Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
Chills. I had chills when I first read that line. So fuckin awesome.
That entire scene is aces. I love Palamedes and his "nerd with a spine of steel" vibe. I love the first real sign that Harrow is actually really cool. I Love the Way the characters and us are both privy to the knowledge that Camilla is going to tear them apart.
Now I know I need to reread because I have no memory of any of these things.....
Its why she's such a good author IMO. So much of it just slips by, but then someone points it out and its all "Goddamn it!"
I just want to scream because you are absolutely right. Muir has a talent in haven't ever read before where she can just bury a line that on the first, second, even fourth reading goes unnoticed.
But that fifth time you have to put down the boom and just exasperatingly sigh because you realize what just happened.
I'm not normally a rereader, but I really enjoyed rereading them all for nona. I'm probably not going to touch them again until alecto but I'm very likely to do another read in advance of that.
I'm closing in on the end of Harrow for the second time and wow, just drops every significant narrative event in the last hundred pages like a boss rush.
Your eighteenth birthday passed without anyone noticing, even you. One night before you went to sleep you thought to yourself, restlessly: another year. You recalled it as you always did: the memorial to the two hundred who had died seizing, kicking, and choking as their neurotransmitters were poisoned into overdrive. You silently begged them to stay their hands, as you always did. You never asked for forgiveness. Then you slept. Most people would have iced a cake, or something.
I love the contrast of the dark and portentous first six sentences with the eye-rolling commentary of the seventh.
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Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
Re-listening to Gideon as well. I still find it hard to square everything Harrow does to Gideon for 17 years, how awful she is in chapters 2 and 3, and then a few weeks/months later Gideon kills herself for her.
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Gideon and Harrow are sisters. Siblings have complicated relationships, especially as teenagers. It's not that weird IMO.
Also, Gideon craves feeling useful. She could have wasted away in her cell in the Ninth (and mostly everyone would have been fine with that), but she wanted to train, and run away and join the infantry. At Canaan she's constantly trying to get Harrow to actually use her as a cavalier, having a purpose is much more important to her than her own survival.
And at the end, I think she also realizes it's the only way ANY of them are getting out of there alive.
As much as she hated the Ninth, it was her home, and she was proud of it and of Harrow.
I think it's that both Gideon and Harrow have very strong feelings about each other, but in the context of the 9th the only way they were really able to express that was through hatred and competition. Once they get out of the 9th they're able to start recontextualizing things.
And also Gideon just lies or misinterprets her feelings a lot in the first book, too. "Haha sure do hope Harrow is dead!", and then she runs around in a panic desperately trying to find her because oh god what if she's hurt and needs help. She won't even acknowledge that she was obviously worried sick, and she was worried for Harrow, not just in selfish way over the situation it would put her in.
Or like she interprets Harrow's ruse in the beginning as just a way of screwing her over, and it kinda is, and it's certainly how Harrow chooses to advertise it. But beneath the surface it's that Harrow received the call from the emperor and was pretty immediately like, "I need to bring Gideon with me, how can I make that happen?" Gideon becoming her cavalier wasn't a side effect of screwing Gideon out of her escape, it was the whole point of the thing.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
Aiglamene flat out says that Gideon is a great sword fighter and I think even makes a comparison to Nonius at one point? Gideon should have been the cavalier primary since day one.
I am in the business of saving lives.
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Aiglamene flat out says that Gideon is a great sword fighter and I think even makes a comparison to Nonius at one point? Gideon should have been the cavalier primary since day one.
The line is something along the lines of Gideon being the best swordsperson the Ninth has produced since Nonius (who's just, you know, arguably the greatest swordsperson to ever live).
Aiglamene flat out says that Gideon is a great sword fighter and I think even makes a comparison to Nonius at one point? Gideon should have been the cavalier primary since day one.
Well when they named a new cavalier Gideon wasn't even a teen yet, so she wasn't really in the running and it kinda went to Ortus by default. And besides while they were just on the 9th who the cavalier was meant pretty much fuck-all. They're not swordfighting anybody, and the 9th house is so depleted that they're not even fulfilling any sort of ceremonial function either. It was just a meaningless title with no value. (and also Ortus would've definitely tried to launch Gideon out an airlock if she became cavalier)
Kana on
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
Aiglamene flat out says that Gideon is a great sword fighter and I think even makes a comparison to Nonius at one point? Gideon should have been the cavalier primary since day one.
Well when they named a new cavalier Gideon wasn't even a teen yet, so she wasn't really in the running and it kinda went to Ortus by default. And besides while they were just on the 9th who the cavalier was meant pretty much fuck-all. They're not swordfighting anybody, and the 9th house is so depleted that they're not even fulfilling any sort of ceremonial function either. It was just a meaningless title with no value. (and also Ortus would've definitely tried to launch Gideon out an airlock if she became cavalier)
Ortus? Nah he'd have been fine with it. More time for his poetry.
Crux would have though. Or just finally died in an apoplectic fit.
Aiglamene flat out says that Gideon is a great sword fighter and I think even makes a comparison to Nonius at one point? Gideon should have been the cavalier primary since day one.
The line is something along the lines of Gideon being the best swordsperson the Ninth has produced since Nonius (who's just, you know, arguably the greatest swordsperson to ever live).
Now that I think about that, it could be a slam assuming the Ninth hasn't produced any other swords people since Nonius?
Aiglamene flat out says that Gideon is a great sword fighter and I think even makes a comparison to Nonius at one point? Gideon should have been the cavalier primary since day one.
The line is something along the lines of Gideon being the best swordsperson the Ninth has produced since Nonius (who's just, you know, arguably the greatest swordsperson to ever live).
Now that I think about that, it could be a slam assuming the Ninth hasn't produced any other swords people since Nonius?
Ortus' father was considered a fine enough swordman that he could never live up to.
Aiglamene flat out says that Gideon is a great sword fighter and I think even makes a comparison to Nonius at one point? Gideon should have been the cavalier primary since day one.
Well when they named a new cavalier Gideon wasn't even a teen yet, so she wasn't really in the running and it kinda went to Ortus by default. And besides while they were just on the 9th who the cavalier was meant pretty much fuck-all. They're not swordfighting anybody, and the 9th house is so depleted that they're not even fulfilling any sort of ceremonial function either. It was just a meaningless title with no value. (and also Ortus would've definitely tried to launch Gideon out an airlock if she became cavalier)
Ortus? Nah he'd have been fine with it. More time for his poetry.
Crux would have though. Or just finally died in an apoplectic fit.
Yeah that's what I meant to type
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
Gideon and Harrow are sisters. Siblings have complicated relationships, especially as teenagers. It's not that weird IMO.
This is true and I do think it's an aspect of the relationship that sometimes gets missed but I do also think that there's something else going on here. Specifically both Gideon and Harrow are depicted as sheltered and trained in a harsh world. Something that is implied with Harrow and that we definitely see with Gideon is that seeing the other houses and the way they interact changes something in them. They are two orphans who never were shown more than a moment's kindness so it is not surprising that the best that they could show each other was rivalry but the other houses show them that there can be more. Gideon reveals herself to be someone desperate to do right by others. It doesn't surprise me at all that Gideon is willing to forgive Harrow and Harrow is desperate for a better relationship with Gideon.
It's very interesting that God is apparently entirely honest about the amount of resurrection beasts he created when the explanation he gives doesn't fully account for all of them.
When Mercy first meets Harrow she says "You're not as pretty as Anastasia" which seemed pretty random on my first read but having read Nona we now know that Harrow is a direct descendant of Anastasia.
Working through Nona and I like it, but all the stuff I really want to know about seems to be just out of frame. I'm reading every line of dialogue like Sherlock Holmes with a magnifying glass for little crumbs to the overall setting.
Nona was Harrow's body, rescued by Pyrrha, containing the soul of Alecto, the Emperor's """cavalier""" who was actually the soul of the Earth that was killed and devoured by the Emperor in something like the lyctoral process when he killed everyone on Earth, and every planet in the solar system to boot, as seen in the dream sequences.
The resurrection beast was parked over the planet they were on, not eating it because Nona (Alecto, who is actually something like the Resurrection Beast of Earth) was there. Nona was dying because Harrow's human body couldn't really contain a planet soul, so they returned her to the Locked Tomb where Harrow's soul had parked itself in Alecto's body at the end of Harrow, and they did swapsies.
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Its why she's such a good author IMO. So much of it just slips by, but then someone points it out and its all "Goddamn it!"
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Chills. I had chills when I first read that line. So fuckin awesome.
That entire scene is aces. I love Palamedes and his "nerd with a spine of steel" vibe. I love the first real sign that Harrow is actually really cool. I Love the Way the characters and us are both privy to the knowledge that Camilla is going to tear them apart.
I just want to scream because you are absolutely right. Muir has a talent in haven't ever read before where she can just bury a line that on the first, second, even fourth reading goes unnoticed.
But that fifth time you have to put down the boom and just exasperatingly sigh because you realize what just happened.
DEATH FIRST TO VULTURES AND SCAVENGERS
God I love this series
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
I don't care for audiobooks usually but I started Gideon awhile ago just to shake up my third reread and its a great experience.
Its a heavy burden, but I think my conscience can take this
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"You remind me of another Gideon I used to know... Except you're prettier in the (Emperor's)eyes."
I love the contrast of the dark and portentous first six sentences with the eye-rolling commentary of the seventh.
Even the Dramatis Personae has me extremely confused.
They're good dogs.
It's the future. Transcaninism is a thing.
Also, Gideon craves feeling useful. She could have wasted away in her cell in the Ninth (and mostly everyone would have been fine with that), but she wanted to train, and run away and join the infantry. At Canaan she's constantly trying to get Harrow to actually use her as a cavalier, having a purpose is much more important to her than her own survival.
And at the end, I think she also realizes it's the only way ANY of them are getting out of there alive.
As much as she hated the Ninth, it was her home, and she was proud of it and of Harrow.
And also Gideon just lies or misinterprets her feelings a lot in the first book, too. "Haha sure do hope Harrow is dead!", and then she runs around in a panic desperately trying to find her because oh god what if she's hurt and needs help. She won't even acknowledge that she was obviously worried sick, and she was worried for Harrow, not just in selfish way over the situation it would put her in.
Or like she interprets Harrow's ruse in the beginning as just a way of screwing her over, and it kinda is, and it's certainly how Harrow chooses to advertise it. But beneath the surface it's that Harrow received the call from the emperor and was pretty immediately like, "I need to bring Gideon with me, how can I make that happen?" Gideon becoming her cavalier wasn't a side effect of screwing Gideon out of her escape, it was the whole point of the thing.
The line is something along the lines of Gideon being the best swordsperson the Ninth has produced since Nonius (who's just, you know, arguably the greatest swordsperson to ever live).
Well when they named a new cavalier Gideon wasn't even a teen yet, so she wasn't really in the running and it kinda went to Ortus by default. And besides while they were just on the 9th who the cavalier was meant pretty much fuck-all. They're not swordfighting anybody, and the 9th house is so depleted that they're not even fulfilling any sort of ceremonial function either. It was just a meaningless title with no value. (and also Ortus would've definitely tried to launch Gideon out an airlock if she became cavalier)
Crux would have though. Or just finally died in an apoplectic fit.
Now that I think about that, it could be a slam assuming the Ninth hasn't produced any other swords people since Nonius?
Ortus' father was considered a fine enough swordman that he could never live up to.
Yeah that's what I meant to type
This is true and I do think it's an aspect of the relationship that sometimes gets missed but I do also think that there's something else going on here. Specifically both Gideon and Harrow are depicted as sheltered and trained in a harsh world. Something that is implied with Harrow and that we definitely see with Gideon is that seeing the other houses and the way they interact changes something in them. They are two orphans who never were shown more than a moment's kindness so it is not surprising that the best that they could show each other was rivalry but the other houses show them that there can be more. Gideon reveals herself to be someone desperate to do right by others. It doesn't surprise me at all that Gideon is willing to forgive Harrow and Harrow is desperate for a better relationship with Gideon.
It's very interesting that God is apparently entirely honest about the amount of resurrection beasts he created when the explanation he gives doesn't fully account for all of them.
Nona spoilers
Rereading Harrow
Can anyone explain Nona?
The resurrection beast was parked over the planet they were on, not eating it because Nona (Alecto, who is actually something like the Resurrection Beast of Earth) was there. Nona was dying because Harrow's human body couldn't really contain a planet soul, so they returned her to the Locked Tomb where Harrow's soul had parked itself in Alecto's body at the end of Harrow, and they did swapsies.