I have mixed feelings about Toric's role. In many ways, I feel like it's contradictory to his prior appearances. He's a dick, but he's always been something of a radical dick. So to see him take the conservative, anti-AIVAS viewpoint now is jarring. In some ways, it reminds me of the shift of T'ron and the Oldtimers in Dragonquest.
That said, I do appreciate that the story spends a fair amount of time giving us Toric's point of view and he still has some of those great touches that I like. (Like in the Council meeting about appointing Janissian. Where the other conservative assholes try to fight about a woman Holder, Toric's just like "appoint her already, I want to get to the other ways I can be an obstructive dick.)
I also liked how a certain character's death at the end of ATWOP (being vague because my recaps having gotten that far yet), plays into at least some of the villainous motivations. The assumption that said character died because they discovered something nefarious about AIVAS is not completely unreasonable (especially given what happens to that one dude in THIS book).
I didn't notice a lot of major retcons here, but those are things I might need a more focused readthrough to find. (I did think it was weirdly inconsistent about when exactly a certain character died, but I might just need to read it again to clarify.) I did think it worked though as a kind of epilogue to the series. I'd happily read another book that's more about F'lessan adjusting to the changes in his life, but it's not really necessary. He'll survive and grow just like Pern will.
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Some more General Miscellaneous Opinions:
Date: 2025-01-13 02:53 pm (UTC)That said, I do appreciate that the story spends a fair amount of time giving us Toric's point of view and he still has some of those great touches that I like. (Like in the Council meeting about appointing Janissian. Where the other conservative assholes try to fight about a woman Holder, Toric's just like "appoint her already, I want to get to the other ways I can be an obstructive dick.)
I also liked how a certain character's death at the end of ATWOP (being vague because my recaps having gotten that far yet), plays into at least some of the villainous motivations. The assumption that said character died because they discovered something nefarious about AIVAS is not completely unreasonable (especially given what happens to that one dude in THIS book).
I didn't notice a lot of major retcons here, but those are things I might need a more focused readthrough to find. (I did think it was weirdly inconsistent about when exactly a certain character died, but I might just need to read it again to clarify.) I did think it worked though as a kind of epilogue to the series. I'd happily read another book that's more about F'lessan adjusting to the changes in his life, but it's not really necessary. He'll survive and grow just like Pern will.