#the robot maths lessons was cute also. and sword shopping

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Hexarchate Stories

Extra stories, deleted scenes etc, from the Machineries of Empire trilogy

an exile & art thief blackmailed into infiltrating a rouge ship and disarming a weapon in exchange for reinstatement

lots about Jedao’s childhood/early life

and an epilogue to the trilogy about Cheris & Jedao

authors notes about each story

[number63liveblogs]

Hexarchate Stories: Calendrical Rot, Birthdays, The Robot’s Math Lessons, Sword Shopping, Persimmons, Irriz the Assassin-Cat, Vacation

Another bunch of shorter stories.

Calendrical Rot: I really like the language in this one, but I can see why it was cut from the first book. The mood isn’t quite right to set up the rest of the story, and if everything else stayed the same it would have added one more chapter to the story before the reader gets and explanation of the magic system in play. Also, we’re already at Hexarchate.

Birthdays: Yeah, the Hexarchate was an oppressive system that demanded conformity from everyone living in it. But is the new system any different? Sure, heretics aren’t tortured to death any more, but pockets of people following their own traditions are still a threat to the calendar.

The Robot’s Math Lessons: Holy shit, tiny Cheris was super cute. Although, it is weird that if it took this little for her to start making friends with the servitors that nobody else ended up doing it.

Sword-Shopping: I think this story exists only to remind people that Cheris is also a useless gay, and that’s okay.

Persimmons: I mean, we already saw Cheris interacting with one servitor, but I would have liked to see it here too. Well, at least we saw that at least some of the servitors who spent extended amount of time with Cheris did it out of their own free will.

Irriz the Assassin-Cat: Oh look, the book remembered there are other people than Cheris and Jedao in existence!

Vacation: Oh, we’re already at the end of the last book. Well, at least it’s nice to see that the marriage between Brezan and Tseya didn’t end up being a complete catastrophe, even if there was some bad blood between them. Brezan deserves to have one thing in his life going well after what he’s been through.