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dark-night-star-light · 1 year

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Spirit Animals: Tales of the Great Beasts (Reread pt. 8)

DISCLAIMER: WILL CONTAIN SPOILER FOR THIS BOOK, THE BOOK OF SHANE, AND BOOKS ONE THROUGH SEVEN IN FIRST SERIES (AS WELL AS SOME MINOR SPOILERS FOR BOOKS SEVEN AND EIGHT IN SECOND SERIES).

Masterpost

Kovo

“This liquid held the power to change . . . everything” (3). He really believes that, doesn’t he? Yikes.

“Feliandor’s father had been a good king, and Feliandor wanted to be a good king too” (4). This is pretty much the source of all his problems, isn’t it??? That’s really ironic.

“It wasn’t comfortable, but it was beautiful. And intimidating” (5). This throne feels like a symbol . . . it’s in The Book of Shane, as well.

“‘I want a solution right now’” (6). Fel’s impatient. Huh.

“‘A short-term solution, my king, merits only a short celebration’” (7). Okay, here’s the thing . . . Fel actually solves the problem? He stops them from fighting and keeps them happy? There’s not really a problem?

“‘That’s more than one hundred trees that weren’t there before . . . ’” (9). He’s definitely giving off desperate vibes.

“Fel stood silent, feeling his anger and disappointment like a physical force . . . he knew that he was blushing before the entire crowd” (10). Why is he so angry over some trees? I get that he wants to have forests or jungles, but can’t he focus on culture development or architecture or anything else to make him stand out, instead of something that’s already been proven to not work for his country?

“‘Good King Fel!’” Isn’t it The Good King Fel?

“‘ . . . now all that’s left is you’” (10). Oof. Also, how is this even mistaken for being Fel with that context?

“ . . . to reach the peak of Mount Crimson, tallest of the Red Mountains” (11). Is that Muttering Rock? The Red Mountains would be the mountain range, yes?

“‘Uh, my good man,’ Fel said so that everyone could hear, ‘you’ve clearly been through an ordeal. Let’s set you up with a bath and a hot meal. Salen here can schedule a time for us to talk’” (12). Oh, now he’s okay with Salen’s schedules. Also, he’s clearly putting on a show for the people.

“‘Jace died by toad, Janas by bee. Marcus . . . Marcus by thirst ‘neath a lone pine tree’” (12). So the party only had four people???

“If Salen was surprised, he didn’t show it, only held Fel until he had composed himself once more” (13). This is so sad.

“The soldiers stood rigid and expressionless, so much so that Fel often failed to even think of them as people” (14). Foreshadowing?

“Stetriol’s decline wasn’t his fault; Fel, at least, knew this” (15). Hmmmm.

“That had changed when Nilo’s rulers cut a deal with the new Amayan government . . . ” (17). So Amaya was new during the First Devourer War? So it wasn’t new at all, then, during the Second Devourer War?

“‘Spirit animals manifest by the age of thirteen or not at all . . . ’” (19). Aidana bonded to Wikerus at fourteen. So . . .

“‘And you are thirteen . . . ’” (19). He’s thirteen??? I guess that makes sense . . .

Also, parallels? Gerathon kills a Niloan woman at the beginning of Fire and Ice, and while it couldn’t be this same Niloan woman (too old) . . . parallels?

Oh my god, non-modern political cartoons about Fel???

“‘Have him thrown into the dungeon until I say otherwise’” (22). Okay, but . . . they have no clue who this person is???

“He was fairly confident it was the same man who had held the post the night before” (22). Bruh.

“‘When your parents were killed’” (24). How did they die?

“How was it that even the animals of Stetriol were less impressive than those of other lands?” (26). Did he just call Australian animals unimpressive?

“ . . . and downed the contents of the vial” (27). So he just looked at the cassowary and that’s all it takes to “choose” an animal for the Bile?

“‘That’s because the bird is not your partner, Jorick.’ Feliandor’s smile widened. ‘It is your slave’” (28). That made Fel happy??? This guy is crazy.

“‘Jorick, what’s wrong with you? Guards! Get a healer in here immediately’” (30). Okay, so he does have a speck of redemption in him.

“‘It felt as if I wasn’t in control of my own body’” (30). Gerathon, why?

“‘Take him to the dungeon,’ . . . ‘With the rest of the traitors’” (31). He changed his mind about Salen so quickly???

“There was a flatness to his voice, and an odd quality to his eyes that Feliandor couldn’t remember seeing before” (32). Gerathon literally can’t wait to get her hands all over the Bile victims, can she?

“‘By my count that makes you the rarer and more precious of us two’” (33). Kovo is so good with the manipulation and the flattery.

“Fel . . . cast about for a moment, looking for props” (34). Why the heck does he need props??? So dramatic. *shakes head*

“‘They’re saying “the good king fell.” My father, the good king, is gone. And now they’re stuck with me.’ . . . ‘I try so hard,’ he seethed, ‘and I am hated for trying. Hated for the sin of not being my father’” (35). I actually feel bad for him now . . . he’s still a shit king, though.

“‘Chimpanzees use tools to accomplish tasks . . . ’” (37). The Book of Shane parallels?

“Somehow Kovo’s human qualities made his inhumanity all the more striking” (38). The brighter the light, the darker the shadow.

“Feliandor wasn’t in control - had not been in control in a long, long time. The Bile was the first step toward . . . ” (39). Becoming a slave? Because that’s what’s gonna happen-

The screaming trees came from Gerathon???

Fel goes crazy about two seconds after taking the Bile. Hm.

Jhi

I do not remember a thing from this chapter, damn.

“Luan was too selfish to be afraid for Yu . . . ” (45). She has a weird relationship with her spirit animal . . .

“She was leaving Yin out of the conversation, denying her the truth” (49). Isn’t she a teenager???

“Yin didn’t care that she was breaking Kuan’s rules. She needed to know if her brother would be okay” (50). Can’t she just go right up to the curtain instead? That would be more subtle.

“ . . . the Healthbringer lives in the Great Bamboo Maze . . . ” (51). See? Jhi did live in the Maze. Shouldn’t she have known the way out during Blood Ties? Maybe her memory was impacted???

Yin and Luan’s bond kind of reminds me of Meilin and Jhi’s. Parallels?

“‘Do you ever wish you were without me?’” (56). More Meilin and Jhi parallels.

Wait, she goes back to Kuan??? I thought she goes to find Jhi???

Ohhhhh, damn. He got worse.

Wait, if she carries her brother, won’t she get sick, too?

“‘This is where we are. I’m certain’” (63). Wait, let me guess. She’s looking at an out-of-date map, and Luan, being a bird, knows where to actually go. This entire chapter is one long Meilin-Jhi parallel.

Yep, I was right. Luan was apparently fixing the map.

“The Maze is changing, she thought” (64). Or being destroyed.

This chapter feels hastily written. Like, I don’t know how to describe it, and I get that the story needs to fit within the chapter, but it feels so rushed?

I think it would’ve been better to cut the healer plot line completely and instead focus on the trip through the Maze. Yin could’ve recalled legends she’d heard about Jhi and the Maze and worked off of blind hope instead.

“The two brightest shone like silver eyes in a dark face, listening to Yin’s prayer” (66). A well-written line, for sure.

Okay, Yin is actually smart. Following the patches where Jhi had eaten? Actually a solid plan.

“‘What would I do without you?’” (71). Yin’s inconsistent feelings about Luan are just like Meilin’s about Jhi.

“It was a bird spider, a tarantula” (71) A bird spider?

Yin got turned into a slave??? What???

“Suddenly Yin felt like she understood everything around her” (76). Jhi’s powers?

“It was as if the night had slowed down around her” (76). There’s no way that’s not Jhi.

“The woman feinted left, and as Jhi lifted herself up to follow, the tarantula leaped up and snatched the carved green talisman” (78). Why didn’t Jhi just put Nao and the spider to sleep??? She could’ve???

So the “silver stars” Yin saw were literally Jhi’s eyes??? What???

“ . . . she had wielded the mighty Sword of Tang . . . ” (81). How’d she get it back??? What did she do???

Uraza

“Waddling across her lands with their ungainly two-legged walk” (85). Uraza’s thoughts about humans are fucking hilarious.

“Who did they think she was? . . . One of their precious spirit animals, to be forced into a life of cohabitation with them?” (86). Hmmmmm.

“She snarled, using a single claw to draw a cut across his chest. ‘Go,’ she rumbled at the pathetic man” (87). This whole sequence is strangely comedic. The drama of just swiping one single claw across in an ultimately useless way just to be threatening is just-

“And there was another smell with them - something sour and unnatural” (88). Bile. Also, Uraza can sense the Bile, confirmed. I suspected that all Great Beasts could, but so far the only ones that have been confirmed are Uraza and Mulop.

“The massive leopard knew what that must have meant for the boy’s tribe” (90). How does she know about human customs??? I thought she only cared about them staying out of her hunting grounds?

“ . . . they were immune to poison and sickness” (92). Huh. That’s interesting.

“ . . . the black substance coating its blade rubbed into the wound” (93). Genuinely have no clue what this substance is. It can’t be Bile, so what is it?

“She knew that a Great Beast’s body would adapt to this substance, but it would take time” (94). She??? Just said??? That Great Beasts were immune to poison??? What’s this about adaptation now?

“Uraza drifted back to consciousness slowly as her body healed itself” (95). What is this plot hole? Is she immune to poison or not? Are we getting an explanation?

“The impertinence of this woman was shocking” (95). Um, she does have Uraza in a literal cage, though, so . . .

“‘They curse you as much as they curse me, if not more . . . ’” (96). Yeah, Uraza isn’t seeming too hot right now.

“Some looked at her with disappointment, some with despair, and some with contempt. Others simply liked past her, eyes dead and defeated” (97). Yeah, honestly Uraza as a morally gray character is pretty interesting.

“She admired his bravery, but he had the dumb loyalty of a dog, not the cunning of a cat” (98). I badly want to hear Great Beast Uraza’s thoughts on Briggan.

“For a moment, she considered simply swallowing the insolent monkey whole . . . ” (100). For realsies???

“‘So no one knows it’s buried in the Red Orchard?’” (102). Why doesn’t she just keep her talisman with her???

“ . . . they still would have no guarantee of catching up to the talisman” (104). Can’t Uraza, like, smell her talisman?

It’s funny how the Greencloaks were originally sabotages and thieves, and Rollan, the last of the four to join the Greencloaks, was also (kind of) a thief.

“ . . . now a whole crowd of the smelly things surrounded her” (112). I genuinely wonder whether Uraza thinks Abeke is smelly.

“Uraza was stunned - the ability to control exactly where a spirit animal appeared was not something she had ever heard of” (116). Oh my god, Abeke does this in the last book. Foreshadowing?

“‘Hold tight,’ Uraza commanded. ‘And if you tell anyone about this, I’ll eat you and your monkey both’” (118). Tembo: *literally tells the whole world in his journal records that he rode on Uraza’s back*

“ . . . the news that some of her fellows were helping these plunderers deeply troubled her” (120). Well, Kovo does have other motives.

Briggan

“The resistance called him what he truly was: the Devourer” (126). So the name “the Devourer” came after “the Reptile King”? Hm.

“ . . . she saw that it was a tiny bat - a vampire bat - and it had a distinctly malevolent look in its beady eyes” (129). Okay, definitely a Bile-bonded creature, then.

“It might be a Conqueror’s spirit animal, but even so, she couldn’t bring herself to kill it” (130). She’s going to have to be killing a lot of things during the war, so . . .

“ . . . so he’d retrieved his bat and put the creature into its passive form” (131). This wording is so strange, but it's pretty much exactly how the Bile works, anyway.

“The river tumbled them over and over, like dice in a cupped palm” (132). This is such a neat line.

“People even claimed that Briggan could bring visions. Glimpses of the future. Well, that’s not what she was getting, Katalin thought crankily” (134). Briggan can bring any kind of vision, right? Not just past ones?

“Sometimes it did bother her that her spirit animal was so fiercely independent” (136). Like Essix and Rollan. Parallels?

“Then she caught sight of something - a small hut” (137). Why didn’t the Great Pack warn the hut’s owner to stay away, though?

“‘I came out here to get away from people . . .’” (141). Why didn’t Briggan warn her away???

“ . . . a girl with no home, no family, no best friend” (144). What happened to her best friend???

“There was something eerie about the way it obeyed her. Something very different from the loyalty Tero showed her” (148). So it’s possible to tell if someone’s taken Bile?

“‘It’ll be a message to all the Great Beasts, that they better not mess with us!’” (148). This guy is giving new-recruit-that’s-drowning-in-an-oversized-uniform-and-an-oversized-helmet energy.

“‘I heard what you did, that you rescued him from a destiny worse than death, from a terrible bondage . . . ’” (156). Briggan knows what Bile is??? Huh.

So the dreams are Katalin’s possible path or what’ll happen if she doesn’t act??? This is kind of a roundabout way to do that-

“‘I will form them into an army. The Greencloaks’” (158). Briggan created the Greencloaks??? Wow.

Wait . . . wasn't Conor the first of the four to join the Greencloaks? Parallels???

Essix

“ . . . the four embattled nations of Erdas had united in a desperate offensive against the Conquerors” (162). Are they in Stetriol?

“The warriors who had followed her to Stetriol . . . ” (162). Okay, so the First Devourer War also ended in Stetriol??? Wow.

“Only Tellun could have created such an idyllic forest on so harsh a continent in such a brief time” (163). We still do not know the scope of Tellun’s powers, or even a basic understanding of what the guy can do.

I love the way the Beasts bicker in this chapter. It’s just too funny.

“ . . . Dinesh, who looked more like a wrinkly gray hill than an elephant” (164). Woah, Essix, that is some comparison.

“‘New bonds are forming, but they are twisted and painful . . . ’” (166). Bonding sickness started during the war??? Really???

“‘Envision a vast colony of ants bringing down an ox. This would be our fate’” (168). Kind of headcanon Jhi to be someone that constantly talks in metaphors to the point where it becomes almost impressive that she can continue on like that.

“‘Dinesh, I’m more interested in the opinions of Great Beasts who can find their own food’” (169). Uraza lowkey reminds me of Rollan???

“‘Take that back this instant, or I, or I-’ ‘Will waddle out from under your canopy into the sunlight?’” (169). Uraza, you’re supposed to be convincing him.

“‘I miss Kovo,’ Suka said. ‘He told the best jokes’” (170). Excuse me???

“‘Don’t worry, Dinesh. I love that you domesticate them!’” (172). Ironic as heck.

“‘Nobody . . . likes me?’ Rumfuss exclaimed in surprise. ‘You have few charms,’ Cabaro said silkily. ‘Nonsense!’ Rumfuss shouted. ‘I am . . . the best!’” (173). I kind of feel bad for him, but insisting he’s the best makes him seem even more pathetic.

“‘Animals taken by the Bile lose their free will . . . ’” (174). Ironic that Jhi is the one that says this.

“‘ . . . I fear it will end in darkness.’ Rumfuss laughed brashly. ‘All days . . . end in darkness’” (178). Wow. What a line. Doesn’t really seem like something Rumfuss would say, though. More like . . . Cabaro, maybe?

“‘Mulop, you see more than you understand. Cabaro, you are a devastating waste of potential. I once mistook your pelt for golden, but it's clearly yellow.’ . . . ‘Halawir,’ Essix continued. ‘You have all the manners of royalty, and none of the substance . . . Suka, hiding from tough choices is a choice; and Rumfuss, never changing means never improving. Arax, how can you demand freedom for yourself but not for those in your care? Dinesh, don’t let your greatness be only a matter of size. Tellun . . . ’ . . . ‘I respect you, but I do not understand you. I fear you are too distant.’ . . . ‘I believe that Ninani does her best’” (180). Wow, Essix just roasted all the Great Beasts except Kovo, Greathon, the other Fallen, and Ninani. She really does go out with a bang.

Wait. How did Essix lose her talisman? It’s never mentioned . . .

“Briggan’s jaws found the arm with the club” (183). The Evertree ending parallels?

I forgot that Kovo literally kills Briggan . . . like he literally cuts his throat open . . .

“High above, a speck circled, almost at the limit of Essix’s sharp vision. Halawir?” (185). Yeah, what’s Halawir doing there?

“ . . . Essix discovered that Jhi, Briggan, and Uraza were already gone” (186). Oh no. That’s actually so sad.

“Time lost all meaning . . . there was a light” (186). Do spirit animals live in a void until they’re called or something?

Essix’s first thought about Rollan was “Interesting” (186).

Final thoughts and rating (these ones are even longer than usual . . . sorry about that):

In terms of ranking, I think I liked Essix’s chapter the best. Despite its flaws (mostly the lack of background: Why did Essix join? How did she lose her talisman?), it was done really well. You really get a good understanding of the relationships between the Great Beasts. I like that Uraza’s personality (and the personality of the others in general) were really displayed well. I’d say that Uraza’s chapter was the second best. It was written well, and Tembo’s personality really highlighted the story. The beginning of the Greencloaks was explained flawlessly, in my opinion, and despite the few plot holes (the poison thing), I like the short character development Uraza goes through. My third favorite was definitely Fel’s chapter. The parallels to Shane and the order of events was explained well, and I think it gave a good introduction to the setting, which is slightly different from the setting of the story during the main series. Fel’s feelings are shown well, which gives the story a better backbone.

My second-to-least favorite was Katalin’s chapter. Despite the backstory, I found it to be quite boring, almost? It was in an adventure/quest format, and personally I find that to be more suited to a full novel, not a short story. Besides Fel’s chapter, I found the narration from a human’s perspective to be really annoying. I thought that it would’ve been better to see this chapter from Briggan’s perspective. It’s established pretty early on that Katalin knew that the wolves knew she was there. The story could’ve been Briggan’s mental struggle about whether or not he wanted to join the fight against the Devourer. They also could’ve better developed his personality, as well. They story could’ve also followed Briggan following Katalin and slowly coming to recognize her bravery. I also think that the format of human-with–spirit-animal-goes-on-a-quest is very tired in this series and any deviation would’ve been welcome. Briggan’s ability to connect with someone through dreams would’ve also given us an insight into Katalin’s background, as well. My least favorite story in this collection was Yin’s. I found it to essentially have the same problems as Katalin’s story, but more so because of the rushedness of the pacing. I mentioned this already, but the whole storyline of Yin stealing the Sword of Tang to get the medicine that didn’t work was completely unnecessary, and even created some unanswered questions (How did Yin finally get the Sword of Tang back?). Instead, I think they should’ve just cut that entirely and have Yin work off of legends and myths she’d heard about Jhi and go straight into the Maze. This would give the story more time to breathe and make it feel less rushed. But better than that would’ve been, in my opinion, to have the story told completely from Jhi’s perspective. This would’ve fleshed out Jhi’s hatred for the Bile even more and given a new depth to her situation in the main series. Also, it’s mentioned that Jhi was following Yin the whole time, as well. So many of the plot points would remain the same.

Rating: 8/10

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