So last time, Gallen, Maggie and Orick found themselves on a cool new world, and Maggie ended up in big trouble after trusting the wrong person.

Now, I've been mulling on whether or not I need a content warning for this one. There's no sexual assault, per se, but there's definitely a huge violation element. In the end, I decided to go with my only rarely used "symbolic rape" tag. You can decide for yourself if it's appropriate.



So, we start with Gallen, and some pretty great description:

Windows in the roof let in some light, while glowing gems overhead provided the rest. As Gallen moved deeper into this living catacomb, he twice came upon open-air bazaars where merchants in colorful swirling robes sought to sell him fabulous merchandise: a pair of living lungs that could attach to his back and let him breathe underwater; the seeds to a flower that could be planted one day, grow six feet overnight, and break into glorious blooms; a hood that would let him talk to a dead man; a tiny plug that he could place in his ear so that he could always listen to music; a cream that not only removed wrinkles and blemishes from skin but also left the wearer pleasantly scented for a number of years.

Gallen recognized that much of it was junk and gadgetry, trifles for a people who had everything. But still vendors hawked their wares, trying to engage his attention in odd ways. At one shop, a beautiful woman appeared out of thin air. She was tanned and strong and wore only the slightest scrap of clothes. She smiled at Gallen and said, "Why don't you come in here and try me on?" Then she walked into a shop. Gallen followed, and she went to a stack of pants, pulled a air on and wriggled into them, then disappeared.

One touch I really like is that it doesn't take Gallen long to realize that the woman is part of an enticement, to lure him into a shop. He may not have seen this particular item before, but he can recognize its use.

So Gallen is wandering about, seeing the sights. Like this dude:


In one square, he found a beast that looked like a huge gray toad sitting in a chair, surrounded by bright containers filled with colorful powders. The toadman wore an immense wig of silver with many ringlets and triangles that cascaded down his shoulders. On his back he wore a number of tubes, and each tube had dozens of tiny appendages rising up from it—some with hairs on them, others with clamps or scalpels. All these appendages rose overhead and by use of various joints managed to converge on a small table in front of the toad. Children had gathered around, and Gallen stopped to look.

He sounds like something from Alice in Wonderland.

Anyway, Gallen realizes that the toadman has a dragonfly at the center of the table. The dragonfly is missing parts of its wing, but the machines appeared to be creating new ones. The toadman offers the now repaired dragonfly to the audience:

Within five minutes, the toadman finished. "Now, children, which of you would like this dragonfly I have formed?" he asked, and the children clapped and pleaded.

The toadman reached out with one warty gray finger, touched the dragonfly, and it climbed onto his long nail. He held the dragonfly aloft for a moment, then turned to Gallen.

"I think I will give this one to the child who looks like a man." He extended the dragonfly to Gallen.

Heh, burn. But actually, it's because the dragonfly will be flying away soon. When the children wander off, the interaction changes to something more natural. The toadman identifies himself as a Motak. He can tell that Gallen has never met one before, because Gallen is staring, and it's known that on Motak, people only stare at ugly things. Gallen apologizes, saying he didn't mean to imply that the man was ugly, but the toadman knows that.

The toadman is a "creator". And this is interesting:

"Not true life. Only viviforms, artificial beings. Still, they look true enough, and they don't know that they aren't living creatures."

If something thinks it's a living creature, then isn't it? In some way?

Gallen doesn't dwell on that like I am. He just asks if the man can create people. He can make a viviform that LOOKS and ACTS anyway that Gallen would like. Between jobs, he creates pets for children.

Gallen thanks him and cups the dragonfly carefully. He wants to carry it back to show Maggie. The toadman thanks him in return as apparently he rarely gets to see that kind of joy and wonder from an adult.

So Gallen comes back to the inn. Orick is being freed from the net. Maggie is nowhere. Orick is asking everyone why they didn't "stop him" and Gallen is quickly informed about Karthenor kidnapping Maggie. They chase the scent to a dead end, and Orick tells Gallen the full story.

This leads Gallen into some tactical analysis:

Gallen considered. As in any battle, he took stock of his assets and liabilities. He had his wits, his skills as a fighter, and two knives. Yet he did not know his enemies or their weaknesses. One old sheriff down in County Obhiann had often warned: "When you are confronted by an outlaw, always take stock of the terrain. Look for what cover you can find, watch to make sure he doesn't have a bowman or a couple of lads sitting in the same bush you might want to hide under."

Gallen admits right away that he's at a phenomenal disadvantage when it comes to terrain, so it's time to get under cover. Orick will be easy to spot, but Karthenor hasn't seen Gallen. I mean, he DID though? Gallen was there when Karthenor came in. He'd commented on the similarity to the guy he met back home. And given the constant emphasis on Gallen's long golden hair, it seems like he'd be memorable.

Gallen is reassured to hear that Maggie is intended to work for Karthenor, thinking that Karthenor wouldn't want to harm a servant. I think Gallen is really fucking naive, and I can't tell if I'm supposed to think that way or not. It's a little annoying.

So Gallen decides that they should split up. Orick doesn't want to do nothing, so he's sent to see if he can find the trail of Everynne and Veriasse, while Gallen will be sneaking about the city trying to help Maggie.

We switch over to Maggie, who has woken up with a fever and oh. This sounds fucking terrifying. Remember that whole thing about a couple of hours before they become one or something:

When Maggie woke in the morning, her head burned with a fever. She wondered at the pain. A voice whispered in her mind, "It is I, your Guide. I have been creating neural pathways into your brain and spinal column all night, and this causes your discomfort. By nightfall the process will be complete, and we will become one."

Maggie tried to get up but could not move. Instead, the Guide let her lie abed for a few moments and began feeding her information at an incredible pace. "If you have questions," the Guide said, "ask."

It's literally performing brain surgery on her as we speak.

It is informative at least?

The Guide began by showing her the structure of DNA in all of its intricacy. In brief visions, it revealed the function of each set of genes in the human genome, and how these genes were affected by variations. It showed her machinery and taught her how to run the tools that aberlains used in their work—chromosome readers, gene splicers, tissue samplers, DNA dyes. She learned how to remove egg cells from women and sperm from men, divide them into lots based on desirable characteristics that the cells would transmit, and then infect each lot with tailored genes to ensure that all progeny were properly upgraded to standards set by the dronon overlords. Once a batch of eggs and sperm were perfected, they could be mixed and incubated for sixty hours, then the resulting zygotes would be implanted into a woman's womb.

The lesson lasted for nearly an hour, then the Guide forced Maggie from her bed, had her shower, and let her go down to the dining hall for breakfast. Maggie sat at a table with other aberlains, men and women who all wore Guides like hers. And though none of them spoke, she could hear their voices in her mind as they discussed the tasks that each would need to complete that day. She ate greedily, but the Guide forced her to stop just before she felt satisfied.

Informative and terrifying.

So Maggie ends up working in a clinic where couples who "sought a license to bear children" came. Maggie takes egg and sperm samples, laborously tags and labels them, but most get thrown away, because apparently the dronon only allow people with certain body types to reproduce. The women are instead implanted with zygotes from approved parents.

It seems like the parents are aware and afraid of this possibility:

Several times during the day, the women asked Maggie, "Will I really be getting my own child? You won't implant me with someone else's child?"

Each time, Maggie's Guide responded by comforting the potential mother and answering, "Of course you will get your own child. We take great care in labeling every sample, and there is no chance that the samples could get mixed. We will simply invest the cells with some standardized upgrades, and you will then have your own embryo returned to you."

Each time she told this lie, Maggie would fight her Guide, try to scream out a warning, and the Guide would respond by doing something that Maggie could only describe as "tickling" her: suddenly her head would itch, and then a sweet feeling of euphoria would wash through her, the greatest contentment she had ever known.

Egads.

She confronts her Guide when they're alone: how can they lie to the people like that. The Guide says they're doing them a favor: this way the parents have no ill feelings about a process they can't change. This system also insures an even distribution of genetically upgraded offspring.

Maggie points out that the children are all siblings, they won't be able to marry and we learn something more of the dronon:

"Within each hive, our dronon masters are brothers and sisters. Each queen bears a hundred thousand eggs, and vanquishers are born brothers to architects, workers are sisters to queens. The new family revels in unity; thus the hive bonds. When our human offspring discover that they are all brothers and sisters, they will revel in that kinship."

The Guide tickled her again. A new and stronger wave of pleasure washed through Maggie. It was a mystical, magical feeling, to be involved in such a great work, a work approved and loved by and her overlords.

Humans aren't dronon, of course. But I suppose inbreeding isn't a factor if they're just replacing zygotes anyway.

Then something interesting happens. One time when Maggie is tending to a young woman, the woman asks intently "How free are you?" She tells Maggie that if Maggie wants to escape from the Guide, blink twice. Maggie of course cannot blink. The Guide just tells her not to be alarmed, the guards are coming for the woman.

Maggie must be able to communicate something through her stare, because the woman realizes she's in danger and tries to go. A vanquisher is waiting for her. The woman is dragged away.

That night, we're told, the Guide transmits a report to Karthenor. We're not told if Maggie is aware of this or if this is a narrative viewpoint shift. It calls her "culturally retarded" as it had to instruct her in even the simplest machinery. Wow, fuck you, dude.

Karthenor isn't concerned about that part, figuring that's to be expected. He IS however concerned by the fact that the Guide had to "stimulate her hypothalamus" over fifty times. That kind of overstimulation is dangerous and could cause sever depression, and make her an unreliable host. Apparently, if the Guide lost control over her in such a situation, she could suicide.

But Karthenor has a plan:

Karthenor considered the report, called to one of his technicians, a human named Avik whose parents had been integrated into dronon society two generations ago. He was a young man with hair so golden it appeared to be silver, and he had a sleek, well-muscled body. Avik reported quickly.

"My lord?" Avik said when he reached the door.

"The new servant, Maggie Flynn, needs someone to help make her adjustment smoother," Karthenor said. "I would like you to talk to her, befriend her. I'll instruct her Guide to give her free reign during your contact."

Avik nodded. He was a young man, with burning blue eyes. "Would you like me to seduce her?"

Karthenor considered. These dronon-bred technicians mated like animals. Perhaps because they were forced to work under the domination of Guides, they had become emotionally stunted. They tended to confuse sexual gratification with the more permanent rewards of a committed relationship.

"Yes," he said after a moment. "I think the physical contact might be appropriate, comforting for her. However, I would like you to take her slowly, at her own pace. Don't rush her."

"Very well, my lord," Avik said, giving a deep bow as he left.  

With this bit of grossness, the chapter ends.

So things have gone from light adventure fare to something dark and complicated really quickly. I'm not sure what I think about it. It's imaginative. Wolverton has created a really interesting universe, and the predicament that Maggie is in is utterly terrifying. That's good. But I find it off putting for some reason.

I think part of my problem is that it's so one-sided. We've got this sudden infusion of terror, but it's only really happening to one person. The woman. And there's been an ongoing problem, I think, with the way Wolverton is writing his female characters. On one hand, we have Everynne's complete lack of agency combined with the relentless focus on her physical appearance both from her and from the people around her. We still don't know what exactly she and Veriasse are trying to do. And while that mystery is fine, it doesn't really allow us to connect with Everynne as a person. Even within the mystery, Veriasse is clearly driving the action.

There's nothing wrong with that, by the way. Wolverton is wise to have two major female characters. Maggie is humanized in a way that Everynne can't be at this point in the plot. Or at least, she should be. But for all that she has more viewpoint sections, I'm not sure I think she's all that more defined than Everynne is. She's more there as a contrast to Everynne. She's the girl next door love interest that Gallen doesn't appreciate, dazzled as he is by Everynne's beauty. But she's the loyal, faithful one, who is spirited and free and has that true connection to him deep down. He just doesn't realize it, but we see it in little things like his wanting to give her the dragonfly.

It's almost like a morality play and it feels very obvious to me. There's a really obvious "right" and "wrong" choice for Gallen here. And I suppose I should give Wolverton credit that Everynne, as the "wrong" choice, isn't portrayed as a bad person. She has a different role, that's all.

But that doesn't change the fact that, at no point, do we know much about Maggie as a person. She works in an inn. Okay. But does she have family? Friends? Gallen got a whole fucking flashback about his cat. And the cat isn't even a character in the modern day story. I love cats, but where is the story about Maggie's cat?

It doesn't help that Wolverton's attempt at a spirited heroine is more bitchy and borderline abusive.

So Maggie's now the center point of the truly horrific side of the story. And it's not badly done, but it's still more about Maggie suffering than Maggie as a person. Maybe that's why it isn't working for me. But Wolverton has some time to make it work. This plotline's going to go on for a while, unfortunately.