PS Power Books • Forum

Gwen's story almost feels like its over. Although it was a good read, the things that are happening to her feel like they are being included for shock value because other action oriented items from past books have been resolved.

I disagree. Dale doesn't include sex for shock value and it wasn't overly explicit, just blunt. It highlighted a major shift of character for Gwen, and showed her self worth had dropped even lower, which made her try harder to contribute. She finally had sex because she is so down on herself she lost her fear of rejection.

It was kind of obvious if you can get over the shock and think about it.

On the good side, at least she is having fun now.

I'm not sure I entirely agree with the psyc evaluation there. Gwen was a mature woman before she was kidnapped from her world. However, she had never been given the opportunity to grow sexually due to her malformities. She just may be experimenting with her inner woman now that she's able to pass for "normal". Although the societal norm is much more Victorian in her current world, she is still a product of her old world. They, we, were much more open... Porn, women's lib, etc. I think she may be just testing her wings, so to speak, within her new relationship. She probably has some pent up sexual frustration she needs to release. And she deserves some " happy time". She can't be focused on saving the world all the time. Even if it disrupts someone's idea of how the story should go. She needs some "me" time, just like we all do. Dale has chosen to include it in this book. It shows her humanness (is that a word?) Anyway, let's see how this plays out. I like Gwen too much to write her off. There is too much story left to tell.

Perhaps, I'm pretty sure she said it outright at one point. She was basically held in a coma while Kathryn ran amuck for a couple of years. She feels no matter how much she sacrifices, or works for the betterment of her new world, she could never make up for it. She feels it's her fault for not being able to stop it, that she's ultimately a failure. It isn't like I'm a psychologist and had to read between the lines on this one.

Remember when the first met, she thought if he beat her to death it would be a blessing, and nothing less than she deserved. Granted, I'm drawing a conclusion between the two, but every time before that she would be too afraid to initiate physical contact. It even said before she did, that part of her wanted to run away, my conclusion is the new part of her was stronger.

I agree with your conclusion though, she has a lot of personal growth to go through, and she could be a lot more powerful than she is right now. There are plenty more books that could be written about Gwen. She's still cooking, not quite done yet IMO, I hope Dale agrees with us.

After some thought, brought about by Mojo's comment that started this conversation, it could be Mojo is kind of right. It could be that the Adversaries that threaten the multi-verse, although they are still a threat, have lost in some of the individual worlds. For example, Prans world the adversary there was shown that there was a mutually acceptable compromise and the threat was defused. In Gwen's world, Mickey, the Very Good Man brought about peace. In both cases the storyline ran out ( although in Mickey's case, the character continued). It could be Gwen's world's storyline is running out, and Gwen and Thomas' s characters will continue in the overall multi-verse even though their world's storyline will not have but maybe one more book. Im not sure what Dale's criteria is for ending a series, but this is possibly it. All we can do is see what happens.

Currently, I'm not planning to end any of the arcs until after the end of the bigger arc. There are some new people to meet, but other than three or four new main characters (possibly, though we already kind of know them...) things are set that way.

This doesn't mean that everyone will get out alive. Really, no one does in the end...

But infinite possibilities is kind of a big thing.

When does the big arc start to have it owns books?

I haven't thought about that. I just have no clue what would work at all for anyone.

Maybe nothing?

I don't know.