Ooo, will this be available online after FC as well? I definitely would like to pick up a copy as I enjoyed the first book :)

The Linen Butterfly... Yes, here's where your style and themes finally break from the chrysalis.

It is a shorter book; by feel it seems like half the size of the Goldenlea. Took me just a couple of days to read it. The perspective shift you pulled here is nothing short of extraordinary; to save the readers from any spoilers, let's say I definitely wasn't expecting that (it did came to me as a cheap solution at first). The Linen Butterfly quite well rounded the questions raised in Goldenlea, but opened a lot more others.

Writing style is far better and more contained, compressed if you will. Dialogues are more natural, there's not much of that excessive fluff I noticed in the previous book. You're getting hold of using furries properly, painting a bit of extra bodily properties and their culture. Still, I could replace them with humans and the story would be the same, but at this point who would want to do that? I love them the way they are. By the time they awake from spoiler, I suppose the average reader had acquainted with the characters and developed some empathy to keep on reading, to find out what happens next. What's worrying me is that some would be turned off having to spend days walking on gravel (Goldenlea) in order to fully enjoy driving on the warm asphalt (Linen Butterfly). Then again, given it catches a few good reviews, the long walk could be well worth.

Once I finished The Linen Butterfly, events in the Goldenlea are understandable, logical, connected and enjoyable. That's what I'm counting on. The flaws you installed in your characters help to build identification and needed empathy. Balthasar is my favorite; the loveable way you built him makes me want to look at him from Faol's viewpoint, which in turns makes me want to know more about Faol. You did torture the poor Spott, and it paid off well. Virgil comes next; he's both ignorant, distressed, and in power, and as such offers a mirror to the world of modern mad men.

There are interesting twists, though. Isa mentioned an ongoing WW1 spoiler, which runs together with the medieval spoiler, so I thought Balthasar's Western Front outbreaks are just glitches coming from the WW1 spoiler, a glitch in the quantum spoiler. Near the end, when it turned out it was a real thing all along, it really was a deep punch... The kind of punch I got when I first read Glen Runciter finding Joe Chip coins in his pocket. Of course, having previously read The Vimana Incident, this punchline didn't have as much energy as the first or the second one, because I was kind of prepared what plot developments to expect. The links run deep, beyond the vessel characters who bring them on daylight.

Halford was a powerful plot element in the Goldenlea, but it's not very much used in The Linen Butterfly. Or I might have missed something? Last place where he's mentioned is when Isa saves him from the spoilers and brings him to her home. What happened to him later, I'm not sure, but I'd hell like to know. Also I'd like to know what are his connections to Balthasar in his previous spoilers, that'd wrap the loose plot ends properly.

The Otter (Bram/Bran) has a role in every book in the Occidentanian cycle so far. (Haven't read St. Arned yet!) In first draft of Vimana Incident he got a lot of potential, but I'm not sure if you included more of him in the final version. Maybe he's the incidental karmic line (or a plane) which crosses many parts of the Occidentania cycle, and he's meant to be like a comet, having his role for a certain time then going off for other pastures.

Hey, wait. Am I onto something here? The Fox also has a similar kind of a role in all these books. Could it be (Laz/Apollo/Ned) is the same person? It's kind of amazing what you did there, wow. If I hadn't previously seen Cloud Atlas (the movie adaptation is a bit different than the books), I'd say the Occidentanian Cycle was really one of a kind series.

Lastly, the book ending left me only a bit disappointed. Nothing wrong with a happy end wrapping up the main characters story arc; only I wish it offered a bit more explanation. Halford, Virgil, Isa, what are they doing now? If the Basecraft universe is only a spoiler in the quantum spoiler, then could the Basecraft world be the same world where Red Ned originated from? Could it be the whole of Vimana Incident is happening in the quantum spoiler, a show ran by the Wizard of Ott? Blimey, I got to think about it a bit... Occidentanian Cycle now seems like a complex multi-faceted rose, a shape to wrap your mind around, and a rabbit's hole which goes as deep as the readers' imagination.

I need to finish the cycle before I compress all this into reviews... Now, onto St. Arned, to boldly go where no hydroplane has gone before!