I've been under curses and enchantments since I was fifteen. I don't know who I am if you strip all that away. I don't know if I want to know. I think it will be a great disappointment to everyone. [loc. 940]
In which Jemis Greenwing and Mr Dart go to Olio City, trusting that Jemis' evil ex will remain ignorant of their presence, to buy books, retrieve relatives, and -- as it turns out -- test the validity of the arguments in Jemis' final paper at university, in which he argued that an obscure poem was not only 'an allegory of [the poet's] emotional and spiritual state [but] a full blueprint of the physical layout of the prison'. Ah, literary criticism! There are also kittens, and the dubiously divine Hunter in (the) Green, and the ever-delightful Hal.
This novel goes to some fairly dark places (I don't just mean Olio City, which is exceedingly grim and Dickensian) and finds light in them. I'm increasingly reminded of Bujold's 'Five Gods' works, which describe religion as a simple and beautiful aspect of ordinary life. Jemis undergoes radical changes; Mr Dart seems increasingly brittle, and almost -- almost! -- on the verge of talking about his emotions; Violet's mysterious past is, in part, revealed. Yes, there is perhaps a surfeit of architectural poetry and riddle-solving: but it's good to see Jemis so competent, albeit in frightful circumstances.
As soon as I'd finished this one, I had to read the next ...
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