[Macros]

About ten percent into fall of dragons

[Macros]

Just finished book 5.

Non stop action.

Not the best book of the series, but a very solid ending to a very enjoyable series.

[Coco with marshmallows]

Book 5 is out?

Dammit, to the book shop!

[polishgenius]

I've mentioned it in the reading thread over the years, but just to register it here too: after my kvetching about the beginning of the first book here, I've become an enormous fan of the series. Book 5 finishes with a bang, too.

[Macros]

Got to hand it to Cameron.

ruthless as well in places.

not really a spoiler

people die. but theres no big overly dramatic drawn out emo death scenes. people just die.

[polishgenius]

Yeah, and it's one of the more effective things about the series that you can pretty much never tell who's going to because all the characters have little personal arcs going on that are clearly leading somewhere before some of them just... die.

[Macros]

Two that caught me

Spoiler

Darkensun and Aenas

[Morgoth]

Man, this series was a ride. I can only echo what you guys have said before. I especially loved how it was never possible to feel a character to be safe. They could die at any time, in the blink of an eye. It kept the tension for all 5 tomes. And I very much enjoyed the ending.

I also enjoyed how the series became more, hm, Erikson-esque as the pages went by. And the discovery of what I imagine must be the fate of the Roman 9th legion. That was certainly a nod to a grander mythology of this universe that I very much enjoyed.

[polishgenius]

Morgoth, on 17 December 2017 - 08:03 PM, said:

And the discovery of what I imagine must be the fate of the Roman 9th legion.

That's a neat possibility I hadn't thought of, but

Spoiler

I'm half-sure that was meant to be the final fate of the original founding/colonising Empress who disappeared? There was never a definitive answer for that but that's what I took from it.

[Morgoth]

polishgenius, on 18 December 2017 - 08:46 AM, said:

Morgoth, on 17 December 2017 - 08:03 PM, said:

And the discovery of what I imagine must be the fate of the Roman 9th legion.

That's a neat possibility I hadn't thought of, but

Spoiler

I'm half-sure that was meant to be the final fate of the original founding/colonising Empress who disappeared? There was never a definitive answer for that but that's what I took from it.

Spoiler

Wouldn't Gabriel, an avid reader of the empire's history, have recognized the empress' own standard? My impression at least was that he didn't find it familiar. Maybe I read the scene wrong

[amphibian]

It was not familiar to him and was definitely Roman-ish if not a missing legion.

[Macros]

I got the impression Morgy did from it. A legion, but not the empresses

[Morgoth]

From what I read it was the exact description of a roman eagle, but I wasnt sure how close this world resembles our own. I really enjoyed figuring out this world And how the different nations fit into our own history.

[polishgenius]

Morgoth, on 18 December 2017 - 12:17 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 18 December 2017 - 08:46 AM, said:

Morgoth, on 17 December 2017 - 08:03 PM, said:

And the discovery of what I imagine must be the fate of the Roman 9th legion.

That's a neat possibility I hadn't thought of, but

Spoiler

I'm half-sure that was meant to be the final fate of the original founding/colonising Empress who disappeared? There was never a definitive answer for that but that's what I took from it.

Spoiler

Wouldn't Gabriel, an avid reader of the empire's history, have recognized the empress' own standard? My impression at least was that he didn't find it familiar. Maybe I read the scene wrong

Spoiler

See, I thought he did find it familiar, because 'he knew what he was looking for', but it is vague and can be read completely the opposite way.

Quote

It was not familiar to him and was definitely Roman-ish if not a missing legion.

Well, Liviapolis/Morea is pretty definitely based at least partly on Rome, and though it's not made a big deal of, it's mentioned here and there that eagles are part of their symbology too.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 19 December 2017 - 12:49 AM

[Morgoth]

polishgenius, on 19 December 2017 - 12:48 AM, said:

Morgoth, on 18 December 2017 - 12:17 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 18 December 2017 - 08:46 AM, said:

Morgoth, on 17 December 2017 - 08:03 PM, said:

And the discovery of what I imagine must be the fate of the Roman 9th legion.

That's a neat possibility I hadn't thought of, but

Spoiler

I'm half-sure that was meant to be the final fate of the original founding/colonising Empress who disappeared? There was never a definitive answer for that but that's what I took from it.

Spoiler

Wouldn't Gabriel, an avid reader of the empire's history, have recognized the empress' own standard? My impression at least was that he didn't find it familiar. Maybe I read the scene wrong

Spoiler

See, I thought he did find it familiar, because 'he knew what he was looking for', but it is vague and can be read completely the opposite way.

Quote

It was not familiar to him and was definitely Roman-ish if not a missing legion.

Well, Liviapolis/Morea is pretty definitely based at least partly on Rome, and though it's not made a big deal of, it's mentioned here and there that eagles are part of their symbology too.

My impression was that Liviapolis was Constantinople, and Morea the East Roman Empire. The Empress Livi is this world's version of Constantine, whom instead of moving the capitol to the east moved it north, presumably because of the war against the Wild. Ruhm was Rome and the old capitol of the empire. Galle is France. Occiante is Provence/Toulouse I assume, Arles might be Savoy/Bourgogne, Alain (spelling?) is Bohemia maybe, Etruscea is Italy and so on and so forth. You've got Bulgars and all sorts of other people too of course. It was a lot of fun trying to figure it out.

This post has been edited by Morgoth: 19 December 2017 - 08:39 AM

[Macros]

I took Livapolis as Constantinople, most of the other stuff went over my head regarding the smaller Provence's, wouldn't really be that we'll read on the part of Europe or times relevant to it

[polishgenius]

Morgoth, on 19 December 2017 - 08:34 AM, said:

polishgenius, on 19 December 2017 - 12:48 AM, said:

Morgoth, on 18 December 2017 - 12:17 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 18 December 2017 - 08:46 AM, said:

Morgoth, on 17 December 2017 - 08:03 PM, said:

And the discovery of what I imagine must be the fate of the Roman 9th legion.

That's a neat possibility I hadn't thought of, but

Spoiler

I'm half-sure that was meant to be the final fate of the original founding/colonising Empress who disappeared? There was never a definitive answer for that but that's what I took from it.

Spoiler

Wouldn't Gabriel, an avid reader of the empire's history, have recognized the empress' own standard? My impression at least was that he didn't find it familiar. Maybe I read the scene wrong

Spoiler

See, I thought he did find it familiar, because 'he knew what he was looking for', but it is vague and can be read completely the opposite way.

Quote

It was not familiar to him and was definitely Roman-ish if not a missing legion.

Well, Liviapolis/Morea is pretty definitely based at least partly on Rome, and though it's not made a big deal of, it's mentioned here and there that eagles are part of their symbology too.

My impression was that Liviapolis was Constantinople, and Morea the East Roman Empire. The Empress Livi is this world's version of Constantine, whom instead of moving the capitol to the east moved it north, presumably because of the war against the Wild. Ruhm was Rome and the old capitol of the empire. Galle is France. Occiante is Provence/Toulouse I assume, Arles might be Savoy/Bourgogne, Alain (spelling?) is Bohemia maybe, Etruscea is Italy and so on and so forth. You've got Bulgars and all sorts of other people too of course. It was a lot of fun trying to figure it out.

Yeah, I was gonna clarify but I fell asleep: Liviapolis is roughly Constantinople but the old Empress, coming from Rhum, would have been more directly Roman, which is why my thoughts went that way.

Arles is Arles. That was an actual medieval kingdom that was basically a continuation of Burgundy. Occitan is Aquitane, so Bordeaux.

[Macros]

You play crusader kings

[polishgenius]

I read wikipedia.

I'll be honest, a lot of this stuff I know from already reading the background of fictional countries based on them in Guy Gavriel Kay books.

[Morgoth]

Ah, in Norwegian it's named Arleat. I should have made the connection though.