Vision in Silver

So that was definitely a curveball ending. I still stand by the things I said in my mid-read updates (below). But I've also come to realize that this is the longest book that I've read in a while, I mean that metaphorically and in a good way. It's the first book in a long time that has made me stop and analyze character interactions and plot twists at more than face value. It's something that I miss from my “book blog” days. It's also the first book in a while that I've spent more than 2-3 days reading. I've been devouring the books I read recently and I'm glad I took my time with this one. It made me appreciate it a lot more.

Mid-read updates:
08/05 page 32 8.0% “So I love the fact that Simon is more concerned/worried about Meg and what she did “without his supervision/approval” than he is about the political shenanigans going on and the fact that he needs to be a wolf and run. But I have a bad feeling that it's going to bite him in the butt. Sigh”
08/06 page 91 22.0% “Did they seriously forget to tell the Elementals about what's going on? That seems a little too far-fetched. C'mon, the most powerful terra indigene?”
08/08 page 196 49.0% “I think it's smart of the author not to include POVs from the human females. I noticed they were lacking, and thought that it might have been overlooked and that they should have been included. However, if they had been, their thoughts and opinions would have clouded mine because I wouldn't shape my thoughts and opinions about the book myself but shape them around what another fellow human female thought.”
08/09 page 245 61.0% “I'm definitely taking this one slow for multiple reasons. One, the switching POVs makes the narrative easy to take a break from, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Two, the writing delves into the minute details and it gets a bit boring to read about every little thing. Three, where I am currently, the characters are hashing out an important issue for Meg, but just sounds patronizing to me.”

Currently on page 245: potential spoilers below
While the author's writing is very detailed and leaves no stone unturned, it does leave a lot to be desired in terms of pacing. I've noticed that exclusively in this installment the smallest details are part of the narrative and make for a very tedious read. And the level of importance that the author assigns to some characters but not to others has me invested in some of their story lines and annoyed by others. She tends to sidetrack the main plot into all the minute issues that Simon must deal with as leader of the Lakeside Courtyard. I normally enjoy these parts of the books because I love to learn how the world-building and government work but it seems like too many little subplots are going on at the same time the main plot is unraveling. For example, the book talks about Nicholas Scratch and the HFL movement and its diabolic plans, as well as the blood prophets and how the Others are dealing with them, and then there's Meg's growth to consider. It seems like the parallel of the other blood prophet's exposure to the outside and Meg's growth don't coherently fit into the same book and timeline. The issues that Meg goes through in the first half of the novel seem like they would have fit more believably in the previous two books. She's been at the Courtyard for months, and seemed to have settled comfortably in even as she's still learning her way around. Why is she only now beginning to become “overwhelmed”?