Taita's come a long way, baby.
i have finally finished reading
quest, and i finished it much faster than i expected. though dragging at times, it is generally a good novel. when the storyline picks up, it
really picks up and makes me excited to see what happens next. that is probably why i zipped through the whole book.
Now, i can read everyone's reviews but first, i would like to toss in another 2 cents...
[spoiler]Well, i am amazed at how the story progressed!
When Taita saw a reflection of his younger self in the pool, i was imagining that some event would occur in which he would indeed become young again - seeing as the story is written in the fantasy genre. And sure enough, he did. Also really amazing how he got it... ahem... equipment back.
And I am really happy for him that finally, he got "Lostris." i really felt pain for him when he anticipated losing her - i mean, Fenn - again, and was nearly giddy when they got together.
How romantic! How sweet! Although i must admit, the feeling i get from this love story is a bit weird though, since he was once an old man and a eunuch at that. But as i said before and will say again, T has come a long way, baby!
I also must add: i love those love stories of reincarnation. In real life, i am not too firm a believer in reincarnation, but i like it as a theme for fictional stories - especially love stories. For lack of a better term, they are so heart-warming and it just gives me a good feeling... Like, I am happy that the lovers had a second chance. So that is why I was also entrenched in this novel.
There is more I want to say, but I am just so overwhelmed and this is what comes to mind right now. in the future though, i will definitely remember more and write them down here.
Just a small irrelevant rant: I had noticed another mistake WS made: at the end, he had Taita mentioning to Nefer that his (taita's) childhood nickname for him was Mem. But of course, Mem was Nefer's father! this is once again another idiosyncratic observation of mine, but I am a bit aghast at how WS could make such an error on his own novel. It is really not too big a problem though, but it just leaves me quite intrigued...
And because I am a sucker for the way things were originally, i could not help feeling a bit sad that WS wandered away from the original historical theme into a more fantastical one. I know that is what his aim was in writing the quest, but still. i guess that is why these little details bug me a bit.
Other than that, a nice novel. Although it was different from its predecessors, it still retained some of the WS elements I enjoy: beautiful descriptions,
some of the ancient feel, and sensuality. I scanned over his lengthy descriptions of the journey and battles though, because it just got too dragging for me. Same goes for the long discourses about all that new age stuff.
And it was nice to once again see Nefer and Mintaka. Its a bit amusing how they were reduced to such a small role whereas in Warlock, they were the leads. and i sort of had difficulty reconciling the fact that they were now in a fantasy setting, since Warlock (and RG) was so realistic. I actually noticed that with WS's novels - the lead characters in the former novels are reduced to such tiny roles in the latter novels. I must say, it felt a bit weird to read WS's summary of Nefer's background in the quest, since it was a highly significant event in Warlock.
Ah. It was also great to technically see Memnon again... well, not the real memnon, as you know. (Memnon aka Tamose.) But i loved that guy.
But the end, of course, left me hanging. I guess WS may write a sequel to this after, say, some years? I am now really intrigued to see how Taita and Fenn's romance develops. But man, hasnt Taita become a hottie?
now, i heart nefie and taita hehehe.[/spoiler]
Call me corny, but I now feel like I've grown up w/ Taita...
Sometimes, we get through adversity only by imagining what the world might be like if our dreams should ever come true.
~Arthur Golden, 'Memoirs of a Geisha'