The Dare: Orphans of Chaos

I

The Boundaries

1.

The estate grounds were, at once, our home, our academy, and our prison. We were outnumbered by campus staff, and by the imposing old Georgian and Edwardian edifices. There were more mares in the stables than there were students in the classrooms. It was only the five of us.

The estate was bound to the North by the Barrows, to the West by the sea cliff, to the East by the low, gray hills of the Downs. What bounds us to the South is a matter of dispute.

“There are only six points on the hypersurface where the axis intersects it that form threespheres. I guess I was confusing the number of right-angled intersections with the Kissing Number, which is the case of 4-D equals 24. I was fooled because I was thinking that if a sphere is all points equidistant from a given point, such that ….”

it all sounded Greek to me (<<< clue) Suffice to say that I am more than happy about those days when I was a teenager reading about mythology and I know my Mars from my Hephaestus, my Aphrodite from my Boreas – I wouldn’t say I would be lost without it but the very basic knowledge that I have did help and made me admire the lengths that the author was taking the story to. There are many weird things, weird plot developments in this book. In fact, weird is a good key word here. But a weird –good not weird – bad. Like for example Amelia’s relationship with the two boys Victor and Colin and the feelings she harbours for both (let it be noted I root for Colin, who is basically the coolest character) but also with Headmaster Boggin. The latter is a rather inappropriate relationship if you think they are Teacher-Student but at that point you know that is not as straight forward as this. As a secondary character Boggin is fascinating and it is unclear if he is friend or foe but he does have his own agenda. If you are looking for a light fantasy, with a clear demarcation between right and wrong, this book is probably not for you. In fact, some of the sexual innuendos can be quite disturbing specially with some of the “teachers” leering on the kids. One such disturbing interaction is once again between Amelia, who has some S&M tendencies, and the caretaker that counteracts her powers and stimulates (and possibly even created) these very own tendencies. Count this as a cautionary paragraph. My one grippe with the book is that I was slightly disappointed with the first person narrative being done solely by Amelia – not because her voice is not interesting because it is. But by having only one narrator, we are denied the other kids’ point of view and they sound and behave so differently from each other, each with its own quirks and very specific voice that I would have loved to read their points of view as well. But in the end, it doesn’t matter too much really. There is a war in the making and they are pawns except that their powers are so titanic
(<<< clue) they are actually much more important than that and whoever control the orphans control …..everything. Or so they seem to think. Because it can also bring Chaos. Maybe. And oh lordy – the freaking cliff-hanger. Do yourself a favour, when (because clearly it should be a matter of “when” and not of “if”) you pick up this book, get books 2 and 3 as well. Your ulcer will thank you. (Mine is screaming “where is the postman” since Monday). If I need to spell it for you then here it goes: Orphans of Chaos is a wickedly awesome, incredibly cool and smart, atmospheric, appealing, mysteriously gripping, intellectually stimulating, weird-wonderful, action packed plot-driven adventure. Notable Quotes/ Parts:

One of these weird plot developments: right after the kids learn from Amelia about who their captors are and they decide to get Quentin’s memory back, they realise they are alone for the first time ever and take that moment of utter freedom to just play in the kitchen and cook anything they wanted. It was like nothing of importance at all was happening which was crazy to read about but at the same time ever so poignant because at that moment they were really a bunch of teenagers enjoying their lives. It was like the calm before the storm, like they knew that that would be the last time for them to enjoy themselves, as they saw themselves or thought themselves to be – kids.

“How long does it take for happiness to be complete? I do not know how long we were in the kitchen. I suppose, objectively , it might have been as little as an hour, or even less. But it seemed to last all day. Like an endless vacation.
The Kitchen was huge. All the brightwork gleamed , all the pots and pans and kettles and knives were ranked and racked and arranged by size. There were two little refrigerators and a big walk-in, and a stovetop the size of Scotland and Wales combined.
And we could have anything we wanted. For the first time in our lives, we made what we fancied in whatever way suited us. An omelette of a dozen eggs; beef that we fried in grease instead of boiling; slabs of bacon as thick as your hand; cooking sherry poured into measuring cups and drunk as toasts. Mostly, we made a mess.
Colin drank coffee for the first time in his life, the grown-ups’s drink. He made a face and pronounced it an abomination. But he drank a second cup, just because it had been forbidden him for so long.”

Additional Thoughts:

Don’t mind me, I am in the mood to ramble….

Even though I was very much into the book to the point I stayed at the office after work because I HAD to read and could not spare the 15 minutes that takes me to get home I still had a feeling that there was something missing. I realised then that even though I had a continuous adrenaline kick while reading it, my more emotional side was not as engaged and it all comes down to the fact that Orphans of Chaos is pretty much plot-driven book whereas I am a sucker for character-driven books. This is probably why once I discovered romance, I never looked back – I crave for the emotional connection that character-driven book brings.

I mean it is possible to have both of course, and I think most books I read have this balance: I would mention Meljean Brook, Linnea Sinclair, Nalini Singh, CL Wilson as some of the writers that do this brilliantly. But faced with the choice between having to choose between one OR the other, I think I would pick the character-driven book.

That is not to say that I can’t appreciate, enjoy, LOVE plot-driven novels – case in point, Orphans of Chaos – it is just, to a certain point, I do miss something more.

And I think this is the reason why the book is not a perfect 10.

Verdict: I could say all kinds of erudite and intellectual things about this book, but I will go with: Orphans of Chaos is all kinds of awesome. Read it.

Rating: 9 , damn near perfection!

Reading next: The Talisman by Stephen King