War

The largest theme evident in the novel is war. Though the novel is generally simple in terms of character interactions, its portrayal of the war between the seraphim and the chimaera is anything but simple. Firstly, the reasons for the war are unclear, and neither side even appears to remember why the war began in the first place. Second, the escalation of the war, and the reality that no one ever emerges as a true victor from the conflict, is a stark contrast with the classic view of good against evil, or the good army against the evil army, which is commonly featured in such works. Instead of good versus evil, the war that ravages both sides of the conflict is simply evil in the extreme, and the protagonists seek to stop it before it becomes even more damaging. It has already corrupted the most powerful leaders of...