Wrapping and unwrapping my head around Sterlings

Belle felt as if she had been wrapped with ribbons that were now all unfurling at once, her attention leaking away as each one exposed her to more and more of the world into which she had awakened. She felt that more than skin was being exposed with each lost ribbon.

That's one of my favorite paragraphs, the poetic analogy with its hints toward mummification, her emergence into the land of the dead, her bewilderment at what paradise is really like, the hint that it's not as paradisical as it might be. It's also how I feel when I'm writing an especially large work, as ribbons of thought get lost and expose more of what's going on underneath, down in my psyche.

One of the major themes of the series has been Rhiane's: faced with conflicts no one has ever forseen, some rise to match the challenges, discovering unknown skills within themselves that would never have emerged otherwise. I think the same kind of story is emerging with the Dove subarc. I realized this morning that Dove has had only two chapters of her own: the one where she meets Ash & Arwen, and the one where she accepts their first invitation. All the stuff before that only illustrated her shaking off the leash of her parents.

This works out nicely (although it again puts off a pair of major conflicts so I can build out a personal relationship story): Dove will discover that her boss, Jaylanae, is suited to working within an existing market but building a new market isn't in her skill set, and Dove will step up to the plate and try to rescue her firm's mission to the Corridor. In doing so, she'll be terribly split between her responsibilities, her honor as a woman, to people who will come to rely on her, and her own desires. And the first seeds of guilt toward what might happen if she disappointed Ash & Arwen have been laid down.

Zia gets a nice cameo in here, but I haven't quite puzzled out how Polly's "I want someone who'll stick around long enough for me to figure out what I want from a relationship," jibes with Zia's deceptively simple "I just like to fuck a lot" monogamy.

In other news, I feel icky.

(Regarding the music) I'm sorry, but Rusby & Roberts' sweet Irish accents don't serve them well here. No one will ever sing The Queen and the Soldier as well as Suzanne Vega.