I think this is the first book that acknowledges the Conspiracy’s, and especially Kress’s, feelings of having the weight of the world on their shoulders. The feeling of wanting to rest and live a quiet life while struggling to know if there’s really anything left to save, but not wanting to let down people depending on them. All while being teenagers, just kids. This is made even more apparent with Roxane and is so important to the entire series.
We learn more about where Emergents come from and about the Valta, why Krug attacked it. It conceals the Emergents Academy that has technology to identify, create or corrupt Emergents. A factory that can either create global contagion or universal cure. It seems that children can inherit abilities as well. But I also have a ton more questions. What is up with Manthy? We’re nightmares in each other’s dreams and just need to wake up?? “They’re like us, they’re transfigured.” Meaning?? Ugh.
Then there’s all the different factions and characters to keep track of. Emergents. Hypnogogics. Scroungers. Hawkers. Writhers. The Execs. Banters. Branwynne and the twins of London. Roxane of Bordeaux. The Valencia 5 and the Valta 8. It can be a bit confusing, but the books also do a great job of casually reminding you who’s who.
The complex themes continue to expand with hints of our current affairs. Automation has made people expendable. The wealthy has essentially put the opposition into concentration camps. Keeping some of them alive allows them to feel superior over a group and just in their reasonings. Automation has turned the poor into slaves for the wealthy, and at the mercy of machines, which have none. It makes cruelty easy. ”Humans would be a redundancy at best and a threat at worst.”
Over all, I enjoyed this installment more than some others. There was a lot of action and new characters with less tediousness of theorems. My biggest complaints is the timeline, which didn’t seem to line up. They were given 11 days to get to Valencia, but the message was old, cutting it down to 5 days. It took several days to get down to France and then they spent over a week in the time warp town of Bordeaux. So based on that timeline, their window has come and gone? It all seems to work out in the end though.
Obviously with a cliffhanger and a missing team including Kella, Wisp, Lucid, Reverie, Mayla and War, I have to keep going. “Manthy is our hope for better things to come.”