[the broken]

I did not like this book when I first read it. I had a lot of issues (what was the Karsa cameo for if he wasn't going to anything else, what the hell happened to the Legate, etc, etc.)

But it grew on me after I read these forums, and realised the stuff I didn't catch the first time. The main reason is just how resourceful the Legate is. He's the Quick Ben of Tyrants, rather than the Tayschrenn.

He has very little personal power, so binds twelve others to him to boost his own, and deals effectively with most threats. I thought it was refreshing to deal with a villain that doesn' t have much raw power.

Caladan Brood could effortlessly destroy him, but the civilians are in the way.

Envy could destroy him, but he distracts her with the opportunity for wearing pretty dresses.

The Moranth could obliterate him, hence the magical barrier, and the charade with Jeshin Lim.

Throughout the book, he has one reliable asset, Aman. Baruk undermines him in every way he can, Hinter isn't very effective, and Taya is more competent than the average claw, which isn't really saying much. She gets thrown off a roof by Rallick, has an arm broken by Fisher, is faced down by Spindle(!), and then is completely outmatched by Topper. The Seguleh are conflicted.

The breaking out scene is done well, bonus points for the Captain not being some helpless victim but fighting the demon thing alone in the dark for hours, and thinking of the obvious courses of action. (decapitation, demasking). Much better than the average victim does, I approve.

Peak: We finally get to see a real Clawmaster in action. Gather intelligence on unknown threat, hire proxies to investigate, and then take effective action when the time is right. Kalam is probably better knife to knife, but it takes more than martial skill to be the leader of the claw.

A lot of the things I didn't catch were made clear here (shards of Dragnipur), 'fluffy' referring to the Imass, and it actually is a much better book than I originally believed.

Sour note: The final fate of the Legate. What was the point of Kruppe's dance, and how was it more effective than being shot fifteen times? And like someone else said, why not have Scorch and Leff kill him to defend their employer Ebbin, which would have made more sense than an accidental shot Kruppe somehow knew would happen...

But, overall,, to me, this book felt much better on a reread. Thoughts, folks?

[worry]

I liked it for the most part, but my big sticking points remain: mishandling/softening/sidelining Humble Measure, the lack of any visceral destruction within Darujhistan (for instance, we see the automaton knock a couple nobles out of a carriage, big whoop), Scorch & Leff saving the day, and even after your post, the Tyrant still doesn't work for me in the end.

[Vaddon Ra]

Just one little critique, I would have liked a bit of a longer builder converge with the seguleh and id love to actually see Brood Punch someone in the face. Oh and a little explanation as to why the seguleh are suddenly using katanas instead of two one handed swords.

I didnt mind at all, cos the seguleh parts were my favourites. I just would have liked Mok to turn up, pwn some nubs (why is he broken in any case?) lol at Jan and then take a dump on that gold masked bloke....he sucked XD

[gandrin]

I'm left with many questions.

What exactly happened in the tomb? Was that a Finnest in the side chamber? Where did it end up-in the historian's throat? It was very confusing what happened with it and what it was.

Why did the Imass think there was a Jaghut? (this is why I think there was a Finnest)

Is Taya really the Tyrant's daughter? That leads to more questions--shouldn't she be thousands of years old, at least? And, really, Vorcan...really?

What was all the talk about the 12 demons, Fisher's statement about them at the end, and Topper's analysis of the tomb (he sees the one demon still there and comments about how one fought back or something)

What in the world did Kruppe do with the witch (who was one of the demons, right?). This was never explained beyond the insinuating jokes about their "other business"

What did Barathol do that was so terrible? make wax coated crossbow bolts? Huh?

Did K'rul die? Is that what the "blood" was in the basement? And did T'renn take his place? That is an enormous jump.


*Crippled God spoiler below*







And if K'rul died...wasn't K'rul prominent in the endgame of TCG? I remember him talking with Bugg at the bottom of the sea, and doing something with TCG at the end. So where does T'Renn come in?

[Migol]

Yeah, I re-read it recently too.   I keep coming back to the thought that this tyrant should never have been a tyrant.  With Raest, you had a nearly godlike power that took on a Storm of dragons, and was only stopped completely by the Azath (if you count him as stopped; which may be a foolish concept in the long term...).  This Tyrant?   The only true power he seems to have is that he's hard to kill.  He relies on summoned demons who are constantly resisting him (Baruk), are successfully refusing (Vorcan) or are actively plotting against him (Kruppe).  He has an irrational hatred of the Moranth, doesn't seem to plan long term very well (his use of seguleh for example), and so on. 

The logical course he should have taken was: Hey, I'm immortal, but I'm not all that powerful magically and could be taken out by any number of random ascendants...and I seem to recall failing miserably the last dozen or so times that I've tried to be a tyrant of this Darujhistan.   Let's go down to my faithful seguleh's island, and spend a few generations working with them, and gathering intelligence on the current situation while I work up a solid base of power with contacts and agreements.

Bottom line he just wasn't a credible villain; he had no good planning skills, squandered his Seguleh resources while alienating them, and unlike other villains we've seen in the series, didn't have the raw power to make up for any of these failings (unlike Raest, Rhulud, the Forkrul Assail, etc).

This post has been edited by Migol: 24 August 2012 - 11:49 PM

[Seli]

The theme of the book again seems to be the development of the world and the lagging of the powers-that-used-to-be.

The Tyrant that used to be in the past is not like the tyrant that is now, the world has moved on and the dark world-shattering threat of the past is not that impressive anymore. It has been so long that old patterns have changed, the seguleh have learned to think for themselves (and perhaps their culture changed to incorporate honour). The demonic servants have learned to enjoy freedom, and some have been killed off. The moranth have developed new technology and tactics, new powers have taken an interest.

Looking at the hints in the books the Tyrant of old was, with the same powers but a more stable power base. Impervious in his citadel (until the circle of protection was broken), expert and utterly controlled henchmen to delegate tasks, a strong army, brilliant divide and rule tactics covering the whole continent, able to direct the campaign that removed the Moranth from most of the continent.

[the broken]

He used to have twelve summoned demons, but Vorcan killed nine in GOTM. He would've been very dangerous, if they hadn't had two thousand years to prepare for his return. And if the Moranth hadn't remembered him, most people would just have thought Jeshin Lim was acting a bit weird.

His rule is due to be short, but he's fine with that because he thinks he'll just be able to find a new body.