Shattered Sea Trilogy II - Spoilers of "Half a King", "Half a World" & "Half a War"

[awesome possum]

Yeah it was completely unintentional.  The last time they see each other (or last time we see them with each other at least) they give each other a big bear hug and Koll thinks something along the lines of, "you could tell the two men cared deeply for each other."

 

Not to mention the one time we finally see Yarvi's facade crack under pressure is when Skara threatens to tell Thorn about his betrayal.  He shows fear for the first time since we left his POV, which suggests that angering Thorn is not an intended consequence of his actions.  

[C Rutherford]

I think it might go deeper than that.  I do agree that he is afraid of Thorn and figures no matter how much power he builds, she is the one person with the ability and the cause to take him down,

 

But I also think that Yarvi does not want it to come out because no one he does care about would be able to get past that.  He loses everything he has convinced himself he is doing this for.  His own mother would never forgive him putting her son at risk but that is now in the past.  That death though is with him always once laid at his feet. 

 

Also I simply think it is a sign that no matter how vicious Yarvi thinks he is and able to do what he needs to get what he wants, that death reminds him of a price beyond his ability to pay.   It is the one personal burden he now has to bear.  Plus of course the fear of Thorn always as a possibility.

[SeanF]

I'd dispute that Brand's death was completely unintentional.  Yarvi might not have wanted Brand to die, might well be genuinely upset at his death, but as Mormont  said upthread, he'd have to be fool not to think that it was a possible outcome of his betrayal.

 

And, Yarvi is not a fool.

[Frey Pie]

It's a tough one to call. Yarvi is a dick but is he that much of a dick?

Also, who's the next High King? Who rules Skekenhouse? Yarvis power is now huge

[unJon]

It's a tough one to call. Yarvi is a dick but is he that much of a dick?

for the greater good

[C Rutherford]

And as the current Republican primary scrum shows, some people are arrogant enough to think success means they have control over the matter.  Brand's death is a possible outcome by logic.  Ambitious people always fail to be as logical as they think they are.  Abercrombie has been good at showing that, intentionally or not. 

 

Plus Brand's possible death as a hypothetical is one thing; facing the actual is another.  So the question is really how much a dick is Yarvi now he has to life with the actuality. 

 

The real question for me: was his half brother and mother part of the hypothetical loss scenario?  Little bro, despite the itty bitty children tug the heart strings rule is not as cold as putting his mother, whom he seems to still love. in the cross hairs of the raid.

[Frey Pie]

for the greater good

True enough...I get the feeling that Yarvi will be harder then ever when we next see him. He's been through a lot and he's been the cause of much heart ache. Whether you believe or not that he meant for Brand to die, it did hurt him.

And while making such a huge mistake, if it was one, would break other people, I think it will make Yarvi colder

[SeanF]

And as the current Republican primary scrum shows, some people are arrogant enough to think success means they have control over the matter.  Brand's death is a possible outcome by logic.  Ambitious people always fail to be as logical as they think they are.  Abercrombie has been good at showing that, intentionally or not. 
 
Plus Brand's possible death as a hypothetical is one thing; facing the actual is another.  So the question is really how much a dick is Yarvi now he has to life with the actuality. 
 
The real question for me: was his half brother and mother part of the hypothetical loss scenario?  Little bro, despite the itty bitty children tug the heart strings rule is not as cold as putting his mother, whom he seems to still love. in the cross hairs of the raid.

I think Laithlin probably is one of the few people that Yarvi really does care about. She was away in Roystock when the raid took place.

[SeanF]

It's a tough one to call. Yarvi is a dick but is he that much of a dick?
Also, who's the next High King? Who rules Skekenhouse? Yarvis power is now huge

Yarvi must effectively be ruler of Skekenhouse. There's no High King for the time being.

[C Rutherford]

I think Laithlin probably is one of the few people that Yarvi really does care about. She was away in Roystock when the raid took place.

 

Yeah I actually did remember that but didn't go back to check on the timing of when the raid was to her return so wasn't sure if he had it down so pat he thought there was no way she would have been caught up in the raid.  Makes me think maybe offing the little heir with no spare might have been a slather of icing on the machination cake.

[williamjm]

I finished "Half The War" today. I liked it, I'd probably rank it alongside "Half The World" and a bit ahead of "Half A King". Out of the new POVs I liked Skara the best, she had some good character development over the course of the book. I think both Skara and Koll make an interesting contrast to Yarvi, their story arcs mirror parts of Yarvi's story arcs in the series but they end up in a different place to Yarvi - ultimately Koll steps away from being Yarvi's protege because he's horrified at some of the things that have been done, Skara does obtain a certain amount of ruthlessness and cunning, enough to be a bit of an equal to Yarvi, but wouldn't be willing to do many of the things Yarvi ends up doing. I also liked the contrasting ways that the relationships between Koll and Rin and Skara and Raith end up, while Koll and Rin are a good match for each other, Skara's feelings for Raith felt like more of a youthful infatuation and sending him away even when she doesn't want to makes sense in terms of her character.

 

I wasn't sure who the traitor was going to be, but did have Yarvi as a possible suspect. Initially I thought it might be Blue Jenner, who showed up around the same time as Bright Yilling and manages to quickly end up close to the War Councils but it seems his devotion to Skara was genuine. I suppose it should have been obvious after Yilling told Skara, the only way it makes sense for him to volunteer the information about the traitor would be if the traitor had just betrayed him as well.

 

I think Brand's death was the most tragic moment of the novel, although it's a shame that it happened off-screen. I think it would have had more impact if he'd had a POV chapter, although I know that would have broken the pattern.

[MinDonner]

Speaking of the contrast between Koll and Skara's relationship arcs, I did also appreciate the way that it was the guy who gave up his job in order to get married, and the princess who ditched her unsuitable lover because doing her job was more important than romance.

[red snow]

True enough...I get the feeling that Yarvi will be harder then ever when we next see him. He's been through a lot and he's been the cause of much heart ache. Whether you believe or not that he meant for Brand to die, it did hurt him.

And while making such a huge mistake, if it was one, would break other people, I think it will make Yarvi colder

 

I agree it will make him colder as his conclusion might be "don't get too close to the pieces as it'll hurt when you sacrifice them".

While I don't think Yarvi deliverately intended for Brand to die there's no escaping the fact that he knew Brand would be on the front line in an attack. He also could have contrived some excuse for Brand not to be there when the attack took place if he was that concerned.

 

I think Joe and Mark Lawrence should contrive some kind of mash-up where Yarvi and Jorg work together or possibly more interesting fight each other.

[Elaena Targaryen]

  *summons author*

 

 

Greetings to the award-winning Lord Grimdark the Magnificent *curtsies*

 

   Although I'm sure you enjoy torturing us, which we appreciate, I'm making an appeal to your vanity. It would be profoundly generous of you to consider confirming what any of the elf artifacts are, especially the one Thorn has. Thank you Oh Talented One for giving mere mortals your time.

 

Sincerely,

your unworthy subjects

[Jaxom 1974]

Read the trilogy.  Finally. I'm in the camp that Half the World is the superior of the three. 

I enjoyed the little pun of who the elves were...who broke the world? It was ours"elves"...I think it's a little pun. 

I'm uncertain about my thoughts on Yarvi. The Yarvi by the end of third book isn't the one who finished the first.  I think, perhaps, my issues stem that it's only five or six years between the start and finish of the series.  

Truly the third book suffered from the lack of Thorn or Brand in any significance.  If they weren't to be the POVs, so be it,  but they are rarely on screen.  They were really the two parts that made up Yarvi, in some ways.  I liked Skara, in the end,  though. 

And wasn't it obvious that Yarvi had nothing to do with Grom's death?  That it was Scaer who put Raith up to it.  I don't recall seeing anyone mention that in the thread...

[Maia]

 

And wasn't it obvious that Yarvi had nothing to do with Grom's death?  That it was Scaer who put Raith up to it.  I don't recall seeing anyone mention that in the thread...

Huh? I really don't think that Scaer wanted Grom's death. She seemed pretty invested in him and the power of Vansterland in general, which required them to have a strong warrior-king. IMHO, she did genuinely want Skara dead back when she gave Raith the poison and never envisioned him using it to murder Grom. But maybe my cunning is just too shallow ;).

And yea, the "elves" don't seem to be quite us, as the weaponry seems somewhat futuristic, as do the  "bangles", but close enough. I noticed it back in the first book, when "elf ruins" were clearly broken modern-ish buildings and some of the jewelry was  made from what looked microchips and parts of circuit boards.

[Jaxom 1974]

I've already returned the book to the library,  but I believe Raith, after Grom's death, reflects on Mother Scaer giving him that particular poison.

[SeanF]

I've already returned the book to the library,  but I believe Raith, after Grom's death, reflects on Mother Scaer giving him that particular poison.

I'll check again, but I'm sure that Mother Scaer's poison was intended for Skara.  Obviously, she and Grom changed their minds about Skara, subsequently.  Ratih used it on Grom on his own initiative, IMHO.

[Rhom]

Yeah, she gave him the poison to kill Skara.

Raith decided to use it on Grom of his own volition.

[Jaxom 1974]

Yeah, she gave him the poison to kill Skara.

Raith decided to use it on Grom of his own volition.

He dropped the cup with the poison for Skara.  I'm going to have to find the book at the library again. This bugs me.