#maybe i'll split chapters up like i did for KoA?

[silverysongs]

FINALLY starting Thick as Thieves

it is once again time for my bullet point comments. chapter one:

hasn't even started yet and i love the epigraph. "We think we steer the ship of fate, / but all of us are guided by unseen stars" - there are things threaded together here that i can't see but i know i will LOVE

Kamet's voice is so casual but it's so interesting (and horrifying) to see how his perspective has been informed by his place as a slave. he doesn't grab the wall for support because he'll have to see his own blood for (presumably) weeks. he sees Nahuseresh's beating as a consequence of his own stupidity rather than his master's cruelty. i know there's more of those moments later and they will make me laugh and they will make me cry inside.

the image of Kamet, shaking and sick after Nahuseresh's appraisal, even though he's bandaged Kamet, because he's still the abuser - gross. effective, but makes me shudder.

Kamet is so smart. i guess you could call it calculating - and there is some of that there - but there's something else, something about being able to understand people, to look ahead and anticipate the outcomes, that's not so malignant.

Kamet always assumes that Nahuseresh knows about the loans. wonder what else Kamet assumes? (theory: fatal flaw - assumptions?)

Ornon mention makes my heart warm!

first costis/kamet interaction is a DISASTER. EUGENIDES. COSTIS. WHY.

"My king wants your master to suffer the loss of his right hand" / costis. what do you think that sounds like. there's a reason why kamet's so freaked.

"[The Attolians] weren't very civilized" / omw. Kamet. you've got some pride my friend.

"He could have just spoken in Attolian" / are you TELLING ME that Gen had Costis learn Mede for NOTHING. later. they will all laugh about this i hope.

"...they were all still memorizing their poetry because none of them knew how to read." / KAMET. this is going to be the worst road trip ever for these two. besides being an ignorant generalization, maybe a strong oral storytelling tradition is a good thing culturally and socially, Kamet?

kind of want to write a meta on the role of Laela in this book. like. that moment that she lies to Kamet - it's kind of the crux of the plot, right? it's so subtle but it's so important and he believes her because he has no reason not to (ooh BELIEF in these books is another thing. mmm). if Ornon or Costis tried to lie in the same way, Kamet might take it differently.

"There had been a number of imperial dinners that were the stuff of nightmares." / now I want to know more about the Mede. what are their politics like?

some nobility from Kamet as he's thinking through which slaves would be tortured because of the poisoning - and how he could spare them some suffering by leaving now.

"...the lie easy on my lips" / so Kamet has the ability and the experience to lie. INTERESTING. not like Costis or Sophos, the last two narrators.