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I am just about finished with the first book and loved it. I *think* I have figured out a lot of how things work from the context, but it's still all very confusing. I have avoided reading this thread because of spoilers for the following books which I will dive into soon, but does a lot of this stuff get answered going forward? Like I understand a lot about the standard but I also feel like I am missing a whole lot and/or I may be wrong. Is there any guide to the mechanics of this world and magic system that wouldn't spoil later books or should I just continue reading because there will be more concrete explanations?
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Jan 23, 2023 20:30
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 09:49 |
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Ok so if any of these answers will be spoilers for later books or even just lessen the impact of a cool lightbulb moment in the later books I don't want to know. I am going to spoiler the whole thing in case anybody wonders in here that hasn't read the first book yet. 1. The standard. It allows lesser talent folks to combine like Voltron so their magical abilities are on par with the strongest independents? But it also seems to have it's own pocket dimension that can be used to store stuff (the battalion records are mentioned) and to go into for meetings and also for the dead to stay in before they move on to the afterlife? Why did they have wagons and such for the ammunition if they can store things in the standard? But it also is a physical thing? Like a big pole with a flag or something? When they talk about going in and out of it are they physically going in and out of this pocket dimension or is it like an out of body thing? It also has a focus which is like a force field that can be shaped to push and pull and do all kinds of things? Also, a person (Blossom) can be a standard? Also does the standard-captain get full control or otherwise have special abilities? 2. Road building/marching Didn't really quite understand this. When they march it's like a haste spell so they are going super fast, but they also talk about like not being able to see outside (the drovers in particular who aren't part of the standard can't see what is around them as they march if I remember correctly). Are they inside the standard during marching and there is just a big flagpole rushing down the countryside? Is it actually just a time warp thing? Why do they have to build a road everywhere as they go? That seemed very important but I couldn't understand why because even the Reems guys built the despair road but they weren't traveling down it at the time so why build the road? 3. Why do they need a second commonweal? I couldn't get whether it was because the creatures out of the paingyre are definitely (or already had) going to beat the rest of the first commonweal or if they are just going to cleave the creeks from the commonweal? It sounded like cleaving but why does that require setting up a second commonweal exactly? Why couldn't they still communicate via magic or why do they not expect the first commonweal will attack and reestablish communication? 4. Shape of Peace So this seems to be basically the constitution of the commonweal but it's also a magic binding that means the people bound to it literally cannot break any of it's rules without dying on the spot? 5. What are signas pennons and gesiths? 6. The captain is a graul which seems to be a species created by magic? Is that right? What exactly are their powers? They can see a little way into the future but the captain can apparently change his mind in the past to negate the ability of another graul? 7. How exactly does the artillery work? Is it basically what we have except instead of gunpowder shells it's just shells with a certain kind of magic or spell in them? Like red-red-black and red-red-red are just designations for what exactly it does when it explodes? 8. The battles could be a bit confusing. What was actually killing people? Was it spells/magic Reems launched that made it through the focus/shield? It seemed like maybe in certain instances they actually got into them in melee and cut down people with swords or whatever but I don't remember a single description of anybody in the Line actually physically fighting with handheld weaponry. That's all I can think of now. I really enjoy his prose but it is also incredibly frustrating and I have never had to re-read passages as much as I have had reading this book to understand exactly what is going on or being said.
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Jan 23, 2023 21:43
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Ok so not too far off what I thought was going on. Thanks! Is there a reason this author hasn't tried to publish an actual book or through the more popular ebook stores? Seems like he is leaving a lot on the table, I could definitely see this being more popular with a wider reach.
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Jan 23, 2023 23:44
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How is chapter after chapter about building a house so captivating? This is good.
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Jan 26, 2023 06:28
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Finished the 5th book last night and not exactly sure how to feel about all this. These books were great and simultaneously incredibly frustrating. I both love and hate his writing style. I've read a lot of books in the past that were originally described to me as not handholding and you would have to figure out things without being explicitly told them, but nothing compares to this series. When it works it works extremely well and it is incredibly enjoyable, but there were plenty of passages that no matter how many times I reread or paused and thought about it I just couldn't parse what was actually going on or the meaning. Definitely a series I can only recommend to certain friends. I've thought about how to describe it and the best I could come up with was "grimbright". The world is a really hosed place, but the Commonweal is inspiring in many ways and gave me a lot to chew on in regards to politics and how we organize government. The author certainly has some opinions, but drat if he hasn't mapped out his preferred society down to the smallest details. I can't say I've ever read anything like it, and it was very refreshing to read something so different even if it made me mad often. I do find it funny that he refuses to publish through Amazon/Traditional publishing because of his beliefs but apparently Google is ok? Edit: Is there like a cached version of the old google groups or something? I'd love to go back and read it now that I have finished. Also, does anybody have a link to the first thread? Edit 2: I see now he has an unrelated story called The Human Dress. Is it worth reading? D-Pad fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Mar 11, 2023 |
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Mar 11, 2023 06:31
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 09:49 |
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Yeah I got the impression Ducks were like large bear sized and swans are like T-Rex
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Jul 4, 2023 20:06
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