After the fall of the wall of the Watfield garrison, a new Shaftal is beginning to form. But assassins, meddling water witches, and stubborn Sainnite After the fall of the wall of the Watfield garrison, a new Shaftal is beginning to form. But assassins, meddling water witches, and stubborn Sainnite commanders stand in the way of Shaftal's rise to it's former greatness. By water logic, there may be a solution yet to these problems.
Plot
Now that the war has ended, there is a new fight brewing: a fight for peace. Along with that, Zanja deals with time travel and Karis deals with an air witch and her attempts to assassinate Shaftal’s G’deon. Normally, all of the peace talk would make for a boring book, but it works in Water Logic because there are more interesting plots, like dealing with assassins and time travel via water, that breaks up the monotony. I was so invested that it was hard to put the book down this time around. There are very few dull moments in the book, not only because of the plot but because one should be used to Marks’s writing by now to be able to breeze through the book.
Writing
While I’ve grown used to Marks’s writing, there was a lot more abstract writing in Water Logic, just like in Fire Logic. There were times where I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on because it wasn’t said outright. This went for both the narration and when certain people, like Norina, talked. I used context and understood the gist of what was said, but all of the cryptic talk was more annoying than anything and I didn’t focus on it for too long, lest I be stuck on it for a while.
Characters
For Water Logic the characters we’re focused on are Zanja, Seth, the cow doctor from the last book, and Clement, the Sainnite general. Karis, Norina, J’han, Garland, Emil, and Medric are in the book, and they do play important roles, but they’re regulated to the background this time. Zanja isn’t what one would call a proactive character. She was in the first book, but now she lets the fates do what they will with her and pretty much goes with the flow now. Seth was almost like a mix of Zanja and Karis. She’s an earth blood like Karis, but she’s not quiet and as solemn as Karis. There’s just a lot of her character that was just pieces of Karis in another person. With Clement, we get to see a lot of her internal thoughts, which would seemingly add to her character, if the reader didn’t already know that she wasn’t much of a person for violence and fighting. Her actions were interesting, but not her internal thoughts.
Things I Liked
I liked that Water Logic explored one group of the border people: the ones that lived around the water. Because of Zanja’s comment earlier in the book about the other border people I had hoped to hear more about them, but it was nice to hear about even one group, as they have been the only non-white people the Elemental Logic series has presented thus far.
Things I Didn't Like
Three books in and I still have the same issue with this world: key components are not explained. For example, what exactly is the difference between an elemental and an elemental witch? Apparently there is a difference because Karis was the only earth witch in Shaftal, but it’s never explained. Elemental bloods and elemental witches seem like a cool concept but it’s hard to be interested in it because it’s never explained!
Diversity
Nobody is straight, Zanja is the only non-white main character, though she does spend a lot of Water Logic with the non-white people of an ocean tribe, and that’s about it. There is a disabled character, Damon, though he’s not much of a main character.
Overall
I was a lot more interested in Water Logic than the other two books. Things just moved a lot faster and I’ve grown so used to Marks’s writing that I’ve managed to enjoy the book. Water Logic offers an interesting look into the part of stories that take place after wars. I’d be more excited for the next book in the series if it hadn’t been in development since 2007 or something. But the lack of a fourth book doesn’t ruin the first three books.
Gifted with the power of Shaftal but unwilling do to anything with it, Karis G'deon is at a stalemate with the Sainnites. A zealous group of followersGifted with the power of Shaftal but unwilling do to anything with it, Karis G'deon is at a stalemate with the Sainnites. A zealous group of followers decide to take matters into their own hands in hopes of helping the "Lost G'deon". Karis and her family must either act, or allow Shaftal to fall into chaos.
Plot
The plot of Earth Logic is basically all of the culminating things that lead to the end of the Sainnite versus Shaftali war. This does not mean that there is a lot of action. Throughout the book, “doing nothing� is the action a lot of characters choose to take at the insistence of Karis. This makes for an interesting story, but not a very riveting one. There are multiple strings of plot that, by the end of the book, are braided together in the most beautiful way. However, like I said, there’s a war that’s ending, but in a peaceful way, so there isn’t much action or fast-paced-ness to Earth Logic.
Writing
I don’t know if the writing has gotten better or if I’ve gotten used to the writing style. It might be a combination of both. I can say with some amount of certainty that the writing does seem better to me. Things weren’t as tedious to get through, though things were just as glacially slow in Earth Logic as in Fire Logic. The way the story was written this time around just made for a more interesting book. If you found yourself toiling through Fire Logic, you’d be pleased to learn that Earth Logic is a lot easier to get through, writing-wise.
Characters
In Fire Logic the main characters were Zanja, Karis, and Emil, with most of the story revolving around Zanja. Earth Logic gives some characters from the last book, Medric, J’han, and Norina, more screentime. And then there are new characters who are in leading positions, like Clement and Gilly. Unfortunately, as if to make up for how prominent Zanja was in Fire Logic, she doesn’t have all too much of a present in Earth Logic. Karis was, funnily enough, like a rock most of the time, not really doing anything, so it was hard to really like her character. Medric and Emil were cute, and Clement was, in my opinion, the best character in the book (simply because of Zanja’s mostly absence, though). She was very complex and I enjoyed her character.
Things I Liked
What I really, really liked was that this was a book that, though set in a different world, is based off of a past time period but didn’t include a bunch of misogyny and homophobia. Every random solider mentioned had just as much of a chance as being female as male, and same with the regular people of Shaftal. That, to me, was one of the best things of the book. Earth Logic helped reinforce the idea in Fire Logic that there isn’t any institutionalized sexism or homophobia. There were no comments about female soldiers being subpar to male soldiers or same-gender couples being “wrong� or “corrupt�. The world in the Elemental Logic series was such a breath of fresh air and I truly loved it.
Another thing I liked was the look we get into Shaftali family units. It was more hinted at in Fire Logic, but it’s outright stated in Earth Logic that family units tend to be large and made up of both biological and non-biological members, and at the center are children. This was very interesting to me, as families are always shown as nuclear and, for the most part, biological.
Things I Didn't Like
Once again, Marks’s “make peace with your violent colonizers� theme is in this book, and I can’t stand it. It’s a very white narrative to try to portray, no offense. It’s easy to say “these violent people came into our native land and murdered their way into a position of power, but let’s forgive them anyways�. I understand that the Shaftali are supposedly peaceful people, and the war has turned them from open, caring neighborly folks into suspicious, fearful individuals, but that’s not enough to get me to buy this narrative. Maybe if the Shaftali had been given more time to be shown as this peaceful people, and the war truly did change them for the worse, I could accept it. And even if the war ends peacefully, the Shaftali people have been scarred by the war and aren’t going to magically become peaceful and kind again like Karis and the others think they are.
Diversity
Zanja, the only confirmed person of color, isn’t as prominent in the book. There are multiple same-gender relationships portrayed, and there doesn’t seem to be any heteronormativity going on. Any random person cannot be assumed to be heterosexual. Pretty much any disability in the book are magically fixed, so no disabled diversity. No gender diversity either.
Overall
Earth Logic was a step up from Fire Logic. It was a lot more interesting and I found myself reading as much as I could to find out what happened instead of trying to finish the book as quickly as I could. But it’s still not the best book I’ve ever read. There still isn’t a lot of explanation (or any, really) about what these logics are, how they work, or anything else, really. In the end, it wasn’t a bad book, it was certainly better than the first one, but it still wasn’t as good as it had the potential to be.
In the face of a crumbling world similar to ours, Jeanette Winterson's Stone Gods teaches that history is most unkind to those who fail to learn from In the face of a crumbling world similar to ours, Jeanette Winterson's Stone Gods teaches that history is most unkind to those who fail to learn from past mistakes.
Plot
I wouldn’t say there’s so much of a plot as there is a theme. The theme of the book is that humans are consistently destroying our habitats and we’re not learning from past mistakes. This lesson takes place over three different time periods, all with the same lesson. It’s a good theme, in theory, to explore, but rarely do authors manage to convey it without coming off as preachy or holier-than-thou. The “plot� is very been-there-done-that. It’s interesting that it’s told across three very different time periods with the same characters, but that’s where the creativity leaves the building.
Writing
One thing I will admit is that the writing in Stone Gods is pretty, to say the least. It’s very airy and flows nicely. Unfortunately, I don’t like that type of writing. It grates on my nerves when writing is more abstract than concrete. It’s just not my cup of tea. Winterson isn’t a faux-deep writer, like some others (John Green), that try and fail to do speculative writing that really looks into humanity and whatnot.
The writing is pretty but is it any good? In my opinion, not really. Like a lot of abstract-type of writers. Winterson tends to go off on tangents of things that are supposed to relate back to the issue at hand, but don’t actually do that. Books like these tend to be very quotable, and if one analyzes the text they can draw some meaning from it, but besides that, it’s not very good.
Characters
Billie and Spike are our main characters and the one’s we’re stuck with through the three parts of the book. They are very bland and boring. The book is more text oriented so there’s not much of a feel of the characters. I didn’t care about Spike and her human versus robot arguments. I didn’t care about Billy’s lamenting over the state of the world either. They, along with the other supporting characters, were bland and flat.
Things I Liked
The only thing I liked about The Stone Gods was how pretty the writing could be at times. That’s it.
Things I Didn't Like
I don’t like how speculative books like this use sci-fi as a backdrop for a certain theme. I put this book on my reading list because I thought it was an actual sci-fi book, not a book looking at the destructive, repetitive choices of human nature with a dash of sci-fi thrown in.
Diversity
The main female loves a female robot, so there’s that, I suppose.
Overall
This is probably my first and last Jeanette Winterson book. The only thing that saved The Stone Gods from getting one star was how gorgeous the writing could be at times. And those times were a bit few and far in between. In a nutshell, there are better books out there that actually explore how damaging humans can be, and are bound to be in the future.
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