[Tatterdemalion]

Okay, this drove me nuts even though it's nothing.

Saeng and Hanu are at the temple (of light?) in Himatan. They know the Thurms got there first. They head round the side. There is a side entrance that leads below into a room where Saeng finds the golden power spot. Hanu goes first, Saeng follows - AND THEN THE CORRIDOR/STAIRWAY IS DESCRIBED AS BEING NARROW ENOUGH TO TOUCH SAENG'S SHOULDERS AS SHE PASSED.

What is Hanu, a paper-thin rock colossus???? He would never fit in such a corridor/stairway! I cry foul! Took me right out.

Then I got back in because it was the ending and things were exciting.

Seriously, though:

I enjoyed Blood and Bone, particularly the visceral landscape - although I agree with another poster that the word cyclopean came up a ridiculous amount. I'd put my order thus: Stonewielder, Night of Knives, Blood and Bone, Return of the Crimson Guard, Orb Sceptre Throne. I really liked the Jatal storyline as well as the 'Adventures of Mara & Petal' teleporting bits. Hanu was bad-ass. My complaints would be the Avowed's story being long in the tooth without a major moment(s), and the general crypticness of Osserc.

My questions:
1. What came first? Kallor returning or the Thurmaturgs' invasion of Himatan (theoretically the same time the 'Masters' are trying to summon a Jade)?
2. Was allllllll that just to tell Ardata to let her weird child grow up / let Himatan move on?
3. To stop the ritual, could not Hanu have just smashed in the faces of a bunch of the Masters until there was too few to call another Jade?
4. How did the 9 Masters end up at the temple without, well, traveling through like Golan?
5. What happened to Pon-Lor to give him double-vision? I figure this was in that bit where the stone heads screamed at him about Kallor.
6. How does Jatal figure out Warleader's identity BEFORE catching up to him, enough to change his 'revenge' tune pretty quick?
7. Did anyone else picture Sandor Clegane from 'A Song of Ice and Fire' every time Scarza showed up?
8. What was Osserc's role in doing whatever he did?
9. What does question 2 have to do with 'Celeste'? Who was she?
10. How the fuck does a stone giant make it down some stairs that touch his slim sister's fucking shoulders?

[Trull's son]

I enjoyed your post. I never caught that bit about the small entrance. It's been a while since I've read the book, but I'll take a stab at some of the questions.

1. I dunno. Off to a bad start here
2. Sadly, that seemed to be the case to me. The whole travel log of the Crimson Guard is drawn out and tedious at this point. Every conversation they have revolves around unspoken people and places that they dare not say aloud in case the reader is not yet drawn into the mystery (you can't be talking about them/him/her/it/robocrabmonster, can you? Intrigue!)
4. I thought they did travel there, but had no screen time.
6. Isn't there some kind of poem or story or something mentioned a few times in his POV that might have led him to that conclusion?
7. Nah, Scarza's way too friendly. Like a big, murderous, lovable teddy bear.
8. He got off his lazy ass and intercepted that thing in the sky (Pretty sure it was a Jade Giant).
10. This, I believe, is the true question posed by the whole series. Compassion, Struggle, Civilization -- these minor themes detract from the greater question which has occupied the minds of philosophers and madmen from ancient times. I'm not sure I, nor anyone else, can answer this question to your satisfaction.

[Tatterdemalion]

Trull, on 15 March 2014 - 07:53 PM, said:

10. This, I believe, is the true question posed by the whole series. Compassion, Struggle, Civilization -- these minor themes detract from the greater question which has occupied the minds of philosophers and madmen from ancient times. I'm not sure I, nor anyone else, can answer this question to your satisfaction.

It is the sole perplexity of the human species.

Meanwhile, for your #8 answer - I want more! Yeah, he 'did something' to stop the event... but what? "Intercept" just doesn't cut it, you know? Was the premise he took the power that the Masters were channeling since they were in an old temple of light? Then what use was Saeng? Was it her and Osserc in combination? What sort of internal questions could Osserc be asking himself that are SO HARD with regards to, oh, SAVING AN ENTIRE CONTINENT FROM DESTRUCTION? Unless he's a total ass, this seems like an easy decision (even if it beat him up a bunch). If is almost as baffling as how a gigantic stone giant in gigantic stone armour can fit down a fucking stairwell that's about a foot across.

[Abyss]

Tatterdemalion, on 15 March 2014 - 06:14 AM, said:

Okay, this drove me nuts even though it's nothing.

Saeng and Hanu are at the temple (of light?) in Himatan. They know the Thurms got there first. They head round the side. There is a side entrance that leads below into a room where Saeng finds the golden power spot. Hanu goes first, Saeng follows - AND THEN THE CORRIDOR/STAIRWAY IS DESCRIBED AS BEING NARROW ENOUGH TO TOUCH SAENG'S SHOULDERS AS SHE PASSED.

What is Hanu, a paper-thin rock colossus???? He would never fit in such a corridor/stairway! I cry foul! Took me right out.

I had a similar reaction but went with Hanu just smashing stuff til he fit.

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...My complaints would be the Avowed's story being long in the tooth without a major moment(s), and the general crypticness of Osserc.

There was an element of placeholder to the Avowed storyline, but Skinner's link to Ardata was a hanging plot point, and more importantly, the Avowed/Disavowed split was ended, which was fairly important.
we also got some background on the vow, and the wtf of dead/Brethren Smoky becoming solid to save Shimmer.

Osserc... i duno, i enjyed hischat with Gothos. It was truly funny at times and never over-long in the segments.

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My questions:
1. What came first? Kallor returning or the Thurmaturgs' invasion of Himatan (theoretically the same time the 'Masters' are trying to summon a Jade)?

More or less the same time. The Masters knew Kallor was coming and put the two stages of their plan (the Invasion feint and their own trek to the Temple) into effect.

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2. Was allllllll that just to tell Ardata to let her weird child grow up / let Himatan move on?

Yes. But Elder Gods / Azathanii don't do things the easy way. ever.
Plus it was implied that if QoD had just walked into the Himatan, Ardata would have struck first and asked questions later.
...which now that i think about it, would suggest that the Guard incursion and Thaumatuge/Kallor conflict could have also been distractions arranged to keep Ardata's attention away from the QoD's approach.

There was also an element of Convergence that moved things into a setting where Celeste, a chunk of TCG, could take on a new aspect and move away from her origin.

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3. To stop the ritual, could not Hanu have just smashed in the faces of a bunch of the Masters until there was too few to call another Jade?

Pretty sure he wouldn't have survived that, considering they made him what he was.

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4. How did the 9 Masters end up at the temple without, well, traveling through like Golan?

Magic!

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5. What happened to Pon-Lor to give him double-vision? I figure this was in that bit where the stone heads screamed at him about Kallor.

He got a brain-injury, iirc during the failed ambush. Along with slowly killing him, it rewqired his brain to make his sorcery more effective/alien.

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6. How does Jatal figure out Warleader's identity BEFORE catching up to him, enough to change his 'revenge' tune pretty quick?

I thought his feelings for the Princess did that more than the revelation re Kallor.

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7. Did anyone else picture Sandor Clegane from 'A Song of Ice and Fire' every time Scarza showed up?

I was more in the mind of Mappo. Scarza was way too nice to be Sandor.

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8. What was Osserc's role in doing whatever he did?

Convergence.
Even with Hanu and Saeng's interference, a serious Jade Chunk was on its way down. Someone of sufficient capital P Power had to step in. Osserc was it.

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9. What does question 2 have to do with 'Celeste'? Who was she?

See answer above.

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10. How the fuck does a stone giant make it down some stairs that touch his slim sister's fucking shoulders?

See above. Hanu SMASH!

[nacht]

All hail the Abyss

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2. Was allllllll that just to tell Ardata to let her weird child grow up / let Himatan move on?

Yes. But Elder Gods / Azathanii don't do things the easy way. ever.
Plus it was implied that if QoD had just walked into the Himatan, Ardata would have struck first and asked questions later.
...which now that i think about it, would suggest that the Guard incursion and Thaumatuge/Kallor conflict could have also been distractions arranged to keep Ardata's attention away from the QoD's approach.

There was also an element of Convergence that moved things into a setting where Celeste, a chunk of TCG, could take on a new aspect and move away from her origin.

In addition, in my opinion, Ardata was a blind card and QoD came to case her out. The gods had some plan to deal with the CG situation and wanted to make sure they understood how Ardata would effect these plans.

[worry]

Not a bad thought, though I'm not sure if the text ever hints at that.

[amphibian]

I strongly suspect that an edit made Hanu and Saeng switch places, so the staircase should be as wide as he is, rather than her.

[Abyss]

amphibian, on 19 March 2014 - 02:47 AM, said:

I strongly suspect that an edit made Hanu and Saeng switch places, so the staircase should be as wide as he is, rather than her.

That IS a much tidier explanation.

[Tatterdemalion]

amphibian, on 19 March 2014 - 02:47 AM, said:

I strongly suspect that an edit made Hanu and Saeng switch places, so the staircase should be as wide as he is, rather than her.

Not good enough. I'm burning my library.

..but yeah, okay. Thanks for the clarifications! Half the time it turns out I have 'gotten' the gist of it... I just need to always come on here to confirm that I'm not off in left field.