Keeper of the Lost Cities #2 Exile - Thoughts from 4th and 5th Readings

I read Keeper of the Lost Cities #1 and #2 in June for the 4th time.  I read part of #3, then I became distracted.  My plan all along was to read through the set again just before the release of #9.5.  I finally got myself motivated in October.  I decided to read #1 and #2 again, for the 5th time, before continuing with #3.  This post contains thoughts from both readings.

This post contains MAJOR SPOILERS from late in the set.  Do not read this post unless you've read ALL of the books that have been published.  You've been warned.

Sophie enters Prentice's mind on page 238.  What Sophie sees on pages 239 and 240 is important, although it makes no sense to first-time readers of the series. 

Trees rained from gray-green clouds, their dark branches reaching for her like clawed hands as they fell. Beasts sprang from a ground lit with stars, bared their fangs, and chased her across the sky-covered hills. Glowing eyes peeked through bushes covered in blue ears, and butterflies with bright red lips whispered sounds like mush. Sophie searched for some clue, some key to translate what she was seeing, but there seemed to be no rhyme or reason for anything.

Elysian is described here:

Glowing eyes peeked through bushes covered in blue ears, and butterflies with bright red lips whispered sounds like mush.

This second passage also has something important in it.

The images tangled, coiling around her, pulling her deeper. She whipped through more darkness and fell into the streets of a ruined city. The clouded and cracked crystal buildings were a hodgepodge of structures Sophie had seen throughout the Lost Cities: the swirling castles from Eternalia sandwiched among the silver-tipped spires from Atlantis mixed with gleaming mansions that wrapped around the pyramid of Foxfire. There was a fountain in the center of it all, two golden figures standing in a round pool, holding hands as colored streams of water showered them from every direction.

This description is of the Unity Fountain in Atlantis, featured in #6 Nightfall.

There was a fountain in the center of it all, two golden figures standing in a round pool, holding hands as colored streams of water showered them from every direction.

I noticed that Alvar is very kind to Sophie.  He's a villain who seems redeemable.  The last we see of him in Book 8, he's beaten down and defeated.  I hope we see him again and that he does redeem himself.  [I wrote this in October.  He returns in #9.5 Unraveled, but we don't know for sure whether he will ultimately be redeemed.]

On page 411, Sophie and Tiergan speak about the Black Swan.  Tiergan uses "they" in reference to the Black Swan, and "they" is purposefully emphasized. 

I've mentioned this next passage before.

Page 532   Kenric stepped forward.  "I think perhaps we're focusing on the wrong concern.  Sophie, do you still have the compass that led you to the Black Swan?"

This is another instance of Shannon making sure that the reader knows that Kenric can't be Forkle.  The problem is that we learn later that Forkle is a pair of identical twins.  Kenric can't be ruled out for that reason.

All of my past Keeper posts are linked from this page:

Keeper of the Lost Cities Summaries, Reviews, and Theories