Opening Paragraphs
The opening paragraphs of the novel consist almost entirely of imagery. This dependence upon imagery to convey important ideas—opening paragraphs always contain important ideas even if they don’t seem like it—sets the stage as an example of what will prove to be a recurring choice:
“The cup was long and thin and filled with a pale creamy liquid. When he sniffed it, he smelled the orange flowers that grew in looping tendrils outside his window, the ones with the honey centers. But he also smelled the earthy sweetness of the bell-shaped flowers she cultivated in her courtyard garden, the one he was never allowed to play in. And he knew there were things he could not smell in the drink, secret things, things that came from the bag his mother wore around her neck, that whitened the tips of her fingers and his own tongue.”
Stories That Say Something
Everyone realizes that a story that someone writes can say a lot about them personally. But how often do you stop to consider what the stories you read have to say about you personally? Imagery quoted from an oral history of the Crow clan gives an indication of how it could say quite a bit:
“And Grandfather Crow said to First Woman, tell me your stories so that I might know who you are and what you value. If your stories are of the glory of war, I will know you value power. If your stories are of kinship, I know you value relationship. If your stories are of many children, I know you value legacy. But if your stories are of adaptation and survival, of long memory and revenge, then I will know you are a Crow like me.”
Cinematic Description
The practical purpose of imagery as simple descriptive prose is utilized throughout the narrative. This use of the literary technique serves to create a backdrop to the story that makes it far more cinematic than if the use of imagery were more limited in application:
“She looked around at their temporary housing. It was luxurious compared to the canoe. A double bunk bed on either side of a room that was almost as long as the ship was wide, and two raised reed mats that ran along the far wall to make a total of six beds. A table in the middle of the room that the previous occupants had shoved aside to throw dice on the wood floor, and two long benches beside it. There were blankets that looked fairly fresh piled on each bed and a small window directly across from the door that opened to the outside.”
The Day of Convergence
A major event in the narrative takes place in Year 325 of the Sun. It is the Day of the Convergence. Everyday people probably give this another name. It's that day when there's a solar eclipse that is only visible on some distant part of the planet far away from you:
“Xiala stood on the balcony of the Standard Dog with the other patrons and watched the eclipse obfuscate the setting sun. The servants moved through the room, extinguishing all the lights, torch and resin alike. And she saw the same happening on the streets and, from her vantage point on the balcony, the next street and the next, until the whole district was dark. And then the districts around it, the one barely visible across the canyon and even Sun Rock itself. She shivered in the darkness. It was like being at sea under a black cloud at midnight, save for the thinnest crescents of red that glowed on either side of the black hole that had once been the sun. People began shouting around her, yelling for the sun to come back.”
