Okay, you may recall that the 20th Foreigner book, Resurgence, came out this past January. If you recall that, you may also remember that I really was not at all impressed by it, that I thought it was very much a low point for the entire series, and that I thought the biggest problem was a dire lack of continuity with the previous book. Then we had something of a discussion about that in the comments. That was this post here.
Now, having a serious problem — several serious problems — with Resurgence actually makes me MUCH more eager to read the new 21st book in this series, Divergence, which will come out in just about exactly a month. This is because I REALLY HOPE that CJC will rescue the situation in the previous book — that she will somehow recover and that THIS book will be much better.
If it’s not, then we’ll see. I could in theory back up a bit, get rid of the last few books of the series, and stop following the series entirely. But I don’t want to do that. I want the series to improve again, either the way I suggested in my comments on Resurgence or by CJC doing something else that works.
Okay, now, let’s check out the description of the soon-to-be-released book. Okay, here’s the relevant bit:
…since the aiji-dowager has also invited a dangerously independent young warlord, Machigi, and a young man who may be the heir to Ajuri, a key northern province—the natural question is why the dowager is taking this ill-assorted pair to Hasjuran and what on this earth she may be up to. …
… Ilisidi is hellbent on settling scores with the Shadow Guild, and her reasons for this trip and this company now become clear. One human diplomat and his own bodyguard suddenly seem a very small force to defend her from what she is setting in motion.
What this suggests to me is that at the very least more will happen in this book than the previous one. The continuity problems are not resolved, but CJC is apparently not going to try to resolve them. The best, maybe the only, way to truly resolve this problem where Nomari was absolutely confirmed as lord of Ajuri and now is absolutely still waiting to be confirmed, would be to go back to the scene, two books ago, where he is confirmed, de-confirm him by heavily revising those scenes, and re-issue the book. That isn’t going to happen, but I guess I will pretend it has been done.
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