Will Wight

Arbitrary

Arbitrary

Tranny Chaser
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Book nine felt like the literary equivalent of taking care of a bunch of side quests you've been putting off. There, Lindon finally went back home, everyone's still an asshole, there's Jai Long and his sister, pick Orthos back up, fix up Zeal, etc. With all of those boxes checked we can now properly move forward. There are lots of good little bits woven throughout the story but the evacuation plan itself and its implementation weren't all that interesting.
 
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Arbitrary

Arbitrary

Tranny Chaser
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Jox

Jox

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Book is out. Last one was a bit slow and felt dragged, couldn't put this one down.
 
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Rime

Rime

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The last one spent way too much time with the characters wealing-and-woeing over their decisions involving the Sacred Valley and being 'forced' to evacuate the people, it drug the entire novel down.

Reaper was great and it is a good return to pace.
 
Brahma

Brahma

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4 hour train ride coming up for Thanksgiving. Must....resist!
 
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Ritley

Ritley

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Me too. Saw the twist coming a mile away and I’m not someone that ever tries to predict shit like that, but it was still a good one. Still think ghostwater was the best of the series, but reaper was definitely towards the top.
 
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Arbitrary

Arbitrary

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Ritley said:
Me too. Saw the twist coming a mile away and I’m not someone that ever tries to predict shit like that, but it was still a good one. Still think ghostwater was the best of the series, but reaper was definitely towards the top.
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My worry for a few books running was that we were going to get a reveal that Azrael set everything up in Lindon's life. Oh hey, there's this technique book lying around that has exactly what you'll need in the immediate future as I manipulate basically everything to get you in to position as the new reaper. Lindon looked like a replacement Azrael around Ghostwater when he ends up with Harmony's axe. That's where I put his skill suite together. Because I had been looking for/fearing the hack reveal I thought up I didn't see this one coming. It wasn't some mind blower or anything but I didn't see it coming.
 
Ritley

Ritley

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Arbitrary said:
My worry for a few books running was that we were going to get a reveal that Azrael set everything up in Lindon's life. Oh hey, there's this technique book lying around that has exactly what you'll need in the immediate future as I manipulate basically everything to get you in to position as the new reaper. Lindon looked like a replacement Azrael around Ghostwater when he ends up with Harmony's axe. That's where I put his skill suite together. Because I had been looking for/fearing the hack reveal I thought up I didn't see this one coming. It wasn't some mind blower or anything but I didn't see it coming.
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I mean you weren’t far off, Ozriel being Eithan (who basically guides everyone down their path) fits your theory. For me it was when we started to get more information on Ozriel’s motivations that everything fit too well for it not to be him or someone being directly guided by him.

I will say the part of this book I disliked was the dross subplot. Really no plot reason for him to be “broken” like he is, and it makes the book worse
 
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Arbitrary

Arbitrary

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Ritley said:
I mean you weren’t far off, Ozriel being Eithan (who basically guides everyone down their path) fits your theory. For me it was when we started to get more information on Ozriel’s motivations that everything fit too well for it not to be him or someone being directly guided by him.

I will say the part of this book I disliked was the dross subplot. Really no plot reason for him to be “broken” like he is, and it makes the book worse
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I was just worried it was going to be really, really hacky. Like a series of flashbacks of everything being set up including putting the training book in the right spot thus removing all agency from Lindon etc etc. I typically have a couple "what would a hack writer do" theories going with any piece of fiction I'm reading. When they don't pay off it's more points in favor of the book.

I agree with the Dross subplot. I was expecting Lindon to use the hand to eat one of Shen's dream madra fueled summons to repair Dross and conjure the battle solution necessary and while some bits of that happened we still ended up with broken Dross chewing a lot of scenery.
 
Ceowulff

Ceowulff

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This was a return to form after the last book which felt so rushed. The twist at the end was great as Ritley said.

Only downside is him saying that this is aiming to be a 12 book series and we are on book 10 now.

I could take 20 books in this series easily, there is so much more room for them to grow.
 
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Ritley

Ritley

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I think the series being 12 books means that anything after they leave cradle is just going to be a different series. One that will probably bring them and shera/Simon to the same follow up series.
 
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Brahma

Brahma

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My willpower/authority to hold off reading broke.

OMFG!!!

I know everyone else saw Eithan being an Abidan coming, but not me until, well the reveal. So I was like:

giphy.gif


I HATED the broken Dross. Assume a setup for the fixed Dross next book.
EVERY Eithan antic is 10x more funny now. Especially the entrance to the tournament, and letting people kick him!
Reigan Shen is pretty much a badass who I kinda like now.
The Monarchs pretty much will have to do everything they can to get rid of Lindon and crew off Cradle.
I'm still unclear why the Monarchs wont ascend.

9/10 for me. Read it in one go...
 
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TJT

TJT

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Yeah.
Why do the monarchs try so hard to never ascend?
 
Arbitrary

Arbitrary

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TJT said:
Yeah.
Why do the monarchs try so hard to never ascend?
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They'd rather be king shit of Cradle than be busted down to buck private on a new level of existence

Viewed less selfishly if you bail that is a power gap that may be filled by someone other than your lineage and your existing works and family could be turn asunder
 
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Ritley

Ritley

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Arbitrary said:
They'd rather be king shit of Cradle than be busted down to buck private on a new level of existence

Viewed less selfishly if you bail that is a power gap that may be filled by someone other than your lineage and your existing works and family could be turn asunder
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Plus the ones that stick around are all highly independent and really don’t want to be involved with the Abidan who they see as tyrants more or less. And I don’t think they have a way to ascend without being inducted (Ozriel complains about this and that’s why he went back, to try to raise some people outside of the abidan organization somehow).
 
Intrinsic

Intrinsic

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I thought it was pretty awesome. In agreement with everyone else on the Dross stuff. It's the same thing as in Expeditionary Force when Skippy is out of whack. it is such a ridiculous Deus Ex Machina character that could be an easy button, but they're just fun. If the point is to show Lindon's soulsmithing advancement or whatever it doesn't need to be spread out over so long. But oh well, I'll trust in it.
 
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