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A review by elusivity
The Master by Claire North
2.0
Infuriating.
The ending, so problematic. I think it renders all the intricate shenanigans before it into a tempest in a teapot, and much ado about little--and, when viewed up close, actually explains very little about the hidden protagonist's motivation for throwing all that time and effort into this plan-less plan.
Love is splendiferous... but love is not simply romantic love. It could also be companionship, friendship, deep mutual knowledge, the appreciation of being fellow fragile humans. It is family, by blood or by creation. It is brotherhood, sisterhood, personhood. Shared trauma. Shared history. Shared hope. It is... a thousand things beyond romantic.
And yet, this ending has no explanation--no more depth, nuance, meaning, complexity, layers--than ROMANTIC LOVE!
I'm not biased against romantic love. I am very easily won over if you could show me why THIS romantic love is so unique as to endure the abandonment of centuries. Let me understand why Silver was such a person who could maintain his feelings for beyond multiple human lifetimes, when the object of his "love" demonstrate by deed and word that she does not reciprocate his feelings in the least, and possibly that she never did. Give me some complexity to his feelings--that it was what propelled him initially, but now is merely a quiet shadow to another, larger, more reasonably-sustainable reason--greater good for humanity, etc.
So my issue with Claire North continues. Intricate and imaginative worlds and plot, but seemingly populated by puppets, not people, with their own churn of thoughts and feelings and experiences that inevitably affect all their decisions and situations.
An interesting read, but a disappointing ending.
The ending,
Spoiler
--centuries of scheming and planning, all for luurve--Spoiler
The fact is, I feel there is too much idealization of romantic love these days. It is NOT the answer to all our problems. And by definition, it is the most ephemeral and quickest-passing aspect to love itself. That Silver could not even describe his wife beyond a sentence of "she was amazing" and "better than he at games" or whatever, makes the whole thing even less meaningful.Love is splendiferous... but love is not simply romantic love. It could also be companionship, friendship, deep mutual knowledge, the appreciation of being fellow fragile humans. It is family, by blood or by creation. It is brotherhood, sisterhood, personhood. Shared trauma. Shared history. Shared hope. It is... a thousand things beyond romantic.
And yet, this ending has no explanation--no more depth, nuance, meaning, complexity, layers--than ROMANTIC LOVE!
I'm not biased against romantic love. I am very easily won over if you could show me why THIS romantic love is so unique as to endure the abandonment of centuries. Let me understand why Silver was such a person who could maintain his feelings for beyond multiple human lifetimes, when the object of his "love" demonstrate by deed and word that she does not reciprocate his feelings in the least, and possibly that she never did. Give me some complexity to his feelings--that it was what propelled him initially, but now is merely a quiet shadow to another, larger, more reasonably-sustainable reason--greater good for humanity, etc.
So my issue with Claire North continues. Intricate and imaginative worlds and plot, but seemingly populated by puppets, not people, with their own churn of thoughts and feelings and experiences that inevitably affect all their decisions and situations.
An interesting read, but a disappointing ending.