TSK discussion | Horizon, ch 1-11

[shimotsuki]

Um. Somehow, I seem to have lost a week. I think we can pretty clearly blame it on the fact that the semester started last Tuesday. (Oh, and there was the I'm-writing-Berry-fanfic excuse for a few days there, too, heh.) I think I've got myself organized now, though!

Summary

• Chapter 1: Fawn and Remo go to the Drowntown market at Graymouth. We learn that Fawn has been asking all the Lakewalkers she can find about good medicine makers, and here we see her interrogating a pair of young patroller partners, Neeta and Tavia. They tell her about one Arkady Waterbirch of New Moon Cutoff Camp, and they aren't the first to do so. Later, the whole crew of the Fetch climbs up to Uptown, to the town clerk's office, so Whit and Berry can be married. The clerk starts to object, since the party doesn't have all of Berry's property information from back home to hand, and Dag ends up planting a persuasion.
  
  
• Chapter 2: Barr is, justifiably, incensed by Dag's persuasion, and Dag, inevitably, can't justify his actions. But they leave off arguing and go back to the Fetch to celebrate the wedding, and Fawn's birthday. Among her gifts is a new horse, Magpie, from Whit, and a promissory walnut from Dag: he's trying to work out how to make a ground shield for farmers, to protect them from malices (and from Lakewalker persuasions). The rest of the party goes out to a tavern to give Whit and Berry some time alone for their wedding night. Dag admits to Fawn that he's discouraged. She tells him about this Arkady she keeps hearing about, and they end up deciding to visit New Moon Cutoff and see if the medicine maker will talk with Dag or teach him something.
  
  
• Chapter 3: Fawn, Remo, and Barr get Dag out on the trail to New Moon Cutoff. When they get the the camp, they find Neeta and Tavia on gate-guard duty, insisting that no farmers are allowed in the camp. Barr sweet-talks them into bring Arkady out to meet Dag. He's not particularly impressed with the rumpled visitors, and refuses to believe Dag might be turning into a medicine maker, so -- as a last-ditch effort -- Dag ground-rips a little skin on the back of Arkady's hand. To his immense relief, Arkady merely berates him for a clumsy technique (so it's not malice magic!), and moreover ends up willing to let the visitors tell their tale.
  
  
• Chapter 4: Arkady leads the little band -- including Fawn -- to his tent, which is a house nice enough for Dag to call it sessile. The visitors take turns telling their tale. Arkady feeds them lunch -- we learn that his neighbors cook for him in turns -- and starts them all taking baths (he has an awfully nice setup) while he goes off somewhere to confer mysteriously.
  
  
• Chapter 5: Arkady takes Dag on as his apprentice. At first, he won't let Dag do any groundwork, because of the state of Dag's own ground. Fawn is also restricted to Arkady's tent, but she doesn't mind at first, while she still has things to do. Dag begins to learn about healing, and to control his groundwork.
  
  
• Chapter 6: Barr and Remo volunteer to go out on a patrol; the fact that Neeta and Tavia are going is probably not irrelevant. Dag shows his knife, the one he bonded to Crane and then primed, to a New Moon knife-maker, who pronounces it usable. He discovers that Fawn is miserable with nothing to do, and persuades Arkady and the other medicine makers to let her help with small tasks. Arkady goads Dag into finding a 'ghost hand' for his right arm, too.
  
  
• Chapter 7: Fawn helps some medicine-tent apprentices sell remedies to farmers at the camp's market. She discovers that New Moon loses about a dozen Lakewalkers a year, who run off to marry farmers -- quite different from the situation back in Oleana. She also meets a young farmer, Finch, who is thinking about going north to homestead, and asks her lots of questions. Arkady enlists Dag's help with a tricky Caesarean section, ending the only-watching phase of his apprenticeship. Later, the patient's kin bring Dag a thighbone, since he had been wanting to make a knife to bond to hinself. Fawn doesn't take too well to that idea.
  
  
• Chapter 8: A letter comes from Whit, spurring Fawn to ask how long they'll stay at New Moon. Arkady suggests it will take at least two years for him to train Dag. But, he tells the story of his own problems with treating farmers, and insists that Dag not treat any farmers while he's at New Moon. Dag agrees to abide by those rules. Later, Dag fills Fawn in about Arkady and his ex-wife Bryna's sad story, of many failures to have a baby, followed by a string-cutting. Dag takes his bone blank to Vayve the knife-maker, and tells her about his plans for a farmer ground-shield as well. She is intrigued (it has potential to shield Lakewalker children as well), and they toss ideas around. Dag begins working seriously on the project again.
  
  
• Chapter 9: The patrol comes back. Barr and Remo are morose because their love lives aren't working out. In fact, Neeta -- who had recently been an exchange patroller up in Luthlia, and was enamored of tales of the Wolf War -- has developed quite the crush on Dag, now that she knows his history. The boys also report that New Moon patrols have a lot more interaction with farmers than up in Oleana, but don't take patrolling that seriously, since they haven't even found a sessile in generations. At any rate, word of Dag's fame begins to spread around the camp, and finally the camp captain invites Dag -- and Fawn! -- to a dinner. It seems the camp is considering offering them a place, permanently. Dag and Fawn go home that night and make love, and in the morning, Dag realizes he had missed the signs of Fawn's fertile time, and now she is pregnant.
  
  
• Chapter 10: Arkady tries to convince Dag that if Fawn is pregnant, it's in his best interest to make nice to the camp leaders and get invited to settle at New Moon. Dag, who has been dithering about telling Fawn about the baby, resolves to tell her that evening. But Fawn has gone off to the market for farmers again, and Finch finds her there -- to tell her that his little brother has lockjaw, and to beg her to ask Dag for help. Leaving camp to heal a farmer boy is decidedly against Arkady's rules, but Dag goes anyway. It's hard going, but he quiets the nerves and helps the little boy heal.
  
  
• Chapter 11: Still at the farmhouse, Dag finally tells Fawn about the baby. Neeta turns up, to warn Dag that the New Moon camp captain is on his way to find him. The captain is incensed about Dag's treating farmers, and won't listen to any arguments or explanations. He tells Dag in no uncertain terms that if he insists on treating farmers, he has to leave New Moon. So Dag agrees to leave. The captain offers Barr and Remo places in his patrol, however. Remo is tempted, but Barr insists on staying with Dag. So the boys go back to New Moon, Barr to round up Dag and Fawn's things, and Remo to decide what to do.

Only one more discussion to go! I'll plan on posting Monday or Tuesday next week with chapters 12-23 of Horizon and the Epilogue. And then we can have at the whole series at once. ;)

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Past discussion posts:

• Beguilement, ch 1-3 | ch 4-11 | ch 12-19
  
• Legacy, ch 1-9 | ch 10-19
  
• Passage, ch 1-12 | ch 13-24

Comments

[gilpin25.livejournal.com]

I will get here - I'm blaming a hectic week/weekend. Though perhaps I should simply say that Arkady + en suite facilities = True Love!

Hope your own weekend is a good one.

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Are you going to follow in mrstater's footsteps and write fandom-appropriate luxury-bathroom fic? ;)

This will be here whenever anyone feels like Discussing, lol. And apparently your busy weekend included Downton fic! Which I am very much looking forward to reading, shortly.

[gilpin25.livejournal.com]

Ha, I could put my adventures with showers and plumbers to good use; I'm sure Arkady would demand - and get - far prompter service. More seriously, there are quite a few unseen/missing moments in Horizen, and I may be making subtle hints in my (still coming!) comments in the hope you may succumb. ;)

This will be here whenever anyone feels like Discussing, lol. And apparently your busy weekend included Downton fic!

I was pleased to see Kaleidoscope R/T fic from you when I logged on this morning! I have also promised an R/T one myself from that same meme I refer to, but as Downton starts again soon - hope you've got your parents organized, btw ;) - I had a go at that instead. Though it definitely made my weekend busier: I'm out of practice and was very slow.

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

I'm sure Arkady would demand - and get - far prompter service.

Oh, he would -- I can just see him reducing some recalcitrant contractor to an abject puddle... (Sorry you need Lakewalkers to get things done, though.)

as Downton starts again soon - hope you've got your parents organized, btw ;)

Ack, I hadn't realized! I had a difficult conversation with my guy about ethics and responsibility after seeing your comment, lol, but I may start investigating my options again ASAP. ;)

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

It's even harder than usual to have a non-spoilery discussion for the first half of the book! It does divide well here, at least.

• I wanted to clap hard for Fawn for understanding Dag well enough to see that he was really disturbed by all these new things he'd found he could do, even though the way he showed this was to shut himself down and dither silently (and continue doing questionable things, heh). Same goes for Barr and Remo, for basically putting Dag on the trail and pointing him at New Moon.
  
  
• I never did figure out why Barr was almost panicking when it seemed that Dag was about to give up and go away before he'd had a chance to meet Arkady. It couldn't have only been that Barr was interested in Tavia, at that point, could it? Was it worry for Dag? But again, why worry to the extent of panic?
  
  
• Seeing Dag and Fawn tell Arkady (and Remo and Barr) the whole story of the Glassforge malice made me realize that the full story was never told to any character in Passage, at least not that I can think of. That's an interesting choice for the author of a series to make, given that it's such an important piece of the backstory. I was also rather impressed with the way that backstory is told here in Horizon, with different characters telling parts of the tale, and reacting to each other's reactions as the tale is told -- it doesn't feel like the obligatory "tell the new readers about the backstory," but instead, feels like a real part of this book.
  
  
• I'm a little bemused / surprised by Fawn's animosity toward the idea of Dag carrying a bonded knife from the moment he gets his hands on a bone blank. Surely she trusts him not to want to die before he has to (at least while she's alive) -- and surely she understands his strong wish to share someday!
  
  
• Neeta's abrupt about-face from practically sneering at Dag to hero-worshiping him definitely struck me as uncomfortable for Dag, and basically for everybody else around. That is all I will say in this part of the discussion. ;)
  
  
• Now that we've seen a few northern Lakewalker camps, I thought it was really interesting to see New Moon, and to see how far away from Lakewalker traditions they have come. I was right there with Dag thinking "sessile," lol, although it certainly did seem much more comfortable than Hickory Lake! Especially that bath...

[katyhasclogs.livejournal.com]

I'm a little bemused / surprised by Fawn's animosity toward the idea of Dag carrying a bonded knife from the moment he gets his hands on a bone blank. Surely she trusts him not to want to die before he has to (at least while she's alive) -- and surely she understands his strong wish to share someday!

Yes, me too! I mean, I get that she doesn't really want to think about him dying, but she has such a violent reaction, and the way she makes him promise not to share while she's still living (I'm not making that up am I?) seems a little extreme and illogical. Whatever might have been true in the past, I don't get the impression that Dag is in a place at this point where he would share any sooner than absolutely necessary. But at the same time, it must be important to him that his eventual death isn't wasted, so it seems peculiarly un-understanding of Fawn to be so reactionary about the whole thing.

[gilpin25.livejournal.com]

By this stage, I was judging all new Lakewalkers by their reaction to meeting Fawn. Arkady refers to her as 'farmer girl' and 'farmer bride' but he doesn't ignore her, and most amusingly, his disdain and disbelief seems reserved for Dag and for entirely different reasons of course. I liked Arkady immediately; it was fun to meet such a fastidious, anti he-man type of Lakewalker, and I loved the healing scenes between him and Dag about which I shall say more in the later discussion.

Meanwhile, over in the Tavia and Neeta corner, introductions take on a familiar and somewhat depressing slant. Even when Neeta has her zero to hero revelation about Dag, she still continues to regard Fawn as a wholly unnecessary appendage and I spotted only one or two occasions where she actually speaks to her. (Tavia never really develops much as a character for me, which makes it a little hard to care about the romantic gloom later on when nobody seems to like the person who likes them, lol.)

I wasn't entirely clear about Barr's panic at this introductory point either, but wondered if by now he really cares about Dag (his later actions would seem to confirm this), and therefore shares some of Fawn's concerns about him needing help urgently. He does seem to read Dag pretty well, because although Dag thinks he is closed down and giving nothing away, Barr seems to be in no doubt that there will be little hanging around to let Fawn be insulted and time and charm are of the essence here. Plus there are two attractive girls right in front of Barr and the possibility of a decent bed for the night beckoning?!

As for the pregnancy issue; I couldn't decide if this was LMB's answer to every time a female has wished a male could understand what she goes through with her body. Because here they know it all before she does! It is very funny when Fawn is trying to get Dag to come with her and he guiltily gets the wrong end of the pregnancy stick, but I'm not sure I'd have been as ruefully understanding as she was when it dawned on her that all the Lakewalkers had been congratulating Dag on a job well done. I might have been reaching for the frying pan! ;)

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

By this stage, I was judging all new Lakewalkers by their reaction to meeting Fawn.

Oh, that's a really nice point. And you're very right that this sets up an extremely clear contrast between Arkady and Neeta.

(Tavia never really develops much as a character for me, which makes it a little hard to care about the romantic gloom later on when nobody seems to like the person who likes them, lol.)

Agreed on both counts -- Tavia suffers from an effect that I'll comment more on in the next part, but...too many characters, too little page time. So yes, I found it hard to appreciate the gloom, too -- except that gloomy Barr is so funny. I went around for days quoting his line about being at the talk end of the pack train of lurve...

[katyhasclogs.livejournal.com]

gloomy Barr is so funny. I went around for days quoting his line about being at the talk end of the pack train of lurve...

I adore that bit too, and I think this book is when I became rather fond of Barr and began thinking of him as mostly being a lovable rogue.

[katyhasclogs.livejournal.com]

Finally here to discuss the last book! In my defence, it feels like months since I had a 'normal' week at work, and I've been working on a certain fanfic (which is finally being kicked into submission - I'm hoping for completion by next week). Anyway.

There's lots I love about this section, even if (because?) it's one of the slower paced bits. In particular, all the medical details and the ins and outs of how groundwork works were just fascinating, but I also loved seeing how very different the Lakewalker culture in the south is and all the influences that made it so. Though like Dag and shimotsuki I was also crying "sessile!" in my head, and some of the dilution of what's unique about the Lakewalker way of life made me a bit sad (I have more to say on this subject, but it'll have to wait 'til I get to the next post).

On second reading it was fun to notice Arkady's... not ulterior motives, so much as seizing of an opportunity, when Dag turns up with his skills. I could almost see the cogs turning in his head as he realises that Dag could be the answer to his problem of how to save the lady who needs the ceasarean, now that he's lost his other apprentice. I wonder if he'd have been so willing if that patient hadn't existed?

Like others who have commented, I was rather cross at Dag for his persuasion of the clerk (much as I liked the outcome) and would not have been so understanding about the pregnancy in Fawn's position. I guess it's because she's not grown up with any expectation of having control over her fertility, but still, she's entrusted the contraception to Dag and he's rather messed up. I'm not impressed Dag.

I'd not considered the two incidents side by side until I sat down to write this comments, but looked at together I think they both represent something of the problems in the Lakewalker/Farmer power dynamic, allbeit from different angles. What I mean is, as it stands the power relationship between the two will always be unequal, because through groundsense Lakewalkers will always have the greater knowledge and control, and all farmers can do is blindly trust (or not trust) them. If those nuts can be made to really work, that might alleviate the problem somewhat, but can it ever be the whole solution?