{"id":4691,"date":"2018-09-20T05:00:04","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T12:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4691"},"modified":"2018-09-16T08:16:21","modified_gmt":"2018-09-16T15:16:21","slug":"mark-reads-the-book-of-night-with-moon-chapter-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2018\/09\/mark-reads-the-book-of-night-with-moon-chapter-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Book of Night With Moon’: Chapter 14"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fourteenth and final chapter of The Book of Night With Moon<\/i>, the wizards introduce the saurians to their new world; Saash transforms; life continues. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Feline Wizards<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a bittersweet ending, though the sweetness is certainly far more prevalent. This victory over the Lone One is immense, and Duane doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t shy away from portraying it that way. She does so in three ways:<\/p>\n

1) The saurians\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 new world.<\/b> The beginning of this chapter focuses brilliantly on the fact that the saurians never new life above the Mountain; they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been tricked and deceived into believing life was impossible without<\/i> the Great One leading them into the sunlight. So I appreciated that there was an instantaneous change here, but it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t unbelievable. The saurians still distrust the felines, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only Ith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presence that keeps them accepting that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re allies. That little detail made all the difference, though. The Great One may have died, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like that act immediately undid so much of the past that these saurians are flat-out different creatures.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, Ith and the felines get to lead the saurians out into the world above. The contrast to what we had always seen in the Downside is undeniable, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such an effective sequence! Like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the saurians had never seen stars<\/i>. Or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the last indigo shadows of night.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Or a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153peach-colored\u00e2\u20ac\u009d sky. OR SEEN THE MOUNTAIN FROM OUTSIDE<\/i> THE MOUNTAIN. I love that one of them sees the moon and asks if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the sun. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a pure, innocent question, and it was at that moment that I realized that I had not even associated innocence with the saurians. These creatures are going to get to explore. To discover so many things for the first time. To learn how live their lives again in an entirely knew way, free from the constraints of the control that the Lone One built into their every second of existence. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so goddamn beautiful, you know?<\/p>\n

2) Saash\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s transformation<\/b>. I knew Saash was old, I knew she was at the end of her lives, but I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if her resurrection by one of the Powers would count against her. I figured that she would be okay because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, she was still alive after the Power left her body? But the truth is much more complicated and bittersweet for that. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true that she exhausted her lives, but she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t die, per se. She changes.<\/i> I was reminded of Ponch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own transformation, at least since both of them outlasted their physical bodies and became something higher than what they were. God, Saash was itching because she was bigger than her own body. She anticipated what she was going to become: a Tenth-lifer, a rare opportunity for a feline wizard. In a way, she earned it, especially on this errantry.<\/p>\n

And I am going to miss her. It was a little weird that Arhu did not say goodbye to her, though, given how much time they spent together. Maybe he used The Eye to anticipate her leaving and he told her himself silently. I AM UTILIZING THIS HEADCANON.<\/p>\n

3) Manhattan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brilliance<\/b>. And for just a few hours\u00e2\u20ac\u201dor maybe longer, as time stretches out here\u00e2\u20ac\u201dManhattan thrives. The city looks shinier, runs smoother, and New Yorkers behave\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, not like New Yorkers, I suppose. (Seriously, I think maybe Los Angeles has more honking. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help! You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get to your destination faster when you honk!) It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sign that the work is appreciated; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a reminder of what these wizards saved; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a way for the essence of Manhattan to exert itself from deep within all the way to the surface of this reality.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then: life goes on. Well, Rhiow does catch up Tom and Carl first, debriefing them on everything that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happened. (How did Carl survive that liquid methane planet???) There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a hint of the friendship that will probably grow between Ith and Arhu. (I HOPE THEY ARE IN THE FUTURE BOOKS.) Ith even talks of the new responsibilities they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have to grow into as the saurians learn to live in a different way. Rhiow says goodbye to Sue while the walls between realities are thinner. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sad, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no easy answer to that kind of grief. But what I like about this ending is how much it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all about moving on. Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that the same thing Ith saw in Arhu? Arhu experienced pain, and he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give up<\/i>. At the end of The Book of Night With Moon<\/i>, these wizards all choose to continue on into the future, and it gives me hope. The world goes on, but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still in it, ready to to stop the world from sliding further into entropy.<\/p>\n

Thank you for this, cousins and readers! While we will be taking a break from this universe for a little bit, I do intend to read the other two Feline Wizards<\/i> book. I wanted to give more time for the remaining chapters to be commissioned, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be transitioning to all Discworld<\/i> in the meantime. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m hoping to have the remainder of the Discworld<\/i> series by the next UK convention in 2020!<\/p>\n

Until then: thank you. What a wild ride, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/vJvJKUqvFb0<\/p>\n

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

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\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":"