H, how have you been? Still delving into the deeps, I see. I have never started that series, and have continually heard good things. I'll add that to the list.

Alright, hanging on, doing what we can, haha.

I honestly haven't been reading much fiction at all.  In fact, I am not even sure I read a fiction book all of last year (although I probably did and just can't recall).  Pretty much all I read now is philosophy.  I think Red Wolf, Black Leopard is really good but it is nontraditional in several key ways that probably make it not appeal to most readers (both in it's depiction of sexuality and in the structure of the narrative).

Hope you been well yourself!

Last book of the Book of Babel is supposed to be released.

Indeed and I think Marlon Jones has said the next in the Dark Star Trilogy might be coming out this year too, but who knows now with the Pandemic.

I agree with what Wilshire said, it doesn't have the same feel as the first series. But, Abercrombie is just so easy to read. So, it never feels like a slog. Easy reading.

An MSJ sighting!   

I think it is fair to suppose that almost every biological aspect of an Inchoroi has been genetically modified in some way, although maybe with some teleological/technological aim but possibly just as side-effects of other grafts.  In the end, it probably has much more of a narrative aim of enforcing just how "alien" they are, that the color is inverted from what we might expect.

It should probably also be noted that White_Lord actually had a better handle on some of the minutia than Bakker did himself, which is why in TTT, Bakker acknowledges him (IIRC).

There is a self-consciousness for a self-consciousness. Only so is it in fact self-consciousness; for only in this way does the unity of itself in its otherness come to be for it; I, which is the object of its concept, is in fact not object; the object of desire, however, is only independent, for it is the universal indestructible substance, the fluid essence equal-to-its-own-self. When a self-consciousness is the object, the object is just as much I as object.—With this, we already have before us the concept of spirit. What still lies ahead for consciousness is the experience of what spirit is, this absolute substance which, in the perfect freedom and independence of its opposition, viz. of diverse self-consciousnesses that are for themselves, is the unity of these self-consciousnesses: I that is We, and We that is I. It is in self-consciousness, as the concept of spirit, that consciousness first has its turning-point, where it leaves behind the colourful semblance of the sensory here-and-now and the empty night of the supersensible Beyond, and steps out into the spiritual day of presence.

G.W.F. Hegel - The Phenomenology of Spirit

I really liked the style of JS&MN but the story itself left me wanting, definitely.  Maybe I'll check out this new book though.  Is it the same sort of style (of writing I mean)?

Ha, I'd bet my old copy is probably still at my old house, somewhere.  Although, no idea how complete it might (or might not) be.

Maybe one day we can meet up near Pensacola, if we ever make it out that way again, seems like it might be almost half-way for both of us, TH.