"Alexandra Quick and the Stars Above" ebook now available

[inverarity]

Click on the Download my stories! link and you will find that AQATSA ebooks have now been added to my fan fiction folder. The PDF includes all the chapter illustrations I posted here on my LJ. The epub does not include the illustrations, so is a smaller file and formats better for ereaders.

Please do let me know if you find any formatting/display problems or other technical glitches.

Comments

Where do we go from here? Hints in AQATSA

[(Anonymous)]

I am now finishing rereading AQATSA (and the three first books), and believe that my already posted hunch regarding the statements of the Starts Above is correct. Namely, it needs to be read in light of the request by the Corn Maidens in AQATLB. Alex forgot about her promise to them, which is too bad, but I am fairly sure taht that's one of the keys to the story.

To wit: The Starts Above tell Alex that they do not have access to the Lands Below or Beyond, but ask her to leave the gate open. That's a fairly obvious hint. Unlike what the Generous Ones say, namely that the gate to the Lands Beyond must be closed, the Stars Above want her to leave the gate open. It is unclear whetehr they are talking about the gate to the Lands Beyond, as I deduce from the interchange with the Generous Ones, who are part of the context of Alexandra summoning the Parliament of Stars, or of the Lands Below, as would be necessary for her to fulfil her promise to the Corn Maidens.

If she is to keep the gate to the Lands Below open, the Stars Above might help her get the upper hand on the Generous Ones, but that seems unlikely, as the SA don't concern themselves with the petty lives of individuals. However, if she is to open the direct gate to the Lands Beyond, the SA can battle Death, ending the Deathly Regiment or stopping it for a really long time.

Problem is: Alex still has her Gees, and the Corn Maidens want the SA into the Lands Below, so perhaps Alex needs to keep BOTH gates open.

We still don't know the content of the prophecy about Alex, except it predicts her possible demise. The full prophecy is what we need to watch out for, but mean while, as far as the closing pronouncements of the Stars Above, that Alex will take a life and will lose all she loves, well, perhaps that already happened. After all, she did kill John Manuelitto, by having her - unbeknownst to her - poisonous snake familiar bite John (well, he bit on his own, but edged on by Alexandra's torment, and Diana Grimm just let it end earlier. And as far as losing everything, isn't being kicked out of Charmbridge pretty much losing her entire world ... for now?

I sense that in the Potterverse, and in the Quickverse, prophecies are not literally true, but rather subject to interpretation. They do become true, but depend on what you make of them, on what choices you make regarding them.

So, the ending may not be so bitter, after all, but surely grandiose, cosmic.

What do you think? (I don't know how to survive waiting another 2 years for the next sequel ;-)

--Geneva

Re: Where do we go from here? Hints in AQATSA

[tealterror0.livejournal.com]

I don't think the Corn Maidens want the Stars Above into the Lands Below; they say they want the sun. And all the SA say is "hold open the door," not keep them open.

While "take a life" is certainly open to interpretation, "weaken someone so another person can kill them" is stretching things, IMO. Your interpretation of "lose everything you love" is slightly more plausible but still stretching it.

All that said, the concept of the series ending with the gate to the Lands Below/Lands Beyond is certainly intriguing. It's certainly been implied that the main function of the Deathly Regiment is to keep them closed. But of course, that raises the issues of the monsters from the Lands Below invading the Lands Above...

Dancing and skipping

[dutchostrich.livejournal.com]

Whoot! It's here. Major rereadtime! :)