I’ve just finished Song of the Mysteries. What a wild read. I am elated and sad in parts that it’s over and the cover is closed on Athera and favourite characters.
I’m almost in a book hangover. I want to congratulate Janny for an amazing achievement for finishing the series with so many threads tied off beautifully. And for sticking to the clarity of the vision themes and foreshadowing in the series.
This is going to be a fairly chaotic off the top of my head thoughts about the books. What was expected what wasn’t and other things that stood out to me during initial read.
Straight away I am surprised (pleasantly), that Arithon is still in his corporate body, I thought maybe a discorporate Arithon would be the avenue through which the curse can no longer activate, and Lysaer can work his way to sanity. I had high hopes for Lysaer at this pass. I thought the curse would be permanently deactivated from Arithon crossing the veil.
Dace doesn’t have much opening to push Lysaer away from his curse driven behaviours, those chapters feel appropriately suffocating and tense. I like how this situation isn’t sugar coated, Lysaer is too guarded and formal to allow friendship with a servant. The class barriers are too strong for her to break through to him as Sulfin Evend did. How will this story end. Will her faithful service allow him to grow past his distrust of women?
The break with Elaira, and the careful way she handles that interaction is amazing character writing. The later interaction by Methisle lake also rings very true to the sort of awkward tension that can exist between partners.
Pondering why the mages of Dascen Elur created the half-brothers gifts,I came to the idea that working in tandem they could create more landmass, something Dascen Elur is lacking in. With the constant mention of Mhorovaire I thought it foreshadowing that it could be revived from under the waves by the half brothers and used as a new home for humanity or Paravians.
I like your idea about why the Rauven mages may have created the gifts.
My assumption was less forgiving – that maybe the mages had just discovered HOW to mess with elemental mastery and were enamoured with the novelty. I wonder how many different powers might have emerged had Talera had more children!
Just finished. Oh boy. Lots to think about.
One thing I was fairly confident on was that the Seven were going to be freed from their obligations. The constant threat of their vows being redeemed to the destruction of humanity felt like too much to leave around.
I definitely thought we’d get more accomplished by Dace. I cheered for Lysaer the entire series. Despite everything I really hoped he’d be able to work his way back to being a good person. I’m still mad about the course of Curse of the Mistwraith. Watching Lysaer and Arithon start to trust each other only to have it yanked away at the end of the book… I’ll confess I’m disappointed that was the only time we really got to see them interact. Not enough time together in Rockfell for me.
I also was pretty sure the story was going to end with Lysaer and Arithon both dead. The series starts with Wurts announcing the point at which the story cannot go further: They both have 500 years of story to tell. Surely that meant the story would end there… I could also see Lysaer joining the White Brotherhood in penance.
I was hoping we’d know more about the wider universe. I spend much of the series begrudgingly hoping the Koriathain could release the restrictions on humanity so we could return to the stars. A lot of that hope however was couched in the lack of knowledge about the wider world. What was beyond the other world gates, how great the destruction to the start-spanning civilization was, what happened on Marak, what did Calum Quaide Kincaid do? I was hoping for enough answers to at least have a firm opinion on if or when humanity should return to the stars. No answer to that question, just more questions about the crone in Sanpashir. Not just humanity either, I want to see a Paravian starship upshifting the resonance of the entire galaxy or something. Unless Janny Wurts herself tells me explicitly otherwise I think I’ll assume that happens once humanity rises to the fourth race on Athera.
I thought the dragons were mostly background threats. We spend most of the series just knowing they hibernate a lot, made the Seven, and liked Paravians, so I wasn’t expecting much to come of them. Very wrong, and delighted to be so. Explains the arc of the early history of Athera. A team of immortal sorcerers guarding a portal between planets from hordes of reality-warping dragons is just peak fantasy.
And I did think we’d end revisitng Dascen Elur. It’s been over a year since I saw Lysaer and Arithon journey through the gates to Athera. Nice to watch a journey back.
…when’s the next book?