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Well that was a trippy episode! Now we have to wait, and who knows what direction the new show runner takes this in . . .

Such a good catch.

I don’t know how much traveling Eular has to do. I assume he has access to some Hayes Gates. I just reread the Thorns series. Held up better than I expected. King of Thorns still my favorite. Emperor was not as much of a letdown for me as it was the first read. I find it amusing that Taproot is the character who’s “data echo” has made it to the stars. I wonder what became of Fexlar Brewes.

Exactly! It’s like two books published together.

Refusing spoilers. I thought maybe some quantals that had lost their mind and used to be priests in the mountain. But not sure. They fit very closely to the Greek mythology theme that rain throughout the book: they were the Three Fates.

Ok spoilers below with no spoiler tags. Have now finished The Girl and The Mountain a few days ago. It’s not only a clear middle book but it’s also two distinct books in one. The first is the adventure in the mountain climaxing with the fight against the holothaur. The second is the journey to the strip of land around the equator and the adventures in Hades. I enjoyed the book. Not my favorite Lawrence but that’s hardly damning criticism. It’s strong world building and characters getting fleshed out. Some really good mythology dropping with Sues and Taproot and the Missing. I loved loved seeing Sister Pan (the Mistress of the Path) as a novice in this novel. I was guessing that character was someone from the last series but didn’t figure it out until the reveal with the fight with the frying pan. I had forgotten that Sister Pan only had one hand. I can’t figure out the endgame to this series. Yaz opens an Ark and let’s in Taproot. So Taproot can be there later to set up the climax of the last series? It sounds like it is much more difficult to get into an Ark right now than it was in Book of Ancestor. So maybe they change the locking mechanism so that Four Shiphearts can do it? There were a few Deus Ex Machina moments that felt forced. Namely Prometheus saving everyone two or three times. And damn, what a cliffhanger to end on!

I just finished The Girl and the Mountain. I loved it. Pat is correct that Mark spills a bunch of secrets. I will wait a bit before posting more thoughts. Will make this a spoiler thread.

Really loved this show. Can’t wait for season 3. My wife suggested that Homesnder’s weakness will be something with milk. Either not getting milk for some period of time or some weird animal milk. I don’t get why the AOC character popped the head of the Scientologist church at the end. I mean, cool reveal, but the church guy seemed like he had valuable info that AOC could use. I’m on the fence if she’s just working for Voghn or is her own force.

I love Sarantine.

Good call. Assume this will be resolved in book 2, which will be about escaping from the priests. That’s great. ETA: Leftover question from the last series is what’s with the Messenger white star? I was assuming it was maybe a spaceship approaching or possibly a non dying star that humans could escape to. I hope that gets picked up in this trilogy.

Ok I got sidetracked here. I thought it was great to be back in this world. The mythos and world building was significantly advanced. In fact maybe too advanced as I think a lot of mystery was removed. The Missing seem to be humans that came to Abrth in a first wave. They then decided to strip themselves of negative traits like anger and greed and jealousy then upload themselves into some sort of computer paradise. That leaves the world empty as the ice creeps in (with maybe some humans that decided not to upload) plus a bunch of “demons” that are all the negative traits The Missing stripped. Then comes a second wave of humans, the descendants of which are the human population of the books. But in the interim, the big AIs (the cities) start to break down and one of the AIs (Sues) goes rouge. Somehow Taproot has kept himself out of The Missing paradise bubble and is acting as some sort of system admin trying to keep everything running. Also some guy names Prometheus is born from The Missing anti-tech crowd and becomes the leader. Some missing backstory here as he seems to have come over to the tech side, stripped himself of “demons” and joined The Missing in paradise. His demons are now trying to join up to piece him back together again. Set up for the Big Bad is done nicely with some sort of Sues vs Prometheus vs Taproot showdown. I liked most of the characters but thought, other than Yaz and Theus and Maya, that they were a bit one dimensional. I didn’t emotionally connect with them as much as in other Lawrence books. I can’t figure out when this series takes place relative to the Holy Sister trilogy. Seems like there is still a small green stripe around the equator so it could be contemporaneous. Am I remembering correctly that there are references to the Pit of the Missing in the last trilogy? And am I remembering correctly that the Thorns trilogy or Red Queen also had the Taproot Needle gimmick? Overall I enjoyed it and thought it was a promising start to the trilogy, that should set up the rest of the series well. Though I saw most of the twists coming and thought Yaz was a bit overpowered.

I thought the start of the new Mark Lawrence trilogy deserved a new thread. I made this a spoiler thread for all books since there’s a hint they are all in the same universe. I’ll put it in spoilers since this is the first post. Anyone else reading? I just finished. Will lay out my thoughts later today. ETA: This thread has SPOILERS for all Mark Lawrence Books. Now including Library Trilogy.

Ran loves him some GGK.

No. I feel the same way about many GGK books. They are works of art. Beautiful and moving. Amazing character studies. But not tightly written plots that make you keep wanting to turn the page. It scratches a different itch.

Interesting parallel. Makes you wonder who the visgoths of Locke’s world will be.

Finished Brightness yesterday and absolutely loved it. It is very much a Kay book, but riveting and moving. If I have one mild complaint it’s that the authorial intrusion about small decisions having big life impacts got repetitive but that’s minor and fits in the narrative structure of the novel as a reminiscence by the protagonist. I also adore how Kay drops Easter Eggs from other novels in the book. I’m sure I probably only caught half of them.

Maybe Sansa schemed with him to send him somewhere as part of a power play after the Long Night. That’s how D&D do foreshadowing and the two of them were “caught” twice scheming in Episodes 1 and 2.

I’m surprisingly ok that Arya is the one that killed the NK. I really am overall disappointed the NK died in episode 3. Really poor pacing.

Really looking forward to this book. I loved Children of Earth and Sky, which follows my love of the Sarantine Mosaic duology as my fav GGK.

Make sure to read Sarantine Mosaic before Children of Earth and Sky. It's not a sequel but there are tons of references and Easter Eggs to the former in the latter.

I found Tigana more melodramatic than Lions, FWIW. Still enjoyed it though.

Lions is fine but I thought a bit gimmicky in how Kay handles a few twists. I prefer the Sarantine Mosaic and the two Asian themed books.

SeanF that should be spoiler covered. This isn't a spoiler thread for all Kaye books.

Finished Children of Earth and Sky. Loved it. Agree with what others have said above, but those points didn't bother me while reading. Kay has a way with prose that when he meanders into philosophy or pulls back into omniscient narrator that weaves tells offscreen events, I still resonate emotionally with the text. He's never heavy handed with the philosophy in the same way that, eg, Bakker can be. Loved all the references to Sarantium. Some excellent Easter eggs.

Glad you like it. It was said a few posts above mine and I was responding to that. And of course no one will say it post inside GoT where D&D confirm.