The Not a Book Club Club discussion
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Range of Ghosts
Eternal Sky
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RoG: Part 1 - Chapters 1-6
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Rob wrote: "But to generalize things, Samarkar goes from novice to competent sorceress rather quickly in my opinion. I guess we're just to take one or two scenes of her training as a generalization for her learning a bunch of other things? "Well I think that's because she had been a novice for some years before she actually underwent the operation. Supposedly they have to learn techniques of control even though they don't have the magic yet. Otherwise, how come that Samarkar's teacher was a sorceress with no power at all? And an 'expert' in magic? Actually, I really liked one thing about being a wizard: that even in case you didn't gain power after being neutered you became a wizard anyway, and not a failure.
Rob wrote: "I agree with your generalized thoughts on magic. There are books with magic not well explained that I've enjoyed fine.
Some of my thoughts on why I'm unhappy with the magic in this book may better..."
At the point I'm at in the book, Samarkar is nowhere near competent - she was treated like a competent sorceress and thrown into an assignment very quickly, but she's still struggling with very basic things. Her magical abilities did come on very fast, but that's how it works in that system I think; you go through that initiation ritual and then bang - you've got magic (although you can't do much with it yet). I'll be interested to see if her abilities appear to develop too quickly from this point forward. I do agree that certain things in this book seemed rushed - Temur's quick recovery from a wound that appeared fatal comes to mind.
Some of my thoughts on why I'm unhappy with the magic in this book may better..."
At the point I'm at in the book, Samarkar is nowhere near competent - she was treated like a competent sorceress and thrown into an assignment very quickly, but she's still struggling with very basic things. Her magical abilities did come on very fast, but that's how it works in that system I think; you go through that initiation ritual and then bang - you've got magic (although you can't do much with it yet). I'll be interested to see if her abilities appear to develop too quickly from this point forward. I do agree that certain things in this book seemed rushed - Temur's quick recovery from a wound that appeared fatal comes to mind.
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That was why she was paired up with her. Her teacher knew all the theory, but couldn't do any of it in practice.
Also, why would they waste time teaching someone who might die from the procedure? I don't see her having learned much before the operation was a success.
I'm a little worried I might spoil something so I am going to avoid concretely mentioning any real examples, but the magical system had a very Buddhist vibe to me. I'm going to be (apologetically!) mangling things here, I'm sure, but there is at least one strain of Buddhism where enlightenment is perceived to happen very quickly - a flash of insight, so to speak, that can happen at any point in the training/devotion process. That's what the magic felt like to me. As for the teacher, I got the sense that their magic is as much intellectual grasping of precepts and a practice, as it is magically manipulating the world. Understanding the precepts can happen even if you aren't magically gifted - to continue my bad analogy, someone can teach you to reach enlightenment even if they aren't yet enlightened.
Some of my thoughts on why I'm unhappy with the magic in this book may better be left for later sections, though I'm hard pressed to remember exactly when certain events occur.
But to generalize things, Samarkar goes from novice to competent sorceress rather quickly in my opinion. I guess we're just to take one or two scenes of her training as a generalization for her learning a bunch of other things?