BIRDY BIRDY

[kippurbird]

Part Nine

Now we are with Fang and Nudge. Nudge is hungry so they go and land in a cave. The cave gets more description than a lot of other things in this book. However I don’t know how old the cave is. I am seriously disappointed in this. How am I supposed to relate to the cave and what’s going on there if I don’t know how old it is?

You know what I just realized? They don’t have anyway of getting in contact with each other. Max said meet me at the north of Lake Mead. But the north end of Lake Mead is HUGE. And they’re in a cave, how is Max supposed to find them in a cave or at all? It’ll take forever for her to find them or them to find her. Since she got shot and all. I mean it’s one thing to say meet me at the north of Lake Mead when you have an already established meeting place that you’ve decided on before hand. If you have no landmark then you might as well just say “Meet me over there... in that direction … at some unspecified time.”

*pokes the plot hole.*

*sticks head through*

I think I can fit an elephant in here.

Maybe three.

Anyway the land in the cave and Fang gives Nudge dried fruit and candy. Gee that house was awfully well stocked for being covered in dust. But still don’t know if they have a can opener or not.

Apparently, also, when the two of them completely landed in the cave they completely missed a bunch of nests that are two feet across and filled with baby birds. Especially birds that are the size of the ferruginous hawk which are the largest raptors in the states. The birds are staring at Nudge and Fang and completely didn’t put up a fuss when they first landed but now Fang is afraid that they’ll attack them now.

Fang disarms them from being hostile by letting them catch the scent of his wings. Because the wild birds are going to relax in the scent of humans right next to their fledglings even if they have wings because they’re still going to smell like humans. Clearly these birds are made of plot contrivance.

Nudge actually is the one who remembers that hey, aren’t they supposed to be looking for Angel (age six) because “she’s like a little sister, like everyone’s little sister.” Why is she telling this to Fang, who lives with Angel and likely sees her like his little sister. And that Max has to come back.

Fang says yeah, she will and then look at how that hawk is flying! Fang decides than instead of comforting his ‘little sister’ about how worried she is about Max and Angel, he’s going to emulate the hawks flying. Which I suppose is kinda okay, in a sense, if he’s not very good at emotional things. But I would have liked to have had some sort of indication of this. Like before he suggested going to mimic the hawks in flight he shifts nervously, uncertain as to how to deal with it.

Nudge goes and joins him... after brushing crumbs off her shirt... and then flying without taking off her shirt... why do I even bother any more?

So she flies with the hawks. Which are completely not scared of them being near the fledglings.

You know, we’ve had our new parakeet for about six months now, maybe a bit longer. He’s still very shy of us and we’ve been handling him since near day one. These are hawks. Wild birds. With young. They’re not going to be allowing any human to go flying with them. They’d be attacking them.

Even ‘tame’ hawks need to be handled with care as they’ll harm their handlers.

The entire reason for this? So that Nudge can angst about how the birds have better parents than she did.

Comments

[jacedraccus.livejournal.com]

I think I figured out why she's called Nudge. She's clearly there only to nudge the story, nudge the readers to remember why such and such should be important.

[dove-cg.livejournal.com]

... Dammit! I think you're right. >:(

Would've been much better if she was named for that Monty Python skit. It would get old fast but...

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

That makes far too much sense.

That's not a good thing.

[dove-cg.livejournal.com]

But don't you see?! She's the only one who cares about her birth parents/DNA donors! Therefore she is a fully-realized individual with fears, hopes, and dreams for the future!

... Yeah, right. Not with this author. :P

It is kind of sad that she does seem to be the only one interested. From what I understand, most adopted kids DO at least want to know who gave them up and generally why, even if they're very happy with the people who adopted them. In fact, I can't imagine why these kids aren't more curious simply because the author didn't go into much detail yet beyond the fact Max hates when Nudge brings it up... and that they looked in Jeb's files and found some info.

Eh, maybe I'm being too nit-picky now.

[dove-cg.livejournal.com]

Fang says yeah, she will and then look at how that hawk is flying! Fang decides than instead of comforting his ‘little sister’ about how worried she is about Max and Angel, he’s going to emulate the hawks flying. Which I suppose is kinda okay, in a sense, if he’s not very good at emotional things. But I would have liked to have had some sort of indication of this. Like before he suggested going to mimic the hawks in flight he shifts nervously, uncertain as to how to deal with it.

Or if he had tried to suggest they go fly with the hawks as a way of comforting her, which could also work. But yeah, it needs something to suggest that's why he's doing it.

I guess he doesn't see Nudge as a little sister... Is she six? Has she been kidnapped? No? Eh, who cares about her? :P

Not to mention, you'd think they'd be TIRED by then! And maybe tired of flying by that point. I know that after a lot of walking around all day at work I really prefer to sit or lie down. That's the only reason I don't go to the park and walk around more often there. Even on my days off I feel pretty tired. And I don't even live where I have to walk everywhere to get around! During my vacation in DC I learned what it meant to really get tired of walking and even then it isn't that I hated it. I was simply that worn-out!

You know, I don't take back what I said about how this story could have been written even if they didn't have wings. This chapter is just a detour that could have been dropped or maybe replaced with something else. I guess if they couldn't fly it'd take a lot longer to get to Arizona but shit, there are other ways to increase travel rate than flying. Like a car of some sort.

I suppose that's why he gave them such a ludicrous speed though. Even in a car on the highway you can't safely go at upwards of a 100 MPH, I don't think, but regardless there is no "we have to get there BEFORE" urgency involved. There should be but this doesn't sound like it. Not to mention, how high are these kids flying? You'd think there would be some fear of running into planes if they're up too high... Guh, I don't know anymore.

I really hate this book. WHY didn't Ari just capture them all? I wish he had. There's so many ways to add excitement to what is going on and this author hasn't done any of them. :P

[jessaj.livejournal.com]

The vast majority of birds have a very poor sense of smell, so that's a very pointless action.
I don't know, if I were a hawk or hawk chick, giants with wings would be kind of scary.
There are plenty of birds that prey on smaller birds.
And babies are always at risk.

[dove-cg.livejournal.com]

I wondered about that myself. It struck me as an odd sense to invoke, especially since hawks are more renowned for their sight. But yeah... :P

[kjtaylor.livejournal.com]

"Hey, what a cave, man! Let's get out there and relate to it!"
~Zaphod Beeblebrox