War, the Red Horseman

War is the enemy.

I realize I took on a huge task with this one, but in a way, it had to be done. The concept of war is one of the enemies in On Black Wings, and that force is nigh unstoppable. When war makes an entrance, it tears a swath of destruction through the book like nothing we have seen, and it is meant to shock.

It should.

That concept of 'war as the villain' keeps coming back, and I try very hard to stay away from preachy notions, and just stick to a very low-level story about dealing with this as a villainous force. It reminds me of Alvin and Heidi Toffler's book War and Anti-War in a way. War is something itself worthy of being fought against, the things we can do to contain it, the things we can do to move us away from it, and the pursuit of peace, equality, and dignity as anti-war forces.

Of course, I can't take on such a huge subject in a paranormal YA book, but Jessica does manage to find a way to battle this force of darkness by herself using her newfound powers and insights. She comes from an angle of a mother who lost her children and husband to this wicked force of hatred, yet she still believes in peace and understanding. It is her single most admirable trait, her willingness to forgive even the death of her family and believe in a world of peace. This point is one of the central in the book, and it also plays a huge role in why the ending happened the way it did.

We have been living in a constant state of war for so long, I wanted to write a book like this. I didn't want to write small about one particular conflict, but I wanted to write about them all metaphorically. Thus, a paranormal end of the world brought about by the scheming of sinister forces, and instigated by the one most aligned with conflict and hatred.

There are other forces at play too, and it is hard to understand their motivations and who's side they are truly on, and they all play a role. Some of the villains say one thing and do another, promising to want to help her, yet turning on her later, and again, this is on purpose. Like the force of war itself, they are metaphors for the social and political entities that are so large and impersonal we feel powerless to control them in times of conflict. Do we trust them? Do we believe in our ideals and beliefs? Jessica goes through those phases, believing what she is told and then not, and then she's back with those same forces again, and then not.

Like the Tofflers' book, there is a message here - war can be beaten. It can never be eliminated, but it can be contained with sacrifice and vigilance. The goal of containing war as a force of destruction is a noble one. War is a natural disaster brought upon by social forces, and we should actively seek to contain and eliminate it. Doing so may mean war itself though, and Jessica realizes there is a time she must confront it directly. She goes through two major events in the book I find fascinating, and they show the two sides of war to her.

One is the rescue of Azrael, showing conflict as an evil force for expediency, self-interest, and gain.

One is when she fights War itself, showing conflict to contain conflict as a noble yet unavoidable and possibly regrettable means to an end.