I'm going to be super boring and agree a lot with the other two comments!
The age difference bothers me less than I'd expect too. After my initial (out loud - good thing I was at home) exclamation of "Fifty-five? Bloody hell!" I found myself just accepting it.
I think shimotsuki's right that it's partly because we can already see how very happy they make each other, and that 'for a lakewalker' Dag's not that old. But I wonder if it's also because there doesn't seem to be an uneven power relationship between them, which I think is what could make a big age gap seem dodgy. There's a comment that I've just read in book four about Dag wanting people to understand that Fawn's his partner, not his pet, and I think you get that sense even at this point.
(Although I also have thinky thoughts - here and here - about how, for someone brought up in a matriarchal society, Dag has a strangely paternalistic attitude. And that sort of contradicts my point there. Huh.)
Like gilpin25 I was more bothered by Fawn being 2 years younger than I thought than by Dag being 15ish years older. But I think that's mostly because I'm applying my own, personal, 'this world' experiences - at 18 I was a schoolgirl, but by 20 I'd been at university a year, lived away from home in a new city and done a ton of growing up in the process. In Fawn's world people may well grow up earlier.
I'd agree also that this half of the book (and a great deal of book 2 as well) ambles rather. This didn't bother me (and I read it at a gallop) but I think it's what gives the impression of the books being less polished than the first two Chalion ones. In CoC there's nothing extraneous and the plot seems perfectly constructed to create and release tension at all the right points. With these books, there are some long lulls and while I was never bored it does make the narrative seem less tight.
That said I think it was great to see Fawn's family and how she so obviously needs a life that's much wider than what West Blue can offer. Her brothers are clearly an absolute pain, but Whit was instantly my preferred sibling because he seemed more immature than malicious (I can't get my head round him being older than Fawn - he doesn't act like it). Naturally, I loved Aunt Nattie.
Finally, I have to share this Dag POV quote from chapter 12 for its sheer 'aww' factor:
"He could not, could not run up and down the streets of Glassforge, leaping and shouting to the blue sky and the entire population, She says I make her eyes happy!"
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branchandroot
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Date: 2012-07-18 09:41 pm (UTC)The age difference bothers me less than I'd expect too. After my initial (out loud - good thing I was at home) exclamation of "Fifty-five? Bloody hell!" I found myself just accepting it.
I think
(Although I also have thinky thoughts - here and here - about how, for someone brought up in a matriarchal society, Dag has a strangely paternalistic attitude. And that sort of contradicts my point there. Huh.)
Like
I'd agree also that this half of the book (and a great deal of book 2 as well) ambles rather. This didn't bother me (and I read it at a gallop) but I think it's what gives the impression of the books being less polished than the first two Chalion ones. In CoC there's nothing extraneous and the plot seems perfectly constructed to create and release tension at all the right points. With these books, there are some long lulls and while I was never bored it does make the narrative seem less tight.
That said I think it was great to see Fawn's family and how she so obviously needs a life that's much wider than what West Blue can offer. Her brothers are clearly an absolute pain, but Whit was instantly my preferred sibling because he seemed more immature than malicious (I can't get my head round him being older than Fawn - he doesn't act like it). Naturally, I loved Aunt Nattie.
Finally, I have to share this Dag POV quote from chapter 12 for its sheer 'aww' factor:
"He could not, could not run up and down the streets of Glassforge, leaping and shouting to the blue sky and the entire population, She says I make her eyes happy!"