Stargate Atlantis Legacy: Homecoming Part 8
SGA #16
ISBN: 9781905586509
On to the Wraith!
Because you can never have enough Guide in your life!
Last weeks review was definitely human centered which was fun, but now we get to the really good stuff! (this ones longer but well worth it I promise).
We know Guide returned to his Hive and is trying to gather his fleet again. After getting a damage report they intend to Cull to fill their stores when two other Hiveships arrive and ‘offer’ to introduce Guide to the new Queen.
Obviously, he can’t say no, but he isn’t about to bow down either.
What’s really cool about this is that we get to see more about the Wraith and their society. It really goes into the hierarchy of the Wraith and about how the structure worked on a healthy Hive way back when.
(Guide gets a little nostalgic as that’s what his Hive was like with his Queen Snow before her death.)
Another thing we get to see is about their appearance in the grooming sense.
Those chosen to go with him to meet this new Queen have their hair done nicely and are wearing their best clothes, with claws perfectly polished and leathers shining.
Guide himself is wearing an older style coat that speaks to his age (and also looks good on him as we hear in his thoughts) and his hair is actually combed instead of just doing its own thing.
What I enjoyed the most about this group of scenes is that he thinks about what they look like. A band of refugees, proud despite everything.
He tells them he is pleased, which is high praise and definitely speaks to how he commands and to why Wraith join him. I doubt there are many Hive’s that would readily welcome so many and actually nurture their talents when they are from different lineage’s.
As to the meeting… well, the meeting goes about as well as you’d expect.
The Wraith that accompanied Guide over are affected to varying degrees by the Queen. She is beautiful and powerful, and they haven’t had a Queen in their midst since Steelflower (which we all know is Teyla and not actually a Wraith Queen but fun stuff about that later!)
He is too but not to the same degree, as Queen Snow is his Queen and we now get an idea that he plans to never have another Queen again. As affected as he is, he still makes the comparison between this new Queen’s beauty and Queen Snow’s and finds the new one lacking for reasons.
This isn’t explicitly stated, more my personal opinion, but it does lead the reader to believe that Guide is still mourning his Queen and not interested in taking up with another.
No matter how beautiful she may be.
I like this idea a lot because it once again shows that the Wraith are a lot more like the humans than either side wants to admit. Even if Guide isn’t still mourning Queen Snow, he is still not interested in having another Queen.
We can chalk it up to his arrogance and say that he just wants to be in charge and not under someone else’s control again, but I think it still has something to do with Queen Snow because he’s thought about her in certain situations that lead the reader to go that route in their minds.
Or I’m just a romantic and like that idea.
Either way, he may find this new Queen beautiful, but he is SO not interested based solely on her actions, previously and now in this meeting, which make him not like her even more.
(She really shouldn’t have crossed him, I’m just saying.)
Anyways!
After backing him into a corner in regards to speaking on behalf of his absent Queen Steelflower (who he claimed he is also Consort too (please feel free to roll your eyes like I did because dude is gonna get his butt kicked when Teyla finds out)), about joining her alliance, she feeds heavily on one of his new Clevermen, Ember.
As in, too heavily.
Ember is still alive and standing, with help, but that she would go that far kind of says something about her control.
Right after that she invites them to partake in their bounty and, once again, Guide is not impressed.
Apparently feeding in public isn’t a thing, but since Ember needs to feed after what she took, he doesn’t even try to protest. However, the human woman he feeds on tastes ‘like ash’.
Ya’ll can understand how bad the situation is when a hungry Wraith doesn’t enjoy a free meal.
As for these rituals and traditions we have gotten to see so far (I LOVE THESE BOOKS!!!).
The feeding on his Cleverman, Guide notes, went out of fashion even before Queen Snow’s death. This new Queen is obviously trying to bring those traditions and rituals back and though some, like the zenana (which is a group of Wraith who are the Queen’s council and a Consort), Guide isn’t opposed to, some were left behind for a reason.
This new Queen has a councilor who is older than Guide that she calls ‘Old One’ and who has been telling her all about the old ways.
Having read the entire series already I know who he is, but refuse to spoil it cause YOU GUYS IT’S SO COOL! (and heartbreaking but we’ll get to that later).
The point I’m trying to make is that I really don’t believe this new Queen is actually the one in charge. The Old One is, certainly, wily enough to stay alive so long and it wouldn’t take much to control a young Queen.
They aren’t that difficult to understand or to manipulate.
And using the old ways as a means to unite their people is a good one especially when you add in the promised new feeding grounds. A return to what they were before the war with the Alterans decimated so many of them.
Who wouldn’t want that?
A good chunk of the Wraith actually as we shall see in the coming books.
But back to this one.
Guide isn’t about to let anyone ruin his plans and so sends a message to Atlantis about wanting to meet.
He knows where Queen Death is going to attack next and he wants to trade.
A deal is made and he goes off to do his thing while we go back to the human side of things and the last review for Book 1!
See ya’ll later!
The Dark Library 