How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
War. The hungering in him burst into excitement and a kind of fear. This is it, he thought. He wondered if he would see Smiling Women, in the north. Da dum da dum. This is it. (5.48)
When Cam first learns of war, he's psyched. There's definitely a heart-racing, adrenaline-pumping thrill coming out here before he sees any action on the battlefield. If only he knew the trauma and repercussions the war will actually have on him, perhaps he wouldn't be so excited to go.
Quote #8
The war went on and on and on. The two great armies did not meet again in numbers until the Battle for Dorn-Lannet, but dodged and jinked about each other. Cam's war was ambush and sniping, a war of nerves and secret, stalking slaughter, moving back and forth over the same territory, but slowly, slowly, Cam's own side always losing ground. (7.85)
We get several clues that the Uplanders and Downlanders are pretty equally matched in the novel, and this is a pretty significant one. It's important that the Uplanders slowly overtake the Downlanders, because it gives us a sense that the war is between two similar sides—and that means both lose in the end.
Quote #9
Watching her, Diido hurt: for the little girl she herself had been before the soldiers had come; for the angry grieving look on the child's face. Even here, in this place of peace and plenty, so far, far from the soldiers, why that look? (8.46)
Diido's war isn't what Cam experienced on the battlefield, but it's just as real and just as horrific. She's used by the soldiers simply because there's a war and people behave differently when in battle—to her, the war represents the loss of herself.