Gatherer of Clouds

Reading books is sometimes fascinating just for the opportunity to see how people view them differently.

So... point off for being two books when it all deserved to be one. I think I covered that when discussing The Initiate Brother. But that's not a huge problem when you get both books together. It's a real annoyance when you're buying a series as it comes out, though, having to wait a year for the continuation. Even worse if an author hits a certain popularity along the way and you're suddenly faced with acquiring hardbacks or waiting even longer. But I digress.

I still like the books overall. The story is generally interesting. The fantasy-Oriental culture is fairly well done, with plenty of conflicts between duty and desire. I found most of the characters to be enjoyable to follow.

Lord Shonto is the man. Komawara is pretty well done, though his emotional turn after the war seems a little abrupt even if it may be realistic. Jaku Katta sort of grew on me, but he was also disappointing in the second book. He went from ambitious and craft to being... I don't know - more decent, but less cunning. He lost his edge, but was more easy to sympathize with. His brother was a much-needed picture of devotion to duty. Nishima was mostly okay, though not without what I consider flaws (in a narrative sense, not a personal one).

The Khan was a disappointment, though. A couple things are revealed about him that utterly and completely don't matter.

And there's Brother Shuyun. The fascinating part I referred to earlier is that he who sent me these books sees almost completely different things in Shuyun than I do. He sees Shuyun as a character of unwavering moral code, and thusly awesome. I see him as a character who is underdeveloped, lacking in justification for changing beliefs, and generally just a device to push a plotline that isn't even necessary.


When first we see Shuyun, he's a remarkably gifted and advanced youth among a brotherhood of monks. Well, this is a fantasy novel, so I guess that's okay. You've got to be willing to accept to some degree that fantasy characters will often be the best of the best or "chosen" or something like that.

Because of his remarkable gifts, he's pushed out of the monestary a bit early, we're told. He's used to kick ass in a kick boxing tournament as an demonstration which shows the Brotherhood is probably more concerned about worldly matters than it should be, and he doesn't seem to question it.

Then he's sent off to be a lord's spiritual advisor (which is odd, since you'd think that's a position that would be based more on experience than general awesomeness), and we witness him dwelling on what he's heard of the lord's adopted daughter. Okay, the author is showing some "fate" for them to be involved, but that feels really out of place to me when he's been raised as a monk and they haven't even met. And along the way, he allows someone to commit suicide because he's "not supposed to interfere with someone's continuance." That sounds more like religious/order code to me than a moral one. Morally, wouldn't the right thing to do be to encourage the man to live well?

For a while, he does little but show of his awesome chi abilities. He does some recon and learns about the northern barbarians (which actually has nothing to do with his awesome chi abilities).

Then Nishima throws herself all over him.

Uhh. Huh? They've shared a few conversations and one or two jests over the dinner table, perhaps, but where the heck did that come from? She goes from leading on Jaku Katta to the point of almost getting physically involved to pretty-deliberately seducing a monk of a celibate order. This feels utterly out of character for both to me, and totally lacking in grounds for their relationship to go that way.

But it gave him special insights into compassion, allowing him to offer aid to the invaders, right? Well, no, he was quoting his original teachings when he went down that path. Umm. Oh! Hey, it lets him be the first new member of the Eightfold Path (a fallen/extinct order that accepted sex as part of its teachings) among the flock of the prophesied Teacher! Well that's... great? All this badassitude was leading up to that? ... Yay?

Now, I'll grant that's Shuyun is generally a "good" guy. He seeks peaceful resolution when others won't. He turns from his teachers when it becomes clear they're lying to him. His intimacies with Nishima, however, seem totally unjustifed. Maybe that's not "wrong" morally, but it falls pretty questionable in my book to get all involved with a noble lady and then leave, and the pointlessness bothers me well beyond the characters.

Really, I feel like the main failing of Brother Shuyun as a character is that he's there as the primary connection to the "return of the Teacher" plotline. That whole thread strikes me as out of place and undeveloped. We get a few crumbs through the story and a reveal at the end, but it has virtually nothing to do with the war and upheaval that occupies a majority of the books.

Had the books been written from Shuyun's point of view, we might have seen more development of his character and a connection between his changes rather than leaps. The religious plot might have had more impact and been more central. In general, this aspect may have made more sense to me. But that's not the way the novels were done.

Ah well.