User blog comment:SaynaSLuke/The Ocean's Echoes/@comment-2142396-20160827185236

I always thought that ‘the ghosts’ haunting the outer territories were Lutran and his dragon allies, but from Romsca’s story we know that A. they were there way before Lutran came to the island, B. the dragons can act independently from Lutran, as witnessed when Romsca says about the wrecked fishing boats. Of course, I don’t know Shui and the dragons at all, not having reached ‘Seven Tears Shed’ yet, but I thought them to be if not peaceful, then indifferent party of ‘vermin don’t touch us, we don’t touch vermin’ variety. That brings several possibilities to mind: either at least some of the attacks were the fault of feral Monitors as Romsca had thought, or Lutran’s arrival and his quest stirred the dragon’s bloodlust as well. Though I think you once mentioned that Lutran’s dragon friends were pretty much shocked when they saw how hateful he was towards Romsca, so that doesn’t seem likely… So what if there are feral dragons as well as feral Monitors as well? :o I still wonder why some of the lizards possess higher intelligence while some do not, though I suppose all will be explained when Romsca and crew actually get to meet them.

Barranca just can’t get a break now, can he? First, he discovers that Arashi isn’t as dead as everybeast thought her to be. Then Romsca drops out of the blue on him, and leaves him with two woodlanders on top of that. And if that weren’t enough, Romsca kind of dies on him. If things would keep going like that, our old uncle is going to have a heart attack. And yet, I couldn’t help giggling at Barranca’s ‘It’s your daughter who did this!’ remark, lol. They sound so much like an old married couple, arguing and bickering like this. :D

Ublaz made a terrible slip there with the way he treated Xzaris – I mean, if he planned to use him as hostage and bait, why didn’t he keep a much closer guard on him? Or why didn’t he treat Xzaris wounds just to make sure that he wouldn’t die and ruin his plans? As you mentioned Ublaz was bound to become overconfident after being at the top for so long, or maybe he is smarter than we think and, after hearing of Waveworm’s wreckage and Romsca’s supposed death, figured that Xzaris isn’t so useful for him anymore since Xzaris and Rasconza never were as close as Xzaris and Romsca. :o But it still feels out of character for Ublaz to be so negligent, especially considering how thorough and fail-safe his plans usually are.

I can’t believe Romsca actually pulled that trick on Shilo!.. She was lucky that Shilo was a nervous wreck to begin with, otherwise it wouldn’t have took him long to realize that a ghost wouldn’t need his help in getting into the prison, as they can just float through the walls – and that the ghosts aren’t solid and can’t lose consciousness. And it was even more surprising that Val believed that as well – I kept guessing whether her reaction was genuine or if she just played along to make Shilo believe, but in the end I suppose Val truly thought that Romsca was a ghost? :D Strictly speaking, Romsca’s chances in the palace were very slim as they were, and I’m surprised the plan went so well. But Romsca’s situation was so desperate that it is no wonder that she grabbed the first chance she could of getting into the palace instead of stopping to think and work out a better plan. Still, overall I thought it would be way more difficult for Romsca to break Xzaris out of prison, so I expected something like an epic rescue plan and some awesome action scenes? :D

Poor Shilo… Why do all the warlords treat their children so horribly? I think that Ramon and probably Gingivere and Tsarmina were the only ones treated decently. I understand that Sagitar wants her son to be strong and fierce ratguard to carry on her name, and that the other ratguards keep pushing him because they hate his mother and they take out their anger on him, but I don’t quite get Sagitar’s position. I mean, by constantly punishing Shilo for every initiative he shows, she doesn’t give him any motivation to improve, so even when he has a chance to gain her favor and report Romsca in to her, he doesn’t because he is too afraid of her. But at least Sagitar’s treatment of Shilo backfires on her because it made Shilo so skilled in avoiding the others. And that old tunnel Shilo had used – I remembered that Ublaz used some forgotten tunnels to defeat the rebelling captains in ‘Stolen Tears’, but I completely forgotten about them until now. But then again, if Ublaz does know of the tunnels, then our heroes may not have such luck anymore…

I admit that I was thrown back by Xzaris’s reaction to his blindness after being healed by Romsca – I mean, he had fully realized before that that his eyes were gone, and yet later he complained about the darkness and wasn’t aware of it… or was he confused because he could feel no pain from his wounds? Anyway, I could just feel sorry for the guy – even when he is saved from certain death, he is still miserable because he blames himself for Romsca’s sacrifice and apparent ‘death’. Sayna is right about this one, he needs to stop focusing on ‘why’ and realize that Romsca does care of him enough to never think of him as being unworthy.

The moment when Romsca reunites with Xzaris is just so heartfelt – for one part, because she sort of died and Xzaris believed that he had lost her forever, but I also love how this scene showed us how really close Romsca and Xzaris are. I think it’s the first time they openly displayed how much they care for each other – I mean, they had always been the closest of friends, but so far their interactions where the ones of ‘bros for life’ while now it’s certainly clear that there is more to that. Romantically or not (yeah, I’m looking at you, Romsca), it’s clear that they do love each other.

If you hadn’t spoiled the fact that Lutran is alive, the revelation that Val has a friend outside of the walls would’ve been quite a twist, especially with the way the tension concerning the wilds had been built through the whole book, starting with the mentions of attacks on the ratguard and finishing with the talk of ghosts roaming the wilds at night.

Uh oh, things are getting really serious if Aquilo and the other wolves are being sent on earth. Even though I knew there would be more magic, I didn’t expect Ignasa and Malimore’s wolves to be directly involved and go as far as fight alongside the mortals. :o Ignasa’s words intrigued me, too. Not all of the pearl holders will be his followers? Then who will not be a follower, since we already know six of the seven holders? The most obvious answer would be Shui and Rocks since I don’t think the lizards even know of Ignasa, and in all honesty they seem like areligious people to me. However, there may be something we don’t know about the other holders - both Grath and Romsca are devoted followers at this point, and while Xzaris doesn’t have much faith at the moment you did say that he is going to become a remarkable Prophet. That brings me to Martin, who, while being brought up in Redwall, isn’t spiritual himself, and the seventh holder. I do have some ideas as to who the seventh holder could be, but I think I’ll wait some more before revealing them…