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Exigency Discussion Week Two
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Exigency Week 2Reactions to part two.
There are two teams in part two who make first contact with two different alien species or depending on your perspective subspecies.
2. Discuss the “non-predatory” species of the planet, The Threck and the Seekapock.
For some unknown reason, they became cataloged in my head as the suits and the hippy version of Occupy… don’t ask. Lol Both species immediately demonstrated strong passive aggressive personalities . I do believe that Skinny sent the term passive aggressive over the edge. SURPRISE! That came so far out of know where, I actually closed the book to catch my breath. WOW. Even the rest of the Seekapock weren’t very happy with that little temper tantrum. Or was it more than a temper tantrum?
I have dealt with people through the years that seemed so sweet and nice and quiet and polite, but no matter what you said, just kept on pushing you and everything the direction they wanted, with that sweet smile on their sincere face. While everyone around looked confused and a little angry behind their hands. Passive aggressive can be the most difficult to work with.
3. Lets talk about Angela’s death.
Was it necessary? Yes. One of the crew members always has to die after the first commercial. Lol… No really. Yes and no. No, there was no reason for her to die. She wasn’t hurting anyone. Yes, it was a great exclamation point, a reality wake-up that they WERE on an alien planet and couldn’t take forgranted that they were the dominating more intelligent beings. Not everything would go as planned. But most important to not let their guard down.
4. What has most surprised you so far in the novel?
(for those who have read on please no spoilers) Almost every chapter has brought new revelations and surprises with this book. I have read many fantasies and sci-fi novels over the years, but Michael has managed to take me outside my box for imaginative thinking with this story. Every scene brings new visualizations and just when you think you are starting to understand the thinking of the Threck, he throws a twist or loop in that makes you take a step back.
5. Discuss Aether’s role to the team.
Is she a good 2nd in command? On the space station, along with John, they provided a strong leadership with a sense of family, which was important for community in the tight knit insulated group that had extremely limited outside contact. What worked well on the space station was not designed to work on planet, especially with John removed from the picture, but Aether stepped up to the take the lead and appears to do a good job. The question is whether her leadership will continue to be accepted.
Is maternal a good description of her? Yes, most definitely. She looked on the crew as her family (children). In looking at some of her dialog, some of it had a “mommyish” sound to it, like a mother talking to their young child. Not the strong leadership language I would expect from someone in her position and in this circumstance.
1. I was relieved to learn the rest of the team was still alive. To be honest I was convinced they had all died, so in part two I was thrilled to learn although they were in some dangerous positions, they were all alive. I liked how we went back and forth between the two groups, learning of their experiences with the Threck and the Seekapock, which kept us guessing who to trust. When I realized we were only going to read about Aether and Qin, Tom and Angela in this section, I was slightly disappointed because I was dying to find out what happened to John, Minnie and Ish. There was so much going on in section two though that I was soon wrapped up in these adventures too.2. The Threck and the Seekapock seemed so similiar when we first meet them and I can't believe how different they turned out to be. The Threck were the smarter of the two groups and the more civilized, while the Seekapock were lazier, less organized and turned out to have their own agenda.
3. I think Angela's death was necessary for the reader, so we could determine which group, Threck or Seekapock, had the best intentions for the "Orange People". Honestly, I had my guard up whenever reading about the Threck. I felt untrusting of them and kept waiting for them to hurt Tom and Angela. On the other hand, I trusted Skinny and the Seekapock completely and was utterly shocked when Skinny turned on the group and killed Angela.
4. So far, the most surprising things to me were realizing everyone had survived and they way Angela died. (I think a part of me has been waiting for someone to die, but the way Angela died at the hands of Skinny was a shock.)
5. Aether did a good job taking over the leadership role. She was able to compose herself and appear calm, even in moments when that was the last thing she wanted to do. When Angela died, she kept her head, said what she had to to keep the rest of the team safe. I think Aether has great maternal instincts and I could see her acting like a mother hen, wanting to keep her babies safe and comfort them when they needed it. I did have to smile a couple times when Tom called her "Mom".
Susan, I agree with you that part two really pulls the book together. We learn so much about where the two teams have landed. I found it interesting that Minnie knew so much about the Threck and she was stranded in Hynka Country, without the help of Ish, who knew all about the Hynkas. I kept wondering how different things would have been if Minnie would have been there to talk to the Threck. I'm glad you brought up the fact that all the Threck heirachry were women. I found I kept forgetting that fact in the beginning and had to keep reminding myself.
Karen, I too had to stop reading to collect my thoughts after reading what Skinny had done to Angela. I agree that Michael has taken me outside the box with my imaginative thinking. He has done such a wonderful job painting the scene for me that I find I have no trouble at all picturing everything going on. Thanks for choosing this read, it's one that I might have missed. I'm so glad I stepped outside my comfort zone and gave it a chance. It's a really good book! :)
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Susan I also agree that part two pulls the book together I think we're purposely given more insight by Michael as he continues his world building
I almost considered the Threck almost being unisex
Karen I'm totally on board with your number 4 & 5
with each chapter I too experienced more understanding and the world we were "dumped" in became more exciting and real
I loved your description of Aether and John's roles as being a part of a family albeit a dysfunctional one
April- Me too! I was holding my breath thinking that no one else survived.
I'll be posting my answers later today :)
Hi everyone! Again, it's great to read all of your thoughts on this book.As a reader, I, too, get frustrated when an author pulls me out of the story I'm invested in, and then I have to suddenly get to know new people, places, and storyline. For some reason, this is how most of my books have ended up (multiple perspectives, stories within stories, jumping around), and I never know if it works or if I've gone too far until people start reading the finished product.
In the case of Exigency Part 2, I think there's at least a bit of pre-investment in these characters because we briefly met some of them on the station, and we have Minnie and John's perspectives to make us concerned for them.
It was important to me that Minnie and John believe the others dead—to truly accept that they were the only humans alive on this planet (except maybe Ish)—and I hoped that readers, too, would be surprised in Part 2. This is why there is no mention of the other survivors in the book's description, even though it would probably better sell the book as something more than two people's survival struggle in a hostile world.
Susan wrote: "2) Did anyone else but together the fact that the Threck hierarchy(if thats the right word) were all women? I beleive that the Threck are a better orga..."Susan, I'm glad you mentioned this. In all the reviews and comments I've seen so far on this book, there is little mention of the gender themes. The whole story is actually supposed to be one big gender flip, and to raise questions (at least subconsciously) about society's assumptions with gender roles.
The book starts off with your typical, clichéd man boss, John, and this parental unit in charge of the station, as established by the powers that be back on Earth. We can imagine the decades of research invested in determining the optimal staffing/hierarchy of an isolated group like this, and that they found certain personality types work best in these roles.
In Threck society, everyone is biologically "female" in that they are all capable of reproduction/laying eggs, but what does female really mean beyond that function? Even when I was writing it, I'd accidentally refer to Skinny or Amoss as "he", because I was associating femininity and masculinity as gender traits. As the Earth animal kingdom besides humans shows us, 99% of the time, the female/reproducer is the boss, and the male is the dumb worker/sperm donor.
I'm not sure if everyone has read Part 3 yet, so I won't comment on the gender aspects therein, but when you're all done, you can step back and look at the power dynamics, dominant characters, and races, and see that in a typical story, all of these genders would have been flipped: Minnie, Aether, Ish, Angela: males. John and Qin: female. Skinny, Amoss, Unhkte, all Threck: male. Tom is the only anomaly, and in more than one way in the "universe" of my books...
April wrote: "Karen, I too had to stop reading to collect my thoughts after reading what Skinny had done to Angela."You folks wouldn't believe the amount of email/messages I get about Angela's death. "You're not supposed to kill the most likable character!" "How could you?!" "Never forgive you..."
In reality, I created her specifically to be the one who dies, then found her to be too one-dimensional in the first draft, and not someone people would care too much about, so in editong I went back and developed her more, basing her and Tom and their relationship on real people I know. Then, when I was satisfied with their "realness" I went back and realized that everyone else now seemed too generic, and only Tom and Angela stood out as well-defined characters, so I started over and spent an equal amount of time fleshing out the rest of the main characters. And I'm super relieved I did this. I don't think readers would be as invested in this story if the characters weren't as developed as they ended up being. This is an often-overlooked ingredient in Science Fiction as we (authors) get so wrapped up in world building, that we forget that the people are the ones we connect to. They are our conduit to the presented world.
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1- I must have been holding my breath during the entire part one because when they made contact with the other team I felt so much better.
2-You know it's hard to compare a species that is so unique to what we're used to but here is how I thought of the two different species
I compared the Threck to we humans how we different from one location to the next but still human. And our reaction to an alien visitor or 5 would probably be the same except they'd be kept at Guantanamo Bay for their life time.
3-Angela's death never sat well with me but I think for the sake of the story it was necessary.
4-I think what has surprised me in this part is how Michael has managed to make everything so clear in my mind even before he shared those fabulous pictures and make sure you check them out either on my blog or on the photo page here at the club.
5 - Aether is a good "mom" figure to the group she's caring and instructional too. She has a good heart and she's confident.
It's almost time for part three :)
Michael does a wonderfulp job of painting with words. They lppeave such vivid pictures in the mind, much like someone has taken a paint knife and cut stroke of color and derail across the pages of the book. This is one of the reasons I find his book so enjoyable and believable. well, all most, it is sci fi.
In part two we delve into the meat of the story, the world building is defined and the characters become more real.
We find out there are more survivors and we learn more about the inhabitants of Epsilon 3.
1. Reactions to part two.
There are two teams in part two who make first contact with two different alien species or depending on your perspective subspecies.
2. Discuss the “non-predatory” species of the planet, The Threck and the Seekapock.
3. Lets talk about Angela’s death.
Was it necessary?
Why or why not?
4. What has most surprised you so far in the novel?
(for those who have read on please no spoilers)
5. Discuss Aether’s role to the team.
Is she a good 2nd in command?
Is maternal a good description of her?