The Fates Divide

I'm already doing a terrible job at keeping up with the new books (and not new books) that I want to read, but I enjoyed Veronica Roth's Carve the Mark so much that I took the time to reread it before its sequel, The Fates Divide, came out this spring.

Disappointing thing was, I couldn't get into the new book. There was so much more focus on characters I didn't care for, namely Isae. There was more of a political side to the content this time (and mainly it was Isae and politics together, so that made whole chapters of very little interest to me). And even characters I did like or relationships I did like (like Cyra and Akos) were just dwelling in content I didn't care for (honestly, it felt "general YA" to me rather than what I had come to think of as specifically Veronica Roth). So the book sat for, well, months, with my bookmark about a third or so of the way in. I had other things to do than read and then I had other things to read.

Finally when I picked it up again, it got better. Turns out, I'd left off right at that turning point in a book when the tone and pace change. It returned to more of what I wanted. And I can't complain about the ending. There were, let's see, two main things that happened in the plot that I kind of predicted the second before they happened. Which means that they were things that the entire plot beforehand pointed toward but things that were difficult to guess before all of the pieces moved into place. So it all went in a good direction.

I can't really complain, then. And I'm not. I do think, though, that the best part of this story remained in the first book, along with certain pieces of this second book that tie it all in. (I'm being intentionally vague here rather than talk too much about plot.) The first book was the one with all of those great questions about character and guilt and justice and pain and duty and personal choice, etc. All of that came into play in here, as well, just not in quite the same way. In the first book, everything was fresh and sharp. Here, maybe it felt like most of the important character things were done; we just had to finish up some plot things. (I didn't think of this while I was reading, but I wonder if that means that this story was originally just one book instead of two and that it was the publishers who wanted it stretched out into two for obvious reasons.) Not that there was no plot: there was plot. And like I said, I like the direction it all went to in the end.

The idea of fate sounds worse than it is. Personal choice still exists. Positive and negative still exist; sometimes knowing how to be part of one or the other, well, that can be more complicated. 

To Carve the Mark

There is something in Veronica Roth's writing that I connect to. I love seeing the way her characters wrestle with questions of morality, ethics, and habits--and where the three intersect. I love seeing the ways in which they find strength and the ways in which they still feel weak. Such was the case with the Divergent trilogy, and such was also the case with her latest book (which starts a new, separate series), Carve the Mark.

That is, the types of things that I enjoyed in her writing I also found in this new book, but it was not simply a repeat of Divergent. These characters, for one, are in a completely different setting. This type we're in a galaxy of planets, each with their own culture and way of doing things. Everything is set up well, and I immediacy had a sense of a unique, lived-in environment. I liked the environment of Divergent; I like this one just as much, if not more, and it has even more detail to it because it does involve more cultures and planets.

I also love the two main characters, Akos and Cyra. They're just fascinating to watch, and their personal struggles highlight so many of the questions that we all come across as we go about our lives. Questions of weakness, of strength, of duty, of honor, of loyalty, of tradition, of home, of loss, of right and wrong, of revenge versus justice. This way of analyzing morality (if that's the best word to use here) that Veronica Roth has just draws in my attention and doesn't let go.

She is also good at portraying groups of people, while at the same time giving the very personal perspectives of just a couple of characters. We have the closest look at the two main characters and we really get to know how their minds work, but we also have a good look at the people who surround them. Friends, foes, casual acquaintances, family, etc. There is always a sense that these people are all pieces that come together to make a whole.

And that talent of portraying groups, of course, goes well with one the main themes of this book: the importance of every individual. That's why you carve the mark. But I won't explain what that means: if you've read the book, you already know. And I don't want to talk about plot details in this post.

I suppose that means that this is all, then. For me, Carve the Mark was just a very good read. Exciting and suspenseful at times, but more than that, its lasting value was in its characters and the questions that they ask of themselves and the conclusions that they arrive at. I am much looking forward to the sequel, but in the meantime I'm just enjoying what this book offered.