The Fox by Sherwood Smith
May. 19th, 2011 08:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaI love this series. I know when I’m finished it I am going to find myself wishing I hadn’t read it yet just so that I could have the pleasure of reading it again without any knowledge. I am going to be so sad when I run out of books because I could read forever about these characters.
First, some non-shipping thoughts:
- I continue to love how women are portrayed in this series. I love that there are just so many of them, in so many different roles and each fully developed characters. They are just as important to the story and move things along as much as the men do. It's fabulous.
- This book series puts forth the idea that bisexuality is real and that many people are in that range. That pleases me a lot. I love so much how this series deals with sex and sexuality and sexual identities.
- Hadand being in love with Evred surprised me but it made complete sense. I love the two of them as king and queen, it just feels right and perfect, and they are not only friends first but two people who love and respect each other deeply. But Hadand is so awesome and I want her to have romantic love and happiness as well. My hope is that she does find a mate herself in the following books.
- I loved what they did with Fox and his relationship with Inda. Was it really only the beginning of this book when Inda was captured by Walic and became a pirate? It feels like that was a completely different book. But over this book we get sarcastic, cynical Fox planning on using Inda to defeat Walic, then angry and conspiring when Inda ended up in charge, then planning to use Inda for his own ends, to him growing to slowly care for and believe in Inda. He’s still cynical and distrusting but Inda being captured by Wafri is probably the best thing to happen for their relationship because it forced Fox to acknowledge and understand his own feelings and loyalties towards Inda. There is no doubt in my mind Fox will be there to meet Inda when planned, and not because he needs Inda for his plans.
- I’m very pleased with how they dealt with Comet. The story starts with her as this one person – the stereotypical diva – and then gives her depth and shows that she’s actually a lot more complicated than that.
- I find Tau and Jeje and their relationship rather adorable. The way that they're both secretly in love with each other and trying to hide it makes me smile. I really hope that they both survive and end up together.
- So is Inda’s ‘sixth sense’ during fighting Dun’s ghost continuing to guard his back? I can’t remember if he had it in the first book.
Shipping
I have gone from shipping Evred/Inda casually in the first book to discovering my first new slash OTP in several years. I don't know if it will survive the next book but I just love them so much and I really want them together. I actually find myself having honest sincere hope, and not just wishing, that the series could end with Evred and Inda as mates. I don’t even know.
I keep trying to tell myself that it is never going to happen but there is this little knot of belief that keeps saying that Evred/Inda is totally where the books are going. Reading this book thus became a kind of roller coaster where I found myself pouncing on this and that bit as proof as either there being no chance they’d be together or proof that they would be. It went something like this:
- Yes: This book makes canon the fact that Evred is in love with Inda.
- No: I’m pretty sure if the main/title character had ended the series with another man I would have heard about from at least one of the people reccing the series.
- No: There is no proof that Inda has any attraction to men at all. In a series where sexual preference is treated so casually if Inda liked men I would have expected a line or two about him going off with a man at some point or even being attracted to another guy. Instead all mention of his sexual experience has been with women. Even with utterly gorgeous Tau who everyone falls in lust with Inda never feels anything past friendship for.
- Yes: But then there was a one line mention at some point about a woman, someone’s aunt possibly, who after a 15/20 year marriage to a man got together with a woman for the rest of her life. It was said in an ‘eh, sexual preferences are a mystery’ kind of way and it leaves open the possibility that despite only seeing him with women thus far Inda could still fall for Evred.
- Yes: This series seems to like people falling in love/lust at first sight, of a sudden and unexpected connection between two people often when their eyes meet, and it’s something that happens over and over. So I think it sets precedence for when Inda eventually comes face to face with Evred again. There is a strong possibility it could hit him like a ship being dropped on him.
- Yes: Evred’s love for Inda has at this point become very much a thing. Not only is it made canon in this book but it’s something that is very present in the book. It is referenced or hinted at over and over. That has to have some meaning right? Plus there’s the fact that Inda returning home and specifically Evred and Inda reuniting keeps being put off and it kind of feels very... epic romance about it. (Possibly this is just me being a crazy shipper. I am not discounting that possibility.)
- No: This series also seems to love unrequited love, doesn’t it? I mean there’s even a word for it in one of the languages – thorned rose. At this point it feels like everyone feels some unrequited love for someone at some point in the series. I feel like the series is going to end with Evred forever in an unrequited love for Inda but making peace with it, finding a companion and just being happy to be Inda’s friend. There would be a lot of precedence for it but it makes me sad. I don’t think I’d be happy with Evred accepting Inda can only give him friendship and them finding true love elsewhere because seriously I've gone that OTP about them.
- Yes: The series has already pointed out several times that the Montrei-Vayir’s have a habit of falling into true love with one person and that love lasts for their entire life. They mate for life! And every indication right now is that Inda is that to Evred.
- Yes: The author specifically paired Evred with a woman who loves him and accepts him exactly as he is and wants him to be happy. Hadand has a moment in the latter part of the book where she lets her unhappiness and anger and grief and jealousy over Evred not being in love with her back get the better of her but she recognised that moment for what it is and I think that was actually an important moment for her to have. Regardless of who Evred ends up with I think this was a necessary step Hadand needed to take to be able to be accepting of who he chooses. I think that after the first bittersweet moment after learning that it is Inda that Evred is in love with Hadand will be 100% completely supportive of a relationship between them.
- Yes: This series accepts open marriages more than any other I have read. It’s canon that often a married couple will be friends but not lovers, except to have children, and each will have either a mate or a favourite lover or will visit pleasure houses. The major relationships in Iasca Leror seem to all fall into this pattern: we have Wisthia/Tlen/Sindan, Anderle and Fareas-Iogre, and Evred/Hadand are now in this position as well.
- Maybe: I was really worried that Whipstick and Noren’s discussion was indicating or laying the foreshadowing out that when Inda eventually arrives back in Iasca Leror Evred would discover that he wasn’t truly in love with him and thus would move on to find a new love and happy in doing so. Instead I am pretty sure that this is what is going to happen with Tdor.
- Yes: Despite having sexual relationships and close friendships with various women Inda hasn’t once fallen in love.
- No: In the last hundred pages Inda meets and falls in love. *facepalm* Now I like Dag Signi. I was expecting her to be hooking up with Inda’s pirates even before Valda sent her off. But I was not expecting the instant attraction between her and Inda (an attraction I mentioned as a possibility for Inda and Evred). I was definitely not expecting Inda to fall in love with her. And for it to happen right before he once again meets Evred. Damn. I foresee much unrequited love angst for Evred in the future. Sigh. (Oh, what a pair that makes Evred and Hadand. They’re a tragedy.)
Strangely Joret’s storyline actually gives me some hope in this situation, if it's compared to Inda not Evred. After years of not caring for anyone she fell hard and quick for Cama much like Inda after years of keeping his emotions closed off has fallen quickly for Signi. But for Joret that relationship wasn’t forever and was instead more of an opening of her emotional health leading to her finding true love with someone else. I’m now left clinging to hope that Inda’s life will follow hers – that Signi will be his first love while eventually Evred will be his forever love. It may be a weak hope but I am clinging to it hard. Plus there are at least two more main books after this one and as said above they move fast and cover a lot of time and distance. Relationships change, people change so it is not only possibly but even likely that Inda/Signi isn’t meant to be the end-game relationship.
ETA: So I have been thinking about this, I can’t stop, and I have come to the conclusion that there is some purpose to it. Inda falling in love immediately before he and Evred finally are about to met again and after a whole book with Evred being in love with him – that is on purpose. Now is it leading to angst and Evred living with unrequited love and is all meant to be a tragedy, or is Evred going to fall in love with someone else or is it leading to Evred/Inda together and in love? I do think there is a symmetry to having Evred and Hadand both in love with someone who doesn’t love them back but I don’t want that for them.
Anyway that's just a lot of tl;dr on my thoughts about the Evred/Inda relationship. I actually feel kind of silly devoting so much time/thought to shipping when these books are so great and are so much more than that.
First, some non-shipping thoughts:
- I continue to love how women are portrayed in this series. I love that there are just so many of them, in so many different roles and each fully developed characters. They are just as important to the story and move things along as much as the men do. It's fabulous.
- This book series puts forth the idea that bisexuality is real and that many people are in that range. That pleases me a lot. I love so much how this series deals with sex and sexuality and sexual identities.
- Hadand being in love with Evred surprised me but it made complete sense. I love the two of them as king and queen, it just feels right and perfect, and they are not only friends first but two people who love and respect each other deeply. But Hadand is so awesome and I want her to have romantic love and happiness as well. My hope is that she does find a mate herself in the following books.
- I loved what they did with Fox and his relationship with Inda. Was it really only the beginning of this book when Inda was captured by Walic and became a pirate? It feels like that was a completely different book. But over this book we get sarcastic, cynical Fox planning on using Inda to defeat Walic, then angry and conspiring when Inda ended up in charge, then planning to use Inda for his own ends, to him growing to slowly care for and believe in Inda. He’s still cynical and distrusting but Inda being captured by Wafri is probably the best thing to happen for their relationship because it forced Fox to acknowledge and understand his own feelings and loyalties towards Inda. There is no doubt in my mind Fox will be there to meet Inda when planned, and not because he needs Inda for his plans.
- I’m very pleased with how they dealt with Comet. The story starts with her as this one person – the stereotypical diva – and then gives her depth and shows that she’s actually a lot more complicated than that.
- I find Tau and Jeje and their relationship rather adorable. The way that they're both secretly in love with each other and trying to hide it makes me smile. I really hope that they both survive and end up together.
- So is Inda’s ‘sixth sense’ during fighting Dun’s ghost continuing to guard his back? I can’t remember if he had it in the first book.
Shipping
I have gone from shipping Evred/Inda casually in the first book to discovering my first new slash OTP in several years. I don't know if it will survive the next book but I just love them so much and I really want them together. I actually find myself having honest sincere hope, and not just wishing, that the series could end with Evred and Inda as mates. I don’t even know.
I keep trying to tell myself that it is never going to happen but there is this little knot of belief that keeps saying that Evred/Inda is totally where the books are going. Reading this book thus became a kind of roller coaster where I found myself pouncing on this and that bit as proof as either there being no chance they’d be together or proof that they would be. It went something like this:
- Yes: This book makes canon the fact that Evred is in love with Inda.
- No: I’m pretty sure if the main/title character had ended the series with another man I would have heard about from at least one of the people reccing the series.
- No: There is no proof that Inda has any attraction to men at all. In a series where sexual preference is treated so casually if Inda liked men I would have expected a line or two about him going off with a man at some point or even being attracted to another guy. Instead all mention of his sexual experience has been with women. Even with utterly gorgeous Tau who everyone falls in lust with Inda never feels anything past friendship for.
- Yes: But then there was a one line mention at some point about a woman, someone’s aunt possibly, who after a 15/20 year marriage to a man got together with a woman for the rest of her life. It was said in an ‘eh, sexual preferences are a mystery’ kind of way and it leaves open the possibility that despite only seeing him with women thus far Inda could still fall for Evred.
- Yes: This series seems to like people falling in love/lust at first sight, of a sudden and unexpected connection between two people often when their eyes meet, and it’s something that happens over and over. So I think it sets precedence for when Inda eventually comes face to face with Evred again. There is a strong possibility it could hit him like a ship being dropped on him.
- Yes: Evred’s love for Inda has at this point become very much a thing. Not only is it made canon in this book but it’s something that is very present in the book. It is referenced or hinted at over and over. That has to have some meaning right? Plus there’s the fact that Inda returning home and specifically Evred and Inda reuniting keeps being put off and it kind of feels very... epic romance about it. (Possibly this is just me being a crazy shipper. I am not discounting that possibility.)
- No: This series also seems to love unrequited love, doesn’t it? I mean there’s even a word for it in one of the languages – thorned rose. At this point it feels like everyone feels some unrequited love for someone at some point in the series. I feel like the series is going to end with Evred forever in an unrequited love for Inda but making peace with it, finding a companion and just being happy to be Inda’s friend. There would be a lot of precedence for it but it makes me sad. I don’t think I’d be happy with Evred accepting Inda can only give him friendship and them finding true love elsewhere because seriously I've gone that OTP about them.
- Yes: The series has already pointed out several times that the Montrei-Vayir’s have a habit of falling into true love with one person and that love lasts for their entire life. They mate for life! And every indication right now is that Inda is that to Evred.
- Yes: The author specifically paired Evred with a woman who loves him and accepts him exactly as he is and wants him to be happy. Hadand has a moment in the latter part of the book where she lets her unhappiness and anger and grief and jealousy over Evred not being in love with her back get the better of her but she recognised that moment for what it is and I think that was actually an important moment for her to have. Regardless of who Evred ends up with I think this was a necessary step Hadand needed to take to be able to be accepting of who he chooses. I think that after the first bittersweet moment after learning that it is Inda that Evred is in love with Hadand will be 100% completely supportive of a relationship between them.
- Yes: This series accepts open marriages more than any other I have read. It’s canon that often a married couple will be friends but not lovers, except to have children, and each will have either a mate or a favourite lover or will visit pleasure houses. The major relationships in Iasca Leror seem to all fall into this pattern: we have Wisthia/Tlen/Sindan, Anderle and Fareas-Iogre, and Evred/Hadand are now in this position as well.
- Maybe: I was really worried that Whipstick and Noren’s discussion was indicating or laying the foreshadowing out that when Inda eventually arrives back in Iasca Leror Evred would discover that he wasn’t truly in love with him and thus would move on to find a new love and happy in doing so. Instead I am pretty sure that this is what is going to happen with Tdor.
- Yes: Despite having sexual relationships and close friendships with various women Inda hasn’t once fallen in love.
- No: In the last hundred pages Inda meets and falls in love. *facepalm* Now I like Dag Signi. I was expecting her to be hooking up with Inda’s pirates even before Valda sent her off. But I was not expecting the instant attraction between her and Inda (an attraction I mentioned as a possibility for Inda and Evred). I was definitely not expecting Inda to fall in love with her. And for it to happen right before he once again meets Evred. Damn. I foresee much unrequited love angst for Evred in the future. Sigh. (Oh, what a pair that makes Evred and Hadand. They’re a tragedy.)
Strangely Joret’s storyline actually gives me some hope in this situation, if it's compared to Inda not Evred. After years of not caring for anyone she fell hard and quick for Cama much like Inda after years of keeping his emotions closed off has fallen quickly for Signi. But for Joret that relationship wasn’t forever and was instead more of an opening of her emotional health leading to her finding true love with someone else. I’m now left clinging to hope that Inda’s life will follow hers – that Signi will be his first love while eventually Evred will be his forever love. It may be a weak hope but I am clinging to it hard. Plus there are at least two more main books after this one and as said above they move fast and cover a lot of time and distance. Relationships change, people change so it is not only possibly but even likely that Inda/Signi isn’t meant to be the end-game relationship.
ETA: So I have been thinking about this, I can’t stop, and I have come to the conclusion that there is some purpose to it. Inda falling in love immediately before he and Evred finally are about to met again and after a whole book with Evred being in love with him – that is on purpose. Now is it leading to angst and Evred living with unrequited love and is all meant to be a tragedy, or is Evred going to fall in love with someone else or is it leading to Evred/Inda together and in love? I do think there is a symmetry to having Evred and Hadand both in love with someone who doesn’t love them back but I don’t want that for them.
Anyway that's just a lot of tl;dr on my thoughts about the Evred/Inda relationship. I actually feel kind of silly devoting so much time/thought to shipping when these books are so great and are so much more than that.
