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Book of the Ancestor trilogy by Mark Lawrence {spoiler thread}


AncalagonTheBlack

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5 hours ago, Let's Get Kraken said:

I mean he came out and said we'd met the person in scenario #4 already. I cannot imagine who else it could be :D

I like ot call a spade a spade :)

It says a lot for his writing/characterisation for it to seem like Jalan before the second clue pretty much sealed it.

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Read that Jorg short story last night.  "No Second Troy"

Its set after King of Thorns and before Emperor of Thorns and details the conquest of a walled city in the middle of a river in Orlanth.  It was really good and everything still fit within the narrative without seeming gratuitous.

 

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  • 2 months later...

Finally got round to reading this. I love a magic school story so it worked for me. It was basically a (much better imo) version of Blood Song...


It did get a bit predictable in places- there's only so many ways you can subvert a magic school story- but there were some nice touches, like how

the obvious Malfoy/Ambrose figure turned out to be perfectly fine and normal, or how the Potions- sorry, poisons- master had a scary front but ended up being fairly reasonable and more of a comedy figure from the reader's perspective than anything.


Also: the world is great.
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  • 4 months later...

Finished it last night.  I really wish someone would put a disclaimer on the first 4 or 5 pages of this topic telling them to skip ahead to reach actual discussion. :lol: 

Agree that I was picturing Laura/X-23 the whole time.  I really liked the setting and the world feels interesting to me.  I remember when I first heard about the book being “Battle Nuns in a new setting” I was disappointed and wondered why he couldn’t just find an unexplored corner of the Broken Empire to place his Battle Nuns; but the world of Abeth is really unique and interesting.

I’m also looking forward to seeing more of the interplay of the bigger politics between Sherzal and Crucical.

Grey Sister will be out fairly soon.  It will be the first Lawrence that I have been able to read at time of release since I came a bit late to his work.  He has rapidly become one of my favorite authors.  I enjoy following him on Facebook and I will echo the earlier sentiment in this thread that it’s a damn shame the mods ran him off from here.

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From a new interview:

https://thatthornguy.com/2018/01/25/that-thorn-guy-third-birthday-interview-with-mark-lawrence/

Although you finished writing the series in 2016, you haven’t completely left the world of Abeth behind. What can you tell us about the new book you started writing and is set in the same world?

I’m working on a trilogy set around the same time out on the ice that covers more than 99% of Abeth. I’m about half way through the first book, though I have put it on hold recently in order to work on a different project with a more immanent deadline.

The main character is a young woman belonging to one of the ice tribes. Things go very wrong for her very quickly, and the rest will be history … once I’ve written it.

 

The story’s plot is already a lot stronger and more complex than the plot of Red Sister. Not to mention that the first paragraph of the prologue is my most favourite opening of any book ever. I can’t wait for readers to be able to see it for themselves. Any chance, that as you did for Red Sister, you might share this prologue or at least part of it on your blog prior to publication, too? When is the book likely to come out?

I imagine that the book will hit ‘a good bookshop near you’ some time in 2020. Which still sounds like a sci-fi distant future date to me even though we are barrelling towards it.

I probably will share something from the book as it gets nearer to the time, but after Holy Sister is out.

 

That is a long wait again. How about this other project you mentioned? Can you tell us anything about that?

I can! After years of being asked in interviews “You’re a scientist, so why aren’t you writing science fiction instead trampling our fantasy lawn with your big ugly science boots?” I actually had my first ever go at science fiction!

It’s not exactly spaceships and laser cannons in a distant future though. In fact it’s set in the 1980s and centres on a D&D group. It does, however, contain some fictional science.

The book is called Power Word Kill and has sold to a well known publisher in a three book deal! So now I’m busy working on book 2, Limited Wish. The plan is to release the trilogy in fairly swift order. I think all three might come out in 2019, certainly the first two.

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16 minutes ago, Jussi said:

Hmmmm... the book set on the ice in Abeth sounds interesting, but I wonder about the other.  I suppose Lawrence has earned my benefit of the doubt though.

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20 hours ago, Lord Patrek said:

Just finished Grey Sister and it's one of my favorite Lawrence books, second only to The Liar's Key!

You can read the review here.

Glad to hear!

Have mine pre-ordered

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On 4/5/2017 at 11:11 AM, Sheep the Evicted said:

Couldn't think of a better word. First i thought Traditional, but its grimdark which isn't so traditional so lets say fantasy that isn't obsessed with Inclusivity ? Fantasy that isn't inclusivity-porn ? Non-cis-white-male bashing  fantasy ? Im not sure if my terminology is up to date but you get the idea.

Do you mean fantasy that actually affirms masculinity to some degree rather than trying to make it questionable all the time?

Inclusivity doesn't have to be something that questions all masculinity.

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10 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

...why is this a topic again

Well... it’s been almost a year since the quotes post was made.  What is old is new again.

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On 05/03/2018 at 11:44 AM, Rhom said:

Hmmmm... the book set on the ice in Abeth sounds interesting, but I wonder about the other.  I suppose Lawrence has earned my benefit of the doubt though.

I'm actually more curious about the SF book. It sounds very different from his other works and sometimes the big shake-ups can produce the better works.

I think part 2 of the red sister books will have to wait for me - maybe for a promotional sale. I haven't been blown away by his books since the end of Thorns. Red Sister was better than his last few for me but I've been luke-warm to it. That said, Pat's review is saying a lot of things I wanted to hear - especially regarding the additional POVs.

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2 hours ago, red snow said:

I'm actually more curious about the SF book. It sounds very different from his other works and sometimes the big shake-ups can produce the better works.

I think part 2 of the red sister books will have to wait for me - maybe for a promotional sale. I haven't been blown away by his books since the end of Thorns. Red Sister was better than his last few for me but I've been luke-warm to it. That said, Pat's review is saying a lot of things I wanted to hear - especially regarding the additional POVs.

There's a lot to love about Grey Sister. Better than Red Sister in every aspect. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm with @Lord Patrek Grey Sister is an improvement over Red Sister in every way... and I loved Red Sister.  Grey Sister is a fast read and does not bog down with an overlong "training montage."  I do like how the book opens up more mysteries and makes it hint as though the history of the world is even more complex than originally thought. 

Overall, a great read.

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just read red sister, berry good i must say

but man, having Fist of the North Star-style absurdly huge muscle-men was something I had in my own personal i'll-write-it-someday fantasy novel.  Now, having absurdly giant muscley men will just look like I'm copying the Gerant!

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Just finished Grey Sister berry good too.

Random speculation, comments and questions and such

Spoiler

So the epilogue implies someone got control of the Moon, right?  Since the Empire is apparently on fire, I'm guessing it was the Scithrowl warrior-queen chick.

So what are the Devils? I had thought that they were as Zole said - parts of the Missing that didn't get to ascend or whatever.  But then Koet said he was born in the ship-heart and Yisht was full of devils from it.  So are they not part of the Missing?

And what are the Missing anyway?  Aliens that ascended to a higher plane or even a pre-cursor human civilization that ascended?  Because the Ark controls the Moon, but the Shiphearts control the entrance to the Ark, and the Shiphearts seem to be Missing technology.  But the Moon was put there by the humans to heat the planet.  So if the Missing were Alien, the Tribes were able to readily understand and repurpose their technology. 

Seems likely that the Missing were another human civilization, the Tribes came to Abeoth for refuge, expecting to find people there, but they had all mysteriously disappeared.

Also disappointed Regol and Nona didn't bang.  Maybe next book.

 

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