{"id":4537,"date":"2018-05-03T05:00:36","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T12:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4537"},"modified":"2018-04-29T16:27:23","modified_gmt":"2018-04-29T23:27:23","slug":"mark-reads-on-ordeal-mamvish-chapter-1-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2018\/05\/mark-reads-on-ordeal-mamvish-chapter-1-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads “On Ordeal: Mamvish” – Chapter 1, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is very<\/i> different from the first \u00e2\u20ac\u0153On Ordeal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d story, both in the scope (which I wrote about in the last review) and the tone. The sense of grandeur that Duane wrote into the opening of this chapter still feels just as grand here. Right after Mamvish bursts from their egg, Duane pulls back from the immediacy of that moment to give the reader some vital information on Tauwff biochemistry and heredity. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s necessary, especially since we need<\/i> to know how the Tauwff assimilate information from one generation to the next. That process evolved from the tragic and bleak survival tactic that the Tauwff used to persist through the Doom: cannibalism.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Which is really cool all on its own. Their \u00e2\u20ac\u0153adaptive physiologies\u00e2\u20ac\u009d pushed them towards a biochemical process that allowed them to, more or less, absorb \u00e2\u20ac\u0153information\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and wisdom from the other Tauff who they consumed. Duane details this process, how it became complicated over time (like when some Tauwff became \u00e2\u20ac\u0153irresistible\u00e2\u20ac\u009d due to the traits they possessed), and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all very<\/i> well thought-out.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also distant<\/i>. Unlike the opening myth and the story of Roshaun, it takes a while for Duane to drop back into Mamvish\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s head, so this info-dump was a little more detached than I expected. I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a sense for the direction of this story. If I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know who Mamvish was, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have felt grabbed by this, either. The science is interesting, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much<\/i> of it, and there really isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t much of that close third-person narration that I normally enjoy. Which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a bad thing in and of itself! Like I said in my \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Roshaun\u00e2\u20ac\u009d reviews, I do enjoy it when authors can experiment with how <\/i>they tell stories. But we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a chapter into a story that is the shortest of these three, and I barely know much about Mamvish as a person. How can I? She has been a conscious being for like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 a few days? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re counting her time in her egg, so if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m being generous, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a newborn. Newborn Mamvish was not what I was expecting for her Ordeal, which makes me wonder: is her Ordeal going to happen while<\/i> she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fresh to the world???<\/p>\n

I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually tell! This first chapter could all be build-up for something that happens later<\/i> in her life, you know? As it stands, Mamvish\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s early concerns are all instinctual, which is fascinating given that some she was born with, while others are gained through consumption of her sacrifice-dam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s body. Look, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deny how that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s both kinda revolting but 100% SOME COOL WORLDBUILDING. On top of that, Mamvish also gains the knowledge of her world by eating a FLYING PREDATOR. So, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like she unlocked the map of a video game by eating another character. (You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re welcome for that metaphor, btw.) Then there are the malfeh<\/i>, which are like Wimsih ants? I mean, the closest analogue for their behavior and mannerisms seems to be ants. They move like them, they have scent trails that they follow, they use everything around them, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in them that Mamvish sees a way the world should<\/i> be.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That was such an interesting reaction, too, because for the most part, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d argue that the Tauwff also<\/i> found ways to work together for the survival of the whole. Sure, there were exceptions to the Tauwff way of life that Duane briefly mentions. Still, I get why<\/i> she thinks this: the Tauwff were forced into this predicament due to the Lone One. There are other<\/i> ways to live, ones that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t require the cannibalization of others.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>So, what I think might<\/i> be happening here is that Mamvish will become the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153one\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that she believes must have existed for the malfeh<\/i>. One of those creatures had<\/i> to have been the first of the group to suggest a different way. Why can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she be that being for the Tauwff? What that actually entails is a mystery to me; I assume her Ordeal will be related to that? I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 is she, like, gonna call a meeting of all Tauwff and just convince them to do things different? How do you change thousands upon thousands of years of evolution???<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/OfGJMjVnZ3Y<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now available for pre-order!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the second half of the first chapter of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153On Ordeal: Mamvish,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mamvish learns to navigate her world. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Young Wizards.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[542,510],"tags":[513,511],"class_list":["post-4537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interim-errantry-2","category-young-wizards","tag-diane-duane","tag-mark-reads-young-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}