Good stuff, reading up on "A Test for Consciousness".

Any background info on these two individuals, out of curiosity?

I've wondered whether that was Cnaiur or Moe Jr. dreaming it since the first read through. It definitely seems like a dream sequence to me regardless, and given Cnaiur's "Dunyain are worms" speech it would sorta make sense for him, but it would also make it the lone Cnaiur POV in all of TAE, no?

Weirdly, I would interpret it the same way if it was Cnaiur or his son -- that the Dunyain can act through the people they've conditioned well after their own death, and Moenghus the Dunyain has "infected" the line of Skiotha.

As one who considers themselves an artist (not that it matters at all for the debate at hand): My go-to opinion on this matter, broadly speaking, is that if the creator of a given work considers it to be a piece of art, then I'm not going to tell them they're wrong. By the same token, I'm also not obliged to consider "good art", as it were.

That being said, I also mostly agree with your idea of what makes art, well, art lol. Or at least GOOD art. In the end, to me, art is just expression combined with the craftsmanship of the artist in their respective medium. 

I was actually kind of ambivalent towards Akka during my first read of PON, and even on my re-read (followed by catching up with the other two released books at the time, TJE and TWLW). I never thought he was a badly written character or anything, but I suppose I felt similarly to what TaoHorror said above. To some extent I still do feel that way -- my favorite characters are definitely the more "take charge" types, or at least "take action" (which is often, but not always, literally taking part in an action sequence).

However, after TGO and the re-reads that followed, and especially after TUC, I can say that my appreciation of the character has grown considerably. I think the reason for this is two-fold: firstly, Akka benefits from re-reads more than perhaps any other character in the series. His wealth of knowledge and general musings (philosophical or otherwise) had a tendency to just sort of wash over me during early read-throughs, but after returning to the text continuously and not having to focus on plot elements as much, the various instances of Akka's self-reflection, his perspective on the other characters, and all of the little side-notes regarding the worldbuilding and such are not only easier to digest, they also become more interesting the more you unravel the mysteries and concepts at play in the series.

It's especially interesting to take Akka's overrall opinion of himself and his place in the world during PON (in which he is basically a very, very heavily armed conspiracy theorist), and then contrast that with the old, crazy Wizard of TAE. In many ways Akka changed the least of all the original cast from the first book onward, but not in a negative way -- it actually makes sense given the entire premise of the Mandate and Seswatha and so on.

In terms of sheer writing, though, I would confidently argue that Achamian and Mimara are wholesale the best-realized characters from across the series (with probably Cnaiur and Kellhus coming in right on their heels). Akka and Mimara's banter, mannerisms, and interactions feel increasingly genuine as TAE progresses, and by TGO/TUC it feels like the author is effortlessly channeling these two very complex human beings.

It's funny as I think of it, but Achamian might be the main character I'm most looking forward to in the next series, if only because he will finally be pretty much the only authority people have to turn to regarding the Apocalypse that is very clearly taking place across all of Earwa. In a way it's like only now can Achamian truly become Seswatha, especially since he has some very personal reasons to hate the Consult. Almost as if everything so far has been in preparation for this section of the story.

Perhaps a rendition of the tender love affair between Proyas and Sibawul in TUC?

The False Sun didn't spoil or ruin TUC for me personally, however it did sort of telegraph the greater thematic and narrative crux that TUC would make use of (that being the notion of the seemingly all-powerful Ubermensch having the floor fall out beneath him -- figuratively and literally, in TFS's case). To be honest though I don't even think that would have stood out if RSB had not mentioned that TFS could be "spoilerly" to begin with.

Amazing thread and posts, gonna have to re-read it a few times though lol. Once we hit TGO, I kinda stopped putting much effort into unraveling the WLW plot-points, in part because I was assuming it would be laid out somewhat coherently in TUC (which was hilariously naive me, in retrospect). Nonetheless, the nature of the Gods and their atemporality has always been fascinating to me and even more-so after TUC, but your assessment of everything is honestly pretty mind blowing and makes a shitload of sense. I keep forgetting that the Gods lack an ability to reason, but as you demonstrated it seems to be pretty important.

I assumed Esmenet was Saved going purely by Mimara's visions of her, but I hadn't considered Sorweel, really. One thing that this sort of dovetails with is a hypothesis I've been going over in my head since TUC:

Esmenet is a mighty Ciphrang. Like Cnaiur, who is a veritable Prince of Hell, so too is Esemenet a "Princess of Heaven", shall we say - and perhaps our only example of the elusive "angelic Ciphrang" which RSB mentioned in an interview years ago.

I was actually going to start a thread on this anyway and I don't want to de-rail this one, but you can see my thoughts on it here: http://www.second-apocalypse.com/index.php?topic=2403.0

Dunno how I missed them until now but holy shit these are AMAZING. They perfectly capture my envisioning of Golgotterath in terms of mood, etc. Possibly the best and most evocative covers for the series I've seen thus far. Great work as always from Somnambulist.