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IRQ posted:An old demigod thing created by Glustrod. Not an Eater. I'm grasping at straws here, because I havent read the books in a good while, and I don't have access to them atm, but: Wasn't the witch involved with the feared somehow? I don't remember if any of this was resolved... If I had no life, I'd loving love to make a first law++ wiki. Also, is there any better name for this setting/set of books?
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Jan 1, 2011 04:40
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IRQ posted:It wasn't explained terribly well, which is a complaint I do have about Abercrombie (see also: describing the shanka). I actually kinda liked that, surprisingly. As much as my physicist nature wants explanation, I think the ambiguity makes things slightly more interesting. Like with the house of the maker, for instance--we saw a couple of things that were awesome (the shanka pit, the divider), and we are left with no idea about what other crazy things might be sealed away there forever. Also, am I imagining things, or was it hinted at that the interior of the house of the maker didn't exactly obey Euclidean geometry?
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Jan 1, 2011 04:52
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Is it crazy that I personally hold onto the notion that Whirrun's sword was, in fact, quazi-magical, but was wrong about his death because Bayaz's assistant (name alludes me) interfered, and is all magical and whatnot. It was at least alluded to that he had been around the battle the whole time, so whose to say he wouldn't have acted to intervene in cracknut's death I mean, it's clear that at the very least, the Maker's swords were simply more durable. But it's hard to figure whether Whirrun lasted as long as he did, shirtlessly swinging around an enormous sword (with some strange proficiency), without "help" from the Father of Swords. That, and the instance where the first cannon is fired, and Whirrun is at the center of it, unharmed. . That said, I completely missed the significance of the symbol on the blade that is briefly mentioned (as I haven't read the "first law" trilogy in a good while). Slanderer fucked around with this message at 14:24 on Apr 7, 2011 |
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Apr 7, 2011 14:17
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Beastie posted:Can any one explain to me the lineage of The Maker and his sons, and Bayaz? Mostly how Bayaz threw The Maker off the tower and then...... I finished The Blade Itself and have moved on to the second book, but I have some lingering questions. Someone wrote this out from the book earlier in the thread, so I can't vouch that it's perfect: quote:Quai shrugged his bony shoulders and began to speak. “Almighty Euz, vanquisher of demons, closer to gates, father of the World, had four sons, and to each he gave a gift. To his eldest, Juvens, he gave the talent of High Art, the skill to change the world with magic, tempered by knowledge. To his second son, Kanedias, went the gift of making, of shaping stone and metal to his own purposes. To his third son, Bedesh, Euz gave the skill of speaking with spirits and of making them do his bidding.” Quai gave a wide yawn, smacked his lips and blinked at the fire. “So were born the three pure disciplines of magic.” And the Maker didn't have any sons, only the daughter, Tolomei. I'm not sure how much else is a spoiler at this point, since it's discussed further in the 2nd and 3rd books, as I recall.
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Jun 8, 2011 01:56
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Above Our Own posted:Another big problem with Tolomei is that she really came out of nowhere. That might make for an interesting plot twist if you like comic-book quality plot lines but there was no chance for character development. I bet Abercrombie just wanted a cool fight scene in the House of the Maker. She didn't really come out of nowhere, exactly. She was another one note character that existed only as a counterpoint to the dramatized version of her life (as told by Bayaz), throwing even more doubt on any of what Bayaz has said about her. It really just reinforces that he's a manipulative dick, and has always been a manipulative dick.
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Jan 25, 2012 19:00
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Bizob posted:I think that while she is driven by revenge, she is also supposed to have been driven completely insane by the voices / demons / other side and was more or less just doing their bidding. Really? If so, I missed that completely (or have just forgotten). I actually need to reread the relevant parts of the 2nd and 3rd books, since I actually forget a lot of the progression (for instance, I can't remember what happens to Tolomei after Bayaz pushes her out of the House of the Maker, and she doesn't die)... As for the idea of locking her in at the end, I think that makes sense. The geometry of the place is apparently non-euclidean, so maybe by locking the door at the end he closes every exit from the place (so that Tolomei can't just, say, jump out). And the place was built by the Maker, which means it's still mostly beyond Bayaz (unless he learned enough of the maker's gift, but doesn't want to go through the effort to ever recreate it), so it could very well be a permanent prison for Tolomei and Yulwei.
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Jan 25, 2012 20:44
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Bizob posted:It is entirely possible that I just made that up like I made up the Shenkt-rapey vibe thing. My reading comprehension is apparently not so good. I'm honestly blanking on so much of Last Argument, since I think I only read that one once (as opposed to the others, which I think I reread multiple times while waiting for him to release the next book). I was gonna say that it would be great if there was a wiki for the First Law stuff (I dunno what to call the whole setting), due to how long it's been since I read, but that gave me mad deja vu and it turns out my first post in this thread, like a year back, was "I don't remember too much, it's been a while...there should be a wiki!" That said, apparently some did make a wikia for this, but there is zero content (maybe not enough sperglords? Maybe it was created by a dick? who knows!). Slanderer fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Jan 25, 2012 |
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Jan 25, 2012 21:06
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Evfedu posted:I actually had a lot of time for Ferro. You're right she wasn't a great character but I think that was a problem of necessity. Having her be both devil-blooded and the symbol of Khalul's victimization of the Gurkish was just trying to fit too much into one character. Perhaps she was initially meant to be two characters that got dovetailed. Same problem in reverse for Terez, really. I dunno, I thought it fit the setting pretty well--all the politics of the world are just the foreground of a fight that's been going on between the mages for a long, long time.
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Mar 1, 2012 04:32
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Normal Adult Human posted:Whirrun of Bligh was the most violent badass of them all. It's been a while, but I was vaguely convinced back when I read it that his death going against what his magic sword told him was evidence of direct intervention in the battle by Bayaz by means of his apprentice (whose name is eluding me right now), since he shows up multiple times with evidence that he was secretly participating in the battle. That, or Abercrombie commenting on the randomness of death. Or both, I guess.
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Mar 5, 2012 03:11
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DarkCrawler posted:I think Yoru Sulfur was doing some other stuff, in the swamp or spying on Ishri or something like that. I thought it was pretty unclear, but I seem to recall him showing up dressed as a soldier at one point.
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Mar 5, 2012 20:41
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Rurik posted:It most probably is. Ugh, fantasy worlds and their real history analogues. If I ever write a fantasy novel, I'll make sure every state/culture isn't a cleverly renamed real one. You can try, but you'll either make something that is really stupid and completely unbelievable, or make something with a historical analog completely without intending to do so.
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Jun 4, 2012 18:15
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Peztopiary posted:As a counterpoint/proof of that belief (depending on taste) China Mieville's civilizations tend to be pretty unique. The city that gambles everything including laws, High Cromlech which is basically an undead aristocracy, (people save up to get liched, everybody pities the vampires) Tesh which is basically run by divinely inspired madness (they go to war with New Crobuzon because of a nightmare) and Armada. Armada is the closest, with parallels to Tortuga and the Barbary states. Mieville's city-states only really work within the context of the stories and the world, which is definitely fantasy (or fine, weird, whatever). Heck, physics and metaphysics end up resolving into each other in his world, along with a lot of stuff taken right from Lovecraft (most notably, he takes Lovecraft's fascination with the physical ramifications of extra spatial dimensions in "Dreams in the Witch House" to heart, and managed to through some multidimensional horror into every drat book). He also falls into the trap of taking interesting background details that he mentioned in Perdido Street Station (I believe both High Cromlech and the casino parliament where both mentioned off-handedly, among many other things) and ruining the mystery by elaborating on them in further books, without maintaining the mystery of the world. Anyway, no matter how interesting they are, most of his stuff falls squarely into the "don't think about it too hard" camp.
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Jun 5, 2012 14:50
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 10:36 |
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This is a spectacularly early review, isn't it?
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Jul 10, 2019 18:23
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