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Abbigail J.

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The Weaving Spider & Moth (Ethereal Strings Book 1)

by Dal Cecil Runo (Goodreads Author)

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Abbigail J. said: " This novel is a well measured cross-genre of South-American magical realism and old school, slow pace Sci-Fi.

This dichotomy is the thread that runs through the entire story. Her world vs. his world, the planet Earth vs. the International Space Statio This novel is a well measured cross-genre of South-American magical realism and old school, slow pace Sci-Fi.

This dichotomy is the thread that runs through the entire story. Her world vs. his world, the planet Earth vs. the International Space Station, a tomorrow that is not very different from the day we know vs. a futuristic high-tech background, narrow-minded people persecuting anything different from the average vs. a colorful, multi-cultural milieu where traditions and technology are not mutually exclusive.

A moth vs. a spider.

And yet, they have very much in common. Despite of the diverse backgrounds, she and he are all the same bullied and gaslighted, they both feel like an alien in their own world. They have reading, as an escape, and they have something else—something very special, called Traveling.

“Escaping” is the key motif of the novel, making both her story and his story very relatable. But it’s not only the two of them constantly trying to break free, run away from their worlds. There are other runaways, by her side (Claudia) and by his side as well; like Aoife, who keeps singing the folk songs of the country she left behind. They use both the active and the passive side of all kinds of art, as a way out: singing/playing music and listening to music, reading books and writing books; even the visual branch of art is there, as a symbol: the northern lights, representing a special aesthetic.

The symbols are very strong throughout the novel. The title itself—the spider and the moth—foreshadows a metaphor, and then the metaphor develops and gets multi-layered, evolving into a symbol. The first time the spider is mentioned, the male main character is musing on his role as a spy and assassin; he despises it, he despises himself for it, feels himself something loathsome and menacing, like a spider weaving its web. The next time this picture comes back is when he is trying to find out what creature might have caused his teacher losing her leg. He thinks of a spider again, like the most negative option he can come up with. Any time a spider is mentioned, the picture is always dark and expressive. And then, over halfway through the novel, the moth appears, and suddenly the pieces fall into place. We know who is who, and what their roles are in this story. Because her role is that of the moth; she wants to be the moth, but the moth passes on, and so she wants, but she can’t. It’s not the kind of escape she’s longing for.

At the end of the story, another metaphor riches the interpretation of their roles: that of the paper boat and the lighthouse. This is how her—a writer—sees life and herself in it: through symbols and metaphors, through art and strange dreams.

Her everyday life—the life of an outcast—is very realistic, and so is her whole world, even that it’s saturated by near-to-magical events, that of Traveling and all that comes with it. While the International Space Station’s world is cool, distant and futuristic, at the same time, in the early 2060s, life on Earth, especially in Lima is nearly the same as in our days, except for some small gadgets (like hairdresser robots). And it fits in the story; it’s not hard to believe that—especially after a fictive World War III—life in the 2060s would not show significant difference from the one we know. Not the way the Sci-Fi writers of the 1950s and 1960s imagined the year 2000 being a whole different world. It’s strange, given how the pace of technological progress sped up exponentially since then. But maybe the answer lies in the question itself. Technological progress was an exciting challenge then, while now is a common, or sometimes slightly menacing, fact.

This adds to the dichotomous structure of the novel, emphasizing that while the story itself is fiction, the setting is as good as real. There are hundreds of Easter eggs for those who listen carefully. Allowed by the multi-cultural milieu of the International Space Station, the different characters speak their different (and existing) languages (correctly, of course), the places, towns, streets, sites, even the male main character’s deceased mother’s university is real, and so is the Georgian alphabet, showing a thorough research behind the smallest details.

So the story has very much to say before they finally meet, the spider and the moth. Their threads are meant to be connected from the beginning. But the symbolism of the novel helps us understand the dynamic of their last scene together.

The final question of the novel is: can they escape their worlds side by side, when they are the spider and the moth? And while he desperately seeks for not being a spider, she can’t be anything else than the moth.

Or can’t yet. ...more "

Jan 04, 2024 08:26AM · see review