Jump to content

The Book of the Ice Series - SPOILERS for all Mark Lawrence books (Including Girl and the Moon SPOILERS)


unJon
 Share

Recommended Posts

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. 
 

 

Elias Taproot


 

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 The Girl and the Moon. 

Edited by unJon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I carefully clicked on the topic.  I got the book day before yesterday, but I am finishing Arm of the Phoenix by Lawrence favorite Josiah Bancroft.  Once I finish that up, I plan to dive in fully to this.  I loved the setting as a whole and am really interested to go out on the ice with the tribes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, unJon said:

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. 

Interesting.  The fact that the computer was Taproot at the end of Holy Sister was a great nod... but at the time, I wasn't sure if that was just an Easter Egg for loyal readers or if it was a true hint at a shared universe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I just finished it tonight.  I agree with basically all that you say.  I love the world of Abeth but couldn’t connect with the characters as well.  The love quadrilateral or whatever it was didn’t feel natural to me.  I did think Theus had potential (no way he was destroyed btw) and I really liked that they set him up as “evil” but correct.

If I had to guess on the time frame, I would say it is happening at the same time as The Book of the Ancestor (isn’t that the ninja nun trilogy’s name?).  No real reason to assume that other than the fact that BE and RQW ran parallel.

I don’t know if I specifically remember the needle trick or not.  Taproot was originally a contemporary Earth human (from our time pre nuclear war) who would freeze himself regularly and then unthaw every so often to poke around and influence events.  During RQW, at one point he got trapped in stasis by accident and Jalan had to free him.

I’m confused as to the progress of these books.  Taproot certainly seems to be a program running with The Missing.  It is implied they came here from elsewhere and Erris says they thought they would have hundreds of thousands of years, but they wound up with about 10,000 (he says a hundred centuries).  But the four tribes are also said to be “beached” here with their ship hearts. Ship hearts can be tied to each of the four tribes.  But the ship hearts are obviously already tied to the missing.

Taproot was a live human with Jorge and Jalan, but is now a program.  When did humans leave Earth?!!? Does the Broken Empire eventually regain space flight?  Or could there have been humans that fled Earth before the nuclear apocalypse and took a digitized Taproot with them???  (If they left post BE... could we see digital Jorge again?)

I can’t wait to read the next one and see where all this is going.  And I hope now that he has this trilogy finished, he can get back to finishing the Jalan/Snorri in The New World story that he teased with a fantastic snippet in the omnibus first RQW!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Triple post incoming:

In the ice, east of the Black Rock, there is a hole into which broken children are thrown.

Needed to say, knowing Mark’s family situation with his daughter with severe special needs; I thought this was an incredibly powerful opening line.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And a fourth in a row!!!!  Went digging through my Twitter to find when I asked Mark Lawrence about Taproot in Holy Sister

He replied with a “Could be” :lol: 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Rhom said:

I failed to mention that I also want to know what the Hunters are doing with the Broken they are snatching.

Good call. Assume this will be resolved in book 2, which will be about escaping from the priests. 

15 hours ago, Rhom said:

And a fourth in a row!!!!  Went digging through my Twitter to find when I asked Mark Lawrence about Taproot in Holy Sister

He replied with a “Could be” :lol: 

That’s great. :laugh:
 

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. 

Edited by unJon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had kind of forgotten about the messenger.  With so much of this story happening underground, I presume that there wouldn’t necessarily be much reason to focus on it.  Maybe we will hear more in the next book.

Lawrence says it’s scheduled for April... so now we wait a year. :lol: 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

Just finished The Girl and The Mountain and for once Lawrence doesn't shy away from revealing a LOT of stuff. Sometimes directly and often not that directly. I need to collect my thoughts before writing my review. :)

Turns out that lots of things regarding that Reddit thread turned out to be true. Not everything, mind you, but that guy did great detective work.

Spoiler

Without giving away any details, it is now obvious that all of Mark Lawrence's works are related. And though we can't say for certain, it does appear that the Book of the Ice series occurs about 75-100 years prior to the Book of the Ancestor trilogy.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Lord Patrek said:

Just finished The Girl and The Mountain and for once Lawrence doesn't shy away from revealing a LOT of stuff. Sometimes directly and often not that directly. I need to collect my thoughts before writing my review. :)

Turns out that lots of things regarding that Reddit thread turned out to be true. Not everything, mind you, but that guy did great detective work.

  Hide contents

Without giving away any details, it is now obvious that all of Mark Lawrence's works are related. And though we can't say for certain, it does appear that the Book of the Ice series occurs about 75-100 years prior to the Book of the Ancestor trilogy.

 

That was a fantastic write up.

Reading this thread makes me realize just how much I’ve forgotten already!  Gonna have to find a really good synopsis somewhere before I get into Girl and the Mountain.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/4/2021 at 10:59 AM, Lord Patrek said:

Same here! It's incredible just how many clues there were in the first two trilogies. But we were oblivious to them because we didn't really know what we were looking at.

I've not actually taken time to read Impossible Times.  I meant to, but since I didnt' think it was tied in at all I didn't make it a priority.  This theory has made me want to pick them up sooner than I might have otherwise!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did notice the link in the final book in Impossible Times

Spoiler

And what a life Eli Root has had. You can’t help thinking though that Nick Hayes, or Eva Hayes if she existed, would have been able to save the world in a much more comprehensive way. I was actually surprised because I’d assumed that the Broken Empire and Abeth are the future of our reality, whereas Impossible Times is clearly an alternate version of our world so it turns out all the series were fantasy all along.

It’s definitely interesting to consider that all of the magics and technologies in all of the settings all link back to Lawrence’s ideas about time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
22 minutes ago, unJon said:

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. 

It should be coming today for me I believe.  I thought I had it pre ordered, but guess I didn’t.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/20/2021 at 10:30 AM, unJon said:

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 had forgotten about that, too. When I asked Mark, he confirmed that it was indeed the case. He also revealed that he had her clapping her hands at one point, but fortunately enough someone caught the error during the copy edit stage and he won't have to live with that mistake for years to come!

Damn cliffhanger again! Even worse than the one with which The Girl and the Stars ended! But at least the book is already written and we know we're getting it a year from now. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...