i'm ready and still a carnivore,

 gleaming | Mar 26 2008, 20:56 pm

mmm...well I'm not (a carnivore anymore I mean) - I am ready though!
This book get 'under my skin' - I kept thinking about it after I finished. I wavered in my feelings towards Isserley - did you feel sorry for her?

 burntsugar | Mar 26 2008, 21:00 pm

I can't believe how much I felt for her - her plight seemed beyond compare, I found myself looking for 'non-alien' examples of that kind-of enforced, irreversible identity change

 gleaming | Mar 26 2008, 21:02 pm

I thought the worst thing was when Isserley realised towards the end that others would jump in her place in a second. She thought she had done such a huge thing - it was so awful to her, she couldn't imagine anyone else considering it. I felt she regretted what she had done, and was doing, so much.

 Humz | Mar 26 2008, 21:04 pm

I know what you mean - she did have a rough deal - but she was still a snob - and through much of the book didn't show compassion - even though she'd had a rough deal herself

 burntsugar | Mar 26 2008, 21:04 pm

that gritty toughness...that was so vulnerable to Amlis Vess

 gleaming | Mar 26 2008, 21:04 pm

Hi Humz - Isserley did regret in the end - and showed compassion. But did she also give up? Like she realised that there is always someone ready to jump in your shoes - no matter what

 burntsugar | Mar 26 2008, 21:06 pm

I thought she was compassionate - she just didn't think vodsels belonged in the realm of compassion until the last moment, when she tries to insist on the rescueof the guy in the car crash

 gleaming | Mar 26 2008, 21:06 pm

I started out very negatively towards her, but as you learned more about her reasons, I could understand - sort of. I'd agree that she seemed to see herself as above everything.

 juliab | Mar 26 2008, 21:06 pm

I jusr saw her as classically 'armouring' herself, not letting emotions be revealed

 gleaming | Mar 26 2008, 21:08 pm