“Katsa feels that to ride a horse at anything but breakneck speed is a waste of the horse,” Giddon said.

Which is ironic since doing that is the actual waste of a horse.

The annoying part here is not that Katsa gives no fucks about her horse.  Bad horse handlers exist, and they will get to go to the special hell reserved for child molesters and people who talk in the theater, but everyone around her shouldn’t be so blasé about it.  They’re just all “lol, there goes Katsa again, being impatient” instead of “JFC, Katsa, we’re running out of horses for you to kill, those things are expensive, you know.  And, also, alive, so don’t go around killing them for shits and giggles.”

Fuck it, maybe they’re all going to the same place.

They get stopped by a storm and have to wait it out at an inn.  Katsa is impatient and things that even though it’s pouring rain so hard that visibility is limited, “it’s only water.”

Katsa’s idiocy is starting to bug me, again, not because it exists, but because the book doesn’t seem to realize it is idiocy.  The book is playing her off as impatient, as not understanding the limits of non-magic people, and I understand that.  HOWEVER, she lives in pseudo-medieval times; it’s not like horses and bad travel weather are new things to her.  She should have experienced them before.  She should already know what happens when you fuck around with them.  The first time you run your horse into the ground because you’re magic and it isn’t, well, that’s not thinking things through.  But when you’ve been riding for years and years as a primary method of transportation, then either you’ve had people tell you to cut that shit out or you’ve killed more than one horse.  At that point, persisting in this line of thinking is either stupid or willfully malicious.

There’s a random scene where one of the children of the innkeeper is all awe-struck around Katsa.  Giddon convinces the girl (who was already half-convinced anyway) that Katsa is awesome and they should shake hands.

Supposedly Katsa has social problems because everyone hates her Grace, but again, we’re told and not shown.  So far the only people we’ve seen be afraid of her are 1) the guy she’s been sent to maim and 2) another random dude at the inn who just looks a bit startled.  Katsa doesn’t try to interact with him, so we don’t get to see any hardships from that, we don’t even get to see the guy actively avoiding her, we only get to see him being a little intimidated, just like anyone would when royalty shows up out of the blue and waves at you.  We have no idea if her grace has anything to do with it.  Maybe he’d be perfectly polite if she tried to talk to him.  Katsa does interact with the child, and that’s a positive interaction. 

The life that has been described for Katsa is a hard one and would generate a lot of sympathy for a prickly, socially fumbling character.  But then the book fails to follow through with any of that, and what we see makes me think “god, stop emo-ing, Katsa.  Get over yourself.”  And when what I’m told and what I see conflict, I’m inclined to go with what I see.  I mean, I picked that up from real life dealings, because if someone says “no, I’m an awesome soldier” and the proceeds to fuck up every which possible, I’m not going to trust them.  But…well, that’s life experience telling me that actions are more reliable than words, so why would I change that outlook when it comes to books?

“You do nothing to dispel your ogreish reputation,” Giddon said.  “You know that, Katsa. It’s no wonder you haven’t more friends.”

How like him. It was just like him, to turn a kind gesture into one of his criticisms of her character. He loved nothing more than to point out her flaws.

…well, he does have a point, though.

Also, that doesn’t really seem as malicious a comment as the book is playing it to be.  I mean, sure, it’s annoying to have someone point out your shortcomings.  I don’t think anyone actually likes that.  Often times it comes from unwelcome places and at inappropriate times.  But again, we don’t get to see that.  All we see is Katsa being sad that people don’t like her, Giddon getting a little to be nice to her, and then Giddon (once) saying ‘hey, if you’d put forth a bit of effort, I bet you’d be less unhappy.’  That actually seems appropriate to the situation to me.

I mean, Katsa can still be upset about it, but why is the third person narration taking such an opinionated stance?  Just look at that.  That’s not Katsa’s thoughts, that’s the Big Voice In The Sky validating things.

Third Person Limited can be biased, yes, but it has to be done with care.  It’s not the same as writing first person emotions and then substituting ‘she’ for ‘I.’  The narration is still outside the character, after all.  Putting the characters bias into the narration means that the book itself is presenting these views, not the character.  Bias has to be done more sneakily than that, mostly by actually showing us the characters thoughts instead of presenting them as fact, and by limiting what the reader sees to lead them to false conclusions.  Harry Potter did this to great effect – twice.  Just by presenting only one set of events and having Harry’s opinions shouted across the page, the book managed to steer readers to a false conclusion without having the narration itself echoing the characters’ thoughts.

While still stuck in the rain, they talk about some gossip over how Murgon claims ‘something’ was stolen from him, and they thought it was the Lienid Pretty Boy from the first chapter who did it, so they questioned him.

How did the news catch up to them?  They were literally traveling as fast as it is possible to travel in this world.  Not only did Murgon wait a while to announce the ‘theft,’ but anyone carrying the rumors would have been traveling slower than Katsa’s group.

And why had the Lienid Graceling told Murgon nothing? Was he protecting her?

Alright, book, either Katsa has enough savvy to speculate on the motives of everyone around, or she doesn’t.  Quit having her confused only when you want a dramatic reveal later.  You’re not quite to Hunger Games levels yet, but you’re getting there.

There’s more gossip and more backstory.  The queen of Monsea (who is also a child of Prince Old Guy) is doing some shut-in grief thing, and Katsa’s parents died when she was a kid.

God, for a book that started out quick, it sure slowed to a glacial pace, didn’t it?

“I said, lady dreamer, that I believe the sky is clearing. We’ll be able to set out at dawn, if you like.”

They would reach court before nightfall. Katsa finished her meal quickly and ran to her room to pack her bags.

…you were there for half a day, what the fuck did you unpack?