Robert

The performance was great and the story used a lot of myth.

Brom's other book, The Child Thief.

All of it was good.

It was fun.

Yes. Beautiful story.

Fox. Everyone knows someone just like him. Or they should ;)

The end.

Yes.

This is a Bildungsroman that should be required of all young men. "Courage is being afraid and doing it anyway" is heard so often that it's almost become a platitude. This story SHOWS what that saying means. One must master the beast inside that wants to rule the body, the animal that struggles against the higher self for survival at all costs - even to the death of the higher self, the soul. Similarly, one must also master the pride that the mind would preserve. The chest must rule the stomach and the mind, as CS Lewis said in the Abolition of Man.

To do this, Egert must lose everything, his home, his honor, and nearly his mind, and journey from his home in a militaristic city (whose library is, tellingly, in a state of desuetude) to a center of learning that's in subtle conflict with a shadowy religious sect that seeks to rule through fear and cruelty. He must master the fearful beast within to save the woman he wronged, her city, and himself by putting what "is first in his soul last."

This tale is very reminiscent of a fairytale of sorts, told in almost a classic Russian style. It's sad, but not often anymore does one find a story of manhood where men are men and women are women. The prose is hauntingly beautiful and the experience of reading it, this "path of experience," is unforgettable. I feel a little wiser having read it. It is most certainly a piece of modern literature.