Interesting chapter with an excellent action scene.

 

Wait, what? You like Henry? The guy's a total asshole! Not only does he completely ignore whatever warnings Alexandra gives him, he acts like a major dick, and is so obviously racist, it's scary. And it's not like it's solely to scare Alexandra into being good - it's just what he does. "As if Hopi witches are any better"/"This is the boy who went to the white man's school and brought the white man's evil back to us", and so forth.
It's even worse when you consider that apparently, he knew all along John was involved in Dark Arts, and he still ignored Alexandra's warnings.

Admittedly, as always, we're seeing it from Alexandra's perspective. And maybe he listened to her and didn't show it. But that's not what his behavior says.

 

I'd really like to know what that creature was that attacked Alexandra.

 

Good points. I actually like Abraham, Diana, Lilith, and Livia, but I attribute that to the fact that I usually like dick characters if they've got good enough reasons for being dicks and are awesome while being such. And the four mentioned above are like that. Henry's a dick, but he's just not awesome enough and without good enough reasons for being so (so a 14-year old dropped you on the head. You're an auror, what did you expect from a duel, sparks?).
In fact, exactly because it's all from Alex's perspective I find it easier to ignore their dickery. I can always tell myself they have a reason for it and Alexandra doesn't understand or isn't listening because of her age.

As for Henry knowing Alexandra covered a lot of ground... I think the simplest explanation is he assumed she used her wand to do so. Throughout the entire chapter, he kept it from her until then end. At that point, no doubt he was a bit too upset and distracted to remember that and think she was going to run off for no good reason, especially with John around trying to kill her.

 

I like Henry, Maybe a touch too condescending but it works. I think it was a bit silly with Henry not believing Alexandra that she was going to kill John. I mean there would be a public record of why he was expelled and whatever territory Charmbridge was in would have most likely sent the files to the Orange rock offices because he was practicing the dark arts. Alexandra's name would have been in it several times.

 

Indeed. I think this was made very clear. She thinks so herself "Alexandra knew what she was doing wasn't smart."

Well, it is as old as the Bible... Ravens brought food to the Prophet Elijah when he was hiding. The comparison to Elijah (even if it slim) makes it awesome by association. Heck, when I started the story I was sure Alexandra would be awesome just because her name is the feminine version of Alexander, and the first famous one was Alexander of Macedon.

Although the fact that she did so and stopped the guys who murdered that woman should help her once the Aurors show up, hopefully.

Yeah, Inverarity's stated on his Livejournal several times that after all the edits, there will be 39 chapters in the fourth book.

 

Awesome story, but I hate the length of the chapters. They feel so short.

 

Well, to be fair, it is meant to be read as a full length novel. At least we don't have wait too long for the next chapter to arrive.

 

39 chapters total, as Meneldur said. Average word count is about 6400 words per chapter, so gimme a break if I occasionally give you a short one.

 

Wrapping up? Things have been quite unspooled for the last few chapters- Alexandra has really flown the coop, burned bridges wherever possible, blundered into a half-formulated vengeance quest and lost most of her hard-earned maturity.

Sorry- I only just caught up with this series and I am amazed by the world-building and characterization, but Alexandra makes me want to pull my hair out. Frankly, I'm surprised things have gone as well for her as they have.

For instance: Death allowed her to trade a favor for almost nothing. I was surprised that she didn't owe two lives, given that she was completely at Death's mercy and wanted to save her brother, besides. That she 'spent' the coin to end a sacrificial ritual only to have Darla throw herself into the Veil instead makes me think the Generous Ones are up a soul. Then again, they aren't the ones insisting on the Regiment, are they?

I think John Manuelito is quite the badass, and the Law (and Abraham Thorn) would have been wise to keep track of him based solely on Maximilian's reports of his activities in the school Dark Arts club. I don't get why he would want to kill Alexandra, unless he wants to annoy Thorn for some reason. As a villain, he's hard to understand.

Now that Alexandra is stuck on the Rez and fighting everyone she encounters, I think my forehead has gone numb from all the facepalms. It's accurate, it's realistic, it's infuriating.

Given her actions, I don't see Auror Tsotsi as anything more than a guy stuck between four worlds who has to deal with this lunatic girl who seems hellbent on getting killed in his territory. His story and background, like so many other characters in the Quick series, are brilliant archetypes of the American cultural experience, as documented in films anyway. It's like he jumped straight out of the X-files, Twin Peaks or Thunderheart.

On the Grimm front, I'm not as pleased about Alexandra's connection. Sometimes it's nice for everyone not to be interconnected at three levels to everyone else. On the other hand, maybe it's Alexandra's connections between the Thorns on one side and the Grimms on the other that makes her the fulcrum of the story. Diana has a certain Javert-like quality (not that I'd consider Abraham Thorn as justified or even well-intentioned as Jean Valjean, but he probably thinks he is).

I think the chapters are sized right for a novel. As fanfiction readers, we get spoiled by the relative verbosity of our amateur entertainers. Publishing on paper no doubt encourages more economy in the prose, making editors and authors much more stringent about including only what's needed. Free, electronic publishing encourages the opposite.

 

I get what you're saying, now. In the previous tales we had a sense of where the deeper mysteries lay, and where her nature would likely take her. This year's story is less thematically 'tight'. Is Manuelito's fixation on Alex related to Abraham's increased involvement with her? Much of this year's mysteries are related to the older background, and yet I don't feel like this is leading us to a point where Alex can declare whether she's in Thorn's camp or not.

A lot of this appears to be handling the consequences from previous books (and prior circumstance), rather than a journey in its own right.

Also, a small peeve- anytime the stars are referenced, it's 'the stars above'. It feels unnatural. What, are you distinguishing them from those stars she almost stepped on?

 

AQ:AtSA is the middle child. If I were to make a comparision I'd say its most similar to Grave Peril. No exactly the most epic of plots, but you can see the beginning of many different plot threads for use later on.

Though if you're looking for a AtSA contained plot... I would say this Book is about Powers and Abraham primarily. Three times Alexandra has attempted to meet/bargain with Powers. Once with Death in the Lands Below, with the Parliament of Stars at Charmbridge and once again on Bonnie's hospital bed. We also know Abraham has made some kind of agreement with Powers and that he has likely got the better of the Parliament. Additionally we have the revelation about Alexandra's mother showing Abraham is a lot darker of a character then we've seen so far (though I STRONGLY suspect Dean Grimm gave Alexandra a highly edited version of events).

So, tl;dr, story's about Powers. By the end of the book we'll be getting more information on them and there will be some manner of reveal regarding Abraham Thorn. The John Manuelito sub-arc also serves a dual purpose. Tying up that particular loose end, but also giving Alexandra an in with the Native Wizards that could give her some vital information regarding Powers and the Generous Ones (remember, they know she's dealt with them :awesome).