Cbr14bingo Hot the action moves from the icy land called the Pole to a hot and lush place called Babel
The plot definitely thickens in this third installment of the four part Mirror Visitor series. The action moves into two different areas as Ophelia and Thorn pursue the one called “God,” aka “Milliface,” a malevolent shapeshifter that tries to manipulate all of the arks in order to assert total domination over the world. As with the previous novels, Dabos gives readers plenty of edge-of-your-seat action and intrigue along with the gradual development of trust and love between Ophelia and Thorn.
When last we left our heroine Ophelia, she had just married Thorn while he was imprisoned unjustly on the Pole. Thanks to the sharing of powers that occurs with marriage in this world, Thorn became able to “mirror visit” and escape prison, but not before Milliface confronted the couple. The reader now knows that Milliface has agents on all of the arks, controlling their governments, ensuring that no one asks uncomfortable questions about the past. Censorship and control are key, and Milliface has been successful on every ark but one: LandmArk, the Ark famous for its exotic fruits and spices as well as for the power many of its residents have related to architecture/travel. Milliface also tells Ophelia that she inadvertently unleashed a force known as the Other the first time she entered a mirror in childhood. According to Milliface, the Other will be responsible for a second Rupture of the arks and the end of the world. Milliface believes Ophelia will eventually lead him to the Other and so he intends to keep an eye on her.
As this novel opens, over 2.5 years have passed and Ophelia is stuck on her home ark Anima with her family. She is closely monitored by the Doyennes (government) and her museum has been closed. Ophelia, based on information gleaned from the Pole’s spiritual ancestor Farouk, has an idea now of where she needs to go to 1) find the truth about the past that Milliface is trying to hide and that keeps ancestral spirits so forgetful and 2) find Thorn. Thorn told Ophelia before they were separated that he loved her even though she had said several times before that she had no feelings for him. Even though she had grown to love Thorn, Ophelia had been unable to tell him so before their separation. Now she wants desperately to find him and help him undermine Milliface. There is simply no way for her to travel, however, until an old friend from the Pole, Archibald, makes a surprise visit to Anima. Archibald has been unlocking the power of architecture and travel as practiced by the people of LandmArk and has created a temporary portal to help Ophelia (and her aunt Rosaline, who refuses to be left behind) escape the Doyennes’ surveillance. Once they leave, Ophelia asks to be taken to the ark Babel, alone, while Rosaline goes to the Pole and her friend Berenilde (Thorn’s aunt and Farouk’s lover).
A small part of this novel focuses on the Pole, Rosaline, Berenilde and the daughter of Farouk and Berenilde, Victoria (Ophelia’s goddaughter). The child Victoria is about 3 but cannot walk or speak. Berenilde is a devoted and loving mother while Farouk as always is aloof and forgetful. Having Rosaline around brings some added joy to the household as do visits from her godfather Archibald, whom Victoria adores. Victoria spends her time drawing and we learn that while she seems absorbed in her own world (rather autism-like) she is actually keenly aware of everything going on around her. Victoria possesses a unique power that seems unlike any other power that mortals like her mother possess; she can “journey.” This means that while her physical body is in one place, Victoria’s “spirit” can go out and see things. It is through this ability that she accidentally sees Milliface take the form of one of her mother’s friends, kill that friend and then come to the house to try to get information on Ophelia and Thorn. Victoria notices that Milliface casts several shadows and is terrifying to her, even more so when it is revealed that Milliface can see Victoria in her spirit form. Interestingly, it is Farouk who also seems to be able to see Victoria’s spirit and recognizes her distress when the shapeshifter is present. I am very intrigued by this new development, and this is clearly going to be very important in the fourth and final novel.
The bulk of this novel is focused on Ophelia once she arrives on Babel, a tropical ark with an important library/research center. It is also where the family spirits spent their childhood before the Rupture. Ophelia, thanks to Archibald, has fake papers with a new name— Eulalia. She chops off her hair and before she can get into trouble with local authorities makes a friend in the form of a disabled taxi driver named Ambrose. Babel is a highly stratified ark, where the “powerless” are treated as second class citizens. Censorship is practiced in all areas of life including the way one dresses and the words one can and cannot use. Using words like “soldier,” “war,” or “fight,” for example can lead to arrest. The rebel named Fearless-and-Almost-Blameless who commandeers airwaves to criticize the government and its censorship is public enemy number one on Babel. Ophelia/Eulalia visits the institution and knows the information she seeks is here but access is restricted to an elite team of researchers known as “virtuosos.” Theoretically, anyone can train to become a virtuoso but it is rigorous and only a couple of candidates will be promoted at the end of the training. Ophelia decides this is the only way for her to get the information she needs and so she enrolls, which means living within the institute’s compound and being subjected to the prejudice and jealousy of fellow students and faculty. One student in particular, Mediana, is especially ruthless in her quest to become virtuoso and in using her disturbing powers in an equally disturbing way to achieve her ends.
In addition to this overall dangerous situation in which Ophelia has put herself, two more wrinkles complicate it. One is that a few individuals at the institute have encountered some force or presence so terrifying it has either killed or physically harmed them, and it seems that this force is somehow connected to the books that Ophelia wants to find. The other is that in order to access the most restricted area of the institute, one must be invited by the elusive Sir Henry who oversees it. Ophelia, due to her abilities as a “reader” is invited to meet him and is shocked to find that Sir Henry is none other than Thorn. While Thorn’s story from the time he escaped the Pole is not fully given (sadly) we do eventually learn how he came to become Sir Henry and who he is working for. Thorn, whose incredible memory and capacity for work make him uniquely suited to searching through every piece of information in the library, is looking for something specific and needs Ophelia to become a virtuoso so that he can succeed. The relationship between these two, however is strained at best. Thorn seems angered and irritated (kind of typical Thorn though) and he has some physical limitations now. As usual, he is tight lipped with Ophelia keeping her in the dark about so many things. Ophelia, in turn, is her usual self, not saying what she is feeling and missing opportunities to be honest with Thorn about her feelings for him.
The end of book three raises more questions than it answers but the most important thing is that our main characters have to look more honestly at themselves and, for lack of a better term, “grow up.” Ophelia experiences an unusual epiphany, and I am even more curious about the Other now. Book four has a lot of loose ends to tie up and I can’t wait to see how Dabos does it.