{"id":14256,"date":"2013-01-06T22:45:04","date_gmt":"2013-01-07T03:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=5176"},"modified":"2023-11-04T19:20:48","modified_gmt":"2023-11-04T23:20:48","slug":"thrilling-beautiful-adventure-in-the-ale-boys-feast-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=14256","title":{"rendered":"Thrilling, Beautiful Adventure in “The Ale Boy\u2019s Feast”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I finally got to read Overstreet\u2019s The Ale Boy\u2019s Feast<\/i><\/a>, and I loved it. The story that appears to be about a magical rebellion to small, oppressive rulers in the first book becomes an adventure about radical reconciliation by the fourth book. It asks big questions: Can the great curse be revoked? Can a traitor return to his kingdom or be accepted in a new one? Can criminals build a new place of law and order? And more than these questions are the ones driving the narrative behind the scenes: Does the glorious beauty we see in this world point to a glorious otherworldly source? Is that beauty sewn together with love, peace, joy, and hope? Is life (in the land of these books) about rejoicing in the hope of beauty, both natural and crafted?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Of course, this weaves cleanly and smoothly into the biblical theology of this world, because our goodness is defined by the Lord and peace on earth will be to those on whom God\u2019s favor rests, but that doesn\u2019t appear to be the central thrust. Wonder and beauty as they pull us back to God appears to be what this adventure is all about. (Blue flowers are signs that magically refreshing water is nearby.)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the third book, we learn explosive details about Overstreet\u2019s world. The real enemies are revealed. Plots and deceptions are discovered. A new threat, a pervasive weed that lives on blood, is tunneling from its Cent Regus heart throughout the country. Cal-raven is running for his life as well as trying to discover a new home for his people, the House Abascar which is ruined in the first book. At one point, he is compelled to rescue prisoners in House Cent Regus and is broken by what he learns there and in its aftermath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this book, Cal-raven begins to wander, despairing of ever answering his life-long questions. In the meantime, his loyal men attempt to follow his plans for establishing a new house without him. As they go, something seems to be poisoning everything around them. This book is the fourth of a rich, complicated series, so begin with book one. There\u2019s no other way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the story may be too complicated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conclusion of Raven\u2019s Ladder<\/em> changes everything, and the end The Ale Boy\u2019s Feast<\/em> changes it all again. Many minor characters have their hours in the spotlight, and while the story always moves forward\u2014yes, there\u2019s always a reward for the detour\u2014I wonder if these books would be stronger with a bit more simplicity. A few critical details in this installment come up short for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the complexities I love is the development of The Keeper, and I don\u2019t want to spoil it. The idea introduced in the first book which led me to speculate that this mysterious dragon was a god-figure expands to a dramatic crash at the end of book three. The explanation revealed in this book is wonderfully fantastic. This is not the least of all the things to love in these multi-layered stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About that which I did not like, I\u2019ll say two things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. In one late chapter, two main characters argue about the larger story being revealed. They talk of lies, liars, and which historic records are true. Perhaps I should have understood by this point that one of these men had a problematic perspective, but I didn\u2019t. I thought these two were on the same page at this point. In their argument, they seem to circle each other, not even holding to one firm perspective. It\u2019s as if they are floating theories to fit all the facts. This argument proves to be a major revelation, both of character and story, and I believe I understand it now, but I didn\u2019t while in the thick of it. My confusion led to frustration when one of these men takes action later on.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Part of this adventure\u2019s conclusion feels a bit forced. It\u2019s like a murder mystery being resolved by cuffing a character introduced in the last chapter. I see a poetic quality in it, a balance of images, but it doesn\u2019t feel organic like so many other threads enjoyed in this series.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    I\u2019ll close with a beautiful thought from that chapter I criticized a few lines up. One man says, \u201cIt saddens me that you cannot imagine a life without someone to serve.\u201d The other replies, \u201cIt saddens me that you think joy comes any other way\u201d (pg 340).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the end, Auralia\u2019s radiant colors cannot be exploited for commercial or selfish gain. They are a service to others as well as a thing to be served. They \u201clure people out of the dark, away from all they thought they owned, and show them something grander\u201d (pg 249).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Photo by Swapnil Sharma\/ Pexels<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I finally got to read Overstreet\u2019s The Ale Boy\u2019s Feast, and I loved it. The story that appears to be about a magical rebellion to small, oppressive rulers in the first book becomes an adventure about radical reconciliation by the fourth book. It asks big questions: Can the great curse be revoked? Can a traitor … Continue reading Thrilling, Beautiful Adventure in “The Ale Boy\u2019s Feast”<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[131,249,948,1410],"class_list":["post-14256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-ale-boys-feast","tag-auralias-colors","tag-fantasy","tag-jeffrey-overstreet"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14256"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18891,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14256\/revisions\/18891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}