Update on Jupiter: Illusions of Faith

I've just realised (nearly three weeks later - my bad!) that I never mentioned what came of my review on Jupiter:Illusions of Faith by Kynan Waterford. Hold onto your seat, because it's totally exciting.

Everyone holding on? Brace yourselves...

Kynan Waterford contacted me!

(crickets chirping)

Shut up, it's totally exciting. He explained one of the aspects of the novel that bugged me. If you've read the review, you'll know that I had a teeny-tiny baby bitchfest about Garen and Leisa's relationship. Mostly about how the love-at-first-sight thing was not an adequate explanation for Garen's sudden outburst of human emotion, etc, etc. (Yes, I have a thing against romance; you know this about me already) Kynan explained the sudden change in Garen.

If you haven't read the novel, please note there are *SPOILERS* below. Read ahead at your peril.  

Apparently the reason for Garen's sudden attraction to Leisa was less about her and more about the fact he was no longer accompanied by his heavangel Kari, who was the one responsible for blocking his emotions all this time. No Kari = Garen acting like an actual person. Seeing as Garen had been whining about Kari's absence during the entire novel, and Kari had a good old-fashioned 'I have you now my pretty' speech at the end, I was somewhat mortified to have this pointed out to me. Usually I'm the person who sees things coming three plot points away!

Here is the passage from what Kynan told me:

"Until he is captured, Garen is almost always in the presence of his heavangel mentor, Kari, who has been 'saving' Garen from his emotions (or stealing them, depending on your viewpoint). This allows him to do the nasty things he does and keeps him from being distracted from his mission. However, when he inserts Kari into the Golgotha's communication network (before he is captured), he is separated from his heavangel mentor for the first time in a long time. This means Kari is not around to prevent Garen from feeling emotion, and hence, why an otherwise fairly tame encounter with Leisa, someone he becomes interested in, has such a profound effect on him."

So there it is. Definitive proof that even someone as awesome as me can get things wrong. It's hard to believe, I know, but there it is.

(And many thanks to my lovely housemate Ian who was nice enough to proof-read this post for me and caught several embarrassing spelling mistakes.)