#spoiler i have already reread the other book and it was better but i still didn't love it

[the---hermit]

You're All Just Jealous Of My Jetpack by Tom Gauld

This was a reread for me, I got this as a present a lifetime ago, and I did not rememebr anything about this collection of comics stips. I will not lie I didn't love this book. Some stips we were funny, and I personally really like Gauld's illustration style, but some strips didn't work at all for me. I will give it the doubt benefit because I have a translated edition so maybe some jokes were lost in translation? The thing is that some stirps felt a bit awkward and had boomer meme vibes. Which is weird because I didn't expect it at all. I tend to like Gauld's stips, and I read another book by him a few years ago and I don't really remember feeling that way. I will now reread this other book I was mentioning to see how I feel about it now. I definitely have mixed feelings about his book, I honestly have not checked reviews online yet to see what other people had to say, but I am now intrigued by it.

[morporkian-cryptid]

I'm rereading Feet of Clay, and something I love about Pratchett's writing is that you keep discovering new things with every reread. This man is a fucking genius; and I say is because we all know a man is not dead while his name is still spoken, and I am very much speaking his name, very loudly and with an undertone of exasperated delight.

(MASSIVE spoilers for Feet of Clay, obviously; do not click if you haven't read that book)

Okay, so the poison was in the candles, right? We all know that, and when you reread the book with that knowledge, you notice all the clues that Vimes will later put together. "Une mèche en métal gris" (a wick of grey metal) in the candlemaker's coat of arms. "Art brought forth the candle". Vetinari doing a whole infodump about arsenic and to "put it where no one will look" (the bastard already knew). The emphasis on the candle being the last sentence in the scene where Vetinari's writing, right before his condition gets worse.

A good writer knows how to sprinkle foreshadowing in ways that are just obvious enough to pick up after the fact.

But you know what a great writer does?

Spread false leads.

I honestly don't remember what I deduced the first time I read the book; I was in high-school and tearing through it without stopping to really think about the clues, and also I had little to no knowledge of the cultural stories around arsenic. But on reread, I keep noticing remarks about the wallpapers.

And if you know anything about the Victorian era, the combination of arsenic and wallpapers will immediately make you go "Pass me a towel!!".

THAT BASTARD (affectionate) PTERRY WANTED US TO THINK IT WAS THE WALLPAPER!

And it's not just once, no. There's Vimes' remark about "That seemed to be about it, short of stripping the wallpaper off the wall", which make me chuckle and mutter "oh come on!". But then later on there's "You might as well accuse the wallpaper of driving him mad"... with the added detail that THE WALLPAPER IS GREEN. IT'S FUCKING GREEN. Pterry KNEW what he was doing.

It takes a third mention of the wallpaper (the fact that it's the same in all rooms and Vetinari's condition hasn't been getting better) before Vimes actually consider it; but we the reader would have been yelling "It's the wallpaper!! It's the wallpaper!!" since the first mention of green.

And this is exactly what you expect from a good writer, right? Give you enough clues to figure out the mystery yourself and feel smart.

And if you didn't notice the wallpaper, or dismissed it in the same way Vimes eventually does (it's been there for years and Vetinari has only just started getting sick), then there's the ink on the journal.

(Spoiler for "The name of the rose" by Umberto Eco)

If you've read the book or watched the movie "The name of the rose", the second Vetinari is described licking his fingers to turn the pages of his journal, you should have been screaming "THERE'S ARSENIC IN THE INK!!!" (or at least giving very heavy suspicious side-eyes at the journal and at Pterry).

This is Terry Pratchett's genius, to me, in this book. Sprinkling false leads that seem like solutions to the reader because of our culture, of our knowledge of history or other works of literature, to make us feel smart for having figured out the mystery from the contextual clues before the characters do, and enjoy the fun frustration of watching them bumble around and miss details that we picked up on because we have context that they lack...

And then turn around and pat us on the head and say "Well done, but I played you, you picked up exactly the clues I wanted you to, and ignored the real ones", and you can't be mad at him because the real clues were there! In plain sight!!! The goddamn coat of arms were presented literally within the first twenty pages! We get to feel smart for about half the book, before we realize we've been played, just like Vlmes.

I fucking love Terry Pratchett so much.

[butterflydm]

wot reread: the gathering storm (chap 43-end)

spoilers through the gathering storm

Egwene spends some time internally processing her feelings on being rescued from the Tower, trying to figure out if her feelings of anger and failure are legit, even if the 'failure' was pushed on her by others, and how she could have done things differently to prevent the rescue from happening.

2. Egwene then works on coming to terms with the idea that being the leader of a group of people does not actually mean being in charge of your own destiny. Another tie to Rand and what he's been struggling with for the whole book series! Egwene thinking about the illusion of control here really ties into the struggle we've seen Rand deal with as Dragon Reborn and what Mat dealt with as ta'veren in books 3-9. It's interesting to me that we've never really seen Elayne struggle with this on page -- maybe because she's always had the background/training on it?

3. Ultimately, Egwene decides that her only choice is to assault the White Tower before Elaida has the opportunity to heal the Sisters injured in the raid and to regain her power in the Tower. She and Gawyn have a brief conversation where she thinks about how it isn't a bad thing for Gawyn to argue with her in private, but that he must never disobey her in public. Which, for the lover of a ruler, I don't necessarily disagree with, but they don't have any kind of actual arrangement at this point. She wasn't his boss, and he waited for Siuan before actually moving to action. In the grander scheme of things, it doesn't really matter if Egwene is here or in the White Tower right now (because she already Won By Default when Elaida was taken in the raid), but I agree that it's important that they have conversations about their expectations in a relationship. And actually HAVING a conversation about their relationship would put them ahead of the majority of the relationships in series, which mostly happen either by accident or by trying to jam puzzle pieces together according to the words of a prophecy, lol.

4. Back in the White Tower, the five heads of the Ajahs who are still around are talking about how badly things are going. We do finally get the mystery of the ~young Sitters~ solved here -- deliberately sent by the heads of the Ajahs in order to make a smooth transition back to a reunited White Tower when that hopefully happened. Right now they're talking about how their plans have failed because: a. they didn't take the Tower split seriously enough (they assumed the rebels would come crawling back for forgiveness); b. Elaida was a disaster (allowing her to disband the Blue Ajah made the rebels caving much less likely); c. they were too obvious about their collusion, in times when normal Sisters were avoiding spending time with anyone outside their own Ajahs.

5. So now they talk through (and reject) a number of women as candidates to replace Elaida, who they know was taken by the Seanchan. It is Adelorna (head of the Green Ajah) who first mentions Egwene as their potential new Amyrlin. Because of how bravely she took the novices under her wing and protected them and any Sisters she found from the Seanchan. She also points out there is no better way to bring the rebels back into the fold than raising up their Amyrlin as the Amyrlin of the Tower as a whole. I really enjoyed this whole discussion. We finally get answers on the young Sitters mystery that was bothering Siuan for so long, and the five heads of the Ajahs here (everyone but Red and Blue, essentially) all agree that Egwene makes sense as a choice. They even approve of Egwene clearly NOT being puppet material, because they've seen how badly that can go with what they tried to do with Elaida. And I like the contrast between Egwene thinking of herself as a COMPLETE FAILURE for disappearing after the raid vs that literally not even coming up as a point against her when the Ajah heads are talking her over as a possibility because they are all busy talking about what she actually did DURING the raid.

6. Though Siuan worries that what she did may have lost Egwene's trust, she absolutely believes she made the right choice to disobey. Siuan says that she believes the rebels were very close to losing heart and giving up on the cause, with their leader gone for so long. And thinking back to what happened with Siuan herself in TSR, she knows this from personal experience! Anyway, I still don't care much about Siuan/Bryne but this scene between them isn't bad. Their relationship has been a LOT more grown-up since Sanderson took over. Instead of throwing things at Bryne, she's actually talking to him.

...huh, I'm making some connections about Jordan's ideas of romance again. Siuan throwing things at Bryne. Tuon throwing pottery at Mat in her first scene in CoT. I'm wondering now... was the reason that Tuon was such a pre-teen bratty version of herself in CoT & KoD because Jordan saw brattiness as inherently a 'sexy woman' thing, and so Tuon being a brat to Mat was meant to show off how ~desirable~ she was? I'm gonna give that some more thought. But it is interesting that there's no more tantrum-throwing from the women ~being courted~ anymore, at least not so far.

7. Oooh, Egwene stole the Oath Rod from the White Tower. Good looking out. Anyway, she's called the Sitters together in a private meeting of the Hall because it is time to call out the Black Ajah. Step one: she takes the Three Oaths and then announces that she is not a Darkfriend. When Egwene announces her intentions for every woman in the Hall to unswear and then reswear, to likewise prove that they are not Black Ajah, Sheriam embraces the Source -- Egwene was expecting this, of course, because of Verin, so she promptly shields her. She manages to trick Sheriam into lying by building up a series of high-stakes questions that Sheriam instinctively says "no" to and then hits her with "do you have red hair?" and Sheriam is amped up enough that she says "no" to that too. Which reveals she is not currently under the Oath against lying, because it would have stopped her tongue.

8. When Egwene continues to press the others about swearing, Moria leaps up to try to run away, revealing herself and getting caught. But after that, of the Sitters currently present, all the rest are able to reswear the Oaths and declare themselves not to be Darkfriends, so Egwene now has certainty about who she can trust, which is very useful! Everyone present here knows that everyone else present is not a Darkfriend (twelve people total).

9. I do think it's really funny that Egwene... Traveled to the Tower to fetch Verin's books, and Traveled back AGAIN to the rebel camp. Anyway, she also lets them know that they're going to assault the White Tower tonight, after they've cleansed the rebels of all the Black Ajah Sisters but since we already know that the Tower is leaning towards Egwene as Amrylin, I feel safe to say that this will not actually be happening.

10. Shifting back over to Rand's plotline, he and Nynaeve are arguing over the best place to enter the Blight, with Nynaeve voting for Tarwin's Gap, but Rand is feeling like that would be a waste of resources, since Lan can provide a useful distraction there while Rand Travels his army directly to Shayol Ghul. Obviously, this is very upsetting to Nynaeve. She also notes here that Rand seems ~particularly determined~ to assert his independence from ~Aes Sedai~. It's so weird to me that Nynaeve doesn't seem capable of processing that Rand is deeply traumatized? (though I guess she didn't get Min's overshare about Rand's traumas; that was reserved for the Aes Sedai that he trusts the least of those around him, lol)

11. Oh, here we have Rand definitely embracing that Lews Therin death wish -- when Nynaeve protests that Rand's plan is going to get Lan killed, Rand says, "Then who am I to deny him that? We all deserve the chance to find peace."

12. The interesting thing to me about Nynaeve's argument here - that the people of the Borderlands wouldn't be particularly grateful that the world has been saved from the Dark One if they are cooking in Trolloc cookpots -- is how easily it can get turned around on the "we must ally with the Seanchan" argument. How grateful will the Seanchan slaves be that the world has been saved, when the world being saved only means that they continue to be trapped into slavery with no hope of escape? Right now, Nynaeve is mourning that the people of the continent are going to be crushed between the Trollocs coming from the north and east, and the Seanchan coming from the south and west, and tries to think of any way to convince Rand to find a new strategy.

13. Trying to figure out how to meet Cadsuane's ~task~ for her (find Perrin), Nynaeve resorts to asking Rand (actual communication being the hardest task of all, lol), saying that her reason for asking is worry over Perrin and Mat. In response, Rand tells her that she's still not a very good liar. (lol yikes). Also, Rand saying about Perrin, "He has tasks set before him and performs them." lol, if only you knew how completely untrue that statement is, Rand. Perrin has done anything BUT try to perform the tasks set before him, lol.

14. Oh, I really like this conversation between Nynaeve and Narishma (they are talking about the Borderlands delegation that Rand is meeting). This sentence from Narishma hits particularly hard: "I want to trust them. I know them for good people. But good people can do the wrong things. Particularly when men who can channel are involved." Nynaeve also notes here how clearly loyal to Rand Narishma is. It really is a shame that Rand avoided the Black Tower as much as possible because the (non-Darkfriend) Asha'man that he pulled away from the Black Tower have all been A+ people and very loyal and goodhearted. Narishma, poor Eben, Damer Flinn, Karldin, Jur Grady, etc. And it's especially a shame that Rand didn't let himself become friends with any of the Asha'man traveling with him, feeling like he had to treat them as weapons instead, because it's clear that several of them do care about Rand a lot. So it's just really a shame that the Black Tower couldn't serve as a support group for all these men who are all going through similar traumas.

15. The "delegation" that the Borderlanders sent to meet Rand consists of a single person -- Hurin, the sniffer from TGH. Rand is very distrusting of this and assumes that the reason that they sent Hurin in particular was to try to take down Rand's guard. Hurin tells Rand that the Borderlanders want to meet with Rand inside the Guarding of Far Madding (where he will not be able to channel). No one is ever willing to meet Rand on neutral ground anymore. It always has to be in a place/situation where they feel they have an overwhelming advantage over him. First ~slaver empress~ and now the Borderlanders. Rand Travels with Hurin, Nynaeve & the others to just outside Far Madding. They look over the army that is assembled here and Rand gets some pretty rough ptsd, thinking of his time trapped in Far Madding. I wonder if Rand believes that he's only thinking most of the things that he says here -- we've seen in his PoV that he thinks he's being stoic always, but in other PoVs, there's mention of him talking to himself. As far back as TFoH, iirc.

16. Right now, Rand is pondering the notion of ~teaching the Borderlanders a lesson~ about trying to cage him. Yeah, when Nynaeve tells him that he can't attack the city because it's full of innocent people, he's surprised that she's responding to his words. He definitely thought that was a private conversation with LTT in his head. As soon as he realizes that Nynaeve can hear him, he goes emotionless and cold in affect. He tells her that he has no plans to attack the city. Then he tells Hurin to go back to the Borderlanders to tell that that he is willing to transport them to the Blight and, if that isn't acceptable to them, then they can explain to future generations why they shirked their duty.

17. Rand Travels with Nynaeve to Tear, and tells her that Perrin is camping by a statue, though he can't tell her where exactly (he's mentioned that he, Perrin, and Mat are ~connected~). He does describe what the statue looks like and says that scholars might have a good guess where it's located.

18. Nynaeve, I love you, but it is so WILDLY hypocritical for you to be thinking about how RAND likes to hoard information away from other people. Please, consider yourself and your own choices. I am asking you to please do this. Physician, heal thyself.

19. Nynaeve thinks here that some part of her feels like she abandoned Mat when the Seanchan attacked Ebou Dar, but then she dismisses the idea that he might be doing anything other than drinking it up at an inn. Despite. Literally finding out that he was just traveling with the HEAD of the SEANCHAN EMPIRE. Nynaeve, do you hear yourself when you think? Even a little, do you hear the things that you think? Anyway, Sanderson doesn't give us a reason here why Nynaeve never told Rand about Mat being left behind in Ebou Dar, because there never WAS a reason apart from "Mat's plot is in Ebou Dar" and she can't exactly say, "The author wouldn't let me tell you". The bizarre mental contortions that everyone took in WH to not tell Rand about Mat being left behind in Ebou Dar still give me a headache if I think about them for too long lol, because that really is the most blatant Hand of the Author situation in the entire series. It MUST happen for the plot and therefore it DOES happen, no matter how little sense it makes.

20. "All this would be much harsher on the one who shared his heart." The ONE? You were there for the group love confessions, Nynaeve! You were Team Elayne back in the Stone of Tear. What is this bullshit about Min being ~the one~ who shares Rand's heart? Anyway, Nynaeve is making excuses for why Min is spending all her time with Cadsuane, the woman in the city that Rand probably trusts the LEAST, lol. Though, hey, once again, I'm gonna appreciate that this means that I've been getting a lot of Min-less Rand scenes. I will take that for the win that it is. Still, I can't believe that Nynaeve is literally not even thinking about Elayne or Aviendha here! Especially Elayne, her hijinks bestie.

21. Nynaeve says that she wants to know WHY Cadsuane is looking for Perrin before she shares the information, because she wants to make certain it doesn't lead to Rand getting hurt further. Cadsuane scoffs at the idea that she'd hurt Rand. I stare off into the middle distance, reliving my, and Rand's, Terrible Times With Cadsuane.

22. Anyway, Min "claims that she hates sharing her viewings" Farshaw has been obediently telling all her viewings to Cadsuane, because she actually loves telling her viewings to literally anyone who will listen. Cadsuane uses Min's viewings as a way to scare Nynaeve into telling her the info about Perrin without needing to give up anything in exchange. RIP, Nynaeve's spine. You held strong for, like, a solid minute there. Anyway, after Nynaeve caves and tells Cadsuane about Perrin, she gets rewarded with a crumb of information for being a good girl. It's not Perrin himself who matters; the person who really matters is one of Perrin's companions. ...I know Cadsuane doesn't mean it that way, but that really does feel like Perrin's story overall. Perrin is mostly useless, but he has helpful people around him who Get Things Done and then he gets the credit, lol.

23. For the battle (that isn't going to happen), Egwene is wearing crimson, as a reminder that she does not plan to disband the Red Ajah the way that Elaida disbanded the Blue. We learn that "over fifty" Black Ajah Sisters have been stilled and executed, including Sheriam of course. And Egwene has now gone through another of the trials that we saw leader!Rand go through -- needing to order the execution of people that she genuinely liked. Egwene thinks of how holding and then losing Moghedien has taught her that it is much wiser to kill Darkfriends & Forsaken outright, rather than try to use them for information, out of 'greed' for knowledge. We also learn that Verin only missed three Black Ajah Sisters among the rebels. Good job, Verin! And I really love the note here that the Warders of the Sisters who were found to be Darkfriends are under guard for now, not killed. We know from some Black Ajah PoVs that not all Warders to Black Ajah Sisters are Darkfriends too, and I'm glad that Egwene realizes that this could be the case.

24. We learn that there has been no word sent back by the envoy of Sisters that were sent as an embassy to the Black Tower, which is naturally very disturbing news. also, just to note: I don't have any issue with Egwene's thoughts here on the Black Tower needing to be 'dealt with', though that's partly informed by my own outside knowledge that Rand has been ignoring a festering problem for months. SOMEONE needs to deal with the Black Tower, and Rand has shown himself to be entirely unwilling. This is the same issue that Egwene is dealing with right now: she's cleaning up her own house. That's something that Rand has just been refusing to do. His houses kinda stink right now.

25. As they are on the edge of the assault, a group of Sisters come to the bridge from the White Tower, to speak with Egwene. She's told that they plan to raise her as Amyrlin and that Elaida was taken in the raid last night. When Siuan (who doesn't know the Seanchan and how damane are treated) mutters that it's what Elaida deserves, Egwene (who DOES know) corrects her: "No woman deserves that. Better she had died." As I've been saying! We are in absolute agreement, Egwene. And Egwene now feels hope that the seeds that she planted in the Tower already WERE enough. <3

26. After she is officially raised as Amyrlin by the Hall, Egwene gives them a blistering setdown on letting things get so bad in the first place. The Hall was meant to be a check on the Amrylin's power and instead they allowed Elaida to do... well, everything that happened in the past books. And she names the previous Mistress of Novices, Silviana, as her Keeper, because that's one person that she can say stood up to Elaida purely out of principle, when she felt that Elaida was abusing her power as Amrylin. She addresses the rebels for their part in the Tower division as well, to help mend the breach between the two, and declares her intention to have a reforged White Tower to face the Last Battle. Overall, a pretty satisfying climax for Egwene's part of the story! Honestly, the only issue I have is Elaida getting taken off by the Seanchan -- though I'm guessing that was largely for timing reasons, since doing a proper reckoning with Elaida (who is not a Darkfriend) would definitely have added a lot of pages, plus this way the Seanchan (boo) get Traveling and any advantage that the Westlanders would have over them in that regard has been neutralized (sigh).

27. Rand is in a real bad place, emotionally and mentally, wondering if he even counts as human anymore. I just... okay, we all know my feelings on Rand and Min at this point but it really is baffling to me that she gets so much credit for ~helping Rand~ when she dips out when things get to their worst and is spending all her time conspiring with Rand's worstie Cadsuane. Anyway, Rand is feeling particularly troubled because seeing Hurin is making him feel doubt about his acceptance of his fate (his death). And wow, it's fascinating how thinking about Hurin sends him right back to thinking of Mat and Egwene (and now I'M thinking about how the show made a point of including a mention of Mat in show!Rand's perfect world) and about the boy he used to be (and honestly it kinda sounds like LTT's persona has become dominant? I think the quiet voice is probably RAND trying to be heard past LTT). He thinks about how that younger Rand had thought there was nothing more complicated than worrying over his friends hating him.

28. He gets a brief flash of Perrin, and then Mat in Caemlyn, and seeing Mat there in Caemlyn gives him that same kind of "this is not fair" feeling that Aviendha had, chapters ago, when she was thinking about how Min got to cuddle up with Rand every night while Aviendha had nothing but punishments. He thinks here about how he MUST remain far away from Elayne (just like he thought it was good that Aviendha left) because longing and nostalgia makes him weak, and he needs to be strong. And LEWS THERIN thinks "better to run from the past than to face it". Rand's raw longing here over how much he misses Elayne is getting to me. Seeing Hurin really opened the emotional floodgates for Rand in a way that neither Min nor Nynaeve have done, which is kinda fascinating to me, because it seems so closely connected to the journey that he undertook to get the dagger and save Mat. We've had a couple of mentions of Perrin in Rand's various memories so far this book, but a lot more of Mat -- it's Mat he thinks about when he's in Falme, and it's Mat he focuses on more here as well, returning to him a couple of times in his thoughts. It's Mat who Nynaeve throws in his face, and it's Mat who he needs to defend against an outsider (Tuon).

I do wonder what the show might do to trigger that kind of moment if Hurin a. gets cut from the show and b. would likely have been in Perrin's storyline and not Rand's anyway, given the setup.

29. lol, Rand thinking that he hopes Cadsuane hasn't lost Callandor the way that she lost the male a'dam. Standing in the Heart of the Stone of Tear, Rand thinks over the prophecies and tries to figure out why Callandor is at the heart of one of them, when it isn't the most powerful sa'angreal that he has at his command. Rand does come to the conclusion here that the prophecies were a more effective box than the Aes Sedai and... hmm, I think the only major difference here between what we'd seen Jordan write in this sort of situation and what Sanderson writes here, is that Jordan tended to use the 'leash' metaphor a lot when it came to Rand's fears of being trapped by the Aes Sedai or his destiny, while Sanderson is using 'box' metaphor more. Leashes and boxes are not the same, of course, but both metaphors are things that ARE literal threats in the series as well, plus they are both caging/trapping symbology, so I don't think they're so terribly different.

30. Oh, and Rand realizes that he's standing in the same hallway now as when he failed to bring the little girl back to life, back when the Stone was attacked in TSR. He misses Moiraine, and then makes up his mind that it's time to take the access key and drive the Seanchan back into the sea. And he goes to his room and... there's his dad. It shakes him hard, seeing Tam. Like... REALLY hard. Rand was already struggling with the bounds between who he was and who he feels that he has to be, and seeing Tam makes those worlds painfully collide. "He hadn't truly had a home since he'd left the Two Rivers." My HEART.

31. Rand's aside about how Min as the ~Dragon's lover~ is an exploitable weakness but not as bad as him having a father because ~lovers are expected~ but fathers made a person real and not mythic is... very jarring when set against the genuine heartache and longing we literally JUST had when he was thinking about Elayne. Sorry, he doesn't even think that Tam being here is a weakness worse than having Min as his lover, but "a woman like Min" which is somehow so much weirder and colder. It really makes it feel like Min is there to fulfill a role rather than there because Rand loves her. Has Sanderson ever said anything about his own personal feelings about Rand and Min? Because their relationship has ping-ponged a lot in this book -- sometimes it's treated as The Only Rand Relationship That Matters (especially by Nynaeve, for whatever reason) and at other times, it's treated as the throwaway relationship that DOESN'T matter and doesn't need to be protected the way that the relationships that are important need to be protected.

32. At first, it seems like this conversation is helping Rand. He's shocked, but this is his dad, and he loves him. And then the magic word comes out -- Cadsuane. And it does make me really sad because... if this had been a genuine gesture from Nynaeve because she was worried about him, Rand wouldn't have snapped the way that he does here. Because instead, this just feels like he's been betrayed by someone that he deeply trusted. His FATHER is taking marching orders from CADSUANE! Rand is not in a receptive mindset for hearing this information! So he snaps, nearly kills his dad, and is horrified at himself for... you know, repeating the past and almost becoming a kinslayer like LTT was. I mean... don't get me wrong. Rand was still very very close to the edge. But it's clearly the feelings of betrayal that make him fall off that edge.

33. He didn't have this reaction to nearly killing Min. Despite him explicitly comparing her ~near-death beautiful agony~ to Ilyena back when it happened, not only did that not make him snap, he then continued to share a bed with the woman that he'd almost killed, literally while she still had the bruises from his fingers around her neck. *pokes at the Min-Rand relationship with a stick, willing it to make sense* Anyway, I'm guessing that the reason is because he knew it wasn't his choice, and this was but... Min still being in Rand's bed after he almost kills her is just... such a weird vibe. Anyway, after Rand snaps back to himself and realizes that he almost balefired his father, he flees through a gateway to Ebou Dar.

34. Min's relationship with Cadsuane seems to mirror her relationship with her viewings and with fate itself: "Regret had come and gone. Min had moved on to resignation, tinged with a hint of frustration." Min has a tendency of getting swept up and essentially 'owned' by the most powerful force of will in her presence -- first Moiraine, then Siuan, then Rand, and now Cadsuane. It does seem... and this is something that I do disagree with Jordan on philosophically, lol, but it kinda feels like Min is his ~model citizen~ when it comes to dealing with fate -- resign yourself to it and make up your mind to enjoy it whether or not it's what you wanted, because it's gonna happen anyway so you might as well make your peace with the fact that you have no choice. That's what he's had Rand struggling against for books, and that's the conclusion that he has Mat (very abruptly) come to at the end of Winter's Heart.

35. Tam bursts into Cadsuane's room, pissed off as fuck. Oh, hey, when Tam talks about Rand almost killing him, Min has an actual emotional reaction to flashing back to her LOVER nearly STRANGLING her with his own hands. !!! Cadsuane tries to chide Tam for going off-script and chides him for his manners, and he just straight-out calls her a bully which, yes, I found cathartic because I have been calling her a bully ever since she first appeared! Anyway, Min does feel regret now for teaming up with Cadsuane, but it's too late.

36. Rand walks the streets of Ebou Dar. I am frustrated that the da'covale have been entirely forgotten, as Rand thinks here that people who can't channel are ~safe~ under the Seanchan.

a. No, they are not safe. Especially not if they're pretty.

b. People who can't channel can have kids who can channel.

c. The Seanchan literally invaded the continent and have murdered or enslaved anyone who fought back, like the ENTIRE headquarters of the Illuminators in Tanchico. Aludra says at one point that she basically IS all that remains of the Illuminators and she is probably exaggerating to a certain extent, but not entirely.

d. The Seanchan not only have slavery, they have multi-generational chattel slavery (Selucia is a slave because she comes from a slave family and was owned by Tuon even when she was a tiny baby who was not yet mentally a slave-owner; many of the slaves of the Deathwatch guard were also born into slavery).

e. Any society that un-persons people this easily can use that as a weapon on anyone that they dislike, with only the individual 'honor' of the slave-owner mattering, because there are no rules to police them. Egeanin mentions that it's ~socially frowned upon~ to cut off your slaves' feet after they've tried to escape, but people still do it. Both physical abuse and rape will flourish in that kind of system (and Tuon is aware that sexual abuse of damane exists and she finds it kinda icky because ~ew you're having sex with an animal~ but she still thinks the damane system that permits that abuse is a-ok -- we learn this from a conversation she has with Mat in Winter's Heart).

f. If you are the slave of a High Blood, you are expected to kill yourself if the High Blood dies.

g. We know that their system does NOT lead to actual peace and prosperity (except for the Blood), because we know there have been countless uprisings in various districts back in the homeland.

h. Their system of Listeners is pretty much designed to foster a community based around betrayal and paranoia. You can't trust ANYONE because anyone could be a secret spy for the government. Your mom could be spying on you for the government.

37. That being said, obviously Rand couldn't drive the Seanchan back into the sea at this point, for narrative reasons. I would have preferred he be given different reasons for holding off his attack though. "It's great to live under the Seanchan as long as you can't channel" is just straight-up not true. Like, all the "the people are grateful for the stability" just... is not actually true about what we've seen of the Seanchan either in Winter's Heart, or in Falme, or back in their homeland. otoh, idk if I feel like CoT/KoD Jordan would have handled this any better than Sanderson did. I am just... honestly, not happy with the treatment of the Seanchan storyline overall ever since Crossroad of Twilight began. It remains frustrating because it really did seem like it was going to quite intriguing places even through the end of Winter's Heart. CoT remains the point when the disappointment in how the storyline was being executed began but... yeah, not fond of this beat here either. It's especially jarring coming right after their brutal assault on the White Tower, too.

38. So I'd have preferred a slant of "these people have been through enough already; I don't want to be yet another disaster for them" rather than the spin that it's being given where we're supposed to think "sure, slavery sucks for the few but it makes life better for the many, so I guess we should just suck it up and accept it" viewpoint. But, regardless, Rand decides that he cannot destroy the Seanchan today, and he leaves Ebou Dar.

39. On the hilarious side of things, ~the tiny Seanchan empress~ has not been in charge for THAT long yet (given that Rand and Egwene are synced up, time-line wise, and Tuon had only recently taken control when she was told about the meeting with Rand, due to needing to travel back to Ebou Dar from where the Band was), so most of the progress that Rand is currently admiring was likely done under the direction of Suroth (a Darkfriend). Obviously, this means that the Dark One is just a bro who means well and we need to stop giving him such a hard time. Look how great Ebou Dar is doing! Isn't that proof that the Dark One isn't so bad?

40. Rand flees Ebou Dar, first going to the place where he last failed against the Seanchan, and then going to Dragonmount.

I do enjoy Rand’s epiphany, which apparently is semi-controversial, lol. I think it’s sweet and heartfelt and that it makes sense as a “breaking point” epiphany because of how it mirrors LTT’s original “breaking point” into despair and self-hatred. On the place where he created Dragonmount, Lews Therin chose to die, because he felt hopeless. He’d destroyed everything that he loved. On the place where he created Dragonmount, Rand chooses to live, because he’s realized that it’s NOT hopeless. Everything was not destroyed. The Wheel continued to turn. He was able to have a peaceful childhood. He was able to fall in love. And Rand can accept LTT’s losses without letting them define him. That’s what it meant to me, anyway.

41. What if the Dark One is right? Rand asks himself, asks the Pattern. What is the point of all of this if there is so much suffering?

Because there is not ONLY suffering. Because there is also love, and hope, and good things. Not always now, but it continues to exist, and it is worth fighting for (to reference another fantasy series that has some similar themes). And, to get a little personal here, as someone who has struggled with (clinical) depression in my past, including several years of self-harm when I was late teens/early twenties... this epiphany meant a lot to me. So I'm not even sure if it's possible for me to look at it with jaded eyes. Because this is something that I had to learn for myself too, in order to make it through some sad and lonely nights. Suffering exists, but it is not the only thing that exists. And I really love that Rand lets himself be angry here, too, before he finds his reason to live. For all that Rand's molten, unpredictable temper has been a huge plot element for books, it's always been right alongside his deep REPRESSION of his anger, of constantly feeding it into the flame so that he wouldn't allow himself to feel it. Because he felt like he couldn't do what needed to be done if he allowed himself to genuinely FEEL the rage that he felt over his destiny. But he needed to allow that anger to truly fill him so that he could begin (and I do see the epiphany here as a beginning and not an ending) to process it.

42. Also, to sing the show's praises for a moment, but they have already set up this moment so well! Both in Tam's speech in episode 1 but also with Ila's talk with Perrin. And we have the nihilistic counterpoint already laid out too, from Dana's speech to Rand. Those elements for Rand's internal fight and his final epiphany have already been laid out in the show so that, if they need to, as long as they know ahead of time that they're entering the final season, they'll be able to wrap up in an effective way. Very clever.

43. So instead of using the Choden Kal access key to destroy the world and the Wheel of Time, Rand uses that power to destroy the Choden Kal itself instead. He takes that massive power boost out of the equation.

44. In Egwene's epilogue, she's settling in as the Amyrlin. We learn that she plans to have the damane that they captured during the raid trained as Aes Sedai. She doesn't think about the sul'dam here. We learn that roughly sixty Black Ajah Sisters from the Tower were able to escape, off to join the Dark One for the Last Battle, I will assume.

45. Forty women were taken in the slaving raid. "Those women would be beaten, confined, and turned into nothing more than tools." I'm sure that's nowhere near as many as Tuon wanted, but it's still awful. Egwene has to push past another flashback here, of the collar around her neck. So, yeah, literally right after that whole chapter about how the Seanchan are just wonderful for the ~average folk~, we get a reminder of how horrifically awful they are to the ones that they un-person (this is also why Tuon ~petting the dog~ in her interactions with Olver meant nothing to me in CoT & KoD, because he's not someone that she instinctively un-persons, so her being civil to him doesn't really mean much).

For those keeping track at home, Tuon got FORTY women in this slaving raid, which means that Perrin is, I guess, the more successful slaver of the two of them at the moment, since he sold TWO HUNDRED women to Tylee in exchange for helping save Faile during KoD.

46. Egwene thinks here that the Forsaken in the Tower had probably known about the raid in advance but that is actually likely NOT the case -- Semirhage and Suroth were both gone by the time Tuon gave the order for the raid. It was entirely Tuon's choice, made out of fear and hatred, and not influenced by Darkfriend involvement. Egwene worries that Mesaasa is still in the Tower, having found a way to defeat the Oath Rod (all the women of the White Tower have now removed and resworn their Oaths and said that they are not Darkfriends). Even so, that's only one woman to worry about instead of many Black Ajah Sisters so things are looking up!

47. The light of Rand's epiphany has been spotted coming from Dragonmount and when Egwene sees it, it gives her a feeling of peace and comfort. Aw.

Okay, new thing I’m doing for this book and the next one: how close did we get to being ready for the Last Battle?

Rand: Sanderson pushes Rand to his breaking point so that we have a turn-around with Rand in the next two books. So... yes? Rand’s basically ready by the end of the book, having hit rock-bottom and bounced up again. Honestly? I felt like we didn’t get to spend long enough with rock-bottom Rand. I enjoyed rock-bottom Rand, who had as little patience for the bullies in this book as I do when I’m reading it. Rock-bottom Rand was cathartic. So I wish we'd held off on Rand's epiphany until the next book. I don't have any issue with Veins of Gold itself, but I wish that it had waited until the end of ToM (oh, if they'd done that, then the book itself could have been named Veins of Gold, instead of Towers of Midnight which, if I recall correctly, is a bafflingly irrelevant title). I understand why Sanderson probably felt like he needed to put Rand's turning point in this point (he needed to hook the fans who were feeling iffy about him finishing out the series, so he would have to put something big, so he did the one-two of Egwene & Rand's big turning points) but overall... I kinda wish it had happened in the next book and that we'd ended on Egwene reuniting the White Tower.

Egwene:  I hate that Egwene Wins By Default here, with Elaida being hauled off to a Fate Worse Than Death (I don’t care HOW BAD any specific character is -- absolutely zero (0) of them deserve to be enslaved by the Seanchan). But Egwene now is roughly where Elayne was at by the end of KoD, in terms of having consolidated her power, and I liked the majority of the build-up towards the ending. Just wish that Elaida hadn’t been captured by the Seanchan.

Mat: ...spent the book doing a side quest? wtf? THIS should have been the book where he did the Tower of Ghenjei plotline, since we spent so much page time on him anyway. Like, if he didn’t appear in this book, I would understand that plot being held off, but he has a LOT of page time. It was just spent dithering around, like he’s Perrin or something. I didn’t even dislike his sidequest but... it should not be happening. He should be in Andor right now. (I know Hinderstap is not actually a side quest ...I think) (but it FELT like a side quest). That being said, I actually did find this Mat more enjoyable than CoT/KoD Mat, even when I take into account the terrible sexist speech he gave at the opening of his first chapter. He starts out full-on pod!Mat from CoT & KoD but gets progressively better over the course of the book, and he's the most enjoyable that he's been in ages by the time we get to his conversation with Verin. And I also loved the return of the Cauthor crumbs. They actually think and talk about each other like the emotionally constipated best friends that they are. Poor Perrin is definitely still The Third Friend at this point.

Nynaeve: she actually DID have a little investigative side plot in this book, which is more than she did in CoT or KoD. Roughly on par with Nynaeve in Winter's Heart, I would say. She's definitely in secondary character territory now though, along with Cadsuane and Min, and not actually a plot-driver herself. She's essentially ready for the Last Battle, though.

Perrin: now that Faile has been rescued, Perrin can care about other things, so we’re kinda back to LoC!Perrin. Not ready for the Last Battle yet, but he’s been reset to before his character downslide of The Slog (TM) books.

Elayne: didn’t show up. :-( But she’s pretty much ready for the Last Battle already. Elayne has already done her work AND her extra-credit.

So, overall, Mat and Perrin have TONS of work left to do to be ready for the Last Battle, but everyone else is in a much better position. Rand needs to clean up his house, though, like Egwene cleaned up hers.

Though I have some complaints about this book, wow, it is a VAST improvement on Crossroads of Twilight and Knife of Dreams, and I liked it better than the mid-tier books too, and it breaks just past Lord of Chaos for me. Overall, I think Mat and Rand were better than KoD; Egwene is pretty great though I wish that Elaida had stayed at the White Tower for trial; and the majority of my irritations that do happen with this book are carryover from things that were either already happening or had already been set-up in KoD.

The two biggest things that I feel like Jordan would have ‘done better’: I think we wouldn’t have lost the secondary characters’ plotlines in Mat’s PoV & I think Jordan would have done something (anything lol) with Rand and Aviendha in Rand’s storyline. But nothing in this book is as jarring as Mat's characterization change from Winter's Heart to Crossroads of Twilight. Like, if you'd told me that CoT was when a new author took over (and I didn't know the truth), I would probably believe you! And dislike that new author a lot for what they'd done to Mat! But it was, in fact, the same author who also wrote all the stuff I liked in the earlier books, lol.

Series ranking:

The Fires of Heaven (😍)

The Shadow Rising (😘)

The Dragon Reborn (😘)

The Path of Daggers (😘)

New Spring (😘)

The Great Hunt (😄)

The Gathering Storm (😄)

Lord of Chaos (😄)

...

...

A Crown of Swords (🙂)

The Eye of the World (🙂)

Winter’s Heart (🙂)

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

Crossroads of Twilight (😒)

Knife of Dreams (😞)

[reileinaxiu]

Finally obtained the elusive volume 7 of TGCF(It was a calamity and a half trying to find it anywhere in any bookstore when I already had volume 8 for ages (3 months). I binged read everything where I left off from volume 4. I'll be rereading at leisure when I have better time.

Warning ⚠️ Spoilers ahead. Go read the book if you haven't.

Anyways I'm here to gush about the weird roller coaster that was TGCF. HuaLian shall forever have my heart when it comes to best romance journey excluding all the weird add-ons and hanger-ons that was the heavenly court and JW's overall mindf*ckery that he calls favor.

Note: no time to quote anything doing this by memory since I've already stashed my books in the depths of the overly cluttered cabinet that is my bookshelf. Some other time.

The giant mecha fight between divine statue XL and the Heaven Capital was so out of field I felt like the book just added a new genre late into the story. But it was awesome all the same I think my favorite part was when HX's bone pets came to their support.

I just can't get over the fact how profound and all-encompassing HC's love for XL is and that clear moment when XL realized HC's identity(WM), that he was seen so completely in not only his highest but also his lowest most self-loathing destructive moments did XL knew that HC is the one and only person who he can wholeheartedly surrender himself to and love. XL also knows that HC is probably the only one who would ever forgive and accept every part of him even the part that he can't forgive and thinks unworthy. HC would probably say there was nothing to forgive in the first place.

HC dispersing after the final battle just broke my heart for XL. 😭 Dear MXTX knows how to write angst and stab in our vitals where it hurts. There reunion was so heartwarming I'm running out of appropriate adjectives. They should never been parted like that ever again. I would have loved to see more of their fresh reunion interactions where XL utterly spoiled and gave into anything HC wanted.

The extras were also too funny I could barely read them straight with how mortifying some of it was.😂 Nice to know every divine statue got their partner 🤭😏. Happy to have finished this close to HC's birthday.

I was hoping XL coffin trauma would be addressed at some point but I'm happy we got something in the extras, not as lighthearted as I thought the extras would be 😭

The art in the last volume is the best so far 🥰😍. Anyone else screamed upon seeing the blatant HuaLian kissing and domesticity. I sure couldn't not with my mom in the same room 😅. But I really wanted to, it felt like HC got a hundred times more sexy with his prince taking kisses in his arms 🤭🤭🤭

Too many thoughts on the matter! I'll circle back to this in the future I've still got 2ha, Thousand autumn to follow and I haven't finished MDZS novels to my great shame 🙏😖

Next time my dearies.

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World: Prologue

I haven't reread the whole of the series ever (my last reread was in preparation for the finale), so with the books getting more popular and the show simultaneously entertaining me and getting my goat I figured I'd jump onto the bandwagon and maybe get some validation from internet strangers. As the title states, this is a reread, so I will be spoilering the hell out of everything, so if you're a show only fan or still working your way through the books, please run away screaming (but tell your friends!).

...

Okay now that I can no longer hear any screams, let's get into things. I first started reading The Wheel of Time in 2003 in middle school, catching up in time to read New Spring when it debuted and the subsequent novels after (except oddly, Towers of Midnight, which I didn't get around to until the finale was right around the corner, so I guess my longest reread only goes up to book 12 technically). It's probably my outright favorite fantasy world and has a lot of characters I love - in fact, at times I feel I don't quite fit into the fandom because I don't have an irrational disdain of any of the common hate sinks bar maybe Gawyn, and even then some people are making me like him a little bit more so I don't know what I'm going to do then.

That said, like most readers who came of age in the 21st century, I do have a lot of problems with Jordan's worldview. It's a rather interesting friction: the man was definitely trying to write a world without the sexism of our modern era (and to a lesser extent other prejudices as well), and yet he could never rise above them himself. I'll probably spend a lot of time talking about this kind of stuff and what might have been done instead.

Likewise, when we reach the inevitable Slog (and sorry people who didn't start reading until the series was finished, it's real), I'll be talking a lot about how the plot might be adjusted for brevity and, once we reach the Sanderson era virtually everything I want to talk about will be magnified tenfold because as much as I enjoyed his efforts at the time, I've greatly soured on him as an author in general and as Jordan's heir in specific since.

But for now, let's focus on what's important: The Eye of the World's first prologue: Dragonmount.

The palace still shook occasionally as the earth rumbled in memory, groaned as if it would deny what had happened.

As first sentences go, I'm not in love. It's not bad, but it's just a little too vague; "the palace" doesn't really give my mind's eye much to work with because they can vary so much depending on when and where they were built. It ends well though.

The dead lay everywhere, men and women and children, struck down in attempted flight by the lightnings that had flashed down every corridor, or seized by the fires that had stalked them, or sunken into stone of the palace, the stones that had flowed and sought, almost alive, before stillness came again.

Despite its length, a sentence like this would work better to me as the start. It's shocking and terrifying; this is a level of violence we won't see channelers pull off until much later in the series.

The mind-twisting had struck at the core, ignoring peripheral things.

This feels pretty on-theme for the story, really. The Shadow tries to subvert the major powers of the world but its defeat is primarily orchestrated by a bunch of farmers.

The edge of his pale gray cloak trailed through blood as he stepped across the body of a woman, her golden-haired beauty marred by the horror of her last moments, her still-open eyes frozen in disbelief.

Well I made it four quotations before we needed to talk about feminism so that's... more than I expected, really. Meet Ilyena, a character so posthumous that despite being part of a prologue 3,500 years before the main story she's still already dead by the time it starts! Obsessing over dead women is probably one of the biggest complaints this series gets and boy does it deserve it. Despite electricity being long gone, our characters have no shortage of fridges.

That said, I do want to note that as it stands in this book, things aren't that bad. In this book. See, in this book, Ilyena isn't the only victim - the children she and Lews had are also among the dead, as are quite a lot of other people who just happened to live or work in the palace or were visiting. Except for the use of LTT's title "Kinslayer", none of them will be mentioned again after this book - in fact, the non-family members are completely forgotten after the prologue. But again, that's jumping ahead. In this book, Ilyena is about providing a specific name and face to the tragedy, humanizing all of the victims by proxy in a way that, "Twelve hours after saving the world, Lews Therin went insane and killed two hundred and sixty-five people including all of his blood relatives," does not.

...brought by merchants from across the World Sea...

We talk a lot about how Jordan was too immersed in southern culture to understand how its gender roles were about as universal as Mongolian throat singing, but not enough about how he's too immersed in globalized petro-fascist markets based on maximizing inefficiencies for the global elite to use to extract wealth to understand why a real planetary utopia living in harmony with nature wouldn't be shipping luxury goods across the ocean when there's perfectly fancy fabrics to make at home and anyway the Green Men should be able to help silkworms thrive anywhere if you're that desperate for something breathable.

On the other hand, points to him for not going crazy about Gateways and assuming that all global trade could be handled by teleportation just because they're a fun tool. I will have a lot to say about Gateways as we approach the authorial transition.

For a moment he fingered the symbol on his cloak, a circle half white and half black, the colors separated by a sinuous line. It meant something, that symbol.

Even now though, it means something other than what it once meant (being the sign of the seals on the Dark One's prison) and before too much longer it will pick up two more meanings, one for each half. The Wheel turns and the world changes.

Behind him the air rippled, shimmered, solidified into a man who looked around, his mouth twisting briefly with distaste.

Props to Ishamael for clearly Traveling with the True Power even this early on in the series.

Not so tall as Lews Therin, he was clothed all in black, save for the snow-white lace at his throat and the silverwork on the turned-down tops of his thigh-high boots.

Thigh-high boots! <3 (Seriously Ishy how can you want to destroy the world you can express your fashion sense in?)

Also note how this contrasts the Aes Sedai symbol described earlier. There's a little bit of white though, because it can't be helped even by the Shadow.

It will soon be time for the Singing, and here all are welcome to take part.

One detail from the Sanderson novels whose origin I'm uncertain of but like regardless of who came up with it is Rand's claim that the AoL was NOT paradise and that it was rotting from within even before the Dark One got involved. The latter half of this sentence suggests one such flaw: having the Voice is a hell of a talent, but apparently there were places that did not welcome all potential Singers. This could just be a result of the War, but maybe it speaks to something deeper.

“Shai’tan take you, does the taint already have you so far in its grip?”

Ish here is mostly pissed that he doesn't get to enjoy his gloating, because for all his talk about nihilism, he is petty first and foremost.

Dangerous for you, fool, not for me.

Ironically, all things considered it's really the other way around - Shai'tan is no threat at all to the Dragon soul and will utterly ruin Ish by the end. Ish really isn't anywhere near as clever as he makes himself out to be, he just looks smart because he's the last survivor of Academia.

“So you do remember some things. Yes, Betrayer of Hope. So have men named me, just as they named you Dragon, but unlike you I embrace the name.

This is an odd detail, all things considered. LTT's fatal flaw was pride (this very prologue says as much), so why wouldn't he be proud of a flattering name? I wonder if we get any more details on this in the books or if it's just a little detail that was lost in the shuffle.

But it is not enough. You humbled me in the Hall of Servants. You defeated me at the Gates of Paaran Disen. But I am the greater, now. I will not let you die without knowing that. When you die, your last thought will be the full knowledge of your defeat, of how complete and utter it is. If I let you die at all

See what I mean about Ish? This is not the behavior of someone who is tired of existence and wants everything to end, it's the behavior of a dude with a petty grudge that he dresses up in fancy terms and fancier boots.

[Ilyena] will give me the rough side of her tongue if she thinks I have been hiding a guest from her. I hope you enjoy conversation, for she surely does. Be forewarned. Ilyena will ask you so many questions you may end up telling her everything you know.

Quick, name a female WoT character that Jordan doesn't think this description applies to! Can it be done? I doubt it. Another common criticism is that for all of his 3,000 characters, all of the women were just his wife. I don't think it's quite true, but I do think that the women he knew well were all cut from pretty much the same cloth.

“A pity for you,” he mused, “that one of your Sisters is not here.

This is another oddity. AoL healing required all five kinds of weaves and they didn't divide things up by gender anyway, so why wouldn't a Brother suffice? There's plenty of male Aes Sedai who haven't gone crazy at this point, and it's been only a couple days at most so you wouldn't think people would have time to reflexively assume men wouldn't be helpful. Is this another kind of healing that works better when you do it cross-gender? Maybe Towers of Midnight mentioned that?

Helplessly he convulsed, thrashing, his skull a sphere of purest agony on the point of bursting.

Good to know that every incarnation of the Dragon suffers horribly for no good reason, I guess. Rand's nihilism is a lot more understandable to me than Ish's is, considering how little suffering the latter actually endures.

“You can have her back, Kinslayer. The Great Lord of the Dark can make her live again, if you will serve him. If you will serve me.”

"Your kids are fucked though. We put their souls in vacuoles and then jettisoned them towards Sindhol, so we can't fix that even if we wanted to. Also you balefired half of them repeatedly, we think. Hard to be sure because there's no record of them left except some silhouettes on that doorway over there."

(More seriously, they're being left out right now because LTT isn't cognizant of their demise, making this the only excusable omission.)

“Ten years your foul master has wracked the world. And now this. I will. . . .”

Plus a whole century of societal collapse, but I guess RJ hadn't come up with that detail yet. Hell at this point maybe Shai'tan was still supposed to be ET's son.

You and I have fought a thousand battles with the turning of the Wheel, a thousand times a thousand, and we will fight until time dies and the Shadow is triumphant!

Ish says this and the fandom as a whole treats it as true but... we don't actually know this! Third Agers often state that they HOPE to be reborn, which suggests that's it's possible the Wheel stops reincarnating some souls (replacing them, presumably) - and who better to retire than the people who stop being grateful for existence and start actively trying to undermine you?

Further, Rand's epiphany is about how despite the crushing cycle of everything, anyone can still hope to live a better life - there's no guarantee that Ishamael falls to the shadow every time, or that he ever has before or will again! Hell, he could just repent even after he falls. Bro has choices, he just refuses to see them.

His own sons and daughters, sprawled like broken dolls, play stilled forever.

This is actually another odd detail. I don't know how Aes Sedai fertility works, but while it's not implausible that LTT & IS could have children who were of the age where their play is the most notable thing about them, they should also have kids old enough to have grandkids by now! Lews' murders could potentially number in the hundreds without starting on the servants and faithful companions.

Also note that while Ilyena's demise horrified LTT and left him with nothing to live for according to the narration, it isn't until he sees that he's killed all of these people he loved that he actually tries to commit suicide. This is the sort of thing that's completely neglected going forward, but it is nice that things were a little more complex than him finding his girlfriend in the fridge and his mom in the oven.

The land around him was flat and empty. A river flowed nearby, straight and broad, but he could sense there were no people within a hundred leagues.

This is a pretty subtle sign of just how much death the last ten years must have entailed: the Erinin is flowing through a temperate part of the planet (there being no indication that the Earth's axis was significantly affected by the Breaking) yet there are no cities nor farms within a hundred leagues. By all rights there should be, but now they're gone. One can see why balefire was banned.

He did not believe it could come, forgiveness. Not for what he had done.

Maybe it's just my own weird moral code speaking but I think stuff one does while literally and entirely involuntarily corrupted by the source of all evil shouldn't really count against them. Obviously he's in shock, but it seems like something that carries on into Rand's behavior as well and it's a little depressing that in a series about free will vs. determinism there's such a common attitude that the stuff you're doomed to do regardless counts against you more than the things you had a choice in.

Because in his pride he had believed that men could match the Creator, could mend what the Creator had made and they had broken. In his pride he had believed.

And he wasn't wrong to believe that, he just did it wrong and doesn't consider that there might be other approaches. Tunnel vision is a real affliction in this series.

Only a heartbeat did the shining bar exist, connecting ground and sky, but even after it vanished the earth yet heaved like the sea in a storm. Molten rock fountained five hundred feet into the air, and the groaning ground rose, thrusting the burning spray ever upward, ever higher.

No denial on the earth's part here, just straight up compliance.

Of Lewis Therin Telamon, no sign remained. Where he had stood a mountain now rose miles into the sky, molten lava still gushing from its broken peak.

Now imagine a million more dudes doing this and you start to see why the Breaking was as destructive as it was.

Then [Ishamael] was gone, and the mountain and the island stood alone. Waiting.

Presumably Ishamael went off and told someone about LTT's suicide before being vacuum sealed for a millennium and change, cuz otherwise there's no way people would know what Dragonmount was.

The oceans fled, and the mountains were swallowed up, and the nations were scattered to the eight corners of the World.

The west, the Waste, Shara, the sea, the Mad Lands, north Seanchan, southwest Seanchan, and southeast Seanchan. There, we've turned what was obviously an odd turn of phrase into a literal statement with all eight items acccounted for!

Let the Prince of the Morning sing to the land that green things will grow and the valleys give forth lambs. Let the arm of the Lord of the Dawn shelter us from the Dark, and the great sword of justice defend us. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.

Well Rand did most of those things, but I don't remember any lambs, so I guess really he lost the war and the whole of the epilogue was a taunting dream the Dark One wove for him to distract him.

(God I hate those kinds of theories. If your assumption is that nothing is true, your theory is dumb and you should feel bad.)

From Charal Drianaan te Calamon,The Cycle of the Dragon.

So a lot of people talk about the conlanging in this setting and I just want to point one thing out: the fact that we go from the Old Tongue in the AoL to this New Tongue in the Fourth Age suggests very, very strongly that Randlanders are not inexplicably speaking English or anything close to it but something in between the two fake Tongues. We have a clear transition from things like "Telamon" and "siswai'aman" to "Calamon" for example, that dragon doesn't really fit into except as a distant ancestor/descendant.

Anyway, that right there is the prologue! I would compare and contrast it to Amazon's adaptation, but I cannot because they have not adapted this sequence yet. It's something of a shame, because I think the prologue is very important for making it clear that we're not actually doing a Tolkien-esque story like the early chapters suggest, but after seeing Winter Dragon I can also sympathize with not wanting to lead with this. That said, I am deeply depressed we couldn't keep Billy Zane and hope against hope that Rafe will find a role for him to be crazy in.

The TV show does do a sequence set in the AoL, but it's closer to being an adaptation of part of The Strike at Shayol Ghul than anything else, so I will hold off until we get there after A Crown of Swords.

[morfinwen]

Fortnight of Books (in one post)

I'm so happy i read enough books last year to do this for once! Here's hoping for a repeat this year. Next year. Whenever.

Overall - best books read in 2023? Tress of the Emerald Sea

Best series you discovered in 2023? The fun thing about "best" is that it doesn't necessarily mean "good". And while i hold out slightly more hope that future Margery Allingham mysteries will be more captivating than The Crime at Black Dudley, i have to admit that there was something about Ngaio Marsh's utterly underwhelming mysteries that kept me reading. So congrats to her for her single victory.

Best reread of the year? Watership Down. Granted it was only one of two re-reads this year, but it's usually the best anyway.

Most surprising (in a good way) book of this year? A few books were minorly surprising. Certain elements of The Sunlit Man were … not unexpected exactly, but took things in interesting directions. I was not expecting to find a book that took place in Wisconsin and was by a nosleep author (Dead Eleven). And Overture to Death and Surfeit of Lampreys were surprisingly enjoyable for having been written by Ngaio Marsh!

Most disappointing book/Book you wish you enjoyed more than you did? I was hoping that The Crime at Black Dudley would show Allingham to be a better author than Marsh. It did not.

Book you recommended most to others in 2023? I don't do book recommendations, but i very nearly suggested Tress of the Emerald Sea to a friend on FB asking for suggestions, and the only reason i didn't is because someone else already had. I believe i also recommended Shardik in a discord group, which i did not re-read in 2023 but definitely should at some point.

Alt question: A book you did not finish in 2023? I really need to finish The Lost Metal. It's not that i was disliking it or finding it boring or anything, i just had trouble maintaining momentum for reading it. Unfortunately, a very common problem.

Alt question: A book you bought in 2023? The Kingdom of Heaven by tumblr mutual Evelyn M. Lewis (i haven't read it yet i'm so sorry i promise i will get to it!!)

Author you read the most in 2023? Ngaio Marsh. She did not deserve it.

Most thrilling, unputdownable book of 2023? "Thrilling" is … not the right word, to put it mildly, but there was something gripping about Dead Eleven nonetheless. At the very least, there was something that made me stay up way longer than i should have fine-tuning my review of it. Someday i will understand what it is that makes certain books good but not gripping/gripping but not good, and how to recognize it, etc.

Book that was most outside your comfort zone/new genre exploration? Dead Eleven again, for being a book i just picked up at the library without having heard of the author before or having any idea of it beyond what the dust jacket/first chapters indicated.

Favorite cover of the year award goes to: All of Sanderson's Secret Project books had beautiful covers, but i'll probably give the prize to Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. It's currently my phone background!

Most beautifully-written book you read in 2023? Hmm … I wasn't quite as impressed with Stiefvater's prose in my re-read of All the Crooked Saints as i was the first time, but i think she still gets the credit. I love Sanderson, but his prose is more utilitarian than pretty.

Most memorable character: Does Hoid count? His role in Tress and the Emerald Sea was his best appearance yet (second place going to his role in "Yumi and the Nightmare Painter", where he was a coatrack for most of it).

Most annoying character: Lily Beckett from Dead Eleven. I had some sympathy for her at the start, but … ugh. None of the characters in that book were very good, but she was easily the worst.

Favorite couple: Charlie and Tress from Tress and the Emerald Sea.

Worst character death: Obviously a spoiler, but, Yumi's (temporary) death in Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. Props to Sanderson that i actually thought she was gone for good for a moment.

Favorite non-romance relationship: Nomad and Aux from The Sunlit Man.

Alt: A book you enjoyed well-enough but wasn’t a stand-out? Giving Death in Ecstasy a shout-out for being the first Ngaio Marsh book i almost kinda enjoyed, sorta.

The book I read but have already forgotten: Turns out i read The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages last January, and completely forgot about it. Oops.

Book with a scene that left you reeling: Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. If you've read it, you know the one. Not quite on the level of the basement in Warbreaker, but pretty darn close.

Alt question: A book that made you laugh? Surfeit of Lampreys, believe it or not. Though the title still sucks.

Book you read in 2023 and are most likely to reread in 2024? Tress and the Emerald Sea.

Alt question: A book you struggled with but completed? The Crime at Black Dudley. I think the fact that it's ostensibly a murder mystery, but switched less than halfway in to a "escape the criminals" plot, then back to the murder, was not in its favor.

Series you gave up on in 2023: I think i'm done with Ngaio Marsh.

Favorite passage/quote of 2023: Maybe i should have taken notes. Since i didn't, i browsed the quotes page for the best books i read, and came up with the following selections: “Do you have darkness inside you?” “Yes,” Tony said. “And do you want to be rid of it?” This is a harder question to answer than one might think at first blush. Almost no one would think it’s correct to answer this question with a no, but the truth is that we men and women often hate to be rid of the familiar, and sometimes our darkness is the thing we know the best. ~ All the Crooked Saints All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed. ~ Watership Down Memories are fossils, the bones left by dead versions of ourselves. More potently, our minds are a hungry audience, craving only the peaks and valleys of experience. The bland erodes, leaving behind the distinctive bits to be remembered again and again. Painful or passionate, surreal or sublime, we cherish those little rocks of peak experience, polishing them with the ever-smoothing touch of recycled proxy living. ~ Tress of the Emerald Sea

Book which had the overall greatest impact on you this year: Perhaps Dead Eleven - i already mentioned how it kept me up late writing a review. A mostly negative review, but still.

A book you didn’t read this year that will be your #1 priority in 2024? I've got a long list of books that i checked out from the library (or wanted to) that i never got around to last year, hoping this one works out better. I suppose the priority goes to The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, which i started last year but haven't finished yet.

New book you are most anticipating for 2024? I don't really anticipate books, and i'm out of relevant alternative questions.

I had an amazing 20 books on my "read" list this year -- not sure if it beats 2019 or whenever my other reading spree was, but it blows most other years out of the water, and i'm hopeful for 2024.

[xylodemon]

i've been skimming through The Great Hunt as i plot out the next chapter of my fic and i ended up having some Random Thoughts about the Show

(book spoilers under the cut)

what got me thinking was the Dragon Banner scene in TGH, particularly Mat's less-than-stellar reaction to finding out Rand can channel. it's a hard scene to read - even on rereads, knowing that Mat stops Being Like That fairly quickly - but it does help set up the fact that (nearly) everyone is going to be at least a little afraid of Rand moving forward.

i am, however, wondering if the show will skip all that, thinking that Mat staying behind at the Waygate is enough to put the necessary strain on their relationship. although... Rand defended Mat pretty vehemently in 1x07. it'll be interesting to see if Rand really isn't upset about it, or if he just snapped at Egwene in a "no one talks shit about my boyfriend bestie but me" kind of way.

while i was writing the last chapter of my fic, i rewatched the scene where Min tells Rand about Tam finding him in the snow, which got me thinking about them. i love Rand's screwy love-life, but in the books, Rand/Min is the least compelling of the relationships to me, mainly bc she spends so much of LOC/COS trying to make her viewing happen, regardless of what he wants (or says he wants). Show!Min's "ugh, you" reaction to him walking into the tavern makes me hope wonder if the show is going to rework their dynamic a bit.

Speaking of relationships, the show leaning into Moiraine/Siuan so hard (love it) has me curious re: what it plans to do with Siuan/Gareth and Moiraine/Thom. i have zero investment in either of those relationships, but Thom and Moiraine's feelings for each other are tied up with how the Tower of Ghenjei stuff plays out.

(not me maundering about stuff that'll be in, like, Season 10 or 11 when we're still waiting for Season 2.

back to Season 2: in the promo and the stills, Rand sure does seem to be channeling a lot. i wonder if he's going to skip the whole I'LL NEVER DO IT AGAIN I PROMISE stuff. likely, he starts off like that in 2x01/2x02 but gets "talked" out of it by "Selene." Rand traveling with her alone instead of with Loial and Hurin (RIP) has the potential to do truly bonkers things to their dynamic.

back to Mat (sorry i'm genuinely all over the place today): there's a scene in the promo that looks like he's being Healed, which suggests he's at Tar Valon. i'm wondering how he gets out. i understand that they're collapsing some plotlines from TGH and TDR, which would probably put Mat in the Tower while Egwene/Elayne/Nynaeve are at Falme. that means they won't be there to bust him out with Siuan's Black Ajah hunting letter.

Unraveling the Pattern on YT did a promo breakdown that's convinced me the Rand/Siuan meeting goes down in Cairhien. i'm wondering now if Siuan brings Mat with her. that would get him to Rand in time to go to Falme and blow the Horn.

Sadly, this could end up costing me two of my absolute favorite Mat sequences: his quarterstaff face-off with Gawyn and Galad, and the whole bit where he gambles his way out of Tar Valon.

(he still better answer the door naked when Rand saves him from the Darkhounds. that is peak comedy. PEAK.)

i'm probably not saying anything anyone hasn't already figured out here, but i'm thinking, since TGH and TDR are getting meshed, that Rand goes straight from Falme to the Aiel Waste. i've seen some speculation that Aviendha is the Aiel Perrin rescues from the cage, thus explaining why she's with him at Falme, but she wouldn't be the only Aiel around. i'm betting the show is altering the People of the Dragon prophecy so that it's about Falme (the Car'a'carn appearing in the sky???) rather than the Stone. Maybe Rand takes the Aiel with him when he goes to Tear and picks up his plot coupon Callandor.

okay, that's it. i swear.

[ofrhysand]

𝐎𝐎𝐂; Finished HOFAS plus the bonus chapters yesterday and I have thoughts.... and emotions... But under cut for spoilers ( though wil try to not be super specific ), will just type down the ACOTAR ones ( and one ship that I think carried that book ).

So.... Bryce did annoy me, I will admit, but she got better later. Although I understood why she was like that perfectly and how I think it was in character for her to do so but still.... She annoyed me in Prythian. Wonder if things could've gone very different if she'd just... spoken a little more or cooperated.

Nesta seems to have grown a lot and I am all for that, and also big hint that she is a spoiling aunt to Nyx ok, she adores her nephew and how she called Feyre a 'perfect mother' in the bonus chapter, did things to my emotions. And also Az was perfect, no surprise there. The bonus chapter of them and how he liked the death metal music and dance was so fun to read ( would've been nice if it wasn't a bonus chapter because it added some bit of depth to the interaction ).

And was it me or there was a LOT of Elain language in the Avallen parts in the aftermath of the encounter when Bryce did the thing? I don't know, just reading it, my mind instantly went to 'Elain', not to mention that paired with the Prison events.... I think it's a big set up for her book.

Rhys... Yes, Rhys acted as was expected in the main book chapters but that bonus chapter of Ember and Randall... His Nesta treatment bugs me. Again, like Bryce, I understand completely why he is acting like that and it also makes sense for him, especially with Nesta, but I was glad when Ember intervened. And then it seems like he returned to being the same Rhys of always. But also Cassian was more pissed at her than even Rhys it seems? And Feyre defended her.

And ofc, RuhnLidia was gorgeous, it has always been a gorgeous ship development, and I've made no secret that I prefer them way better over Bryce and Hunt. They carried the romance in the book for me. And their bonus chapters was just lakdjflaksjdfklajsdfklajsdfaflkajdsf it was perfection. It definitely makes me wanna reread all their chapters and RP Ruhn.... for who i already have url and google doc set up woops.

Individually, when they took that antidote, their powers were very interesting... Yes, Ruhn of course will be a Rhys version I expect, but with more starlight it seems, plus healing... is that a dusk court thing I wonder? Or does the starlight allow for healing ( since it was a warm and bright light that came from his hand when healing )? Have to read up more on that. And when Ruhn did the THING to Autumn King... I cried there too, it was the muse of him that had me crying ok.

But Lidia lakjdsflkajsdlfkjaskldfjaskldf the whole flame language for her has always been a big clue to her being an Aelin descendant and I love it so much but also... THE KIDS, HER BBIES. The majority of times I had tears in my eyes were in all the Lidia and twins interactions.

But yes, I think that's it so far... Will post other stuff if more thoughts come to mind, I am still processing ok. Am all up for sharing thoughts and theories always!

[hierarchyproblem]

1, 2, 19 for book asks

1. book you’ve reread the most times?

I don't really tend to reread books tbh. There's so many other books I wanna read that I'd get more out of than a second go at something I already remember, y'know? That said, I have read the bible cover-to-cover four times. Normal behaviour.

2. top 5 books of all time?

Aw fuck. I dunno. I'll assume "books" here means "novels" and I'll list five of my top books of all time:

The Dispossessed, by Ursula K Le Guin. I need not labour the piont here 'cause I know you've read it, so I'll simply say that Le Guin is possibly my favourite writer of all time, and this is her at her best.

Ubik, by Philip K Dick. This book gets weirder by the page. PKD loves poking at the nature of reality, and this is the exemplar. A lot of his output reads as surprisingly adventurous work to come from a 60s sci-fi guy, and this is among his most interesting. Several carefully-crafted "wait - oh, shit" moments in a deliberately-contradictory narrative. Head-spinning stuff.

The Fifth Season, by N K Jemisin. A lot of SFF is, like, fun, and that's cool; I like to read that stuff too. This is art, no two ways about it, and of a kind I'm not sure you could easily translate into a different genre or medium. Bold and nuanced exploration both of the apocalypse and of parenthood. Also rocks are magic, and magic is rocks. When people ask me to recommend a book, this is my go-to.

Version Control, by Dexter Palmer. This is pretty lit-ficcy compared with my usual intake (ie. genre fiction that wears it's genre-ness like a tiara). If an act 1 full of normies having brunch doesn't put you off - and it shouldn't, because the characters are extremely well-drawn - then it'll be very satisfying when all the little bits of wrong-ness come together. Also far more prescient as near-future spec-fic than any cyberpunk.

The Traitor Baru Cormorant, by Seth Dickinson. Unlike most in the tumblr-popular "SFF imperialism but with lesbians" genre, this one sketches out an imperialism that's mostly plausible and worth exploring. The worldbuilding is really very good. This is mostly a pretty light read, for all it deals in heavy themes. I basically don't believe that spoilers diminish one's enjoyment of a story, though that might just be me, so I still think it's worth reading despite your having looked up the ending on wikipedia. The rapid series of increasingly-punishing gut punches in the final few chapters is worth experiencing first-hand.

19. most disliked popular books?

I'm sure I've bitched about this to you before, but I thought Harrow the Ninth mostly sucked. I respect the ambition of the book's structure, but I felt that it fucked the pacing unbearably. Gideon is way more interesting to read about than anyone else in these books, and I might have felt better about being dragged through 400 pages of Harrow moping by having "you're gonna find out what happened with Gideon soon, I swear!" dangled in front of me like a carrot for a donkey, if the payoff was worth it. Unfortunately the denouement largely consisted of everybody standing there and stating out loud what their master plans were, I guess because the stupid B-plot where I'm somehow expected to care about Ortis at all(??) took up too much space so there was none left for a proper ending. There were some fantastic scenes, but in my opinion they couldn't save the book. I thought Gideon was truly excellent, so this was a bit of a let-down.

Also - if you'll allow me a brief tangential rant - I can only assume the publisher (correctly) decided that the meme references were highly marketable, because otherwise an editor that let that shit through should surely have been let go. It's baffling, because these books are frequently hilarious, but never when referencing Bone Hurting Juice or whatever the fuck. "Oh it's a worldbuilding thing, it shows that John-" no. It's stupid. Piss off.

Thanks for the questions!

[supercanaries]

Reply to Curious Cat (12/15 - posting here for character limit)

Hey Edy, welcome to curious cat! I love your art, it's so great to find someone who likes both DabiHawks and RenKaza. Could you recommend some of your fav fics for both the pairings? I've been in the DabiHawks fandom longer so I've read a few but not really for RenKaza. (Sorry if I sent this Q a bajillion times, curious cat wasn't working for me LOL.)

Hey anon ♥ thank you so much for you words 🙏🏻 so glad you like both ships as well, they're so great!

It's quite the opposite for me, I've been in the AkaRenkaza fandom for longer and I just got into MHA! I will go ahead and list some of my favorite fics, or the ones I'm currently obsessed with!

Please, make sure to check out all the warnings and ratings before you read them!

--

🔥❄️ AkaRen/RenKaza

FLEUR DE LUNE by Zyloa You've probably already read this one, but it's one of my absolute favorites! Slight canon divergence premise where the sun rises earlier at the Mugen train set and the entire story changes. I adore this story, I have read it a while ago and I still think it to be one of the best in canonverse.

DON'T FORGET TO BREATHE by Zyloa BEST!!!! I love this so, SO MUCH! For a change, Kyojuro finds out about Akaza's backstory right at the beginning, when they first meet at the Mugen Train because he gets accidentally sucked into his dreams, thank you Enmu. It's a lovely fic, some moments really got… to my… heart?? I was holding my breath and squealing asdfghjk. Just. Too. Good. No spoilers on it but just when you think it couldn't get any better… it does.

SMOKE & MIRRORS by emilieee A favorite! Demon Slayer set in modern AU with demons and demon slayer corps still being a thing! It's slow-build but it's such good romance!!! Also, Em is evil and she enjoys Akaza suffering so if you're into Akaza suffering, there's that! The updates of this story literally never miss!

WHAT I WOULDN'T GIVE by DragonsAndCryptids T rated. This is a very lovely fic revolving around the concept of Senjurou becoming ill just like Ruka, and Akaza offers demon blood, so it deals with Kyojurou struggling to figure out if and how much he's willing to compromise to keep his little brother alive. Author's also writing a new RenKaza fic but I'm yet to start reading it!

THE NEVERENDING NIGHT by apodis This is absolutely wild. I LOVE this story, it just!! goes!! so hard!! It's like it's a book of its own and not a fan fiction. I'm sure you already know about this story but in case you don't, rush to it!

LITTLE FIGHTER BOY COMES MARCHING HOME by VTheTrashKing ADORABLE. But also very sad. Kyojuro's left to deal with a child version of Hakuji/Akaza. I think about this story a lot, sometimes I even sketch it. It's so nice.

IT'S ALWAYS SO by Chesh_Ire Sadly… :( This story hasn't updated anymore :( But I really loved the premise and these two chapters, so I'll drop them here anyway :( I thought about it so many times since reading it. Childhood sparring AkaRen (and then in the future stuff happens lmao), my heart!!

🪶💙 Dabi Hawks / TouKei

BIG REPUTATIONS by phanatics I thought at my age, after all this fandom experience 'I am NEVER reading fake relationship again'. But this is TOO good to pass on lol. Both make music and they need this fake relationship for different purposes. LMAO I'm obsessed with this fic!!! I think about scenes from it all the time haha embarrassing! I love all the social media posts and also how it manages to perfectly fit the canon story and characters into this AU setting. A lot of work into this one evidently!

INTO YOU by EloFromMars EXTREMELY CUTE because they're both unbearable. Hawks and Pro Hero Touya. They tease and annoy each other A LOT. I loved every second of it.

THRESHOLDS by phanatics Shiketsu high school AU. It's really cute and it will melt your heart. I really like stories where it's, you know, the little things, not necessarily 'too much', that make you go awwww. And this one does it. I actually wanna reread it as I type this.

--

These are the ones that are on the top of my head right now, but there's so so many, so if you'd like more or if you've already read all of these, please ask away! There's also many lovely oneshots I have not included yet!

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the stories and to talk about them as well! Forgive me for taking two days to reply, I had forgot to download the CC app and so I didn't get any notification (dumb edy energy!) DW, you've only sent it once!

Have a lovely day and thank you for asking me! ♥

[milenadelgadolaborde]

Hunger games 1: Reaction and Thoughts

[BEWARE THE SPOILERS!!!!]

Alright book munchers, buckle the fuck up bc we’re about to reread the hunger games, here we go. Some context for starters, I read the series for the first time when I was like 9ish/10 and I remember it being one of the very best dystopias I had read at the time (and honestly still one of the best in that genre, up there with the Uglies series (which I have yet to finish) and the maze runner). I remember it being so complex and how every little detail built up to this horrifying picture of this oppressive society right?

Now that the new book and movie has come out, I thought it would be cool to reread the series before reading that book (mostly so I can remember more than just the biggest plot points of the series). I’m interested in seeing how the books hit different as an adult, especially one who has more of an understanding and experience with things like discrimination and oppression, and other similar ‘systems’ that I understand better now.

Very very much looking forward to it so let’s get munchin

——-

Book 1: the hunger games

Published in 2008 (we got the HG in the same year that Obama became president? I don’t remember everything from when I was younger but I do remember that year was pretty wild for early 2000s standards)(Was it just me?)

*****So so many spoilers for the hunger games ahead, it’s been more than a decade but even so, if you haven’t read it yet and don’t want spoilers avoid below bc we’re gonna get into the thick of it

Part 1: the tributes

(Apparently instead of chapter titles there are just 3 parts - whatever happened to chapter titles man?)

Chapter 1:

First line: “When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.” Pretty unassuming but kinda gives a certain vibe that matches the series (?)

Second line: “My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim’s warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress.”

My soul is already braced for pain 😂

—

It’s strange, bc it’s been a minute since I’ve read something in first pov // I’m so used to 3rd person past tense

——-

“Even though it was years ago, I think he still remembers how I tried to drown him in a bucket”

Jeez Kat

“The Seam” = ominous

——

“Electrified or not, the fence has been successful at keeping the flesh-eaters out of District 12.”

Girl what? The what? I don’t remember this😳 is this the post apocalyptic part of the world? Honestly between zombie creatures and the hunger games I think I’d take my chances with the zombies. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if this was like a ‘oh the gov says there’s zombies out there’ but really they’re lying to keep the people inside kind of thing

——

““District Twelve. Where you can starve to death in safety,” I mutter.”

See this is what I’m talking about. The Symbolism and Ethical/ Moral /Philosophical questions of this series are Top Notch.

Muncher question: Would you choose to starve in safety of eat well in danger?

—-

“The mayor’s daughter, Madge, opens the door.” Even the mayors daughter has to put her name in? Brutal man

““No, it’s no one’s fault. Just the way it is,” says Gale.” Well, I wouldn’t say it’s no ones fault- I’d say it’s the capitol’s fault

—-

I have to ask myself- why the children? I get that it’s in order to show the brutality of this system but you would think that nothing would incite rebellion more than targeting the children- Aaahhhh my heart strings are already being pulled!

(I wonder how big every district is)

——-

“His (Gale) rages seem pointless to me, although I never say so.”

I think from the very beginning there’s this air of hopelessness that colors all of Kay’s monologue up until the reaping // I also think this quote is interesting with the future love triangle context

I do remember vaguely this thing of Gale always setting her off and Peeta being the one that calms her (?)

——-

The section at the reaping where the history of Panem is explained and why they take the tributes ,

B R U T A L

Then Prim is chosen- Oof, Big Oof

——-

Ch2:

“The odds had been entirely in her favor. But it hadn’t mattered.”

“So instead of acknowledging applause, I stand there unmoving while they take part in the boldest form of dissent they can manage. Silence. Which says we do not agree. We do not condone. All of this is wrong.”

——-

“Haymitch plummets off the stage and knocks himself unconscious.”

I don’t remember Haymitch being this much of a mess but omg can you blame him? This poor man has to watch the kids he trains every year be murdered brutally and is sent back again and again every year - probably reliving his own time in the games too

My face as I read the entire book: 😬😬😬

—-

“Family devotion only goes so far for most people on reaping day.”

Also F Peeta’s brothers man // I mean I 100% get it but P’s the protag so allow me to be pissed on his behalf 😂

—-

Also I’m actually interested in reading this Treaty of Treason thing- does anybody else also experience wanting to get so deep into the lore and paperwork of a world? Like I remember with HP wanting to actually read Hogwarts textbooks and stuff

——-

And definitely Fuck P’s mother (if that’s who hit him)

——-

Ch3:

So Madge gives her a pin - is it the mocking jay pin? Ok it is -Does something bad happen to madge? Now when anyone does anything nice for the protags I just expect them to die horribly later

——

“But I hate Effie Trinket’s comment so much I make a point of eating the rest of my meal with my fingers. Then I wipe my hands on the tablecloth.”

Yeah! There’s our rebel!!!! F etiquette!

——-

Ch4:

“So I decide, from this moment on, to have as little as possible to do with the baker’s son.”

That’s gonna be a little hard babe, considering the plot

—

Having a bunch of children fight to the death in a brutal fight to live is one thing, but having them dress up like it’s a fashion show beforehand is sickening y’all

I don’t remember being this disturbed by the ages when I was younger bc I was under twelve and also this age range seems to be the set age for heroes in stories but now that I’m 22, like I’m closer to being a decade older than the oldest of these kids than not - and I still consider myself Super Young //

Like I remember feeling bad for the protags but now I’m like “Who let these babies fight?”

——

“Suddenly he (Peeta) lashes out at the glass in Haymitch’s hand.”

Oh go off King

This man is so unassuming at first but so cunning *chefs kiss*

——

Ch5:

“What must it be like, I wonder, to live in a world where food appears at the press of a button?”

——-

“Our horses pull our chariot right up to President Snow’s mansion”

It is so easy to absolutely loathe this guy - I’m genuinely curious about the new book which is apparently about him and his backstory

——-

Katniss: Peeta is being nice to me? He must be planning on how to murder me. There’s no other reason he would do that

Peeta: 😍

——-

Ch6:

The Avox thing is so fucking disturbing man

——-

Ch7:

P and K both underrating themselves only to have the other highlight their greatest skills for Haymitch is so adorable- I love them

—-

Not Rue - I’m already crying 😭

—-

Katniss shooting the Apple in the pigs mouth = iconic

——

Ch8:

Ch9:

Peeta with the *le gasp* plot twists in the interviews with Ceasar = also iconic

——-

Part 2: the games

Ch10:

Ch11:

Ch12:

Ch13:

Ch14:

Ch15:

I love Katniss and Rue as a duo even though it hurts my heart ☠️

Fuck! I’m already crying

Ch16:

Ch17:

Ch18:

The song? The song guys. Kill me now

I’m so sad - so extremely sad

“Then I realize . . . he was my first kill.”

Katniss not even realizing that the boy she killed in defense of Rue is the first time she’s taken a life until later 😭 the cruelty of it all

——

Plot twist: the rule change *le gasp*

—-

Part 3: the victor

Ch19

Ch 20

Ch21

Ch22

The whole scene between P and K getting more intimate fulfills the part of me that ships them but the whole scene has a disturbing background feeling bc the entire time they’re both also aware they are on screen and have to play it up in order to get food. Like I want them to get together but ☹️

——-

“I know I’ll never marry, never risk bringing a child into the world.”

Yeah what’s stopping the districts from just not having kids? Like ppl irl are not having as many kids just because prices are going up and also some other risks but nothing like the hunger games - I would just not have kids // what would the capital do then? They’re completely dependent on work from the districts

——-

Ch24:

Ch25:

Cato’s death scene is the worst of the disturbingness- the mutants, the way it’s drawn out - it’s a no from me

Ch26:

When Katniss lifts her bow against Peeta on instinct and drops in? The berries: a little Romeo and Juliet moment? Forcing the capitol to give up even a little bit of ground? Iconic

——-

“My mouth waters at the smell, but I place it carefully on the floor, not trusting anything so clean and pretty.”

Now them dealing with the ptsd and ramifications of it all - heartwrenching

—-

““Oh, they did a full body polish on you,” says Flavius enviously. “Not a flaw left on your skin.””

The absolute disgustingness of it all, of a capitol city that had endless food, resources, and ways to keep people young and flawless, not just allowing, but actively demanding the depravity of children being sent to the hunger games to die in increasingly brutal ways while their families watch, starving

I have no words

———

““But the Gamemakers wanted to alter you surgically.”

Like she’s a doll?!?! Oh hell to the no

She’s a teenager!!!! I’m frothing at the mouth y’all

——

“When I left the arena, when the trumpets played, I was supposed to be safe.”

The Dread.

——

Ch27:

Peeta finding out that Katniss was definitely hamming it up for the cameras- Ouch

——

alright guys, I’m ready for book 2!

[iviarellereads]

Wheel of Time full series spoiler thoughts on TGH 8-12

A probably semi-regular weekly bonus to my reread blog, since sometimes you realize things on reread that just make you need to yell in a full spoiler space.

Leane hinting at Rand being bonded by Alanna "before he can take a breath", AAHHHH I have so many emotions, and at least half of them are "oh god the show's already been setting Alanna up for this since season one and the chains on her jacket but I LOVE HER YOUR HONOUR."

The whole confrontation with Rand and Siuan, Moiraine, and Verin is so much. Like, it's got so many little bits in it of delicious sowing of plot seeds, it's hard to pick out even any particular few.

Nynaeve and the first "mashiara", setting up ACOS 37 if memory serves without looking at any indices.

The assassination attempt… I genuinely don't remember if we get a confirmation on that one. I think maybe Fain alludes to it at some point? Damned difficult thing to find though.

Ingtar being so torn up over Changu and Nidao having left with Fain's crew… Events like the Darkfriend Social seem to be pretty rare and very secretive, I bet he didn't know more than a couple of others, like the Black Ajah's cell network.

Every little line of Ingtar's feels more laden with import on a second or third read, you know? Siuan is proven right and he says she deserves better than him serving her. You want to talk doomed by the narrative? The doubt in his mission and his life's dedication to the Dark drips off him.

Rand holds his tongue on criticizing Ingtar because it's Ingtar's command, his charge, not Rand's. Little does he know just yet, he WAS named second for the mission, and at times on this trip you can almost see Ingtar's desire to do the right thing war with his commands, both from Agelmar and Siuan AND from Ishy I assume.

LANFEAR! OK, I love her in the books, but the show has made me adore her even MORE, if that were possible. COME BACK, LANFEAR! I'm so eager to see you again~

Ingtar ordering the burials after leaving behind so many others, because he knew these two, and even if he knew they were Darkfriends, maybe he hoped there would be the embrace of the mother to greet him at his end, after all he'd done.

Nynaeve's anger… I still prefer LezbiNerdy Jenny's theory that Nynaeve would prove submission wasn't the only way women could channel, but since Nynaeve spends so much time suppressing her anger for the sake of getting the job at hand done, it makes far more sense to me that it's the surrender to the anger that temporarily opens the gate for her until Mashiara.

[pastelwitchling]

How's everyone's reading going? I always struggle to pick up more than kindle unlimited sports romances when school and work start, but I'm really pushing myself past that stress in small ways.

Here are the books I'm currently reading, just finished, and am hoping to get to soon that I really wanted to talk about:

The Sun and the Star (read): This book is pure serotonin. It's one of the longer Percy Jackson books, but I never felt the length for a single second. There were definite moments where I could tell someone other than Rick Riordan had taken over writing, but that doesn't change how fun and romantic the book was. What an absolute treasure.

Scoring Position (read): kindle unlimited mlm hockey romance. I just finished this today actually, and it ended up getting a lower rating than what it had been for most of the book, but I'm still glad I read it. It did offer a good palette cleanser, and though I didn't end up loving it the way I'd hoped I would, I would still recommend it for a nice time.

Under the Whispering Door (currently reading): I tried reading this a few months ago and DNFed after chapter five or something. I felt like the humor was hit-and-miss, I thought Wallace was a little too annoying, but I knew that I didn't want to DNF it for good. Why? I really liked Hugo, Mei, and Nelson, and the teashop. I thought there was some good potential there. I have to drive a lot to school and work, and I figured that since I couldn't enjoy reading this physically, then maybe I would have a better time on audiobook, annnnd... yeah. The narrator is phenomenal, I would highly recommend this audiobook if you couldn't get into the paperback. He has a way of reading in SUCH a funny way that I was suddenly laughing at lines I didn't think were funny the first time. I've got less than 3 hours of the audiobook left, and I'm having a great time. It's not anything groundbreaking, and I think the first half was very slow and repetitive, but it really has got me thinking about death and life a little bit more, and I really enjoy these characters. I now love Wallace, he's hilarious and becomes so easy to love, and I can't wait to see how this story ends.

House of Sky and Breath (currently reading): Anyone else really have trouble reading physical books when they're super stressed or overwhelmed? That's kind of where I am. I'm annotating and tabbing my paperback copy, I'm 10 chapters in, but I feel like I just don't have the strength right now to physically hold a book, you know? The first book in particular already took me so long to read because of its length (you're not Order of the Phoenix, STOP trying to be Order of the Phoenix, not every story can carry that kind of page count!), and now I just feel like I'd be going through it faster if I can read it digitally. I won't get my ebook copy from the library for over 2 weeks, so I might just try to read as much as I can now, and then finish with the ebook. I know the big spoiler at the end, but beyond that, I have no idea what happens in this book, and I can't wait to find out.

Books I want to pick up next:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part of last year's reread so that I can start this year's reread. I'm afraid, but it must be done.

Percy Jackson and the Chalice of the Gods: I think I was subconsciously waiting until after the show ended to dive back into this world, and I'm just ready to spend all day with my favorite demigod (and satyr) trio.

House of Flame and Shadow: Is this a shock to anyone? I should've read HoSaB sooner so I would be ready for this book now, but I overestimated by reading speed, so here we are. I hope to get to it before any spoilers start circulating.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries: I have more books on my physical TBR, but this is one of the lightest and I think I need that.

The Paladin's Shadow: 'Nough said. Anything by Tavia Lark is gold.

I love talking about books so much, so please do let me know what you're reading now, how you're feeling about it, what you'd like to pick up soon. It's always fun to me to discuss books, and I'd really like to talk more about them on my tumblr from now on. I still have it tagged rin reads if you want to filter that out though.

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 28: Footprints in Air

Yup, we're back to Whitebridge and I'm up to my old tricks. This reread is going to have spoilers for everything in the whole damn series and if you don't like that, you should skip this post. And maybe block the spoiler tags.

For everyone else, let's talk chapter icons! We've got Moiraine's staff again, and it might as well be her magnifying glass because she is playing detective this time around. She also plays off of Nynaeve, our POV, this time around (and really any time she and Nynaeve are in the same room).

Another legend, and they don’t even seem to notice. She resolved not to stare where they could see. They’ll laugh if they see me gaping like a country bumpkin.

Nynaeve is really good at getting in the way of her own happiness. Moiraine is way too busy contemplating the singular purpose to which she's dedicated her life to at the exclusion of all else like some kind of 90s anti-hero and her statue of a Warder would probably start gushing at Nynaeve about every cool relic he'd ever seen if he thought it would make her smile. While part of Nynaeve's attitude is just about spiting Moiraine, I think her insecurities come from the same kind of logic that Rand observed in how Wisdoms wouldn't possibly be allowed to dance at festivals: she's not allowed to have emotion or she's even worse at her job than everyone treats her already.

The scowl made her feel like a girl who had been caught acting the fool by someone in the Women’s Circle. That was a feeling Nynaeve was not used to, and the calm smile on Moiraine’s face only made it worse.

See what I mean? Nynaeve hasn't let herself be imperfect in a long, long time.

If only there was some way to get rid of the woman. Lan would be better by himself—a Warder should be able to handle what was needed, she told herself hastily, feeling a sudden flush; no other reason—but one meant the other.

"Their romance comes out of nowhere!" - people who clearly didn't read this sentence closely.

It weighed on Moiraine and Lan, too, as outwardly unperturbable as they were. She soon realized that, beneath their calm surfaces, hour by hour they wound tighter and tighter, like clocksprings being forced to the breaking point. Moiraine seemed to listen to things that were not there, and what she heard put a crease in her forehead. Lan watched the forest and the river as if the leafless trees and wide, slow water carried the signs of traps and ambushes waiting ahead.

They spent the last two weeks assuming that they were finally done looking and could get onto the much easier part of their job of fleeing to Tar Valon. Their POVs right now would be absolutely hysterical and full of exciting expletives, most of which Moiraine learned from Siuan.

Then, contradicting what he had just said, he added, “You should go back to your Two Rivers when we reach Whitebridge, and the Caemlyn Road. It’s too dangerous here. Nothing will try to stop you going back, though.” It was the longest speech he made all that day.

Much like Rand, Lan wants to keep his loved ones out of danger. If they were flirting any more strongly, Moiraine would have to look away for decency's sake.

Around the square at the foot of the White Bridge piles of blackened timbers, still leaking smoky threads, replaced half a dozen buildings. Men in poorly fitting red uniforms and tarnished armor patrolled the streets, but they marched quickly, as if afraid of finding anything, and they looked over their shoulders as they went. Townspeople—the few who were out—almost ran, shoulders hunched, as though something were chasing them.

Western Andor really isn't going to recover from Rand's recent tour for years, is it? And Elayne really has her work cut out for her; Whitebridge isn't anywhere near as far away from Caemlyn as Baerlon. It is a distance, but the books have already noted that this is one of the only river crossings anywhere in the continent.

Of course, maintaining the bridge is a complete non-issue because it's magic and not repairable even if it did start breaking anyway. If anything happened they'd have to just scrap it and start all the way over. So the crown would have no strong reason to worry about this place and without any serious military threats (*points and laughs at Altara and Murandy*), funding is quite possibly lower to this place than it is to Baerlon, whose mining territories aren't supernatural so far as we know.

So I guess the worldbuilding for the near collapse of Andorian territory actually checks out in a lot of ways!

The truth of the matter was there was a man somewhere in the town meddling with the One Power. It was time to have the Aes Sedai in; past time, was the way they saw it, no matter what the men said about Tar Valon. Let the Red Ajah settle matters. One man claimed it had been an attack by bandits, and another said a riot by Darkfriends. “Those ones going to see the false Dragon, you know,” he confided darkly. “They’re all over the place. Darkfriends, every one.” Still others spoke of some kind of trouble—they were vague about exactly what kind—that had come downriver on a boat.

This is a rare moment in the series where the rumors are more right than wrong. There was a male channeler in town (even though they couldn't have known that, because Rand did nothing), the Fade attack is basically a Darkfriend, and the trouble did indeed come downriver on a boat. Poor Bayle, being driven off for something that wasn't his fault. On the plus side, it may have saved him from further problems.

He seemed resplendent to Nynaeve, in his peaked helmet and burnished breastplate, until he took a pose just inside the door, with a hand resting on the hilt of his sword and a stern look on his face, and used a finger to ease his too-tight collar. It made her think of Cenn Buie trying to act the way a Village Councilor should.

By the end of the series, quite a few people will have put on costumes they never thought they'd wear. Maybe even this militia guy will have the benefit of growing into his role. He's certainly just a dick now though. What kind of asshole tries to kick Nynaeve out of town?

The Aes Sedai studied the tabletop for a moment before raising her eyes to Nynaeve’s, and when she did, Nynaeve started back from a flash of anger that almost seemed to make Moiraine’s eyes glow. Then her back stiffened, her own anger rising, but before she could say a word, the Aes Sedai spoke coldly.

It's incredible that Moiraine spent years being trained to modulate her emotions, first in the crazy political schemes of Cairhien and then by the White Tower itself, and Nynaeve gets her to be openly angry in just two weeks! She could make anyone break.

And that's a wrap on another short chapter. See ya next time for another Perrin POV!

[smalltownfae]

Rating: 2/5 Stars

I am just so deeply disappointed in this one. I cannot believe this is the conclusion to my favourite book in the series. I can't believe that this is the resolution to that plot and those characters that were so brilliantly introduced and developed in the previous book.

In this one, the plot revolves around stealing the alchemist's books in order to stop people from creating another rekharo. That is a simple enough plot so one would think that this book would be more character focused like the previous one. It was not. There was a lot of focus on the importance of obtaining these books and on Alec's clan, which had their first appearance at the end of Shadows Return.

While Shadows Return focused on the characters, this book felt more focused on the plot (especially in the second half). Character's feelings were set aside in order to advance the plot and at times they even seemed to act out of character. There wasn't enough time dedicated to the characters reflecting on their actions and the interactions with each other were too brief. The best part of it was the first half, which was more slow moving and looked like a slice of life story, as it's typical for this author. The first halves of the books are always less action oriented. I really liked the scene with the huge adult dragon.

I absolutely hated that the new characters introduced had their own perspective. That was not necessary and I was bored out of my mind reading those parts because I found those people so boring. It would have been fine to see these characters through the main perspectives. There was too much time dedicated to these people that weren't fleshed out enough and that I didn't care for. The pointless battle near the end was the worst too. Why was this really necessary? The best part of it was seeing an original rekharo because the idea of them and the design is just cool. I could have gotten everything important said in those boring chapters through Alec or Seregil's eyes and the book would be better for it.

It's even worse taking into consideration that to give room to these new uninteresting characters, the two actually complex characters from the previous book show up very little. The ones that are actually important due to the relation they have with the two main characters. They were treated so badly after so much care was put into developing them in Shadows Return.

[SPOILER] Illar didn't act like himself, which is more or less understandable, but I hated how everyone treated him and was disgusted by him because of his trauma. I hated that Seregil only spared him a few words after everything that happened in the previous book and even in the brief scenes in this one. Sebrahn was a bit more lucky because the first half actually had some nice moments with him and Alec and Seregil, but he was set aside on the second half and Alec gave up on him with too little on page reflection on his part. Sebrahn was also very accepting about being abandoned when it's obvious that he does care for Alec. Everything about those resolutions was a mess. I hate how Ilar is left with an open ending and I refuse to believe he got caught again to be tortured. At least I was spared the confirmation and I can pretend he managed to go live somewhere and be safe. [END SPOILER]

I am so upset by so many of the decisions in this book, but there were still some good scenes, especially between Alec and Seregil and the ones in the first half of the book. I just wish more care had been put into the characters readers already knew and were interested in.

This is definitely my least favourite book in the series and I hope there is no other like this. The way it ended makes me think that there was a reset button and the next books will be just random fun adventures. It will be like these two books didn't happen and I am so mad about it because I loved Shadows Return so so much. Well, I can always reread it and ignore this one.        

[misfit-latte]

Book Review 2023 (2/40)

📖 The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

This is one of my rereads this year but I didn't have any review about this when I first read it, that's why, I am doing it now.

This was actually going to be my first book for this year (but I actually read another book so hahaha). I have read this book before but I have not put any review for this one so now that I read this again, I'm putting this review. Of course, it is still different from the very first time that I read it than now, but I think I felt the same way when I read this before and now.

I loved this book, if you must know, I do not reread books when I don't enjoy them and yeah I know the plot already etcetera etcetera but every so often after a few years there are parts of the books that I read which I actually forgot so if I loved the book and I felt like reading it, I am going to read it again. Weirdly enough though, I finished reading it for an hour. So be warned, SPOILERS AHEAD:

The little prince is a children's book, that being said the author dedicated it to a friend but he clarified that he dedicated it to his friend when he was a little boy. If you want a short read, a classic and a book that talks about philosophy about life then this is the book for you. Even though I know what will happen, I still cried at the fact that the little prince died. I know, I know, that maybe if you were a child and you read it back then, you would think that he went back to his planet and even I, a grown adult, like to believed that he did returned to his planet. I don't know if it was just me who thinks that the narrator of the story is like a grown person or grown adult but he remembers what he was as a child that's why he could understand the little prince. Like he's a symbolism for every grown up who are still a child inside themselves (in a good way). While the little prince symbolizes all the children who never grow up or grow old (children who will never experience old age because they died when they are still young) because of his innocence but understanding because even at such a young age he had experience things that only adults know (like dying/death and responsibility to someone you love). In a way, I think the little prince was like forced to mature or grow because he was tasked with things you're supposed to know when you're adult. I don't know what I'm trying to point out but I know that I kept thinking this since the first time that I read this.

Other than that, I think this book is for all ages for even a child could understand is. Maybe, the funny thing would be is that children understand this better than adults. I sometimes think the book is trying to capture the grown ups to be his audience because maybe he also feels like the narrator and the little prince and maybe in a way, he wants to know that he's not the only one.

Anyways, this is a great read. Hopefully, I'll continue on reading again.

I don't know if you'll read this but, I'll post some quotes (that I love) which might convince you to read it.

I did not know what to say to him. I felt awkward and blundering. I did not know how I could reach him, where I could overtake him and go on hand in hand with him once more. It is such a secret place, the land of tears.

Nevertheless he is the only one of them all who does not seem to me ridiculous. Perhaps that is because he is thinking of something else besides himself.

Again, SPOILER ALERT, for my favorite part:

So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near--

"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."

"It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you . . ."

"Yes, that is so," said the fox.

"But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince.

"Yes, that is so," said the fox.

"Then it has done you no good at all!"

"It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields." And then he added:

"Go and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret."

"Goodbye," he said.

"Goodbye," said the fox. "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."

"It is the time I have wasted for my rose--" said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.

"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose . . ."

"I am responsible for my rose," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.