It seems to me that the very essence of tragedy is some happiness that is then ripped away with a kind of unfeeling coldness. There's quite a bit of tragedy in Children of God, just like in The Sparrow. My thoughts about the sequel weren't as pointed or coherent as for the first book, they sort of jumped all over the place, much like the different times, which I agree were important to try to follow. I still connect more with Emilio as a character, I really felt for him when stupid Carlo kidnapped him just when he was about to get some real peace with Gina. I felt horrid for her too and I wonder if she ever found out it was her ex that kidnapped Emilio. But Emilio got some peace in the end, a happy ending, which I think he more than deserved. After the roller coaster of the first book, he settled into a nice hatred of God for a while then got turned around again, finding his way back. I feel like he was sort of like Ripley from Aliens in much of this book. He didn't want anything to do with the mission, then was sort of forced into it, and was a consistent voice for caution. Of course, Ripley was right and the aliens weren't to be trusted on any sort of level and Emilio found that well, not all of the Jana'ata were so insensitive to his otherness and to the equality of the Runa.
Equality in which Sofia played a large role. I went back and forth on her a lot in this book. I understand her fierce opposition to the Jana'ata that ruled her life but at the same time, her son Isaac only works as a hostage if you make some kind of demands, which the Jana'ata did not do. Her lack of understanding Isaac led her to believe that he was a hostage and couldn't really conceive of him staying of his own free will. I agree with Mike that both Isaac and Sofia were kind of frustrating and each could have used a bit of love in their relationship to the other.
Hlavin and Supaari seemed to get the ends they deserved. Yes, my understanding of Supaari has deepened and thus my sympathy but I can't really sympathize with Hlavin. He's still the megalomanic that he always was but I suppose he did help Jana'ata society by breaking down the rigid social structure. Hunting Runa for sport isn't much better than just killing them though.
So, although The Sparrow could have stood alone I think it was helped by Children of God, just so that the fallout from the first mission could be seen in its entirety, not just for Emilio but for the Jana'ata and Runa on Rakhati.
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>>but I can't really sympathize with Hlavin. He's still the megalomanic that he always was but I suppose he did help Jana'ata society by breaking down the rigid social structure. Hunting Runa for sport isn't much better than just killing them though.<<
I have to say that I don't particularly like him either, but I feel like this because of the way our society works. Their society is way different than ours, due to being carnivorous - in a sense, going back to hunting the Runa was more normal (not completely right, the Runa being sentient and all).
As for his character, I didn't necessarily feel that he was a megalomaniac as much as he was hyper-motivated and actually achieved most of what he set out to do. Suupari could be argued as a megalomaniac in the first book's portrayal of him, as well as the beginning of the second one: he wanted to achieve things outside of his reach. Hlavin struck me as more cold and calculating, and fairly (although not completely) progressive (in the Jana'ata sense) - I hope we get to discuss his character on Tuesday, to see what other people have to say
-Mike
But Supaari never intended to remake the world according to his own principles; he just wanted to carve out his own place in what already existed. Hlavin's love for sohraa directly contributed to the downfall of his entire species, and he used illicit means to gain the power to cause change.
I just don't see how being effective and hyper-motivated is mutually exclusive with being a megalomaniac.
Hlavin's character is also interesting to me. An I don't think just his actions contributed to the fall of the Ja'anala...it was kind of wrong timing, because things were already set in motion by the presence of the "foreigners" if they were not there in the first place, the Runa may never have been able to organize to such an extent, it even says they are not good with coming up with completely original ideas but once you give them the smallest new thing they run with it and improve on it and create something new...so if Sofia never planted that idea of they are few and we are many, and later helped them create equipment that could be used by an army, I don't think the Runa rebellion would have happened. And Hlavin's dream society was closer to our society than the Ja'anala society previously was. His means were just questionable.
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