A great book and may already be my favourite book of 2024. I'll need to come back and see if that is true.
Lupin - The main character and the voice of Vol. The voice of vol seems to be the role of someone who can communicate and relay messages from the ilk. He is of the Verido people which is the name for all three groups that ride the ilk. The story goes that three siblings were looking for a place for their people to live and a giant showed them 3 ilk. The siblings befriended the ilk and ultimately moved their people onto them.
The Verido people act as the traveling merchants of the Soronan desert and bring goods from all over the world everywhere.
Uno - A giant. They seem to be related to the world and the people somehow, taking care of both. Legends say the giants were huge and looked to the skyrocks before but once they started looking down, they gradually got smaller. Uno seems to be the giant that showed the Verido siblings the ilk. He is also the one who found Lupin and fixed him up and had him travel the desert. It looks like Lupin will show the Verido people who to live on the ground now that the ilk are dying.
The Rupture - A chasm in the ground that the creatures in the Soronan desert jump into when it is their end. It must be stupidly deep if the ilk fell and was able to sing for awhile. I wonder what it is about it that draws them all.
Eka - I'm not sure what creature she is, but maybe giant. she seems to be extremely long lived and has seen many things and seems to be driving change across the world. I'm guessing she has been sleeping and waiting for Lupin. Each of their adentures results in a small movement that I think will snowball into a good thing for all the creatures in the desert.
Nono - A finick sandfinner that travels around following another finnick and fixing their wrongs.
Sandfin - A boat that rides the sand. This is pretty cool, the entire land is like water in this world.
Zukka - A Terin that maintains an oasis and a nursery. They were given the location by a giant though we don't know who. Probably Uno. The Terin is taking care of seedlings as this entire world seems to be made up of plant people. This story is the first that really hooked me and set up the world. Zukka and his people were attacked and taken as slaves. Zukka managed to escape and to save some of the seedlings which they are growing. This makes them massively distrustful of others which makese sense.
Lupin and Eka get him to show mercy to some travellers who eventually befriend Zukka and he gives people in general a second chance. If this pans out then Zukka may begin the traditions of eating from the desert and having seedlings again. Something that has been declining since the wars.
Moete - A city that is built on a cog that spins. The cog is powered by the wind and man power. The city also demands identification and tracking and there is rapant drug use. The city was built on ideals and was a good thing originally but as it grew, it also kept the worst parts. This was a lovely adventure and one that made me quite sad. It ends with one of the Terins eating real food thanks to Lupin and they begin to use their money for that instead of drugs. This hopefully snowballs into the entire city becoming more focused on eating real things than trying to stay hooked on drugs.
Irideri - These people were the ones that waged the war and took slaves. They needed slaves to get them mushrooms that would light up. Their culture and way of life was based on it. Once the first king died, the second king closed his people from the rest of the world and they focused on what they had.
Demeri - The current ruler of the Irideri. She couldn't have healthy seedlings so she stole the puzzlemaker Hori's seedling and made it her own. She seems to love Kuruno but it's a dangerous love. Maybe something genetic makes them this way as all the other people in this book are relatively peaceful.
Kurono - The seedling that is next in line. This child is curious and wants to see the world. They are going to probably cause the biggest changes in the book as I imagine as the Irideri learn what they did to the world and all the pain they caused, they will need to reckon with it. However I imagine it will get better as people of this world seem to allow for forgiveness as Renzo proved.
Renzo - A guard that was in love with Demeri. They are the one who kills Hori and steals away Kurono. The timing of this is something I think I'm confused about as Hori apparently loved Kurono like family. Which sounds like he may have known that it was his seedling Noko.
The final story of many people helping build the sandfin was great and I enjoyed seeing them all together.
The last adventure which was for Eka and Lupin to traven the desert to meet with Vol was nice but I don't think I get it. Vol utimately dies and I think Lupin learns about the role he has been prepared for. But it was already relatively well set. We also don't see Lupin meeting with his people who thought he had died. I would have liked to see him meet them.