Teres

“Timozel, we are going to Fernbrake Lake. You can come with us if you want to, but that will be quite dangerous. If you want to stay here, we will be back in a few days, and you should be perfectly safe. If you want to accompany Faraday, please leave your axe behind here and do not tell anyone you are an Axe-Wielder, because that would put you in danger. We will provide a story for you to stick to.”

Yeah, that's a thousand times better. They treat him like complete shit when he doesn't deserve it, and I hate it. And it's just one of many examples of Douglass not caring about the autonomy of her characters. Even Axis and Faraday don't get free choice or consent.

Blue light comes from her fingertips.

And none of the Sentinels will ever do this again, or anything resembling it. We keep being told how powerful they are, but they do nothing with their powers after book one. Another recurring theme; a character is "so powerful", yet they don't do anything with said power. StarDrifter for example, didn't need to be an Enchanter in the first place. Nor does Faraday need to have magical powers because she never uses them; any time she should be using them, they get cancelled out somehow.

Faraday feels nervous about the coming day, and she wonders why the Prophecy came to life during “hers and Axis’ lifetimes”.

And that's just bad grammar.

She wonders if he has “invaded her head as well”. Well, it certainly looks like it!

But, as with the Limp Dick messing with Kiragon's mind, she just forgets all about this and isn't freaked out.

Timozel will stay warm, the mule and pigs will stay “close by”, and the “worst of the weather” will be deflected.

But if a wolf or a bear happens by, what then?

Faraday asks what Yr means by calling the Lake “she”.

Because every magical non-living thing in this series, such as the creepy annoying talking bridge, is female.

He tells them to come, since “The Mother” awaits.

Faraday, thinking that this is referring to her recently deceased mother, immediately becomes filled with wild hope followed by tears of renewed grief and despair when that hope is dashed. Except not because she's already forgotten all about her.

Jack continues that the Star Gate is “one of the most magical and powerful places” of Tencendor.

This seems as good a time as any to mention that I went through all three books and did another count.

BattleAxe:
Powerful - 46 uses
Power - 77 uses

Enchanter:
Powerful - 67
Power - 132

StarMan:
Powerful - 65
Power - 281 (!!!)

So yeah, it's just as bad as "beautiful" if not worse. Cripes.

She touches his cheek and tells him to “[r]est well” and that she will come back safely. That is quite sweet.

Which is sad given how quickly and completely she loses any and all sympathy for the poor bastard later on. In fact I'd go so far as to say it's her fault he ends up where he does in book three.

He cannot “deny the Prophecy”, however, and “none of the marked could ever evade the Prophet’s hand”. That is quite ominous!

It's extremely ominous and the fact that it just goes blithely ignored is really really gross.

Don't you just "love" how so many fantasy novels (Inheritance for example) are all "Grrr slavery bad, bad guy is bad because he enslaves people!" yet in the same breath act like having your free will taken away from you by a prophecy or some other outside force is a GOOD thing, or at least something you should just ignore or learn to accept. It's such a repugnant double standard.

They have no breath left for talking once they begin to “bend their backs into” the mountain path.

It's "PUT your backs into it", stupid. Isn't this the second time she's made this exact same mistake?

She says that all the other places “have been destroyed”, and only those on the top and bottom have survived. Faraday closes her eyes, and thinks she will never get used to the mind-reading. Yr pats Faraday’s hand, and says they do not do it “all the time”, since they try to be polite. If you truly wish to be polite, you might do better to set down some rules about it with Faraday, I think.

Reading people's minds without asking isn't polite?! THAT'S your reason for not doing it, rather than the fact that is' a horrible violation?? That's just so wrong.

I actually have a character who can get into people's minds and see their thoughts and go through all their most private memories if she wants to. Guess what? She does this maybe twice, early on, and even though the victim is someone she doesn't like and thinks is a horrible person she's so disturbed and upset by what she's done that she vows never to use her powers again. She also very rightly thinks that even a bad man like him deserves his privacy, and when he later asks anxiously if she's reading his mind right now, she says no absolutely not and promises not to do it again. A promise she keeps. Because, you know, she's actually a good person.

But nope, these "heroes" couldn't possibly give less of a rat's rear.

If the side you're fighting for condones behaviour like this, it's time to stop and ask yourself whether it's a side you should be on.

they wanted to train her as much as possible before “events over[take] them”.

Train her in what, exactly? They don't train her at all! All they do other than take her to meet the Mother is manipulate her into doing what they want.

If this were a better book, Faraday wouldn't just sit here and take this crap. She'd realise the Sentinels are horrible and get the fuck away from them. If a character is going to save the world, it shouldn't be because they were manipulated or forced into it. It should be because they naturally developed into the person who is ready and willing to do it. Otherwise the hero loses their agency and therefore isn't really a hero at all but rather a puppet who isn't motivated by noble goals or ideals (Axis certainly doesn't give two shits about the people he's allegedly fighting to save) but is just following a predetermined script. And I hate it.

You can have deep themes of destiny and such without resorting to this sort of thing. You really can.

If Timozel was “an unplanned nuisance”, he says, then Thedithe has “served her purpose” much better than he hoped. She certainly has, by supplying all kinds of impossible stuff!

Are those farmers supposed to be poor? Because if so they shouldn't have all this fancy food. And I also really hate how they're treating poor Timozel, like his ignorance is his fault. And indeed, keeping him ignorant will directly lead to his downfall. These guys are just getting worse and worse.

Faraday lets go and “laugh[s] delightedly, clapping her hands like a small child”.

Is this really the time or place for this sort of behaviour? Also, Faraday? YOUR MOTHER DIED HORRIBLY IN FRONT OF YOU. A LOT of people died. So why are you carrying on like this?

And if Jackass is this old and has been posing as a swineherd how would he not already know this?

Jack says it “lies far to the north”, and he thinks it is the most beautiful of them all.

STOP CALLING EVERYTHING 'BEAUTIFUL' FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Can you never answer a straight question, Yr?

Nope, because she is a Jive-Talking Wizard.

Also, if you are so bothered about Timozel holding Faraday’s “training” up, I think you would do well to tell her as much as you can!

Ah yes the "training" that never happens. Unless you count Yr sort of maybe teaching her mind-reading later on.

An ability, by the way, that she does not need to do her job and only uses maybe twice.

“it was not easy to let go of such ingrained fear”.

Except it totally is. Also, show don't tell. Because you show us the exact opposite.

Again he walks down the ice tunnel, terrified and not in control of himself,

Ah, the "bad" mind control, which is totally different from the "good" mind control.

This also sort of brings up another problem, which is that Gorgrael's powers are never properly defined. It's never made clear what he can and cannot do.

They go onto a steep path “hemmed in by the tall tree ferns”

Treeferns, by the way, are a plant native to Australia and probably wouldn't grow in this climate.

“pull[ed] precipitously”

This is not the time for cutesy alliteration, Douglass. We didn't need the adjective anyway.

And this whole dream thing actually does a decent job of making Gorgrael sound scary... except that in practise the guy is comically stupid and ineffectual.