Sacred Scars: Volume 2

This was an extremely quick read, despite the size of the book. I really enjoyed it, and am excited for the next book to come out. It was nice to get a new look into the characters. This book focused on the character development and growth, and brought the two different stories closer together. Here the morality and intelligence of all the characters is challenged and tried. They must learn how to move on and often become stronger than before. I could not say that every choice was morally right, but there was little choice for many of them. I am trying to do this without too many spoilers, but it is getting hard. New friendships are formed while old ones are left behind. Betrayals and challenges happen to all the characters. Sadima and Hahp and Gerrard, in my opinion, show the greatest development, and I like the way they turned out, though I do not agree with all of their actions and beliefs.

This is an amazing piece of work showcasing the talents of a gifted writer who does not underestimate her readers. SACRED SCARS is a complex book with alternating voices in alternating points of view in two connected but different eras. And yet, it doesn't "feel" difficult--a testament to the author's skill. Instead, I found myself completely lost in the world she creates, alternately fuming at and loving intensely her complex characters. Despite appearances, the book is actually a quick-read. The author creates intense and short bursts of scenese that move quickly. I can't wait for the third book to see how the threads of this amazing tapesty all come together.

I so enjoyed the first in this series, Skin Hunger, that I was almost afraid to read this next, because surely it couldn't live up to the first. But it did! And even though of course the plot couldn't resolve--we have to wait for the third book--please write faster Ms. Duey!---I thought it did a masterful job of extending the suspense of the first book plus developing characters and story argument. I'm a writer and in my reviews I'm looking mainly at writing, how the book worked. Actually this is only my second review. But I plan to do zillions. Anyway, what I'm doing is first gauging my heart response to a book, and then trying to figure out how the author made the magic happen. Reading Like a Writer. Often stories have to do with figuring out who people are. Mysterious characters make for tension. Like Gerrard, Hahp's roomate. Who is this guy? He knows things an ordinary student couldn't know. And he likes to read this mysterious book, which he must hide from the wizards (please forgive--this review isn't going to make much sense unless you've read the book). I love characters with big personal identity secrets. Is Gerrard maybe Sadima's child? By Franklin? Also, looking at the character Thomas Marshman--here Duey has her heroine love and admire a character that the reader--at least this reader--thinks is phoney from the get-go. And then it turns out he is, but with a twist. This is another kind of character-based tension--the reader understanding a character better than the protagonist. How can the reader belive-ably be smarter than Sadima, who is no dummy? I think I distrusted Thomas because he is sooo perfect. People can't be that perfect. There's actually something creepy about how perfect Thomas is. I almost don't buy it that Sadima doesn't pick up on this. But then Sadima, despite being alive for 100? 150 years? possesses a childlike niavete. Also I LOVED the chapter just after Sadima's mind is wiped clean where she builds a whole new life for herself with Charlie and Gurr. I admire the deft way Duey gives a whole new life for Sadima, a whole lifetime with Charlie and Gurr, in quick images that really move my heart and is consistent with Sadima's character. Even without her memories, Sadima is still Sadima. She will make cheese and build a home, paint, and nurture those around her. Also there's the use of objects to carry the emotions of the story forward. For example, the silk pieces Sadima uses to make a bed for herself become part of a bed shared with Charlie. Then she takes some of the silk pieces with her when she leaves Limori. The silk pieces pick up meaning as they move through the story. This novel gains much of its power from the ideas in it. The idea that magic is too powerful, people can't trust themselves to use it, reminds me of the Ring in the Lord of the Rings. Do I buy this idea? Probably, sadly, I do. Does Duey? I'm not sure. I'm thinking probably. Yes, a must read.

Sacred Scars continues the tactics and story of Skin Hunger pretty much where the first book left off. It's clear that Duey doesn't intend the books of the trilogy to be separate, but rather to be all one long book, written in three spurts. Some of the frustration I hear from the previous reviewers must be coming from that: there's no resolution in the first book, but it's okay because the first book introduces a terrific new premise and world. The second book starts in the middle, backtracks not at all, and ends abruptly as well, so no one is getting the sort of resolved experience they expect from a novel. The great pleasure here is watching Duey build up a situation -- an argument really -- slowly, and brick by brick. What seems like almost gratuitous sadism and sociopathy in the first book, develops in the second into the natural warping of personalities that occurs in a political system based solely on power. Against this backdrop the author's surprising choice to wipe the heroine's memory and have her start life anew makes a great deal of sense: honest Sadima is in danger of being warped by the power play around her. Returning her to the dregs of society -- where a lot of human decency is to be found -- protects her innocence. And in due course, Sadima stumbles onto the Erideans, a proto-Christianesque-communitarian movement that seems to be the first to challenge the King/Magician power dynamic with ideology. Although I hadn't thought so at the end of Skin Hunger, I'm now realizing that the trilogy is at least partly one of those fictions in which the author argues with herself about politics and power and organizing society through ideas and collectivity rather than through might. Right now Sadima and the Erideans are looking way too innocent and good. But Duey has been busy in this book proving that the simplicities of the previous book are rendered complex. I'm pretty confident that in the third book, things will take another turn, and we'll end on a very rich and satisfying note. A must-read.

The second book in this trilogy continues the story of wizardry and time warp begun in the first book Skin Hunger (see March 17 review). This is a woven story with the warp being told from the perspective of a girl and the weft being told from the perspective of a boy. In Skin Hunger,their stories are separated by a great span of time, but they both are under the power of the same sadistic, twisted wizard, Soumiss. Soumiss exists in both stories since he has the secret of long life. In Sacred Scars, the time span between the two stories narrows. The book ends with an implicit promise that the two strands will merge in the third book. Mystery and the constant threat of danger propel this story along at a pleasing pace. In this second volume, the conflict between the abuse of power and the capacity for kindness solidifies. While suffering permeates almost every chapter, it is continually tempered by slivers of tenderness and loyalty. Romance exists but remains primarily on a spiritual plane. Fans of the first book will be pleased with this one. However, being the second in a trilogy, there is a sense of inertia: the first volume developed the characters but resolution can not come to them until the final book. The anticipation set up in Skin Hunger will have to wait one more volume for satisfaction.