Critique: Lord of the Changing Wind (The Griffin Mage Trilogy #1) (Rachel Neumeier)

In this book, griffins from Casmantium’s deserts have invaded the Feierbiand town of Minas Ford. Kes, a girl, joins the griffins. Meanwhile Bertaud, advisor to the king, is tasked with fixing the problems the griffins have caused.

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

There were so many clever, beautiful descriptions, showing the author has clear talent.

Chiad is as ‘[d]ark as the earth he worked.’ A brilliant description for dark skin without relying on the go-to food comparison.

Referring to griffins, it describes ‘sunlight striking harshly off beaks and talons.’ The sun, beaks and talons can all be described as harsh individually so the metaphor associating them together was a great decision.

Sunlight is described as ‘thick like honey’. A vivid description with instant comprehension. It shows that, for Kes and the griffins, sunlight is a substance which gives the readers an insight into griffins themselves.

Kes summons fire and likens it to a kitten ‘that might scratch but not seriously’. This is a fun, playful image yet shows a serious point that nothing in the griffin’s world is harmless.

 

There were so many clever details.

            My favourite one is a joint prize. The first: Kes draws with charcoal, something made from, and used for, fire. The second: the world ‘rearranging itself’ is the novel’s novel idea for teleportation.

            The king was hearing an appealed case. A Linularinum merchant struck Enned and Enned killed someone in retaliation. The punishment for murder is execution, i.e. taking someone’s life away from them. Linularinum, where the victim is from, likes creative interpretations of the law, so Bertaud suggests taking Enned’s life away from him by forcing his to serve in the army.

Kes and Tesme work with horses. This detail could be a reference to horses being the main food source of griffins in mythology.

It turns out that Jor is a Casmantium spy. In the beginning, he was described in the same way as a Casmantium person. Being a border town, it didn’t strike me as odd that Minas Ford would have physical characteristics of Casmantium, so it would never had occurred to me for Jor to be a Casmantium spy.

 

These are world-building information that are of note. Such as how fire and earth creatures have a strong aversion to one another.

            Griffin society is fascinating. Kairaithin as the lead griffin mage is the Lord of the Changing Wind. The king, who shares his mate with another griffin, is the Lord of Fire and Air.

            Whilst griffins in this series are linked to fire and air, in mythology it’s earth and air. Sand and gems have an earthiness to them, but the fire nature of this series’ griffins accounts for these: sand burns and gems are formed in magma. So tradition is satisfied in a creative manner. Plus, their blood turning into gems means that griffins mimic the process of the planet.

The town Minas Ford is a day’s travel from either Bered or Riamne. Looking at where these are on the map, this means that the countries of Feierbiand, Casmantium and Linularinum are tiny.

Each country has their own set of gifts. Feierbiand has animal affinities, being able to control animals. Makers, who give objects properties such as being stronger, are predominant in Casmantium. Finally, Linularinum has legists, whose contracts are impossible to break. Not everyone can be gifted, though anyone in any country can have any gift. This provides both identity and unity.

Bertaud son of Boudan, Lord of the Delta, has his nature briefly turned to fire in order to heal him. This awoke his griffin affinity. His affinity for fire animals was hidden whilst his nature was of earth.

 

 

Kes

 

Between her actions and her thoughts, I think Kes might be autistic.

            She likes people that don’t talk a lot and who don’t expect her to talk back. Talking isn’t a problem for all autistic people but enough find it difficult enough for it to be used as an indication for autism.

Everyone bar Kes understood ‘without even trying, unspoken codes and rules that only baffled her.’ Indeed, she finds this ‘exhausting and confusing’ which leads to fright. Autistic people often struggle to understand societal rules.

Kes doesn’t ask Tesme how she is because it didn’t occur to Kes to do so. Many would think Kes is uncaring. But Tesme’s wellbeing wasn’t relevant to the conversation/situation. It’s an autistic way of thinking.

True, the problem with talking is also a behaviour exhibited by those with anxiety disorders. But Kes doesn’t strike me as anxious, nor is she described as such. So the talking issues paired with the other two examples points towards autism.

 

There seem to be a few hints that suggest Kes was always griffin-y/fire affinity.

            Being with fire helps Kes feel complete. So she’s been unfulfilled in the land of earth. Due to the fire-earth antagonism, it suggests Kes being griffin-y/fire affinity has always been present.

Someone sees a griffin then draws it. Kes does a better rendition, the ‘eyes filled with fire and beauty’. When Kes has never seen a griffin up close, the general life-like drawing is astounding, let alone the specific details for the eyes. Then when a stranger walks into town, only she sees his griffin-shaped shadow. Kes being griffin-y/fire affinity seems to be the only reasonable explanation how Kes alone could do these.

 

 

Negatives

 

There were some clear mistakes.

Jasand decides to attack the griffins in the afternoon so that the sun is at the humans’ backs. But he also wants to create a killing field between their two companies, meaning one company has to face the sun. So waiting for a specific time of day doesn’t eliminate anyone getting sun in their eyes.

The villagers watch the soldiers leave and then ‘for the first time’ villagers watch them pass. Um, what?

Griffins make sure all the human soldiers are dead, because it would offend the soldier’s courage for them to live after the sand tasted their blood. Yet the griffins don’t make sure their own soldiers are killed once the sand tastes their blood. In fact, they came all the way to Kes in order to get a healer.

Bertaud thinks Kes is a woman, then corrects himself to thinking she’s a girl. After this, he describes her as having a ‘waiflike attractiveness’. He described her as attractive after he acknowledged she was a girl. Now, Bertaud’s so ethical that, not only did he find it abhorrent that he could control griffins against their will, but he was willing to die to protect the griffins. For someone so ethical, finding a child attractive is completely out of character.

The theory to understanding the teleporting is understanding how fire moves through the air. That’s a great description. Yet it goes against the earlier description of rearranging the world.

A mage traps Kairaithin, surprising the griffin. Kairaithin is surprised again when Bertaud frees him. On this second time, Kairaithin notes that he’s ‘for once, been taken by surprise’.

The griffin king follows the direction of the wind. The griffin mages can change that direction (hence Kairaithin is Lord of the Changing Wind). One griffin says he’ll follow Kes’ changed wind and yet on the next page this same griffin says that Kes opposes his plan. If his plan is to follow her, how can there be a disagreement?

Instead of ‘His Majesty’, it was written as ‘his majesty’. Another lack of capitals happened with a sentence that began ‘king of Casmantium’.

A mistake is made when Bertaud says ‘General Jasand is far more experience than I.’ Jasand is the sentence’s subject and Bertaud (represented with ‘I’) is the sentence’s object: the object version of I is ‘me’.

 

 

Questions

 

I have questions. For example, Kes’ memories of her earth-self were fading. It isn’t explained how, but maybe fire is burning the earth from her?

            None of the griffin mages can heal yet Kairaithin knows the theory. This suggests either that some born griffin mages could heal or that the griffins have turned a human into a fire mage before. The book presents Kes as being the first fire human mage, especially considering Kairaithin didn’t know if he could turn Kes to fire. Yet the book also makes out like the griffins haven’t had a healer before. So what’s going on?

Bertaud asks the griffins to stop hunting cattle as a show of good will. Kairaithin says not hunting humans is their sign of good will. Yet when Kes is made of fire, it’s noted that she no longer has hunger of thirst. Then why do griffins hunt? Is it some sort of instinct or hobby?

Kes thinks of Kairaithin’s full name and he tells her not to challenge him. But this doesn’t make sense. Griffins always use their full names (unless they’re close) so full names couldn’t be a challenge in griffin society. Also, Kes needs to know a griffin’s full name in order to heal them (something Kairaithin knows) and healing has the opposite intention to challenging.

Kes talks a lot with Bertaud. This seems completely out of character. But maybe she’s glad to see a human after spending time with the griffins? The difference in thought processes between the two species is clearly apparent and maybe Kes was glad that she could have, to her, a ‘normal’ conversation? With the way it’s written, I’m on the fence between ‘out of character’ and ‘glad to see a human’.

Quite a few of the names are many syllables long and can have long strings of vowels. The author is clearly inspired by her own last name. But as long names or vowel strings aren’t common in English, it can make following these characters/places more difficult.

 

 

Conclusion

 

This was a fascinating read. To have griffins, my favourite mythical being, as the focus of a whole book was simply delightful. The author did a great job into presenting the griffins as having a different culture. At no point was I bored because the plot or world-building kept it a satisfying read.

Why Equating Fiction with ‘Lies’ is Illogical

A lie is when something that isn’t true is claimed to be true. Presenting something as the whole truth whilst knowing it’s not so (as in a white lie) can be included in this definition.

 

Fiction doesn’t claim truth: it’s a celebration of the unreal. Fiction inherently and outwardly knows it’s not true. It acknowledges this with the very label of ‘fiction’, something reinforced by the declaration before the story that any resemblance to reality is coincidental. Fiction goes out of its way to deny it’s truthful.

 

If fiction distances itself from being truth, and lies are an attempt to be seen as truth, fiction and lies are opposites and thus cannot be equated as the same thing.

Critique: The Witcher (Series Three)

Considering how long we had to wait between series one and two, I was glad the wait between two and three was shorter. Only by six months, but half a year is a lot of time.

Yes, I know he’s called Jaskier in the show but I have to call him Dandelion like he is in the book. He’s a dandy after all and I can’t resist a good pun!

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

 

Positives

 

As always, there were loads of goods things in this series. (The funnies get their own section). A fair few of these were wow moments.

            A naked mole rat-armadillo thing charged Ciri. She jumped to grab a pole then turned in the air as she lands. Stunning to watch.

A messenger was riding a horse and his neck was slit with an arrow, only going as deep into the flesh as it needed to, before the arrow flew into the woods. That precision would usually require a close-range dagger. Impressive skills.

Ciri’s voice broke whilst she sang. Either they planned for her voice to break or it happened and they decided to keep it. Either way, it shows authenticity because people’s voices do suffer when they’re stressed or dehydrated like Ciri was.

The fight scene between the ‘bounty hunters’ (I guess) and ‘the Rats’ in the final episode was epic. They synchronised well despite doing their own thing, even when this was squabbling amongst themselves!

 

The animation didn’t disappoint. I particularly liked that the title during the intro slides were textured like bark.

In the intros, The Witcher’s under the episode’s unique symbol. In the final episode, the symbol broke apart like a swarm of beetles, disappeared, and then ‘The Witcher’ was emblazoned on the screen in a large font. That added some flair and drama to the finale.

The blood from the very first fight scene was animated so well. It didn’t do the typical squirting motion but rather poured out; the slomo helped us see the whirls and waves of the blood.

 

The aesthetics were transcendent.

Phillipa, the mage of Redania, had a staggering variety and complexity and hairstyles throughout. It was her hair for the funeral that was most impression. Ingenius, actually: her hair was braided in front of her face like a veil.

Vilgefortz’s staff was brilliant. The way he teleported it as he fought to be a surprise defence of attack was really creative. The structure of it, being angled instead of curved like staffs usually are and having that twist at the top, was aesthetically pleasing.

The dryad’s foreheads upturned to look like peals of bark, with twigs and leaves growing with the air. Considering dryads are the nymphs of oak trees, having a tree-aesthetic was a smart choice.

 

 

Negatives

 

With some things, I wonder how the survived editing.

Geralt breaks the wrists of the fire mage as he runs back through the portal. He could have killed the fire mage on the run past by holding out his sword. We know Geralt’s precision and aim are excellent so it was well within his capabilities. Considering the fire mage is out hunting Ciri, surely Geralt would get rid of the threat once and for all? He’s killed for things he cares far less about than he cares for Ciri.

Geralt uses magic to get rid of the Wild Hunt. Ciri sees a piece of the Wild Hunt’s armour and whispers, “They were real?” How could Geralt have saved Ciri from the Wild Hunt if the Wild Hunt weren’t real? Unless battle magic (what Geralt clearly used) can banish illusions? This isn’t outside the realms of possibility but it doesn’t quit fit the pattern of magic The Witcher has demonstrated before.

When Geralt refuses to hand over Ciri to the Redania spymaster, the spymaster calls Geralt a, “Fucking prick.” Geralt wasn’t rude and the spymaster knew how important Ciri was to Geralt. So calling Geralt a fucking prick was bizarre.

Vilgefortz should have killed Geralt. Due to his intellect, he’d know Geralt would cause trouble for his plans and come after his for payback. So leaving Geralt alive, however barely, was stupid. Far too stupid for a clever character. He even says they’ll meet again so he wants Geralt to survive. It’s arrogance that will lead to his fall and he should see that.

Cahir, on foot, went to stop some horse riders from getting to Ciri. The horses could have easily galloped around Cahir: between their speed and the available space, Cahir wasn’t any sort of obstacle.

 

Yen said there was no time to argue but then insisted in burying the novices.

Even with portals, the transport and then burial would take much more time than an argument. So this didn’t give the best impression of her intelligence.

Maybe Yen should have something like, “We don’t have time to argue if we want to give these girls the burials they deserve.” That would eliminate the contradiction whilst also stopping the fight.

 

There was too much of Ciri wandering in the desert.

It went on and on and, yes, I know that’s the point. But even shaving a few minutes off this time would have given the impression of the forever concept whilst removing the tediousness.

A better solution would be slipping some alternate perspectives into the desert scenes. It would break up the desert scenes, making them more palatable for the audience; also, the start-to-finish of the desert scenes would be longer than them all in one piece, adding to the sensation of the forever-wandering concept. A win-win. The perfect solution would be Dandelion’s dryad scene split into three: singing to the dryads; walking through the dryad camp and seeing Dandelion look at horror at Geralt; and finally the final bit of the episode.

 

 

Funny

 

Two miscellaneous funny bits.

Between her white shirt and her brown, lumpy jerkin, Ciri is dressed like Shrek. I know it’s basic medieval attire but it was making me giggle every time I saw it.

The fire mage threatens to hurt the cat unless the owners tell him what he wants. The owners beg, “Not the cat,” clearly expecting their cooperation to keep them all safe. The next moment, the building is on fire and the mage walks out holding the unharmed cat. So he did as he was asked. Just creatively.

 

There were a few throw-away lines that caught my fancy.

For example, “You knobless dickhead” is the greatest insult of all time. Also, Wilberforce (Tissaia’s Vilgefortzriend) said, “Give Yen a few hours to piss everyone off.”

The soldiers threw (what they thought to be) a corpse into a ditch and said, “Rest in peace, motherfucker.” I want that on every gravestone!

A mage worries if the novices have hurt themselves. Tissaia’s response? “Then we need to get less clumsy novices.

In the first episode, Geralt gives people gold as, “Payment for your discretion.” The only one he doesn’t do that with is the dwarf who wanders of and says, “And I expect payment for my discretion.”

 

Yet it was Dandelion who held the glory of humour. Saying, “I’m right? Well that’s deeply worrying,” for example, was smile-worthy.

In a fight scene, we see an arrow land on Dandelion who screams in mortal agony. Only for the audience to see it was his lute that was hit.

When Dandelion’s girlfriend found out he cheated, his excuse was, “It was one time… with many different people.”

Dandelion had an analogy whereby, “When you’re a hammer, you see every problem as a nail and you’re like, fuck this nail.” This line by itself was brilliant. But then the analogy became, “when the problem is porridge, you need a spoon.” Clever. But then the analogy became too messy and seeing Dandelion’s look of despair was priceless.

Dandelion and the prince start snogging. Dandelion says he can’t bring the prince inside (i.e. ‘take’ as in bring him inside because Ciri’s there.) The prince responds by saying, “So take me here” (i.e. ‘take’ as in have sex). Clever wordplay.

One of the dryad’s asylum seekers tells Dandelion that he’s not Geralt’s friend, he’s just staying to make a song about Geralt dying. In the most serious voice I’ve ever heard him speak with, Dandelion says, “How dare you?” before cheerfully saying, “I’d milk it for, like, three songs. And an epic poem.” The switch in tone was perfection.

When a millipede’s about to be crushed for an elixir, Dandelion looks at it with puppy dog eyes and says, “Sorry buddy,” in the tine you’d use to tell your dog play time’s over

 

 

Things I’ve Noticed

 

The wyvern was correct, having two hind legs and having wings where the front legs would be. But then it has stubs over its shoulder blades (where a dragon’s wings would be attached) and they looked like featherless chicken wings. So, do wyverns have two sets of wings in the Witcher World?

 

There was a karkadann on one of the title screens.

The fact that the horn was upturned like a rhino’s horn and that the episode was in the desert were giveaways. Plus, the footprints in the sand were those of a rhino. So that was great attention to detail.

But then the unicorn showed up with regular horse hooves, making the rhino footprints pointless. The horn on the unicorn’s head, whilst upturned, was miniscule in proportion with the rest of it. Maybe this was to do with animal welfare reasons but it was ridiculously tiny.

 

There were two things that were strange. Not enough to be mistakes but off-putting nonetheless.

The elf-hating mage, ended up saving the other mages when the elves attacked Aretuza. So racism saved the day. That’s unsettling.

Let’s go back to the scene where the mages argue before Yen reminds them the girls need to be buried. All the mages seemed to be wearing the same shade of bronzer placed on the same part of the face. It was identical and a little unnerving because the mages never do anything to conform in appearance. Considering Phillipa had bronzer like this too when she wasn’t even part of Aretuza anymore was even more bizarre.

 

Major changes in major characters is always worthy of note.

Geralt’s smiling a lot more now. Admittedly he has the love of Yen and Ciri so he has plenty to smile about. It’s such a natural progression that him no longer scowling at everything isn’t an unbelievable change in character. Not to mention his hair looks grey rather than the white it started out as.

Dandelion’s clothes are really rather boring. The more serious his character has become over the series, the more serious his clothes have become. There’s not much variety and it’s not in our face like it was in series one. I miss that.

 

 

Conclusion

 

The quality of Series Three was intense. Its quality matched the time we had to wait for it.

It was about keeping Ciri safe whilst trying to maintain neutrality. By picking a side, it would make them enemies of the other side, so by picking neither side, neither side could become their enemy. Eventually they realised neutrality wouldn’t keep Ciri safe although I’m not entirely sure which side they’ve picked.

Having Tissaia kill herself was heartbreaking because she was one of my favourites. She felt like she failed everyone because Aretuza was in ruins, the number of mages was seriously depleted and they failed to stop the war.

            I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next!