I agree Wilshire, I had just finished The First Law on audiobook about three weeks ago.  In fact, I just got paper-version of Best Served Cold from the library and it's sitting on my coffetable.  And I agree, Pacey is absolutely fantastic.  Although I'll ask you just so I don't feel insane, but doesn't Pacey's voice for Sand dan Glokta sound EXACTLY like Stewie Griffin from Family Guy.  Like, uncannily so.

I think I need to carve a Circumfix on my forehead.  I'm then going to supplicate myself before the Holy Emperor.  If you all will excuse me.

Seriously, this is going to be my laptop background for a few weeks.  Par Excellence as usual Som.

Hasn't Bakker iterated that Earwa is five times the size of Europe?  So presumably the distance between Tryse and Mehtsonc is the equivalent of the distance between London and maybe, Samarkand on the Iranian plateau.  I can't imagine that enough Ketyai would have an established community in Kuniuri to have that much of an effect on the ethnic composition of the Dunyain sect.  And we don't know for sure how cosmopolitan Sauglish is or any cities of the Ancient North.  But it's all speculation still.

If I'm to track my investment in the series on an emotional level.  I would have to say that the prologue of TDTCB was an attention-getter.  I always found Kellhus first experiences with the outside world disturbingly similar to Shelley's Frankenstein's Monster when he first escapes and has intelligence but lack the awareness to cognitively understand the world, so his mode of description is always very weird.  I was hooked by the Battle of Kiyuth.  "Battle-prose" is something that only a select few genre writers can truly excel at, Kiyuth showed me that Bakker would be no slouch when it came to the intricacies of tactics and localized strategies.  But I was genuinely sold by the series when Conphas returns to Momemn for his triumph.  I, no hyperbole, had to reread that chapter three times because I didn't quite understand how Xerius had out maneuvered his nephew.  Every time now, I get chills as soon as Conphas stops being passive-aggressive and becomes supplicant before his uncle, like someone flipped a switch his demeanor.

But my all time favorite scene is actually something that seems really slight in comparison to the other set-piece moments in the books.  When Skaurus observes the tactical situation at Mengedda.  Saubon orders his longbowmen to basically take pot shots at the enemy commander and Grandees.  When Skaurus isn't fazed at all and just pulls out a knife and starts filing his nails, I remember I was reading TWP in the University Law Library and I guffawed so loudly at the audacity of this Sapatishah, that I was asked to leave premises. Lol  I miss Skaurus, he deserved more page-time, oh well.

To be honest this is one of the more interesting things that I've observed from Bakker's prose in regards to anything involving the Inchies.  Basically he has to articulate standard sci-fi tropes, but in the patois of these fantasy cultures and characters who wouldn't know a microwave from a hyperspace drive.  The Heron Spear is what it is called by the Three Seas due to its physical traits, but the phrase "laser beam rifle" would never appear in text, and rightfully so as it would seem super out of place.  The Incu-Holoinas is never described as a "spaceship", although we know it is one.  Constantly, metal and iron are used to described the Wracu, and many on these boards have come to the conclusion that they are somewhat cybernetically enhanced by the tekne.  But the phrase "cybernetic bio-engineered war-beast" is never used in text.  So I think it comes with the territory with the Inchoroi, that the language used isn't necessarily truly indicative of what we are observing, buy merely though the lens of these Earwans peoples.  So when I hear "festering corpse armor" my mind conjures something much more science fiction in function.  But of course the Inchies may adorn themselves with literal corpses for battle as rite or some kind of tradition, I don't know.  Does this block of text make sense? 

Lol Thank you for bringing back memories of Reign of Fire, Madness.  That gloriously pulp film.  What's the name of that Nilnameshi Prince?  The Scion of a Thousand Songs or some such, the Warrior-Poet. If he didn't die at Irsulor,  I can imagine him going out like Van Zan against a Wracu.  Such a glorious death would be worthy of an epic ballad.  "Do it for the ballad." has presumably been the Medieval equivalent of "Do it for the vine."

I saw in another thread that you visit TVTropes, so I think I can accurately say that both Gemma and Juice and firmly in "Karma Houdini" territory at his point lol.  Although it is an interesting debate, whether auteurs and creators are somehow obligated to give their audiences a sense of cathartic retribution in regards to characters that have committed heinous atrocities.  This was a hot topic when Breaking Bad was ending, was Walter White supposed to be punished for all the crimes he committed to satisfy the audience's desire for justice?  I can roll either way honestly, whether Gemma gets off scot-free but has to live with all she's done or if she goes to prison or what have you.  It still stands though, that the relationship between an artist and his audience can be a unstable one.

I will note the titles of those books and biographies, hopefully I'll get to read them at some point although it won't be until the summer after I'm back from University.

Also, amusingly enough, I just saw on Wikipedia that although S7 is going to be the last for SOA, apparently Sutter is in talks with FX to do a prequel series in the late 60's about the founding of SAMCRO with young JT and Clay as the protagonists.  We'll wait and see what comes of it.

Strangely enough Madness, our previous discussion on knowledge of history being the gateway to our understanding of fantasy cultures and peoples has some bearing on this, we should consider "what comes before" in regards to our knowledge of SOA.  It's no secret that this show is Sutter's giant love letter to Macbeth and Hamlet, with characters being various analogues and the thematic structure etc. etc.  But, should we consider Shakespeare's plays as the model for the resolution of the narrative of SOA.  If Jax is Hamlet... everyone will be dead by the end of S7, everyone.  If Jax is Macbeth... then maybe a Malcolm/Macduff figure will come to finally end all the degradation and violence that the sons have wrought.  Patterson maybe?  Or should we discard the allusions to Shakespeare entirely?