B: Welcome to our first bookchat!
BeeJay: Thanks, B. It looks good in here!
B: Fresh wallpaper for the occasion. So what was your first impression of this book?
BJ: It's long! I haven't read adult fantasy in a while, I picked this up thinking it was YA, and no matter how much of it I read I never seemed to get anywhere.
B: It is pretty long, about 450 pages. It's very complex, though. I think it needed to be that long.
BJ: There's a lot going on, definitely. I can't say that I exactly followed all the reasoning, but I mostly knew who was doing what for what reason.
B: The different groups - races? - are pretty confusing at first, yeah. All the different gods and things.
BJ: Although for an adult book it's very tame. Just a bit of kissing.
B: Suits me fine.
BJ: Although for an adult book it's very tame. Just a bit of kissing.
B: Suits me fine.
BJ: I loved the Maze and the Gates. That was clever storytelling.
B: Oh, yeah! Very clever. Deeply creepy, but a really clever way to string out travelling and make it harder to get anywhere, which was helpful about seventy percent of the time.
BJ: Depending on which side you're on. Characters, B! What did you think of Csorwe?
B: I got very strong Tombs of Atuan vibes at the start. Then she sort of became the Black Widow.
BJ: Tombs of...?
B: Part of the Earthsea series, about a young girl taken to serve as High Priestess of a cult. She doesn't get sacrificed, but it's the same sort of idea, and interestingly one of the important ceremonies of her Priestesshood happens when she's fourteen.
BJ: I'll have to look that one up. I liked Csorwe better right at the end, when she was developing her own personality. Blind loyalty's all very well but it does tend to get you in trouble.
B: True, but the poor girl didn't have much chance, really.
BJ: No, Sethennai designed things to make her loyal to him. He does the same thing to Tal later on. It just seems to be his thing.
B: You weren't taken in?
BJ: I didn't feel anything much about him. He felt a bit too slick. You were taken in?
B: Just a bit...
BJ: Well, it's designed to make you love him.
B: Yeah, let's say that's the excuse. Anything else you would have liked in this book?
BJ: I want to know what happened to the Sand Wife!
B: I was going to say I want the next one to be released now so I can read it before I forget who everyone is, but now that you've said that, I want to know too!
BJ: There'll be a Dramatis Personae at the start of the next one to remind you.
B: In that case, Sand Wife all the way!
What if you knew how and when you will die?
Csorwe does — she will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice.
But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Leave with him, and live. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become a thief, a spy, an assassin—the wizard's loyal sword. Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power.
But Csorwe will soon learn – gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.
BJ: Depending on which side you're on. Characters, B! What did you think of Csorwe?
B: I got very strong Tombs of Atuan vibes at the start. Then she sort of became the Black Widow.
BJ: Tombs of...?
B: Part of the Earthsea series, about a young girl taken to serve as High Priestess of a cult. She doesn't get sacrificed, but it's the same sort of idea, and interestingly one of the important ceremonies of her Priestesshood happens when she's fourteen.
BJ: I'll have to look that one up. I liked Csorwe better right at the end, when she was developing her own personality. Blind loyalty's all very well but it does tend to get you in trouble.
B: True, but the poor girl didn't have much chance, really.
BJ: No, Sethennai designed things to make her loyal to him. He does the same thing to Tal later on. It just seems to be his thing.
B: You weren't taken in?
BJ: I didn't feel anything much about him. He felt a bit too slick. You were taken in?
B: Just a bit...
BJ: Well, it's designed to make you love him.
B: Yeah, let's say that's the excuse. Anything else you would have liked in this book?
BJ: I want to know what happened to the Sand Wife!
B: I was going to say I want the next one to be released now so I can read it before I forget who everyone is, but now that you've said that, I want to know too!
BJ: There'll be a Dramatis Personae at the start of the next one to remind you.
B: In that case, Sand Wife all the way!
What if you knew how and when you will die?
Csorwe does — she will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice.
But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Leave with him, and live. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become a thief, a spy, an assassin—the wizard's loyal sword. Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power.
But Csorwe will soon learn – gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.
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