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Tonkee’s been taking hormones while commless and living in the wild, alone? While she couldn’t bathe? The dedication. The desperation. What did she do, get estrogen from a pregnant wild animal’s pee? Any wild animal large enough to pee in that amount couldn’t have been safe to approach, either, especially when pregnant. Maybe she traded for mare urine? It’s hard to fathom the effort all this must have taken while she was living on the teetering edge of survival.

The orogenes are banding together, huh? Hopefully they’re not recreating the Fulcrum’s methods. So many people died so they could be free.

And how do the stone eaters tie into all this anyway? Did ‘Baster strike a deal with them? What the rust even are the obelisks? It looks like Baster did a deep molecular dive drawing on their power to get the poison out of his system (SO MANY DUNE FEELS OLD SF GEEKS OF THE WORLD UNITE) so if other orogenes can do that…

Also shoutout for the passages that showed how Yumenes kept the periphery comms dependent, between crippling debt and well-timed “natural” disasters resulting in widespread famine. The depictions of imperialism, racism, and abuse in this novel and the way they all link together is truly masterful.

Holy shit, the node maintainers… Baster’s kids… I want to throw up. Is it because the Fulcrum is afraid of him, the power in his bloodline? Was it afraid they might become a faction, a threat? Was it some punishment for defiance? Those poor, poor kids. No wonder the man is crazy, for this and a million other reasons. Is the Fulcrum that arrogant and foolish? Didn’t they think he had limits to what he was willing to endure? Or was he that good at pretending he didn’t care? My God.

‘Baster feeling safe and loved enough to be petty and clingy and passive-aggressive does my heart a world of good. It’s probably the healthiest way the fallout from his lifelong Trauma Conga can express itself. The way he’s always wrapped around Corundum is both heartwarming and heartbreaking because you can tell he’s partly making up for all his other kids he couldn’t protect, with shades of loving and cherishing the child he himself used to be.

I love his and Syen’s relationship now that they’re no longer being coerced into sex with each other, and their relationship with Innon is makes all sorts of sense. I love this representation of a healthy, loving, and sexy polyamorous relationship. I don’t see enough relationships like Syen and ‘Baster’s, platonic friends and co-parents who mean the world to each other and who have more history and meaning together than the person they actually have sex with. No hate on Innon, I like him and he’s been great for our duo, but ultimately I find Syen and ‘Baster’s relationship more compelling. Unfortunately I dread that this state of happiness won’t last.

Also the way this comm is run, with orogenes protecting and leading it instead of being hated, feared, and carted off to be abused?

The fear of orogenes is, indeed, culturally instilled and is part of a giant scam to keep communities weak and dependent on Yumenes. Orogenes are the key to survival and independence, and by controlling memory, history, and culture the Sanzed were tricking the comms in their power to serve its interests, not their own. The author didn’t make this hard to figure out or anything–she writes with the kind of clarity that rewards engagement with insight, and I respect her for it. I also like that she makes it clear the arrangement isn’t perfect and the island’s orogenes are not as skilled as the Fulcrum-trained ones, even when Syen tries to teach them. So there’s a price, but it’s still a hell of a lot better than the alternative and can be improved upon.

Also ‘Baster’s comment about the world not changing unless one were to destroy it and start over? Really creepy foreshadowing, because I’m 90% certain that he will be the worldbreaker in the opening, much as I am that Syenite will become Essun, and here he explicitly doesn’t want any part of breaking the world. He just wants to hide away and raise his son in peace. He couldn’t have gone from that to the opening scene if he still had Corundum left to protect.

DFIDSJSJSFASLFKJL

LERNA’S ALIVE I’M SO HAPPY

The man from Yumenes is ‘Baster, isn’t it? Please tell me it’s ‘Baster!!!

It IS but also nooooo

This is one of those books that demand the reader return to the beginning after turning the last page, not only because it’s so good but also because the beginning is also the end, in so many ways. I’m catching so much foreshadowing in that first scene which didn’t make sense at the time.