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Post by zemira on Oct 27, 2007 14:42:34 GMT -5
I figured since a few of us have it now, and have it finished, we can talk about it a bit. I'm assuming this thread will contain spoilers[/u][/i].
So, what'd ya all think? Did you like it? Why or why not? All that jazz. ^_^
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Post by shyviolet on Oct 27, 2007 15:15:01 GMT -5
I liked it, but not as much as the other adult books he's written. I expect it'll grow on me with another reading though. (where I live it's pretty late so I'll explain later if that's okay)
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Post by zemira on Oct 27, 2007 17:00:04 GMT -5
I liked it as well. Not as good as Poison or Haunting, but still very good. Did anyone figure out the twist at the end?
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Post by shyviolet on Oct 28, 2007 4:19:01 GMT -5
Do you mean the obvious 'you were just a fade the whole time' twist, or a secret twist that I missed? I think I didn't like it as much because it had kind of a depressing ending. Sure, everything turned out as well as could be expected for Orna, but the rest of the world almost got better but then got ruined again... it was so depressing... I would have liked some more information about the surface world and the suns and such, but that's what the 'annoy your author with questins' thread is for I guess.
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Post by zemira on Oct 28, 2007 20:31:07 GMT -5
Spoilers down below, beware! MAJOR SPOILERS!
I mean more about the whole Casta-is-Silverfish-and-Nereith-betrayed-her type thing. I mean, I knew the whole time that Nereith wasn't a good guy, but I didn't think Silverfish was a real person. Oh, and the whole Ledo-dealing-with-Gurtans stuff.
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Post by shyviolet on Oct 29, 2007 2:52:33 GMT -5
SPOILERS Oh, that twist. I think had I stopped to think about it I would have worked it out, since I could tell Casta's long absences would be explained and when they were it would be one of those slap-your-forehead-because-it-makes-so-much-sense things, but I was reading it really quickly because I wanted to know what happened. I could tell the whole way through that it would be someone from Clan Caracassa dealing with the Gurtans. I mean, it turns out to be some other clan that Orna has no emotional or dutiful link to? When has Chris ever been that nice to his characters? Plus, the further through it I got the harder and harder it would get for a new villain to be introduced, so it would have to be someone we knew all along. 'Twas still an awesome twist though.
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Post by zemira on Oct 30, 2007 8:14:11 GMT -5
Yeah, that makes sense. I was just so into the story I didn't really give much thought to it. I mean, Nereith was pretty obvious, but I didn't really pay attention to Casta much since I liked Liss so much better.
Did you believe the letter about her son being dead? I did, only because I figured he was dead the entire time. Even after the end, I thought he was dead long before that. I mean, I didn't doubt the suicide thing, mostly because I don't think Chris really showed enough of him for the reader to know whether he would or wouldn't commit suicide. I mean, yeah, Orna said that he would never do that, but I never really saw anything in the book about him to back it up.
But who knows--a few parts I didn't read that thoroughly since I read it every chance I got and many times, it was in a distracting environment.
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Post by shyviolet on Oct 30, 2007 13:32:18 GMT -5
I paid more attention to Liss too, but she was always whining about Casta going away for ages and not telling her why, so I remembered it from that.
I like to believe that her son is alive, just because otherwise it would be even more depressing. I think if he is dead he would've been killed in battle though, he struck me as the kind who would think suicide was a coward's way out.
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Post by zemira on Oct 30, 2007 14:26:40 GMT -5
I did expect him to die more from battle than suicide, but I didn't totally rule out suicide. Of course, even with mom and dad dead, he still had Reitha although they were far away. So I guess, now that I think about it, it wouldn't make too much sense for him to commit suicide.
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Post by Chris Wooding on Oct 30, 2007 15:55:25 GMT -5
STILL SPOILERS!!!! Surprising how many people who read it that didn't see the twist coming... I'm glad though. It's always hellatricky to walk the line between making it too obvious and making it obvious-but-only-when-you-look-back-at-it. But of course, some people will get it anyway Incidentally, someone asked in the Annoy Your Author thread whether I ever thought of writing a book where the bad guys win. Well, this time they really do. ;D Weirdly, I never thought of the end as depressing. Orna's been through hell alright - she's lost absolutely everything - but in the end losing it all is what makes her free, which she's never been since she was five. She's burned away all traces of her old life and she's going to face the new one. Awwww! *hugs Orna* *Orna kicks Chris in the nuts for being a mean old Heirophant*
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Post by zemira on Oct 30, 2007 21:46:37 GMT -5
LMAO! Ohhh man, those last 3 paragraphs totally made my day!
It didn't seem like "bad guys" winning to me. More like...an ending, I guess. No one won, since the Gurtans kinda lost out too and they were the supposedly "uber-evil beings" that we were supposed to hate (although I didn't). I mean, I think this ending was better for Orna anyways. After she had seen so much from the escape and going home, I don't think she would have been content to just be Ledo's lackey anymore.
Plus, I wanted her to stay with Feyn. <3
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Post by shyviolet on Oct 31, 2007 13:47:18 GMT -5
I only thought the ending was depressing because I was thinking about all the soldiers, what with her writing to her son it was a bit unavoidable. It's depressing that they almost got out of it and then didn't. From Orna's end of things it isn't really depressing at all I suppose, I just have trouble focussing on one character.
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Post by zemira on Nov 1, 2007 8:08:53 GMT -5
Totally random, but did anyone find a pattern for the chapter numbers? I thought at first it had to do with the flashbacks, but I was wrong. So, are they just totally random? Maybe that's the way this world counts? I have no clue, lol.
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Post by Chris Wooding on Nov 1, 2007 8:29:31 GMT -5
They're chronological according to the order they happen in the timeline: the highest number is when she's youngest (40) and it counts down to zero. It just tricks you out because it starts at 30, and while the 'present' counts down from 30 to 0, the 'past' counts up towards 40, each flashback being progressively further back in time than the one before. Many's the time during the writing of this book that I cursed myself for coming up with that idea.
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Post by zemira on Nov 1, 2007 9:33:07 GMT -5
Ahhhhhhhhhh...okay, so I was partly right. I figured part of it had to do with the flashbacks, but I didn't even think of it counting backwards. That's why I was so confused when the last chapter was Chapter 1 and it wasn't a flashback, lol.
Yaaaay~! Thank you for explaining, Chris!
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