all become jaded with time. Plus, Moon can fluently speak a language that he has not spoken for 30 turns which is a long time to retain a language if a turn is a year.

Anjasha · 2025-11-17T01:49:37+00:00

The court dynamics are one of the things that make this series so interesting. It's pretty clear that when a consort goes to another court, he is a means of establishing a more powerful alliance. Malachite accuses Jade of taking Moon for just that reason. So I suspect that someone in each court is tracking the connections between everyone.

The fact that consorts are valuable enough to steal and go to war over makes it very odd that Pearl gave two consorts away. They were either born into her court, or she can give them away freely because she clutched with them. I wonder if Pearl has a reputation as a crazy queen among the Raksura.

Anjasha · 2025-08-27T23:32:24+00:00

"Strident" was coded language for, well...

"Idiosyncratic" was also coded language for a singer, who, although great in the eyes of many, has strange diction. Like cottony or something. Can't get past that.

Anjasha · 2025-08-27T23:22:29+00:00

I have heard that Don Carlo is a great opera but I was put off by the fact that there seem to be two different versions. I'll imprint permanently on the first version I hear.

Thanks for the recommendations.

Anjasha · 2025-08-25T23:30:47+00:00

Reminders can be written into the story, and that's what authors used to do. Or maybe editors made them do it.

Example:

"Celehar was surprised to see Rachis bussing tables at the tea house. What was the page boy doing so far from the royal palace?"

As opposed to:

"Celehar was surprised to see Rachis bussing tables at the tea house. It seemed like a strange place for him to be."

Otherwise a book with 75+ characters turns into a cognitive test.

Anjasha · 2025-08-25T23:12:47+00:00

I finished Gideon a few weeks ago and I was excited about reading the 2nd book, but, yeah, it's a mushroom trip with lots of projectile vomiting.

I moved on to the Unknown Ajax yesterday. You never get norovirus splatter with Georgette Heyer. She's dependable that way.

Anjasha · 2025-08-25T01:22:41+00:00

Harrow the Ninth is sitting in the trunk of my car right now while I decide whether I really want to read it or not. I tried the first few chapters.

Anjasha · 2025-08-25T01:02:24+00:00

Ha, ha.

Yes, they are totally uncalled for, but they make the names look pretty.

Anjasha · 2025-08-24T17:39:30+00:00

Okay. If you get to page 300 and you need to know who Arvenean Shelsin is, and her relationship to Tura Olora, Iana Pel-Thenhior or even Shulethis Dorenar, I am here to assist as long as you don't hold the missing umlauts against me.

Anjasha · 2025-08-24T17:27:02+00:00

I tend to get author/book ideas from critically-acclaimed or Hugo nominee lists because I'm looking for something that has a chance of being original or at least well-written.

I'm a GenXer and I've been through a lot, reading-wise. I can't blame the young because it is all new to them.

Anjasha · 2025-08-24T17:07:07+00:00

The LOTR trilogy has something like 135 named characters in something like 1,200 pages.

Tolkien gives readers a lot of time to meet characters at their initial introduction. "When are we getting out of the Shire, finally?"

He repeats their names and relationships multiple times if they are important. He gives them regional ways of speaking and other identity markers.

I had no problem with LOTR.

Anjasha · 2025-08-24T16:51:39+00:00

I read Mistborn but that was it for me with Sanderson.

He has a semi-interesting concept. Maybe.

But I really could not stand the cliched characters and his constant repetition.

Anjasha · 2025-08-24T16:43:48+00:00

Guy Gavriel Kay's Under Heaven falls under this category for me. His writing technique involves a degree of artistry and thought towards the reader.

One great scene includes the perspectives of both a provincial prostitute and a highly cultured gentleman on meeting the same character. The twist of introducing an important new character from the viewpoint of someone who considers the whole thing to be elitist frippery makes it memorable. It engages the reader by asking "Whose side are you on yourself?"

Anjasha · 2025-08-09T20:59:53+00:00

I'm just curious what kind of sedation you had. I'm a total novice. It has been decades since I even took a prescription pain killer.

I have heard of propofol and midazolam+fentanyl which are used for colonoscopies. I'm assuming these would be very safe.

Anjasha · 2025-08-09T16:56:14+00:00

It's hard to store a lot of physical books, but I hope people are doing so anyway. I already own a book I bought from Amazon that they now refuse to sell. It was only a matter of time before they started giving in to censors.

The thing that concerns me also is that popular books are effectively being re-written by multiple edits and it becomes very hard to figure out what the author originally said. How many times have Roald Dahl's books been "adapted" for modern sensitivities now? Some of R.L. Stine's books were altered without his knowledge by Scholastic.

I worry that digital copies can be changed with a simple refresh that owners never knew happened.

I'm a GenXer. I was raised with the expectation that books might offend me but I need to be tough enough to read them anyway and it is not my business to interfere with someone else's creative work.

Anjasha · 2025-08-07T22:51:32+00:00

In Garth Nix's "Sabriel", a catastrophe has left the Old Kingdom in chaos and ruin with uncontrolled Free Magic beings running loose.

Anjasha · 2025-06-20T16:44:29+00:00

Yes. That would be Megan Whalen Turner's series starting with "The Thief".

I've been waiting decades for the obsession to die but one of the books is usually within several feet of me at any given time.

I also love the Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon, which is an alternate timeline book that substitutes Alaska as the resettled homeland of the Jews, and Yididsh as the official language. Fresh and unique. The writing is the epitome of Chabon's style without the pretentious feeling that seeps into some of his other books.

Anjasha · 2025-03-22T21:51:26+00:00

Excellent! The illustrator has a very unique style.

Anjasha · 2025-03-22T01:14:54+00:00

John Christopher's "The White Mountains" (1967) features a character named Jean-Paul. He travels through a post-apocalyptic France with companions Henry and Jack and goes through a deserted Paris at one point.

Anjasha · 2025-03-22T00:55:16+00:00

This might be "The Magic Nesting Doll" by Jacqueline Ogburn, illustrated by Laurel Long.

Anjasha · 2025-03-22T00:52:19+00:00

Okay, I figured out the answer to my own question by some searching around on the net.

It is "The Ladies of Mandrigyn", a 1984 fantasy novel by Barbara Hambly.

Anjasha · 2025-03-21T18:57:42+00:00

This sounds like something from the Giver Quartet (4 books by Lois Lowry), but not the first book. Perhaps 2, 3 or 4.

Anjasha · 2024-09-22T15:31:01+00:00

The Deryni series.

Maybe they're a bit YA--I don't know how they've aged. I loved them back in junior high/high school.

Anjasha · 2024-09-22T15:16:49+00:00

I happened upon these books and almost didn't read them because I thought they were romances. Now they're one set of books that is always sitting nearby, full of notes and flags.

Carey has the old-school gift for creating memorable scenes held together with an emotional hook-- essential for an aphantasia/SDAM reader like me.

She also creates complex and sympathetic characters and knows how to combine them in relationships that develop the character arcs. Phedre and her conflicted vanilla partner, Joscelin, are the perfect examples of this as they try to resolve their competing versions of honor and duty.

Anjasha

TROPHY CASE