Very slow, barely detectable at first, and then slowly increasing, and then reaching a point where it has no choice but to asymptotically reach for infinity. It’s like something finally reached a critical mass.Īnd that’s exactly what the pacing of the plot mirrors – the pace of the growths on Hobbs Land reaching their critical mass. Everything comes to a head, rebellions and coups are put into action, what’s been happening behind the scenes on Hobbs Land is suddenly very much the center of attention. The last third of the novel is solid anxiety. Maybe I was just antsy for the good stuff? I dunno, but it felt sooooo sloooooooow. There is tons of good *stuff* in the first half of the novel, it just doesn’t feel like anything is happening. Slow isn’t bad per se, there is buckets of fascinating worldbuilding and learning about the various cultures in this star system and their beliefs characterization of Maire, Sam, China, Jep, and Saturday the slightest beginnings of what’s happening behind the scenes on the planet of Hobbs Land. The first half of the novel is painfully slow.
Something that did catch my attention this read through was how the novel is paced, and that the pacing matches exactly something else that is going on in the background. It’s neat to read a book that you know so well, to set aside everything that you know you know about it, and find everything else that was hiding there in plain sight all along. I have no idea how many times I’ve read Raising the Stones, I know exactly what happens in it, I know who dies at the end, who the jerks are, who should have known better, who was blinded by their own narrow-mindedness. Tepper’s Arbai trilogy fits that bill a hundred percent. I’ve been itching for some comfort reads lately, escapist novels that I know I will enjoy no matter what is happening in the world around me. I wrote a review of Raising the Stones back in 2011, which gives a great overview of the plot if you’re interested in the plot end of things. Tepper’s Raising the Stones would have been on that list. If you’d asked me five years ago for a list of my top five favorite novels, Sheri S. In the meantime, I’ve been enjoying Sheri S Tepper’s Arbai trilogy.
Will 2017 be the year of the reread? only time will tell.
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