Status Updates From Weaveworld

The falling action of the destruction of the Fugue, heartaching. Shadwell’s journey into the Rub al Khali, the Empty Quarter, the largest sand desert in the world, in search of the Scourge, is extremely my jam.

like someone else said in a review, this feels like what could have been a three book series condensed down into one bewildering epic. the scope of what is going on right now with the Seerkind revolting against Shadwell to prevent him from accessing the gyre and all the moving parts… it’s dense, but Barker paints with a broad enough brush that it doesn’t feel dense.

A pretty bloody 50 pages. I enjoyed Cal and Suzanna’s trek through the Fugue and verbally sparring with some of the residents. Something leads me to believe that Cal actually met with his future self near the Gyre, and that’s why he couldn’t speak, because then it would be obvious hearing his own voice.

I got a feeling that a whole lot of Seerkind are about to die 😬😬😬

The Fugue is a wonderful, prismatic fantasy land, as Cal intuits a Wonderland but delving further into the implications of what that means for a world with “adult” problems and desires. I know that things are about to get super messy as the trifecta of Immacolata, Hobart, and the as of yet unseen Scourge close in on the story, and now we have Shadwell becoming his own operative. That’s a lot of villains!!

It’s a heck of a moment for a segment to end on, the unleashing of the Fugue. But we have two very important threads now: the Scourge, whatever its purpose is, probably awakened with the rupture of the weave, and the very important book left with Hobart, the totalitarian policeman who is having to deal with the collateral damage of having the Seerkind in his fascist fiefdom.

I appreciate how this book rolls on from thwarting our heroes finding the Fugue to introducing five of the seers. There is a very distinct vibe when the five exiles are revealed, and Lilia’s description of the troubles with living among humans as well as the Scourge, that feels like Ransom Riggs had this all in mind in creating his Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children.