General Battuta posted:

Ah, the month is almost over! I'll never be this famous again!

I think it's important to leave a wall between writer and reader so that the reader has room to interpret the text without the author drooling all over. But whatever gently caress that, I'll talk about some poo poo.

I'm curious how many people picked up on/cared at all about the more subtle threads in the book. I tried to bury the plots of other novels in the story, then make Baru resolutely ignore them (because she's so focused on her goal). Part of the idea was to reward rereads, part of the idea was to seed future stories that would be interesting, but mostly I wanted the novel to illustrate that the world was bigger than Baru.

Just off the top of my head:

Heingyl Ri's plan to take over Aurdwynn.

The true identity of the actress in the bar (this one's super easy).

Exactly which vengeance-crazed individual killed Duke Sahaule, and why Baru presumes it was done!

Xate Yawa's motives throughout the novel (pretty explicitly revealed), and the identity of her backer.

The fate of Xate Olake's daughter with Tain Ko.

The identity of the man with the iron circle that Tain Hu mentions, although it'd be a mad stretch to guess this one just from the textual evidence.

Exactly what brought down the Tu Maia heartland.

The scientific error that drives Masquerade eugenics.

I'll try to remember if I dropped any other threads!