Water Logic

Marks' worldbuilding and depiction of socio-political forces are second to none. Her language--particularly descriptive passages--is frequently lovely and almost never relies on cliche. That said, I still don't connect emotionally with the characters or find myself absorbed into their world. Which is not to say that I don't care about the story or what happens next, just that the experience is closer to reading a well-written nonfiction account of a major historical event than an immersive fantasy novel.

The third book in Laurie J. Marks' Elemental Logic series, Water Logic picks up where the earlier books leave off, and absolutely lives up to their magic. Partially made up of dual narratives that echo each other in a gorgeous line of symmetry, the book pulls together all of the magic and wonder from the earlier books, and only builds upon it all. As true-feeling as the characters are, the book's world is one that you can't help being sucked into.

I'd absolutely recommend this series, and I can't wait to read the fourth.

this one, third in the series of four, is a bit different. water logic is chaotic, and the story follows that lead by describing a lot more magic within a great deal of frenetic action. a trip to the past and back to the present is made, changing the world at both ends, because water magic is all about change. this lends the story considerable weight and propels the characters into unfamiliar pathways. they are now so dear and familiar, i'm truly going to hate to see this series come to an end. it's such an intricate tale, a tangle of story, best practice would be to read the four books in order, and all at once. this one's especially good, and that's a high bar.

I read the first two in this series (Fire Logic and Earth Logic) quite a while ago. I wish I'd read them closer together, before the details faded in my memory, but the first two were published by Tor, and this one by Small Beer Press, which is an excellent publisher, but as its name might indicate, a smaller one, so it took me a while to get a copy.
It's really too bad that Tor apparently dropped this series, because it's really a cut above the average. It has an interesting, well-realized world with interesting cultural elements and magical details, as well as engaging, rounded characters. The story kept my interest, while creating a thoughtful dialogue about the clashes of cultures and the personal attitudes that can lead to conflict show more or pacifism. show less

This is the third part of the Elemental Logic series, and the weakest. Karis and her rag tag band of Sainnite and Shaftalese allies are still trying to bring all of Shaftal together. Most of the book follows either the Sainnite general Clement and her Shaftalese cow-doctor lover Seth, or Zanja and her travel back into Shaftal's past. I was frustrated with the Seth and Clement plot, because I wanted more details on how Clement subdued and convinced the Sainnites to surrender and less on Clement's inner pain. I was even more frustrated with Zanja's plot, because at the beginning of the book it seems like she'll be dealing with the Border People and instead she spends the entire book trudging the past trying to learn glyphs. Language is a show more huge theme in these books, but so is colonization and invasion, and I really wish more time (any time?) had been spent on a plot regarding the border lands. I wouldn't demand so much of this series if any other writers were working on similar issues of cultural identity, peace, nationalism, etc.

This a good book in a fantastic, thought-provoking and truly unique series. show less

I received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. "Water Logic" is the third book in Laurie Marks' "Elemental Logic" series. I had previously read the first two books, but decided to re-read them in preparation for reviewing this book and I'm glad I did. This isn't a review of the series, but I can't recommend it strongly enough. It has been a balm on my soul.

"Water Logic" builds on the previous two books and follows the main character from the them, Zanja, but the narrative flow is distinct and appropriate given the title. While I didn't struggle to understand what was happening at any given moment in the story, I did spend time considering why and how it was happening. I thought was both intentional and tied to show more the theme of water-typic logic, making it a nice touch. I thought this story was weaker than both "Fire Logic" and "Earth Logic", but I still very much enjoyed it, and look forward to reading the conclusion. show less

This book is not as strong as the first two books in the series, in terms of the plotting, which was more haphazard and felt unfinished at the conclusion of the book. To some extent, this serves to (presumably) set the reader up for the fourth book in the series, but I'm not a big fan of books that leave significant plot points hanging that way.

That said, the book does still have the fascinating themes and strong character development of the last two books, and on top of that, is published by Small Beer Press instead of Tor, and thus has a much better look and feel (the Hot Warrior Woman covers of the first two books didn't really do the content justice).