The Moon and Destiny in Marcus Sedgwick’s Midwinterblood

Myra here.

While this story is not technically about science fiction, the setting of the story does move back and forth from June 2073 to as far back as the 10th Century, from July 2011 to October 1848 among others. And it does speak about how love endures dsepite time, distance, persecution as marked by the phases of the moon.

I was drawn to this book by the trailer which hinted on parallel lives, destiny, and the inevitability of fate, the wonders of chance and circumstance. I think it would be worthwhile to also share that with you here:

In Part One: Midsummer Sun (June 2073 – The Flower Moon), one can see traces of our scifi theme, especially as it envisions a few of the gadgets that people would most likely have in the future, further revolutionizing social networking websites with the presence of this app known as OneDegree:

The OneDegree app is based on the principle of six degrees of separation… Since its invention, when some clever soul realised that it often takes not six, but merely one step to connect you to most other people in the world, the app, or its current version, sits in the palm of everyone’s hand. When going on a journey, or arriving in a new place, the easiest way to make friends quickly is to bump the air around you with OneDegree. Maybe no one you know is on the same plane, but someone who knows someone you know is likely to be. Or someone who went to school with a friend of yours. Or who works where you worked ten years ago. And so on and so on. (p. 4)

This is not unlikely even in the next ten or fifteen years or so, I think. This novel, however, goes beyond this. In fact, this is the only trace of scifi element that I can glean – as Midwinterblood, is at its very core, a love story.

This book is made up of seven parts, excluding the Epilogue which provides a closure to the story found in Part One of the book. Think of this novel as a collection of vignettes whith fairly recurring characters in the presence of Eric, Merle, and Tor. The others are interchangeable and do not really matter that much.

I believe what makes Marcus Sedgwick special is how he manages to convey something like this without appearing cheesy, maudlin, or predictable. His writing has remarkable restraint which makes it even more powerful, and allows you to willingly suspend your disbelief – and just go where his writing takes you – be it to an unquiet grave back in 1848, or be chilled by the idea of vampires in the 10th century with the snow moon, or just be amazed at the ritualistic aspect of fate or destiny, that nothing is happenstance, but meant to inevitably lead the characters Eric and Merle together, only to be forcibly torn apart in the end.

Whether they end up as mother and son, brothers and sisters, clandestine lovers, or husband-and-wife, there is an irresistible magnetism that brings them both together that defies logic or reason. There is also the quiet wonderment about what our lives mean, and whether we are living just one, but a multitude of lives across space, time, centuries:

While seemingly disconnected, there are elements in the various stories that seem woven into their tragic tale: the rabbit (or hare), the Blessed Dragon Orchid, the notion of sacrifice, the tea, the sense of deja vu. I don’t think that this is a novel for everyone. I am interested to know how teenagers would take to the novel as a whole. I personally found it intriguing and riveting, and quite different from anything I’ve read in awhile.

For teachers who wish to make use of this in the classroom, here is a fairly-detailed discussion guide created for the CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Children’s Book Awards by Nick Lake & Eleanor DeBruin. And here is an amazing author-interview with Marcus Sedgwick himself talking about Midwinterblood. Enjoy.

Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick. Published by Indigo, a division of the Orion Publishing Group, 2011. Book borrowed from the Jurong West Public Library.

Reading Challenge Update: 255 (25)