TSK discussion | Beguilement, ch 1-3
July 2nd, 2012 12:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shimotsukiAs promised, today's post covers the first three chapters of the first book, so no spoilers beyond that point, if you please. :)
Summary
Chapter 1: We meet Fawn, on the road to Glassforge. She stops at a well-house for a loaf of bread and some water, and there she encounters a Lakewalker patrol -- only the second time in her life she has ever even seen Lakewalkers. We also get a very brief glimpse of Dag, just long enough to see the gulf between farmers and Lakewalkers from his perspective. There are ominous hints about bandits near Glassforge, and about the malice that the patrollers are hunting, and we hear about groundsense for the first time.
Chapter 2: The Lakewalker patrollers attack the bandits' camp. We learn more about groundsense, and about Dag's long experience as a patroller and the compensations he makes for having lost a hand. Dag's patroller partner, Saun, is badly injured, and Dag heals him enough to keep him alive before setting off in pursuit of a bandit and a mud-man who have fled from the attack. The next morning, Fawn is nabbed by the bandit and the mud-man, but Dag turns up before things get too bad.
Chapter 3: Dag frightens Fawn by letting slip that he can tell she is pregnant, but he also explains that this is surely why the mud-man went after her. He takes her to a farmhouse, only to find the place deserted and ransacked -- the bandits had been there first. Still, Dag needs a safe place to leave Fawn so he can go after the malice again, and why would the bandits come back to a place they'd already plundered? So Fawn finds some food to eat, and starts to clean up the destruction, which gives her time to think. Mostly, about Lakewalkers. Eventually, she settles down for a nap...until she is awakened by heavy footsteps on the porch. Three mud-men come bursting in. (Cliffhanger! Heh -- didn't plan that stopping point on purpose.)
Comments? Squees or rants? What do you think about the story, the characters, the writing?
I was thinking we could do the next discussion in about a week. Let's actually say Tuesday, because Monday I'll be flying back from my conference, bookless and jetlagged. ;) I've been seeing comments around my f-list suggesting that people have been reading quickly once they start, so I was wondering if for next week's discussion we might cover up through Ch 11. If anyone thinks that's too much, please raise a squawk in the comments and we can slow down. But that's about half of the rest of Beguilement...and Ch 11 is, um, a very nice chapter. :)
Also, if anyone would like a Sharing Knife icon, help yourself!
.
Summary
Chapter 1: We meet Fawn, on the road to Glassforge. She stops at a well-house for a loaf of bread and some water, and there she encounters a Lakewalker patrol -- only the second time in her life she has ever even seen Lakewalkers. We also get a very brief glimpse of Dag, just long enough to see the gulf between farmers and Lakewalkers from his perspective. There are ominous hints about bandits near Glassforge, and about the malice that the patrollers are hunting, and we hear about groundsense for the first time.
Chapter 2: The Lakewalker patrollers attack the bandits' camp. We learn more about groundsense, and about Dag's long experience as a patroller and the compensations he makes for having lost a hand. Dag's patroller partner, Saun, is badly injured, and Dag heals him enough to keep him alive before setting off in pursuit of a bandit and a mud-man who have fled from the attack. The next morning, Fawn is nabbed by the bandit and the mud-man, but Dag turns up before things get too bad.
Chapter 3: Dag frightens Fawn by letting slip that he can tell she is pregnant, but he also explains that this is surely why the mud-man went after her. He takes her to a farmhouse, only to find the place deserted and ransacked -- the bandits had been there first. Still, Dag needs a safe place to leave Fawn so he can go after the malice again, and why would the bandits come back to a place they'd already plundered? So Fawn finds some food to eat, and starts to clean up the destruction, which gives her time to think. Mostly, about Lakewalkers. Eventually, she settles down for a nap...until she is awakened by heavy footsteps on the porch. Three mud-men come bursting in. (Cliffhanger! Heh -- didn't plan that stopping point on purpose.)
Comments? Squees or rants? What do you think about the story, the characters, the writing?
I was thinking we could do the next discussion in about a week. Let's actually say Tuesday, because Monday I'll be flying back from my conference, bookless and jetlagged. ;) I've been seeing comments around my f-list suggesting that people have been reading quickly once they start, so I was wondering if for next week's discussion we might cover up through Ch 11. If anyone thinks that's too much, please raise a squawk in the comments and we can slow down. But that's about half of the rest of Beguilement...and Ch 11 is, um, a very nice chapter. :)
Also, if anyone would like a Sharing Knife icon, help yourself!
.
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no subject
Date: 2012-07-02 08:42 pm (UTC)I really like the shifting pov between Fawn and Dag, I like the insights this gives you to both them and their backgrounds and cultures. I love Bujold's way with descriptions and the drip feed of information, you get so much without it being an exposition dump. I don't know that I'd quite grasped what the malice and the mudmen were (up to chapter three anyway) but threat was clear.
I took to Fawn right away, she's a lovely mix of innocence, inquistivity and strength. Also being short myself I totally related to her annoyance at always being seen as younger than you are, lol.
And Dag *sighs* what's not to love. He's exactly the troubled but intelligent and witty older man that pushes all my buttons. The careful way he dealt with both Fawn and Saun just shows his sensitivity which may be to do with the groundsense thing but I think it has just as much to do with Dag himself.
I just found the set up fascinating with the Lakewalkers and the Farmers and their different cultures and how they relate to each other. And I'm looking forward (indeed I've already read a bit further on ;) going on this ride with Fawn and Dag :)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-03 03:59 am (UTC)I feel like Fawn has some Betriz-like characteristics, but (possibly because we get to see the world from her POV sometimes) she seems a lot more fleshed out than Betriz to me.
Dag really seems like he gets people, and I think you're right that it's more than just having groundsense! Especially since (speaking vaguely, lol) not all Lakewalkers seem to be nearly as perceptive as Dag is. I do love him with Saun.