(no subject)

[bjornwilde]

I've started Thrawn and I have to laugh at the opening. Lite spoilers behind the cut.
So the opening chapters has Thrawn basically going Predator on a squad of Imperials and what do the do? Offer him a job of course.

Also started Ruin of Angels (latest in the Craft Sequence), and damn me if Gladstone isn't good at sucking you into a story.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

I have also started Ruin of Angels (despite not having read 4 Roads or 1 Snow yet), because damn I've missed Kai's POV. Really enjoying it so far. God, the start-up pitches -- I was so, so amused. :D

[bjornwilde]

I'm just to chapter three, so I've just had the Kai flashback and welcome to IFI. She also just got the letter from her sister.

ETA: I am so in love with how Gladstone handled Kai's gender in the flashback. (I hope that was vague enough to not count as a spoiler?)

Also, 4 Crossroads was fun, but I felt it wasn't as good as the others. It's nearly the same story as 3 Parts, though it does establish that Denovo wasn't the end of asinine Craftspeople.

1 Snow was amazing and I think you will really love it since it features a young Telmoc as a POV character. We also get young Elayne as a POV,

[hamsterwoman]

Yes, I really loved the way Kai's gender was handled in flashback, too, as I was wondering about it when I realized we were in flashback territory.

I'm definitely looking forward to getting into 1 Snow. I think part of my reluctance is that I really do love Temoc as a character from 2 Serpents, but because 1 Snow is set in the past, I know not to expect much good to happen for him, you know?

4 Roads I do expect to like less, because while I did like Tara and Elayne as characters, I think the relationships in 3 parts actually drew me the least (2 Serpents had Caleb and Teo and Caleb and Temoc, both of which I really liked, and 5 Fathom had... well, honestly, mainly the relationship between Kai and her island, which totally counts). But 3 Parts I mostly enjoyed for the set-up of the cool worldbuilding and the clever prose, while the other books grabbed me on a deeper level.

[bjornwilde]

All of these are very good points! Although I really loved Cat and Abulard. I liked Tara as well.

I will say things happen to Temoc and his central conflict is his old religion in the new world. You get to see how he became who he is in 1 Snow and it is heart wrenching but so well done.

He and Elyane are somewhat allies (respected frenemies?) in this as well.

[hamsterwoman]

You get to see how he became who he is in 1 Snow and it is heart wrenching but so well done.

I'm sure I will enjoy it, and also Temoc's relationship with Elayne, but, yeah, I'm expecting heart-wrenching to be the key word, and I tend to like happier things in my reading. Or, at least, I need a lot of happy in between the heart-wrenching, so it's taking me longer to get around to 1 Snow.

[bjornwilde]

I hear you. Often I need to take a podcast break after a heavy book. I do most of my reading via audiobooks on my commute.

[ceitfianna]

Now that you say it, of course that was what was going on at the start of Thrawn. I really enjoyed it and I'll be curious your thoughts. You'll be able to see how it gave me a lot of ideas in my Cassian writing since it gets into lots of different layers of the Imperial world.

[bjornwilde]

I am loving it! I just got to Thrawn's and Elay's (sp?) graduation. I am loving how they keep showing how Thrawn things and is constantly examining people.

My Sabine head voice is also taking furious notes on tactics and I'm kind of going, "Okay that's great, but that's kind of out of character knowledge."