A late timeskip

In my last post about River of Stars, I noted the structure of Kay's novel. It seems like he may have had to fudge his content a bit to get that structure so aligned.

For, in part five, the customary timeskip is a chapter late.

Though, when it comes to structuring writings, themes do need to be considered. And chapter XXV is definitely suited to the elemental phase of water, associated as it is with renewal. That's the chapter where we see things pivot, even if only in a minor way, back to Kitai's favour.

And that is some favour. Chapter XXVI is all about the nearly complete defeat of the Altai who attempted to secretly cross the Great River. Some did slip through, though. One of these in particular has been set up to star in the rest of the book. At least, that's got to be a fair guess since he is named and Kay leaves him alive.

However the final four chapters go, the book's narrative voice has finally rung a bell. Especially during battle scenes, Kay is adopting a voice like that of the teller of Beowulf. It's a very knowing, almost wry at times, voice that's well suited to pole-arms and to politics.