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Patricia Reding
a book bubble about
SELECT
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author Insight
Simultaneously Alike and Different
I've discovered of late, a tendency of many to treat world events and political issues as absolutes. Too often, the attitude seems to be, with respect to THING A and THING B, that if THING A is true, then THING B, is not. In reality, two things can be true at the same time, provided that the truth of the first doesn't preclude the possibility of the second. So, it can be true that it is raining outside. It can be true that the sun is shining outside--even at the same time. (We have all seen sun showers, after all.) On the other hand, it cannot be true that it is light outside and that it is dark outside at the same time--at least not in the same place at the same time--as light removes darkness. Here, Reigna and Eden ponder on what it means to be "identical." They look alike (or at least as much as would any identical twins), but they also differ. The thoughts and personalities of each, are unique to each. So these two things are true at the same time: they are alike, yet they are different. I try to use the preclusion test when hearing of current events. It helps me to appreciate different sides of an issue. How about you?
Book Excerpt
SELECT
They directed their mounts, Ira and Mingo, around a bend in the road. Ahead stretched fields now void of their summer oats and wheat. In the distance, farmhands carted away their earlier harvest of grain stalks for threshing. Clouds of chaff billowed in the air.
“Have you given any thought to what it is that we’re eventually supposed to do?” Reigna asked, finally breaking the silence.
Eden shrugged. “I was rather hoping you had some answers.”
“I guess we’re identical in more ways than one,” Reigna said with a chuckle.
“Yes . . . but we are also quite different in other ways.”
“True.” Reigna pulled on Ira’s reins, directing the animal’s attention away from some tall, lush greenery that had momentarily distracted it. “Are you still sure that it was right of us not to return to the compound?”
“Yes. Whatever else happens, and whatever they’ve done at the compound in response to our having left there, I think they’ll be glad to know that we’re gone when that trouble arrives.”
“How do you suppose Zarek’s men found and infiltrated the compound in the first place?”
“I’ve been thinking about that. From what those men said, Zarek has been looking for us since our birth. I suppose he was bound to find the compound sooner or later.” Eden bit her lip. “Remember that storm months ago that left areas unprotected when the crystals blew down? Maybe that explains how he located us. And I think Dixon was right when he surmised that the intruders stepped up their incursions from the north so as to take attention from other areas.”
“Hmmm, yes,” Reigna said. “From what those hoodlums said, someone made it to the compound center earlier.”
“It seems so.”
“Are you worried?”
“For those at the compound?” Eden asked. “No. And I think you might be right—as you surmised earlier—that this adventure of ours is Creovita’s way of . . . keeping us safe.”
“Maybe.”
“Still, I would have liked to have put an arrow into that Nibal creep.”
Reigna chuckled. “Agreed.” She looked at her sister. “But only after I put a sword through Borka’s middle.”
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