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Tor Books Tumblr changed their header image https://www.tumblr.com/theriverbeyond/718040187300610048/hello?source=share https://www.tumblr.com/torbooks
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# ? May 30, 2023 20:34 |
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# ? Jun 3, 2024 22:38 |
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Love the bit where Coronabeth rattles all this dueling terminology off and Pal, one of the smartest people in the room but not about this because he could not give less of a crap, just in essence goes "buh?"
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# ? May 30, 2023 22:05 |
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Dawgstar posted:Love the bit where Coronabeth rattles all this dueling terminology off and Pal, one of the smartest people in the room but not about this because he could not give less of a crap, just in essence goes "buh?" Yeah Pal is a very smart dumb person
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# ? May 30, 2023 22:21 |
I love that whole sequence. “Death first to vultures and scavengers.” And also everybody needs more Sex Pal
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# ? May 30, 2023 22:22 |
mewse posted:Yeah Pal is a very smart dumb person "The sixth learns sword fighting out of a book?"
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# ? May 30, 2023 23:26 |
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The series has so many great characters, so many lovely characters*, and so many great lovely characters. It's wonderful. Even most of the people you hate are fun to hate. *as in lovely people, not as in written poorly
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# ? May 30, 2023 23:46 |
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Cooked Auto posted:https://www.tumblr.com/rosenkranz-does-things/718394082538504192/saw-the-new-barbie-trailer-and-had-to-do-it-to-em noooooooooooooo
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# ? Jun 1, 2023 06:36 |
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C'mon, Tor. It's Pride Month. Please give us something
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# ? Jun 2, 2023 03:36 |
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I binged these books over the last couple months and then I binged this thread because I wanted to read all of the spoilers. And thank you to everyone who has posted in this thread. You have answered so many questions I had lingering. Including how in the world you spell Aiglamene. But not all of them. I listened to the audiobooks and haven't gotten the physical copies to do closer rereads yet. Spoilers from the various books: 1. Do we ever find out why the ninth house "shouldn't exist" according to the eighth? Is it just because Anastasia never made full lyctorhood? 2. Do we know why everyone hated Cristabel? 3. In John's gospels in NtN, is there any indication who the nun was? I believe it was a C, but there were several Cs in the inner circle of first necromancers/cavaliers that I couldn't figure it out. I don't remember enough about all of the lyctors who don't get as much screen time when listening to the audiobooks. 4.. Where is it mentioned that Alecto is canonically Hollywood Hair Barbie? That was a surprise to me as I was reading through this thread and just want to know where I missed that one. 5. In Harrow's first note to herself in HtN she says that for the first time in her life she's been given an actual choice about something and for now the answer is "no." What was the question? Was it whether she would join Blood of Eden? Since, presumably, they arrived at Canaan House before the Emperor and took all of the survivors/Gideon's body and left Gideon's sword imbued with Wake. (thanks sebmojo for being the first to mention that she was in the sword. That was a huge ??? for me having missed that in narrative.) I am also making the assumption that Harrow asked BoE to take Gideon's body and in exchange she would take the sword. As for my own contribution to theorizing, the process for becoming a lyctor is called the eightfold word. And while I've seen exploration of the Catholic connections in the books, this one only makes me think of The Noble Eightfold Path which is out of Buddhism. You know, the religion that aims for freedom from the cycle of death and rebirth... Hmm. As mentioned, I haven't had the physical books to go back and map the divisions to the lyctorhood process to see if there are any overlaps that support this thought. But it would also be interesting to do my reread with these things and other Buddhist principles in mind. And now... aaaaaaahhhh, why didn't I wait until we were closer to Alecto read these books?
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# ? Jun 4, 2023 15:18 |
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The Ninth is just a prison for Alecto. It's unclear how much the Eighth would know about that at the time though. Cristabel's the nun, and that's also why everyone hated her; she had a fanatical nun personality. John mentions that when he had to make a vessel for Alecto, all he could think about was a Hollywood Hair Barbie he used to play with as a child (Not Hollywood Hair Ken, though, that guy's a creep). This is shortly after he kills everyone. The choice is whether or not to accept Gideon's sacrifice. Almost everything she does in HtN is with the goal of not letting Gideon be absorbed into her, even if she doesn't realize it at the time. It works! But they both die anyways.
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# ? Jun 4, 2023 16:17 |
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Spoilering each answer in turn: 1 They were meant to seal up the Locked Tomb and then die/fade away. The fact that they stuck around, and have weird semi-heretical worship of the Tomb creeps people out 2I think she was just a bit over-enthusiastic and annoying, and Augustine thinks she was a bad influence on his brother in some way. 3. Not spoilering this cos I have no idea 4. John describes her as "Barbie. Frankenstein's monster with long yellow hair" which I think is the Hollywood Hair one 5. I assume it's her choice about whether to let Gideon die properly or not.
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# ? Jun 4, 2023 16:19 |
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1. That makes me think that Anastasia stayed for a very specific purpose then. Especially with what we get at the very end of NtN when Alecto asks if her line remains unbroken. As there seems to be a promise needing to be kept. As for 2/3: If everyone hated her and her personality so much, why in the world did John bring her back in that way? I guess he could only make her forget her previous memories and not erase the kind of person she was? I didn't think it was Cristabel because, at least in John's story, I expected her to be way more annoying throughout. And instead, she seemed like the only one really getting through to him. Maybe not in the right way, but he was definitely considering her words moreso that A or M. Huh... Re: 4, I definitely remember hearing those words but for some reason did not encode what was happening. And 5: I don't remember how it was worded exactly, but for some reason the way my brain heard it, it seemed like it was a choice that was presented to her from other people. But perhaps it was just a choice presented in the passive by the situation. And that's why I never made that connection. Thanks all!
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# ? Jun 4, 2023 17:58 |
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I think Anastasia knew that John had hosed her and Samael over on purpose.
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# ? Jun 4, 2023 19:03 |
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1. All of that and also Pluto isn't a real planet.
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# ? Jun 4, 2023 21:26 |
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mllaneza posted:1. All of that and also Pluto isn't a real planet. Oh, lol
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# ? Jun 4, 2023 22:13 |
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I just read these books and I love them.
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# ? Jun 8, 2023 21:09 |
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Found a couple of really awesome Ianthe fanart on Tumblr https://www.tumblr.com/deepfriedsquash/708365498828668928/ascension-of-the-eight-saint?source=share https://www.tumblr.com/may12324/664724885852045312/ianthe-tridentarius-hans-zatzka-study?source=share god i love this crazy bitch <3 Saul Kain posted:I just read these books and I love them. Welcome, friend! Join us in escalating anticipation waiting for any sort of news of book 4 Happy Landfill fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Jun 8, 2023 |
# ? Jun 8, 2023 23:06 |
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Happy Landfill posted:Found a couple of really awesome Ianthe fanart on Tumblr That's some intense art. Love it and ... joining in waiting impatiently for Alecto.
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# ? Jun 9, 2023 02:47 |
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Hello, I just read the entire series so far in about a month, and I have some feelings. gently caress, these books are so hard to put down once you start.Ans so sad, and funny, and funny-sad. I'll write longer, more thought out posts once I've slept on Nona a bit (what the gently caress is this entire books,Jesus),but I think sharing how I've felt through memes is appropriate in this case ,so:
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# ? Jun 9, 2023 13:58 |
I suggest the audio books while you wait for Alecto, Moira Quirk is an absolute gem.
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# ? Jun 9, 2023 15:27 |
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She's certainly got GUTS!
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# ? Jun 9, 2023 15:31 |
Happy Landfill posted:Found a couple of really awesome Ianthe fanart on Tumblr I can fix her.
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# ? Jun 9, 2023 16:04 |
Moira Quirk puts on one of my all time favorite audio book readings. She injects so much character into the voices.
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# ? Jun 9, 2023 16:48 |
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I only know her from GUTS and god drat if she isn’t one of my favorite voice actors now.
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# ? Jun 9, 2023 18:35 |
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She said in an interview that her kids hate when she does voices while reading them bedtime stories.
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# ? Jun 9, 2023 19:36 |
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Reclaimer posted:She said in an interview that her kids hate when she does voices while reading them bedtime stories. Hard to believe there's people out there who willingly have kids
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# ? Jun 9, 2023 19:55 |
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Reclaimer posted:She said in an interview that her kids hate when she does voices while reading them bedtime stories. How sharper than the serpent's tooth...
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# ? Jun 9, 2023 20:20 |
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mewse posted:Hard to believe there's people out there who willingly have kids Nona loves you! Having kids made me a much better human being. I love my daughters.
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# ? Jun 10, 2023 13:34 |
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mewse posted:Hard to believe there's people out there who willingly have kids
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# ? Jun 10, 2023 14:58 |
Have kids Teach them all the good things Give them the skills to build a better world
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# ? Jun 10, 2023 15:06 |
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And then make them read The Locked Tomb. They have to, they're your kids
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# ? Jun 10, 2023 16:51 |
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Yesterday at dinner my kid told me that he has twelve skulls hidden in the cupboard, and that his sister has four extra skulls, but he can't tell me where those are because it's a secret.
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# ? Jun 10, 2023 16:57 |
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Chernobyl Princess posted:Yesterday at dinner my kid told me that he has twelve skulls hidden in the cupboard, and that his sister has four extra skulls, but he can't tell me where those are because it's a secret. The kids are alright
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# ? Jun 10, 2023 17:00 |
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Chernobyl Princess posted:Yesterday at dinner my kid told me that he has twelve skulls hidden in the cupboard, and that his sister has four extra skulls, but he can't tell me where those are because it's a secret. Have you considered that one or both of your kids are actually the Reverend Children, heirs to the Ninth House?
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# ? Jun 10, 2023 17:23 |
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M_Gargantua posted:Have kids
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# ? Jun 10, 2023 19:24 |
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Saul Kain posted:Nona loves you! Having kids made me a much better human being. I love my daughters. I was into the books until the part with the unconditional love, it’s just too unrealistic.
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# ? Jun 10, 2023 21:34 |
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So I have some thoughts about some characters after finishing the series , and reading the thread. About John, there's so much to unpack. What a piece of poo poo. NtN does a great job of almost making him sympathetic, just to show how much of a psycho he's become.Cassio tells him he cares more about punishing than trying to save people, and she's completely right. They ask him if he could try to fix the planet, try to stabilize a glacier or something, and he doesn't even try he's so fixed at stopping the rich from fleeing, and considering he loving kills and restarts the loving sun, he could've probably done something. Another thing is the nun.The easy answer is that it's Cristabel, with name ommited so there would'nt be 2 C.-'s to confuse people.But this series normally doesn't take the easy answer, and it has a big focus on names(like Nona immediately translating names), and it would be very on character for John to just not ressucet her, because she believes on a higher power that's not him.Don't need that on his utopia, right? Finally , since they mention he can easily change memories, and that there's things in his story that don't match, it begs the question, could he alter his own memory so well that even he doesn't realize? Ianthe is amazing in how completely awful she is. One thing the thread has talked about a lot is why she saving John is presented as a bad thing.I think not because saving him is a bad thing by itself, but because she forsake Augustine to do so.Augustine was the second closest person to Ianthe on the Mithraeum,after Harrow, and the one who probably liked her the most.Meanwhile Jod really didn't think about her twice, focusing all on Harrow. For all the poo poo she gives Coronabeth, she's the same, choosing people who didn't care about her over the one who did. She also really needs a win quick.She's turning into Worf fast, the competent/strong person who always gets beat to show how cool the other characters are.Though it's also funnywhen she loses. The whole idea of the second book of bringing back dead characters in the River to help out was great, really fleshes out a lot of people who were just there to die on the first one, and show both to the reader and Harrow how much of a shame their deaths were. And nobody gets a better showing in death than life than Ortus.My man was the MVP of the fake Canaan House. He basically became Harrow's sad,old ,loyal uncle (with even an hobby she thinks is lame), and that even though he wasn't cavalier material, he was the best goddamn Mathias Nonnius fan in the universe, and sometimes that's all you need. I wrote a lot, but it's been some time since I've been so invested and immersed in a series. Alecto really can't get here soon enough
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# ? Jun 11, 2023 07:17 |
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Honestly, Harrow's reconciliation with Ortus was probably my favorite part. The whole, "I was an adult and you were both children. I was powerless but maybe I could have done something," just felt really...I don't know, honest? Genuine? I feel like it just adds to the tragedy of it all. Ortus was a victim, too. The whole situation was hosed
Happy Landfill fucked around with this message at 07:48 on Jun 11, 2023 |
# ? Jun 11, 2023 07:31 |
On Ortus, without really much of any spoilers...one comment on this is "suddenly i get why ortus wrote the noniad" https://twitter.com/MidnightCrowArt/status/1667648294711881728
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# ? Jun 11, 2023 11:22 |
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# ? Jun 3, 2024 22:38 |
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i mean Ianthe only really gets dunked on twice; once when she successfully speedbumps an actual fully operational ten millennia old lyctor long enough for Harrow and Gideon to cobble together a winning plan, so frankly i'd file that as part of the successful team effort. i mean, palamedes died setting up the kill, his death just didn't stick the other time is when Palamedes blindsides her and temporarily steals her zombie body while she's already struggling with the whole "there's a Resurrection Beast right up there" problem, which I think is also a reasonable defeat she's extremely solid for a baby lyctor all the way through Gideon, and indeed lands the finisher on Augustine
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# ? Jun 12, 2023 01:56 |