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TGO ARC Discussion / [TGO SPOILERS] On the Threshold of Revelation: Thoughts on Disembarking the ARC
« on: June 30, 2016, 12:17:34 am »
I've had a couple of days to check out the forum after finishing TGO on Sunday evening, and it's good to see there's been lots of activity here... there are more people here than I expected!
This is the best book in the series, Bakker's writing is on another level. Much tighter narrative and better pacing than the previous books. It'll be interesting to see how he wraps up these threads in TUC; there still seems to be a long way to go before everything comes together. Loved the appearance of a 'tekne artifact' at last. That Cnaiur is back is such an expected treat. I missed the debauched, murderous lunatic.
I think I'd need go through the book a second time before getting into some of the bigger ongoing debates here (and I think that's going to wait for retail copy), I will say that I was sure Serwa was singing Sorcery at the end of the Ishterebinth chapter. It never occured to me that she wasn't until reading through the forum.
There are couple of things that I haven't seen discussed:
(1) I had the impression from earlier books that the Judging Eye wasn't always open, that Mimara would only see with it when IT decided to show her something. Maybe I need to re-read the But here she seems to be able to control it, or there's just a lot more going on that it seems to think she needs to see. Or it's the qirri.
(2) I think their defectives is something else the Dunyain were ultimately wrong about, and that there's something important, and ultimately very useful about defective/broken Dunyain with emotions. Not for the Thousand Thousand Halls, maybe, but certainly out in the world.
I was also half-convinced the mixed-up timeline wasn't actually a mistake, at least until the last few chapters. That the Priority Principle is wrong is such a big theme in the book that wasn't sure that... I dunno, maybe the same events could be happening in different times in different places? Not sure how I feel about that, really. Earwa is weird, but maybe not that weird.
This is the best book in the series, Bakker's writing is on another level. Much tighter narrative and better pacing than the previous books. It'll be interesting to see how he wraps up these threads in TUC; there still seems to be a long way to go before everything comes together. Loved the appearance of a 'tekne artifact' at last. That Cnaiur is back is such an expected treat. I missed the debauched, murderous lunatic.
I think I'd need go through the book a second time before getting into some of the bigger ongoing debates here (and I think that's going to wait for retail copy), I will say that I was sure Serwa was singing Sorcery at the end of the Ishterebinth chapter. It never occured to me that she wasn't until reading through the forum.
There are couple of things that I haven't seen discussed:
(1) I had the impression from earlier books that the Judging Eye wasn't always open, that Mimara would only see with it when IT decided to show her something. Maybe I need to re-read the But here she seems to be able to control it, or there's just a lot more going on that it seems to think she needs to see. Or it's the qirri.
(2) I think their defectives is something else the Dunyain were ultimately wrong about, and that there's something important, and ultimately very useful about defective/broken Dunyain with emotions. Not for the Thousand Thousand Halls, maybe, but certainly out in the world.
I was also half-convinced the mixed-up timeline wasn't actually a mistake, at least until the last few chapters. That the Priority Principle is wrong is such a big theme in the book that wasn't sure that... I dunno, maybe the same events could be happening in different times in different places? Not sure how I feel about that, really. Earwa is weird, but maybe not that weird.
