|
Man I loved these books as a kid! I'm excited to follow along with this thread.
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2023 17:52
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 8, 2024 12:01 |
|
|
Wahad posted:"No, she won't," said Eilonwy, "because she'll think I'm still locked up. And if she doesn't know I can get out, she can't know I was here. But it's very thoughtful of you to say that. It shows a kind heart, and I think that's so much more important than being clever." This is a good sentiment but man, Taran gets roasted a lot. It’s a tough world for assistant pig keepers.
|
|
#
¿
May 10, 2023 16:53
|
|
|
For sure! I also remember Eilonwy being a significant character in the later books and I’m pretty sure she goes through a lot of maturation as well, but the first half of this book is pretty tough on Taran. For some reason the ending of the first book has always stuck in my mind so I know that Taran gets more responsible, but i’m looking forward to seeing what kinds of messages his character development pushes.
|
|
#
¿
May 10, 2023 18:44
|
|
|
I’m sure it’s somebody friendly though, i can’t wait to meet a new member of the gang!
|
|
#
¿
May 15, 2023 00:26
|
|
|
Oh my god i had actually somehow completely forgotten about Fflewddur Fflam. Man, revisiting these books is an absolute trip! Seeing Taran spring through life leaping from one conclusion to the next like he’s a goat climbing a craggy mountain, it’s really getting laid on thick. Hopefully he’ll start to chill out in a chapter or two.
|
|
#
¿
May 17, 2023 14:28
|
|
|
Wahad posted:Chapter 14: The Black Lake I did think it was an interesting and bold choice to fill the four subsequent books with nothing but blank pages, but honestly I can respect it.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 3, 2023 20:54
|
|
|
Doli, getting the power to be invisible: hahaha, yes! gently caress yeah! Doli, being invisible: what the gently caress. This loving sucks.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 22, 2023 17:26
|
|
|
Adaon seems like he's got a good head on his shoulders and I'm confident everything is going to work out swell for him!
|
|
#
¿
Jun 29, 2023 01:41
|
|
|
That’s a good chapter. Are the witches references to something? I really like the idea of the rotating identities.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 27, 2023 20:20
|
|
|
Yeah it’s the rotating identities that I was curious about - I remember that Piers Anthony had the three fates who would go in sequence, so whoever was Atropos would die, Lachesis would step up and become Atropos, Clotho would similarly step up and be Lachesis, and some poor soul would become Clotho to fill the gap, but that’s not the constant rotation that we see here and also nobody should read Piers Anthony if they can avoid it.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 27, 2023 20:41
|
|
|
Wahad posted:"You said his crow told you, my lamb," interrupted Orddu. "Don't believe everything you hear from a crow." I'm always saying this. It's not that crows aren't smart, they're just prone to exaggeration. You'd think an assistant pig-keeper would know that, but so it goes.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 30, 2023 02:38
|
|
|
Glad to see more chapters (and to get confirmation that you’re alive and well). I remember this part of the book hitting me hard as a kid - seeing Taran make choices that are difficult but as right as he can stuck with me for years and years.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2023 19:02
|
|
|
We draw closer to the secret of the bauble!
|
|
#
¿
Oct 24, 2023 19:06
|
|
|
I don't have a lot of deep thoughts but I'm really just enjoying the read - I can kind of see why this book feels like it's a bit slower and smaller than the other two, but it feels like good focus on the characters outside of an apocalypse.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 31, 2023 02:23
|
|
|
Achren is really trying to turn on the charm for Eilonwy here.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 21, 2023 18:53
|
|
|
The tail end of this book is doing a pretty decent job of setting up some of the questions that will get tackled in the next two, iirc - Taran is beginning to observe that being an assistant pig keeper will be as limiting as he allows it to be and wondering if there’s anything else for him. Edit: also achren staying alive will surely have no consequences for anybody down the line, I’m sure!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 25, 2023 21:35
|
|
|
I haven’t read Taran Wanderer in years and oh man, I wonder how this one is gonna hit now that I’m in my thirties instead of ten.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 29, 2023 19:29
|
|
|
That exchange stuck out to me as well - Taran has spent three books fighting in this grand fantasy, thinking that he’s serving all of Prydain by working for abstract ideals like Honor but he’s never actually spent time with a common labourer that isn’t Gwydion in disguise. As soon as he does, they explain that their big problem with Arawn isn’t that he sits on the throne of the King of Don or whatever, it’s that he’s stolen and hidden the knowledge of how to do anything but subsist. You can go off and fight for whatever, but if you die in service of Honor it doesn’t help the people you’ve left behind. I don’t know if I’m getting more out of this chapter now that I’m older, but I’m definitely getting something different. What a good book this is. Edit: man, they’re even like “yeah arawn took the automatic rototiller 9000 and the john deer riding lawnmower with the 24 horsepower engine and a cupholder for my beer can but look, the important thing that we need is just the knowledge of how to farm better.” It’s not the tools, it’s the knowledge that’s the real treasure. I definitely did not pick up on that as a kid. Coca Koala fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Dec 6, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Dec 6, 2023 16:45
|
|
|
I do kind of like the way Fflewdur is all “yeah those guys do exactly the same poo poo I do except they don’t have a harp acting like a cop all the time”
|
|
#
¿
Dec 12, 2023 15:56
|
|
|
I like that closing scene a lot because it's such a good dilemma for Taran - he set out in the hopes that he would find he has noble blood, and here nobility is being directly offered to him. He could have exactly the thing he thinks he wants, and honestly nobody would say he didn't earn it; taking it and calling the quest done isn't a bad or wrong option, and neither is deciding to continue on. So Taran's got to think about what feels right to him and what he would feel good about, and it really highlights the growth he's gone through because Taran from the first or second book is absolutely taking Smoit's offer every time because it's a quick way to excise the "assistant pig-keeper" label. and yes, it's also a nice moment of vulnerability for Smoit - he's concerned about what he leaves behind after he's gone.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 16, 2023 16:12
|
|
|
Doli seems like he's doing well.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 27, 2023 18:26
|
|
|
The end! No moral.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 25, 2024 18:19
|
|
|
It’s a really good section! I’m also looking forward to what I know comes next, but Craddoc is such a good contrast to the portion with Smoit offering to adopt Taran and Taran turning it down. The ongoing quest to find out who he is is just very well done - it’s got enough complexity that as a child reading it, you’re not always quite sure where it’s going and as an adult, you can see how all these lessons are piling up in different ways and you start to suspect you know what the mirror of Llunet is going to be, and what it’s going to reveal to Taran.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 31, 2024 16:10
|
|
|
Yeah I’m pretty sure from here on out it’s all just so good. Taran’s gone out, been offered what he thought he wanted, found what he thought he wanted, and discovered it all doesn’t mean anything to him. Now he’s gotta figure out where he goes from here. Taran Wanderer indeed.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 3, 2024 20:13
|
|
|
Man, that Llonio section all came rushing back into my head as I was reading along with it. What a charming change of pace from Craddoc - as a child I remember being very enchanted with Llonio's attitude of "Anything that shows up, view it in the most positive light and find a way to put it to use".
|
|
#
¿
Feb 7, 2024 22:01
|
|
|
Take me down to Commot Merin, where the grass is green and the girls are starin'
|
|
#
¿
Feb 14, 2024 23:40
|
|
|
The one lesson that I think gets hammered a little hard is probably also the lesson that's the most abstract for Taran, and by extension, the children who are the audience - every single person Taran meets has some story along the lines of "yes, I do $JOB to survive and yes, there was an enchanted tool that makes $JOB easy as gently caress, and YES that tool is in Arawn's keep and we're probably never going to see it again. But listen, and listen hard, kiddo, somewhere deep in Arawn's keep is a book that tells us how to do $JOB better than I can possibly imagine and if we can only get our hands on that book, the magical tools can burn in a fire and I won't give a gently caress because if I can learn how to do this thing better, the tool won't be any help to me".
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2024 03:32
|
|
|
What really gets me is that I can read a line likeWahad posted:"That I have not," replied Annlaw. "For I well know who I am. Annlaw Clay-Shaper. For better or worse, that knowledge must serve me my lifetime." and think, even in my mid-thirties, "god, that's amazing, I wish I knew that about myself". The idea of just knowing who you are is so powerful and so compelling, but of course the entire point is that you have to figure it out for yourself and you literally cannot get this kind of internal validation from an external source - the most you can do is go on a journey and once you're in the right frame of mind, look into a reflective pool and be willing to see yourself. This book and that scene have stuck with me for years and years. I remember being absolutely gutted by The High King, so I'm so eager to see how that goes. I'm sure I'll say this again when you finish the fifth book, but thanks for posting these, Wahad. These are such good books and I hadn't though of them for well over a decade until you started the thread.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 25, 2024 02:27
|
|
|
WOW you would not be so rude to Glew if he were still a giant, honestly getting made small was a very serious mistake and frankly it’s pretty hosed up that they did glew dirty like that
|
|
#
¿
Mar 3, 2024 03:25
|
|
|
It's pretty big of Glew to put himself in harm's way like this, not gonna lie.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 10, 2024 00:57
|
|
|
We spent all last book hearing about the horrors of battle and what it leaves behind, and yet it's still so unexpected when the costs show up here.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2024 03:51
|
|
|
This book does an amazing job of just feeling like an ending at every turn. The events really do feel like they're moving towards a climax after which Things Will Be Changed.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 8, 2024 03:25
|
|
|
Wahad posted:Chapter 12: The Red Fallows This line is one of the ones that really speaks to how far Taran has come from where he was in the first book. Taran of the Book of Three wanted exactly what Taran of the High King has.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 21, 2024 03:49
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 8, 2024 12:01 |
|
|
Wahad posted:Chapter 13: Darkness FIRST OF ALL i think you mean King Glew and second of all if he had been restored to his giant form AS REQUESTED MANY TIMES then he never would have even fit in the tunnel in the first place and would not have been able to destroy it so really who is at fault here
|
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2024 17:52
|
|