#uncle jeb

Anyway, Doctor Mister Ryland Grace and "Honorary" Professor Wanderer

Both are teachers at their core (Ryland with science, and Wanderer, history), who were involuntarily press-ganged into helping their authorities with a fight for their own species' survival, who find family and love in an alien species that they couldn't find in their own and who find the courage to die to save and safe gaurd the lives of said aliens, without ever betraying their own people in turn.

Both books also start with them waking up from deepspace travel with little idea who they are or what's going on. Ryland arrives alone though he shouldn't, and Wanderer finds herself with company in her head when she should be alone, things have gone terribly wrong for them both.

Eva stalking Ryland out of his Middle School v The Seeker stalking Wanderer from her therapy session, and to all of her classes at the university.

Both books take the route that the Aliens are entirely, incomprehensibly, non-human and while The Host has more Aliens to choose from:

-The main non-human alien in both books have silver blood.

-There is a species of alien that is spreading out across the local galaxy (I think canonically for both books, just form context clues, the Soul and the Astorphage are both still within the Orion Spiral arm, it doesn't sould like either have gotten too far in the grand scheme) causing the extintion of life on any inhabited planets.

-the Golilocks Zone is for Idiots, both books have aliens who exist in non-Earth like environments.

-the Spider-like aliens are the best engineers in both :)

-both have aliens who cannot see, and use sounds/echo-location as a way of interacting with their involvement. (Its implied the Singing World in the Host is very close to Earth, and Erid in PHM is likewise very close, just saying... 👀)

-both have aliens with mind-melding abilities (Eridians and the See Weeds)

-Humans have such short lives. Both the Erdians and the Souls have vastly longer lives that humans.

-Origin of Life/Wanderer and Ryland sustaining themselves on alien life. The Host never actually gets into the Origin of Life debate, but I'd argue in the same way Ryland could some-what live of Taumeoba because it had a similar DNA structure to Earth life, its likely that in The Host universe, as the Souls are compatible with using all kinds of vastly differing alien life as their Host bodies from the start, without any evolutionary pressure to do so, its possible all life in the Host universe is likelywise related.

Uhh, what else, I'm trying not to just like say Thing That Are Just In Stories.

There are religious parallels in both stories but can't really put my finger on any they share off the top of my head.

I think its interesting Ryland arguably stumbled from being a Jesus allegory to an Adam allegory if you think of Tau Ceti as the Garden of Eden, the possible origin of life in there local branch of the universe where he Names All The Things and takes care of the Taumeoba the way Adam was meant to take care of the animals in the Garden.

Conversely, I've always ironically read the Host as a metaphor for leaving the insular and isolating life of more conservative religious teaching (that only by following the "right path" can you be perfect and have enternal life and happiness), that you have to leave all that behind to find love for yourself and your flaws and for other people dispite their's so you can fully appreciate and live the only life you're given.

Idk, I just think, Ryland and Wanderer would get along, as they are both fundamental good people even as they learn to grapple with their flaws, and both Stories are about how love and friendship and empathy saves you.

OH THEY BOTH LIKE SNACKS Ryland with his candies and Wanderer with her Cheetos.

And neither of them can drive their vehicles. At least Ryland's crashing the Hail Mary around in the void, Wanderer's going 95-to-0 on a dime in the middle of the highway!!!

Melanie and Rocky, also, god those two together would be hilarious.

Oh, oh, Rocky's line "it's not enough" about all the years he had with Adrian before leaving for Tau Ceti, and Melanie's "you never know how much time you'll have" line before leaving Jared to search for her cousin in Chicago!!!! Both left their mate/lover for some last ditch hope, and both never though they'd see them again, when against all odds, they did!!!!

Jebadiah "My house, my rules" "this ain't a democracy, its a dictatorship" Stryder versus Eva "World Dictator" "I came to this trial as a courtesy" Stratt.

The way Ryland finds happiness in his circumstances on Erid even though they aren't perfect, and Wanderer learns to be happy with her human family even if her new human host is not terribly ideal. Its the compromise of it, the optimism.

Its the Suvival Instinct; Ryland running from Security "you're muderering me!", hitting the ground, clutching at the grass; Melanie leaping down the Elevator shaft, the Seekers grasping at her, but the fall wasn't far enough and shes captured, Wanderer trying to escape Kyle throwing her into the river, trying to let Melanie take over and fight for them because she thinks she can't.

Its Ryland sending the beetles back to Earth, to Eva, forgiving her for sacrificing him, and Wanderer choosing to send The Seeker off to another planet light years away rather than let the humans kill her for revenge, for hunting them.

Its Rocky giving up his astorphage fuel, and Melanie begging Wanderer to keep using her as a host rather than give her back her body and then die.

Its Ryland turning around to die for Rocky, and Wanderer giving Melanie her body back, because its the right thing to do, and they love the other person that much.

Props to Uncle Jeb for keeping his head in the game the entire time.

He was skull of good ideas

Mark and Ethan were busy goofin off but he was really headed for victory.

And that’s a great place to beheaded.

bruh the other day we were laying out all sorts of lore for him-- for example:

-he’s yancy’s uncle, and the only person who ever showed yancy affection in his life and his mysterious disappearance was one of the catalysts that caused yancy to kill his parents

-he used to be a paranormal investigator, before the “incident” with a certain water demon in cincinnati 

-because of the incident, he has to carry around a foam mannequin head as a comfort object, and he talks to the head frequently as if it was a real person

-he’s damien and celine’s father who went missing years ago, making yancy their cousin

-he’s the oldest of the missing derekson brothers

Genuinely, the like, sense of melancholy that just pervads the Host, it's so,,,,, it just grabs you and lingers with you. Like you flip it to a random page, and you'll probably find something, some line that just makes you a little bit sad.

Like it speaks to the way, they live in a world that is u imaginably changed, which they have no hope of returning to it's original state, and they never try, they never talk about what ifs and maybes, not in any serious way. They just handle what they can, and meet their problems where they're at, and I'm not sure what, outside of its context, this line makes me think so much about it, but, I just really like it.

Or, I do, actually. There's a sense of finality to the tragedy of both the story's world- the planet, the people- and the character's internal world, their little life together in the caves. But there is not always, not wholey, a sense of doom. There is still happiness, and bright, possitive, enjoyable things to be found, if you just stop and look.

Needed an angst fix so I wrote a re-telling of Chapter 14 (and what happens before Wanderer wakes up in Chapter 15) from Jared’s POV. For reference, Chapter 14 is where Wanderer/Melanie are brought in by Jeb and see Jared for the first time. Starts with a flashback of when Melanie went off to find her cousin.