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Is the girl in the first part is Sara Cobbler?
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What do you think? I suspected it was her right away, but it is interesting that through most of the story she and her mother are called “the girl” and “the woman.” Why do you think Mr. McKelvey avoided saying their names? What effect does that have as you read? (He does name the girl toward the end of the story.)
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This one was a bit depressing at times, but it was really good and over all it was one of my top 6.
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It reminded me of “til we have faces” though it is not written the same way at all. I loved it, though it is not a light read. It does seem that he is intentionally NOT saying his daughter’s name and wanting to leave us uncertain until the end, but the farther it went and the more clues there were the more sure I was that it was (or should be) Sara. And the Lone Fendril in this story is amazing. And I kind of liked that the ending was so, hmmm, what would be the term….mystical,stream of consciousness, something…. I can see clearly enough what happens with the little girl, but I can also get a glimpse of the other side of death which we didn’t in the other books, though we hoped for resurrection.
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I was thinking of Till We Have Faces, also! As you said, it’s not the same at all, but still the Man’s determination to be justified against the Maker really drove me to that same place. (Lewis’ best book, in my opinion.)
After such a weighty odyssey it must have been hard to know how to end in a way that answered and even honored the Man’s journey, and I can’t imagine a better closing scene. It reminded me of the translation scene at the end of Fiddler’s Green, although again, Mr. McKelvey was doing something completely different.
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Thank you for telling me what that story reminded me of! It really is quite similar to Part II of Till We Have Faces.
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OK, I have abstained from voicing my opinion on this one for a few more hours and really I have continued to think over this several times, and I have read it over. I stated previously that this is my favorite of the new tales, and for variety of reasons.
Now may I say, (spoilers) that I was at first much more engrossed in the story when I read it last, but also much more asleep. You may say that these statements are contradictory, but when it happens, that it is 11 o’clock at night, and you have finished 3 weeks worth of Latin work in a day, you are still very much engrossed however sleepy you may be. But in short, I slurred over the “further up and further in” part (for lack of a better analogy) to say that the Man (Sara’s father) was healed and sent on his way again after the Maker had heard his prayers and healed him.
Now this is the part where it is going to sound weird but here is what I thought (emphasis) happened in the Epilogue.
I thought (emphasis) that the Man (Sara’s father) arrived to the Field of Finley some years later (perhaps decades) and it was still in ruins. Then I believed that the Man met his wife, who called for their daughter (Sara Cobbler) telling her to bring her grandchildren.
MIND BLOWN. (insert Nuclear test site here)
Unfortunately I decided I had to read it again and saw that I read it wrong. Sad face. Mind was still blown away though. This guy had me at the edge of my seat the whole time, and I really felt so invested and personally empathetic with the Man because of how well it was written and just the emotions in themselves.
But that seriously needs to be a major motion picture, hands down. That was absolutely one of the deepest works of fiction I have ever read and will likely ever read. On a scale of 1 to 5, I rank it a 12.
Check this one out, it’s amazing.
Cheers.-
Ah, sleep-reading can produce some funny effects, that’s for sure. But I so agree that this story is mind-blowingly deep. A film! That would be fantastic! I wonder who you’d pick to direct it? Who would play the Man? and the children? Now I’m starting to picture this in my mind and it is an incredible piece of art already.
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Good Heavens, who to cast? I don’t even know. For the Father it would certainly need to be someone who could express with his eyes, and could maintain the many levels of sadness, determination, rage, and the semi-sanity of the whole thing. For the children, a few years ago I would have picked Asa Butterfield for the boy due to his performance in Hugo (a great family Scorsese film check it out). But he’s already gotten into his 20’s so that’s out. For the kids I think just new actors entirely would need to be found. I don’t really know who could sell the wounded father bit anymore. Eastwood is too old. Kenneth Branagh, perhaps? Or Stephen Dillane? I know they could probably act it well although the physical stuff may be a little much. Other than that there is no one I could really say anymore.
But yes if there is one word for this story it is ART. At its highest form. Paying homage to classical Christian literature, classic fairy tale and mythological tropes, staying in the world, and on top of all that a human story of redemption and tragedy. I said before that the Christian movie business has kind of fallen off with their ability to tell stories, and no one has attempted a tragedy of this form in longer than I can remember. This would be the movie that could bring my faith in Christian movies back. I am not saying that Christian movies are bad now, but what I am saying is that they are pretty much limiting themselves to three subjects. Sports, the Courtroom, and Family Drama. We’ve all seen these movies, and we all know that they can be good. But we have seen them so many times that we can see what’s coming 15-20 minutes in for the whole movie.
As is said previously, this is pure ART. It tells a story straight. One that you could argue we’ve all seen a million times, but its depth, emotion and setting all make it one of the most original Christians stories since, well, the Wingfeather Saga!-
Wait a second… I just read this again. Asa Butterfield is in his 20’s? I thought he was 13 when he did Ender’s Game, which was released four years ago. Or are the two Asa Butterfields? (That made me laugh for some reason.)
Anyway, I agree that there should be a movie (but only after somebody finally makes a movie out of the Firebird Trilogy and a live action Wingfeather Saga film). -
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I finished this one today (finally! School’s been killing me.) I figured out the epilogue, but I had to read it six or seven times. Did anyone else figure it out? It’s funny – the clue is one word. I was like, really? ONE WORD?! But it’s genius!
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I wonder if any of the content from this book will make it into the animated series. They did say that they would expand and explore past the book series.
I would love to see even a reference to any of these stories.
I just remembered that The Ballad of Lanric and Rube is sung by Armulyn the Bard in OTEOTDSOD (good grief), so will he sing it word for word? that could be almost an entire episode! -
This story! I don’t even know what to say about it. It was that good. As others already said, there were echoes of Til We Have Faces, but I also got bits of “further up and further in” in the way it ended. And the epilogue! I needed that little bit of redemption, not just in death, but in life too. I wish I knew the rest of the story, but even without knowing the “in between” parts, we know the story anyway. There is a lot more I could say, but I can’t seem to form my thoughts into any type of orderly progression yet. But this story is amazing.
Oh, as far as who to cast, my first thought was Peet, but that doesn’t help for a movie made in our world. 😛
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I just finished this. And yes . . . Wow, that was deep. There’s a lot in this and a lot I think I need to take time to think about. There’s so many themes here and it’s hard, and it’s real, and it’s beautiful too. I need to think some more on this ; ).
But, I loved this bit:
“. . . And the man knew then that it had never been answers he had sought in his sufferings, but presence, and that presence was here and was itself the thing that had always stood – from the foundations of the world and even before and even after – in the place that answers could not.”-
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This story was SOOOOOO deep. I read some of it out loud to my mom and neither of us could believe the writing style.
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Maybe I didn’t pay attention well enough. But I kind of felt the man in the epilogue could be beadsy.
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I think it was. It says he only had one eye.
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*Spoilers* YESSS~ Steph- I love that not only was it that he sought presence, but that he never found the presence and was always finding the presence…all at the same time– and that was part of the beauty. I also love that Armuyln showed that presence before the man knew what to do with it or who that ultimate presence belonged to that he was drawn to. That’s SO LIKE the Wingfeather Saga “Behold, the points of light in the darkness” as Arthem says about the jewels. We are the points of light!
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With no new posts on this thread for over 1.5 years(!) I’m not sure if this comment will ever be read. But the book is new to me at least, so here we go:
If “Wingfeather Tales” is canonical, then it seems like the final page answers what is probably everyone’s biggest remaining question at the end of the Wingfeather Saga.
“…but his eyes did not rest there, for they were drawn on to a castle newly risen [on Anniera]… and he raised his eyes then to the face of his own dear Sara and he wondered then and he marveled and he wept for his joy at the mystery that she was yet somehow alive and not merely alive but also a princess.”
The only way Sara could be a princess is if she married a prince.
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To be a princess in the newly rebuilt Castle Rysen? I can’t think of another way! If a commoner married the king, she would be the queen. But if she married the brother of the king, she’d be a princess. Have a missed a alternate theory?
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If she was a daughter of the royal family, that would make her a princess, also! And in the very last chapter it seems like that’s what ends up happening. 🙂 But you’re right that marrying a prince would do it, too, so perhaps there’s a bit of ambiguity here about which of the two Mr. McKelvey was referring to when he called her a princess. I kind of like that ambiguity; it leaves us lots of room to speculate. 🙂
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But wait, this is Sara Cobbler! Daughter of a respectable but rather ordinary metals trader from Torrboro. I don’t see how she can be part of a royal family unless she married into it, and if the castle in her father’s last vision is indeed the restored Castle Rysen (which it surely must be, since his vision is carrying him over Anniera), and Sara is sitting on one of the thrones… well, then, I think we can only conclude she became a princess by marriage. And that can only lead to one further, happy conclusion. 🙂
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She could be a princess if she was Nia’s foster daughter. That’s what Peterson inferred happened at the end of the fourth book. Actually, he came right out and said, “Arthram introduced her [Sara] to Nia, who remembered her from Glipwood and delighted in Sara’s affection for Janner, promising to raise her as her own daughter, to Leeli’s great joy.”
It is also possible that she was raised by the royal family AND married into the royal family.-
Yes, I had forgotten about that loophole when I first posted… and unfortunately that may be what Douglas McKelvey was getting at in The Places Beyond The Maps. That’s a pity! I suppose the unanswered question must remain unanswered.
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Hi, I am new at the forum, and I hope I don’t make a fool of myself or anything, but I think that it was the fact that she was adopted that made her “a princess” But I also think Andrew Peterson purposely edited it so it didn’t give a “for sure” answer.
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