The Inheritance > A Touch of Lavender

[David Sven]

For some reason I went through half this story thinking Billy was a girl. The aliens in this wants me to call it scifi - but I'm not sure it quite qualifies?
It was well written with strong focus on character and relationship - the actual story itself was ok.

[David Sven]

I think he just seemed very motherly. Even after I realised I had to keep reminding myself.

[Hanne]

I started thinking it was a girl too, but somewhere at page 2 i noticed my error. I think it might have been because in the introduction Robin Hobb talked about that sofa and we just projected a female voice on it?

I didn't know what to expect of a Lindholm story. For some reason i thought she wrote urban fantasy, so i was a bit surprised by the arrival of the Skoags.

I thought the story was ok, but not brilliant. I didn't really get all the driving forces. Why did the Skoag all of a sudden make contact? What is the deal with Lisa in the end? Perhaps i would need to read it a second time and see whether i missed something hidden.

The writing was good though.

[Kate]

I read this collection last summer, but Touch of Lavender still plays on my mind. It's a beautifully crafted metaphor for conflating love for music with love for the musician.

In a neat dig at patriarchal religion, in this cosmic groupie ballad the ultimate communion of sound is realised through a golden girl rather than a boy saviour.

[Alfred]

Er... should I assume no spoiler tags needed since the earlier comments already reveal the story? Let me know.

So, there's casual sex! Drugs! Groupies! Addiction! And inter-species something, something going on between The Mum and Lavender. (All that kind of sound familiar somehow in another series we've read... but in medieval times).

I went from "Awww, so sweet" when Lavender moved in and their lives improved so much, to "Ewww, gross", when mum and alien were holding flippers. Couldn't really get into the groove of the story though. Too much happening and too little exposition but I guess that's to be expected for short stories.

Didn't have any confusion about Billy being a boy because I would have done exactly the same things he did...

Love how the music was integrated into the story though, and how that became a common language worth dying for.

Ok, a 2.5/5 star for me.

[Ash09]

Alfred wrote: "So, there's casual sex! Drugs! Groupies! Addiction! And inter-species something..."

Yeah, I had no problems identifying Billy as a boy. Having said that, Billy's gender is immaterial. He's just the spawn of his parent. The dystopian world was understated but horrifying; the mice in the sofa seem more loving than the inhabitants of the apartment. Gov't has reduced parenting to lower-class employment with a minimal aid-check and a definite end in sight; as soon as the kid is 18, he moves out, and that's it. That leads to a long list of betrayals: The mother, maybe looking for something better than this, nurtures a string of musicians instead of her son. All the musicians but one betray her. Lavender is the exception, but he is also a time bomb, as a single accidental touch turns the mother into a life-long addict. In an attempt to keep his sister out of a state-run home, Billy finds unobtrusive ways of feeding his mother's addiction. The sister betrays both the mother and Billy by running off at the earliest opportunity. She doesn't look back, and I couldn't blame her.

The inter-species something going on was, um, interesting? It also reminded me of another fantasy I may have read once upon a time.

idk how to do the rating, but I'd give it more stars than you did :)

[Alfred]

Nice summary there! My rating was a little harsh, and may be revised later... It's just a baseline rating for the other stories.

I really liked the human part of the story. Billy having to rough it out but with so much resilience and sheer determination to make the best of everything. Mum was a groupie/junkie deadbeat, sorry, I couldn't see her any other way. But Billy, I was rooting for to get out of ghetto but in the end, he too got shafted. Which did not surprise me given Lindholm/Hobb's propensity for no happy endings.

The Skoag part of the story was bizarre. They have a completely different culture that I wished was elaborated further, to make them a more sympathetic and less... well, alien. I suppose Lindholm was telling a social story about anti-immigration? Poor neighborhoods infiltrated by immigrants who were treated better and had more access to welfare than the locals themselves...

[Scarletine]

Alfred wrote: "Nice summary there! My rating was a little harsh, and may be revised later... It's just a baseline rating for the other stories.

I really liked the human part of the story. Billy having to rough ..."

I just couldn't get on with this story and DNF'd half way through.

[Scarletine]

Junie wrote: "You guys make me want to check this out!!! And find out if I would finish the story or not ... Scarletine, are the stories all that bad???"

No the stories aren't all bad. I just don't gel with her writing as Megan Lindholm. There are three stories, i think that are based in the 'Realm of the Elderlings' and after each one i wanted more.