Daylight War
Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 21:44 on 2 February 2017
Yep, can confirm Brett's style of story plot is 80% back story fill-in and 20% plot advancement.
This is book three of the Demon Cycle, and Inevera's back story. Since we know Jardir and we know the story of Arlen, Brett fills in Inevera's history, and moves the plot of her world along. We have her history, her trials, her fights, her losses, and her victories. We have drama. We have death. We have victory. We have temporary defeat. We have spins and twists and loops.
And we have the f'ing ending. If I didn't have book four already handy, I would be mad. As it is, I'll have to wait for book five until August.
Anyway, Inevera's story. She makes a vow to stop senseless deaths by men's hubris, which she fulfills. She makes a vow that women can fight just as well as men and that they will be able to, which she fulfills. She plays her husband like a fiddle, which, well, one can learn from, even if from a fictional character.
Speaking of fiddles, wow, there wasn't really much plot advancement in this book, we hear little of Rojer, not much more of Leesha, with much of the story being backstory. Well, okay, wedding and sex and the like. Apparently in this world everyone has sex with everyone else even though everyone is a hypocrite about it. Fine.
Still, I found this book interesting, and enjoyed it more than the last one. I'll keep reading, I'm enjoying the series, and GAH THAT ENDING.
Christian Atheism
Blog Instead of being asleep at 22:00 on 1 February 2017, kitt created this:I recently started reading Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. I'm not intending to power through this book as I do with other books, I'm lingering on this one. As such, I'm also reading the introduction, by Gregory Hays, who wrote the modern translation that I'm reading (and, wow, the difference a good translator makes!). Backgrounds help a lot with understanding the why of things, why a thought process, why an action. Helps with the understanding, won't always explain, but often helps.
This paragraph struck me as fascinating:
Another area where Marcus’s policy continued that of his predecessors related to a small and eccentric sect known as the Christians. In the course of the next century they would become an increasing problem for the imperial administration, and they were prominent enough in Marcus’s day to attract an extended denunciation from a certain Celsus, part of whose work “Against the Christians” still survives. The sect met with contempt from those intellectuals who deigned to take notice of it (Marcus’s tutor Fronto was evidently one), and with suspicion and hostility from ordinary citizens and administrators. The Christians’ disfavor stemmed from their failure to acknowledge the gods worshipped by the community around them. Their “atheism”—their refusal to accept any god but their own—endangered their neighbors as well as themselves, and their reluctance to acknowledge the divine status of the emperor threatened the social order and the well-being of the state.
Read it again.
[Christians'] “atheism”—their refusal to accept any god but their own—endangered their neighbors as well as themselves...
Well, doesn't that just explain all? (The correct answer is yes here.)
It does, and it goes a long way to explaining the bulk of hard-edge (right AND left) Americans.
Desert Spear
Book Notes Posted by kitt at 20:44 on 25 January 2017
Book Two of the Demon Cycle, this book follows directly after The Warded Man, telling the story of Arlen, Leesha, and Rojer.
Except it isn't just their stories. Brett's style in this series appears to be continue the main story line of the three main characters, and also merge in the backstory of surrounding characters. I'll confirm when I read the next book, Daylight War. In this book's case, we follow Jardir's story, and I have to say, well, yawn.
Not a fan of the guy with delusions of power who attempted to murder Arlen. But, that's likely how it is supposed to be. Authors weave tales in specific ways so that the reader bonds with the "good guys" and jeers at the "bad guys." In this particular case, the bad guys believe that women are second class citizens, so, yeah, I really don't like the bad guys. We also meet Renna, whom I'm not a fan of either, so there's that.
Yeah, so, this book is about the Kaji side of the Thesan world, and moves the plot along a couple months while we learn Jardir's backstory. I'm not a fan of the first part of the book, but neither was Andy, so I'm okay with reading that part really fast to get to the parts I did enjoy. Even if, wtf, Leesha is with whom? Come on!
I'll keep reading.