--- Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote: > spoilers for _TEoDM_ > > > > > > > > > > again, spoilers for the Pirodessey or the end of the Paarfiad or ... > > > > > > > > > 1. Random comments - Clari makes an offering of "wheat and tears" - I > wonder if that should be "tares", as in > > My prime of youth is but a frost of cares, > My feast of joy is but a dish of pain, > My crop of corn is but a field of tares, > And all my good is but vain hope of gain; > The day is past, and yet I saw no sun, > And now I live, and now my life is done. Interesting, but I feel sure it was "tears". > 2. The editing in this volume seems to me to have been the best by far. > I only caught a "the the". Well, that and the lack of several > sentences in Paarfi's Afterward conversation on pg 345. It would have been nice if the copyeditor had caught, or not introduced, constructions such as "to he who..." > 3. Well, perhaps Sekely is Szekely, which might be more Hungarian? "Sekely" is "shallow" or "shoal", according to <http://consulting.medios.fi/dictionary/>. The rest is left as an exercise for the reader. I was surprised by Ford's choice of Ivan rather than Janos. (Please insert accents as required.) ... > 5. Can't decide how I feel about Aerich's death - coming alone was in > character, but getting bounced off a wall was a bit, well, unheroic. ... I'd say facing great odds alone is heroic. > 8. Morrolan can't have much to strive for after killing a god. And why > doesn't he go into battle with the J with one of those vorpal-blade > enchantment enhancements? ... He can still strive for killing a Jenoine. > 10. Piro never did much for me - when the soldiers tried to take him, > in the fight in which Grassfog died, I was rooting for them. During > the description of the meal early in the book, it struck me that Piro > refuses to follow society's dictates in questions of marriage while > happily exploiting the Teckla, who end up eating the nobles' scraps. > Unpiroic. Can't have everything. > 11. Grassfog's amulet is a bit of plot device. Actually the plot seemed > too present at points. On the other hand, the book had a strong impetus > - > I read it in (almost one) sitting. A pleasurable first read, certainly. Precisely my experience. > 12. Nice to see Khaavren resigning his position - this is a precho I > think > of a comment in the Vladiad about K turning in his cloak yet again. _Phoenix_? > 13. Morrolan seems to be dead in Paarfi's time - anyway that's the vibe > I > got. Actually I'd guess only K, Piro, and Ibronka live that long. I got that feeling at one point near the end, but later it seemed explicit that Morrolan was still alive. > 14. I liked the touch of melancholy at the end of the book - Piro > leaving > K's house, K unhappy. ... Me too. > 17. When's the next 19th of the Vladiad arriving? '06? '07? It's a *very* good question, though. Jerry Friedman __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online by April 15th http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html