The Sword and Laser discussion

I am enjoying the book but one thing bothers me. Myfanwy II acclimates very quickly to the world of the Checquy. Being that she doesn't remember her life before losing her memory she seems to be fine with all that is happening at the Rookery. Especially when she thinks someone is being tortured and is told she usually vomits, she doesn't question why she felt that way and doesn't now. I know the letters help her find out about her world but she doesn't read them all at once (thank god!) LOL.

Maybe it is instinct. Is she subconsciously doing what would be normal for her?

I am enjoying the book but that one thing is sticking in my head. Or is it because I'm listening to it instead of reading it. I love hearing the accents reading to me.

I am reminded of the book Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children a little bit. With all the little talents the Checquy's have. It's like they found all these peculiar children and put them to work in a secret government agency.

As you get to know original Myfanwy from the letters, it seems there are a few things in her past that have strongly influenced the adult she became. I think new Myfanwy is the person she would have been without those few experiences/memories.

I also think that Myfanwy 2.0 is still in a bit of shock, and desperate enough to be suppressing all sorts of reactions in fear of betraying herself - except that is working against her in this case, since the original was a bit of a cowardly nerdy weenie.

Joyce wrote: "I am enjoying the book but one thing bothers me. Myfanwy II acclimates very quickly to the world of the Checquy....

Maybe it is instinct. Is she subconsciously doing what would be normal for her? "

I think the author tried to portray this with the Jeanane? comment but if that was his intention he should have done more with it.
Myfanwy does fit in very fast and while there are a few people questioning her new personality there's not enough people doing it. And while it was annoying to me it didn't take me out of the story.

That's actually the biggest problem I'm having with the book, 75% in, is that the story tries to establish from the very start that this is not just Myfawny with no memories, that Myfawny II is supposed to be a completely different person from Myfawny I. So I expected the character to be a lot more divergent than just Myfawny I without the emotional damage.

I'm also at a point in the book where there's a lot of suspicion happening in the Chequy, and it seems unlikey that her new aggressive personality isn't drawing more suspicion on her.

Can a female character be a Mary Sue if the author is a man?

Myfanwy is so adept at picking this stuff up it becomes ridiculous, even for a silly fantasy novel. She's essentially thrown into the COO position of a secret government agency that has not just the usual ridiculous rules and regulations one must follow but also the bizarre supernatural aspects of this world. Yet she performs swimmingly without any knowledge of her job (or most of this world) at all. How is she not utterly overwhelmed?

It bothered me initially how easily Myfanwy managed to walk into her previous self's life. No amount of written information could let you pull that stunt off without people realising you were acting out of character.

But then, of course, it was revealed that Ingrid had known all along, having been present when the transformation was beginning. Having her executive assistant smoothing the way for her made it retrospectively more believable.

Plus, by that stage in the book the action had ramped-up considerably and I wasn't worrying about the likelihood any more and just wanted to know how the story would play out.

One of the "CEOs" knew too and promised not to out her. Maybe the combo of the notes, Ingrid and Lady What's-Her-Name were enough to keep her from being outed? There were comments in the story that people noticed the change but were either too scared or didn't care enough to say something.

I also think there's an element of people believing you if you act like you're in charge. Remember she's in a powerful position, most people aren't really going to question their boss to their boss's face. I think if you combine the two people who knew, and probably smoothed the way, with Myfanwy's "act like I'm in charge and I will be" attitude and it's fairly (if not 100%) believable. Though I admit I found the way Myfanwy picked up the day-to-day running of things to be a bit more unlikely.

I think there are two aspects to this. How much is she passing off as Thomas? How well is she doing her job at the Rookery?

I'm only 100 pages in but I'd say she isn't doing well at either. Her interactions with Perry and Gestalt were apparently out of character enough to draw attention. But again, she is in a position of authority and the Rookery seems pretty rigid so I'm assuming only a handful of people are in a position to really know her. Luckily Frau Blümen seems a little too carried away to notice. I was worried about the assistant but that seems to be explained later. And honestly if one of my coworkers came in with racoon eyes I'd write off a lot of odd behavior as just part of a really bad day.

As for job performance I haven't seen much from her yet, nor have I reached an explanation of the event that caused the memory split. It is worth mentioning that different kinds of brain damage can affect very localised functions. A person can retain all of their fine motor skills (driving, swimming, operating complex equipment) while undergoing a huge change in their personality/ loss of memory or vice versa.

The one aspect that's glossed over is that she'd have no clue on all the minutiae of the job... the dozens of policies and procedures of the Checquy, the decisions taken in a meeting a couple of weeks ago, etc. Ultimately I set that aside because I liked the voice of the new Myfawny and her character.

I chalked most of it up to the fact that original Myfanwy was pretty much a hermit and a mouse who buried herself in paperwork - so most people didn't really even notice her or respect her.

I think a job like hers mostly involved solitary researching and reviewing of documents. So, no one would notice most of that piling up undone. Also, I'm betting Ingrid knows all the basics enough to do a lot of it - just pushing papers in front of Myfanwy and telling her to sign. Plus, I'm sure there was a lot more in the letters and purple binder than the chunks we got to read - I'm imagining all sorts of checklists and instructions - Thomas seemed very thorough.

Now, those who did deal with her more often were a bit shocked by her sudden assertiveness - but someone suddenly growing a backbone doesn't usually mean they've been robbed of all memory or possessed by a demon or replaced by a doppelganger or whatever. It's just...weird.

So Myfanwy's acting weird, but things are still muddling along, crises averted, etc. - I'm not sure what anyone would be expected to do beyond thinking she's acting weird. Would they remove her from her position because of that? Especially when the new Myfanwy is actually more effective in some ways?

I'm still with Joyce's OP on this one.

My issue is not that Myfanwy was being somewhat more assertive, it was that she was suddenly acting wildly out of character. She's talking back, she's taking charge, she's snarky, she's fumbling the simplest things such as "where is the bathroom?" Yet it doesn't seem to raise any suspicions in an office full of spies and counter-intelligence officers.

There were also a whole slew of especially convenient moments. Early on during the interrogation Gestalt or someone hands her a sickness bag and states, "Because you always vomit during these things." If she does always yak up her lunch then no one would comment. We don't comment on things that happen all the time. We don't even call each other by name most of the time.

If O'Malley had her confusion over the sick bag (among a dozen other examples) be an internal monologue consisting of "Why did he give this to me but no one else? Did Thomas usually get sick during these things? Oh god, what am I about to see?!" then it would have been easier to buy into.

And to seal the deal, have someone comment AFTER the fact on her behavior. Depending on which way he wanted to go with it, he could have reinforced the theme. Suppose he wants to underscore the fact that it's her abilities which make her sick, someone might have said, "And there goes Myfanwy, losing her lunch right on schedule." Or he wants to show that she is diverging from her previous persona and someone says, "You usually throw up during these things. I guess you're finally getting used to it." As it was, he just shined a light on it in the clunkiest way possible.

That's the kind of thing which separates good writing from average writing for me.