Michael Barnes
I have revelled in every one of these Singing Hills Saga books, but each doesn't follow the published order chronologically. In A Long and Speaking Silence our storyteller Chih is only newly minted Cleric, arrives in Feiyu. While disembarking the ferry in the city of Luntien, they’re pickpocketed, and lose all their funds. Fortunately with a popular festival beginning there is extra work to be had at local restaurant called Certain Compassion (it's name becomes a plot point towards the books end).
The title is a reference to Cleric Chih’s calling where gaps in history result in “a long and speaking silence.”
Their initial experiences as a waiter, every night they break plates, and lose track of orders, it fortunate they have talking hoopoe name Almost Brilliant who never forgets anything and their difficulties with knowing when to ask and when to back off in getting the stories makes them question if they should even be a cleric. But I loved how the first night when they finally make it through the shift without breaking a plate the stuff through a celebration, not in a mean sense but sharing their own stories of how terrible they were when they first started. It leads to this observation by Chih
"I was think of Cleric Sun, and how they said easy was only something you knew how to do. Easy's just experience and practice and time put together until you don't notice them any longer. One day, something you can do without thought, and you think it must have always been that way, but it's not true."
The heart of this story is the displaced people, the Verdant Island refugees, who continue to arrive in Luntien looking for shelter. As Roseanna Pendlebury puts in in Nerds of a feather "Too many" and "we're full" are frequent refrains, alongside assumptions of thievery and moral laxity in the newcomers. Over the course of the story, those tensions escalate, resulting in clashes in the street and physical violence, in which Chih finds themself overwhelmed but incensed on behalf of those who have come with so little, asking only for help." The contemporary parallels are clear. What looked to being a cataclysmic conflict between the two communities is prevent by an onset of storms with hailstones which ties back into an earlier story of how a god called 'Little Panuk' saved the town.
The conclusion of the story ties the experience of those refugees/immigrants to a piece of history of the Singing Hills abbey.
Another wonderful novella from this amazing series.
I have revelled in every one of these Singing Hills Saga books, but each doesn't follow the published order chronologically. In A Long and Speaking Silence our storyteller Chih is only newly minted Cleric, arrives in Feiyu. While disembarking the ferry in the city of Luntien, they’re pickpocketed, and lose all their funds. Fortunately with a popular festival beginning there is extra work to be had at local restaurant called Certain Compassion (it's name becomes a plot point towards the books end).
The title is a reference to Cleric Chih’s calling where gaps in history result in “a long and speaking silence.”
Their initial experiences as a waiter, every night they break plates, and lose track of orders, it fortunate they have talking hoopoe name Almost Brilliant who never forgets anything and their difficulties with knowing when to ask and when to back off in getting the stories makes them question if they should even be a cleric. But I loved how the first night when they finally make it through the shift without breaking a plate the stuff through a celebration, not in a mean sense but sharing their own stories of how terrible they were when they first started. It leads to this observation by Chih
"I was think of Cleric Sun, and how they said easy was only something you knew how to do. Easy's just experience and practice and time put together until you don't notice them any longer. One day, something you can do without thought, and you think it must have always been that way, but it's not true."
The heart of this story is the displaced people, the Verdant Island refugees, who continue to arrive in Luntien looking for shelter. As Roseanna Pendlebury puts in in Nerds of a feather "Too many" and "we're full" are frequent refrains, alongside assumptions of thievery and moral laxity in the newcomers. Over the course of the story, those tensions escalate, resulting in clashes in the street and physical violence, in which Chih finds themself overwhelmed but incensed on behalf of those who have come with so little, asking only for help." The contemporary parallels are clear. What looked to being a cataclysmic conflict between the two communities is prevent by an onset of storms with hailstones which ties back into an earlier story of how a god called 'Little Panuk' saved the town.
The conclusion of the story ties the experience of those refugees/immigrants to a piece of history of the Singing Hills abbey.
Another wonderful novella from this amazing series.