Sunday, March 3, 2013

Pushing forward on the Slog

Somehow, Achamian's being bound seems like the only way that things on the Achamian/Mimara/Skin Eaters front could move forward. Of course, they've now reached the library at Sauglish, and thus the Coffers beneath them, but having Achamian at the ready to answer Mimara's questions and to hold her inquiries back from Lord Kosoter and Cleric wasn't letting their characters progress very far at all. So, after he refuses the Qirri and is bound for it, since his mutiny is much more feared than Mimara's, she's finally free to push into both of their mysterious characters.

And push she does, though her judging eye reveals just as much as her questions do. For something incredibly magical, Bakker's descriptions of what she sees with it are simple. Black and light, you might even say. But that simplicity is all that's needed, especially since he weaves whole tapestries about their surroundings with his words.

Leaving the subtler matters of magic to readers' imaginations definitely works in his favour. Though that's often the best way to do magic whenever a system's not being explained. After all, even those in the world of the series not versed in sorcerous lore wouldn't know its workings, and as observers we aren't meant to see things from such a position.

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