Kevin's Watch

Meh, I'm not really enjoying the Silverfox story line either. All the other ones are great though.

--A

Yeah, I wasn't enthralled with Silverfox's story. Actually, I wasn't thrilled with the Mhybe's story either. By to end of MoI, it (the book) became my favourite though

Until House of Chains, which is now my fav!

Well, their stories were much better by the end...didn't start enjoying it 'til she denied the T'laan.

The sieges in this book rocked.

(Oh, spotted a reference to MT in it this time.)

--A

Yeah, Silverfox was, for me, just a supporting character for the most part. Good for seeing Kallor's reaction to her; Kruppe driving her crazy; getting her insights on Paran...

But then it turned out she was helping out with the Beast Hold, which seems to be an important thing. heh

I can't believe I just found a hardcover of this book for $1 at the used store an hour ago!!!!

I don't think I'd ever find a book for $1 - certainly not Erikson - must be the distance from the source... has to come overseas and all that crap! The cheapest I'd find one is probably $10.

There are crap books around for $1, but nothing I want to read - so there you have it, more useless info from StevieG!

I remembered, from previous readings, the first time Paran and Silverfox met in this book. But I didn't remember an important part of the conversation. Which is:

"I said no-one knows who created the Deck of Dragons. Yet there is another entity equally mysterious, also a kind of structure, focused upon power itself. Think of the terminology used with the Deck of Dragons. Houses... Houses of Dark, of Light, of Life and Death..." She slowly faced him. "Think of the word'Finnest'. It's meaning, as the T'lan Imass know it, is 'Hold of Ice'. Long ago, among the Elder races, a Hold was synonymous with a House in its meaning and common usage, and indeed, synonymous with Warren. Where resides a Jaghut's wellspring of power? In a Finnest." She paused again, searching Paran's eyes. "Tremorlor is Trellish for 'House of Life'."

Finnest... as in Finnest House, in Darujhistan... a House of the Azath. "I've never heard of Tremorlor."

"It is an Azath House in Seven Cities. In Malaz City in your own empire, there is the Deadhouse - the House of Death..."

"You believe the Houses of the Azath and the Houses of the Deck are one and the same."

"Yes. Or linked, somehow."

Pretty cool! I have to pay more attention to the Azath Houses we run into in the future. At least a few more are seen or mentioned.

The link between the Houses, the Azath, and the Warrens seems to exist as much in popular myth through connection as it does in literal relationships.

The existence of a true connection between Tremorlor and Life is something I'm inclined to question. Maybe it has symbolic relevance that they are named such, but as we learn in parts of the novels, Tremorlor exists to hold in place a fragment of Emurlahn - the Whirlwind. The same purpose was served by the Azath which was almost entirely destroyed by Icarium in the Jhag Wastes - when he destroyed the House, he destroyed another fragment of Shadow.

I would think that the connection of Azath to specific Houses or Warrens is something that has come from the mortal side of things, making connections to help understand the world, while the real truth is not that they have these specific ties but that they simply arise to try to enforce order onto the chaos of the Warrens wherever necessary.

I think this conclusion is supported by the knowledge Erikson writes his histories from an anthropological perspective, where the events and opinions are allowed to be flawed and based upon conjecture, folklore, and personal conceptions of the world, like the story is pieced together from imperfect sources.

I have to think Silverfox's thoughts must mean something, or we wouldn't have gotten them. But you could be right even if that is true. Could be there isn't so much a connection as there is a... balance? If a House comes into the Deck, a corresponding Azath springs up? If a House of the Azath springs up, the Deck gets a corresponding one? *shrug* Beats me. Just interesting thoughts all around.


I'm really, really, loving this third read through MoI!! Not like I'd forgotten how cool it is, but details are always forgotten. Seeing Itkovian standing on the tower as the Pannions begin their assault of Capustan. Seeing every moment of Itkovian, in fact. As well as Onos T'oolan, the Seguleh, and Lady Envy. And Toc when he's with them. (Not as happy seeing every moment when he's NOT with them. ) Korlat & Whiskeyjack only went to her tent for the first time several pages ago. Three times I've dread DG, and couldn't imagine liking anything more. And for the third time, somehow, I do.

Ah, Itkovian... (I did get your texts today, btw. I was getting off the train and rushing to work, and then I forgot about 'em until I left work tonight. Bad ali! )

I never thought about the Azath being connected to warrens/Houses/Holds. Hmm, maybe that's why the new house sprang up in Darujistan at about the time Panoes' card was added to the Deck? Hmmm...

Not looking at spoilers, but forging ahead at, about, p. 520 still on top the horrid building full of bodies with Gruntle and the Bridgeburners--now that Paran's dilemma is beginning to be addressed and the Barghast kicking butt my interest is picking up...

I was distracted by the release of TCG, as well as some serious rl crap, but I finally finished my third reading of MoI. And I was just as moved, delighted, amazed, amused, thrilled, and appalled as I was the first two times. As always, the most powerful aspects for me are Itkovian and the Toolman. Which isn't to say a dozen or so other things aren't less than a hair's breadth less powerful.

I just finished the book last night. Very good, better than the first two. Itkovian was a great character, as was Tool.

The necromancers were weird type of comic characters by the end. After Quick Ben blasted the two of them around this comic exchange between Bauchelain and his servant:

Spoiler

'Emancipor'...

'I confess to... a certain... confusion. Do we possess some chronic flaw, Emancipor?'
'Sir?'
'Underestima- oh, never mind Emancipor.'

The scene with the Seer in the warren, with his sister/niece was also good. Made me feel sorry for the Seer.

I would never begrudge anyone for ranking Itkovian above moi. Two extraordinary characters, from the best book in the entire series.

Yeah, Kor and Buch are there, it seems, only to show how powerful they are, in order to show how powerful Quick is. And they do their job very well.

Yes, very touching scene!! The little girl folding her hands like that...


You know, now that we're on the subject. Perhaps Murrin can explain. The Matron was in the rent in Morn, sealing it. Kilava sent the Jaghut children in, thinking it was a portal (What the hell?? She must have been very new to her power to not have known the difference.), knocking the Matron out. So how did Pannion get out? Someone must have been shoved in, knocking him out. Who? And why wasn't the girl knocked out at the same time? And how was the girl knocked out?

I always assumed the rent could hold only one person, so the boy goes first followed by the girl who knocks the boy out. After that, the crazed Matron grabs the boy and cuddles with it for a while, driving it insane.

I also think Kilava was rushed to try and spite the T'lan Imass in their genocidial slaughter of the Jaghut...

Orlion wrote:I always assumed the rent could hold only one person, so the boy goes first followed by the girl who knocks the boy out. After that, the crazed Matron grabs the boy and cuddles with it for a while, driving it insane.

I'd considered this possibility. But I don't think so. First, Pran Chole, who seemed to know a lot more about this stuff than Kilava did (he knew it was a wound, not a gate, for example), said both children were trapped, having been exchanged for the Matron. Plus, didn't Pannion find the Matron after she had spent a loooooooooong time freeing herself from the barrow she was trapped in after Kilava freed her from the wound? So he wasn't with her the whole time. And if he had been free since the beginning somewhere other than with her, we would have heard from him long before the Domin became active.

Orlion wrote:I also think Kilava was rushed to try and spite the T'lan Imass in their genocidial slaughter of the Jaghut...

I think she was just ignorant and/or stupid. And I'll tell you something else. As fascinating a character as she is, I can't forgive her for not exchanging herself for the children. Even if she didn't want to do it immediately, and wanted to look for another way to free them, she should have come to that decision at some point in a few hundred thousand years. Looks to me like she put them from her mind. What's the horrifying, eternal suffering of two children to her, eh? A moment of horror and guilt, and that was that.

I loved those scenes with the necromancers.

--A

Pannion was trapped in Chaos on the other side of the Rent, with only his sister's torment for company.

So then...
-The K'Chain Che'Malle opened the wound, which went Chaos.
-The Matron sealed it.
-Kilava sent the children in, trapping them, freeing the Matron.
-Is it as Orlion said? Did Pannion enter first, getting knocked out by his sister seconds later, sending him into Chaos? (If so, why wasn't the Matron knocked into Chaos by Pannion?)
-Then the Crippled God brought him back to Genebackis.

Pannion and his sister were physically sent through the portal. The Matron's body was buried on Genabackis; her soul was seperated from the body and used to close the Rent. Pannion and his sister were sent into Chaos through the portal, and Pannion's sister's soul was trapped in the Rent, freeing the Matron's soul to return to her physical body.