Jesse’s Reviews > Weaveworld > Status Update

“Uriel” is an eclipsing villain, a force of nature, a living holocaust. Its killing outside of the Quarter has been less gruesome than the tortures that it inflicted on Shadwell’s guides. Actually, Hobart’s dissolution has been more grotesque, an unwilling frame bearing the burning spirit of the “angel”.

the revelation: the scourge is a spirit who stood watch over the garden that the Seerkind were born from—our Eden—and it waited in its guardianship until it went mad with loneliness. the spirit reads the Bible and reprocesses itself in the context of Genesis: it is Uriel, the angel left to guard the gates of Eden, and it will slay all trespassers and transgressors with fire.

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.

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.

on the one hand it feels a little weird to gloss over Susanna and Cal getting together on the same page as they tell each other about what the other has endured (maybe Cal leaving out the bit about Immacolata’s birthing sister); this initial dialogue would be part of the foundation of their relationship. but, they are both unwittingly in service to the Fugue, and in this way their souls are in alignment.