Chapter 42

[TomasG]

What is there to say about Chapter 42. My normal routine is to do a rapid read of a

new Chapter, kind of hitting the highlights, then going back and doing a slower reread for the

nitty gritty details.

Not so with this chapter.

If the purpose of the Gadhar demonstration in the arena in Imperalas was to show the

fighting prowess of the Gadhar and to show just how deadly they really are, that goal

was succeeded in spades.

Multiple paragraphs:

Gadhar enter the arena.

Thrones enter the arena.

Gadhar slaughter the Thrones.

Interspersed with comments about the wildly cheering and ecstatic humans and the

absolute disgust of Jamie and the Trio.

The interesting part of the chapter is the conversation that takes place back in Nic's

tent at the Gadhar bivouac area.

“As you know, tomorrow we'll break camp. It will take most of the morning. We’ll eat

one final meal in the mess tent and then, once everything’s secure, we’ll be taken to

the military drop zone outside the city. By then I think it will be late afternoon. The

same hov that brought us will be there to return us to Piropolis. The Kalorian told me

there’d be a standard Kalorian crew there, loading the freight. He told me what to

expect. We’re scheduled to lift off a short time before you and your friends begin your

performance. Once we’re in the air, the plan begins.”

Ignoring the exchange Nic continued, “When our mission to Stone Gate is finished we

meet at Angel’s Fall."

It seems obvious that the plan is to hijack the military transport (What happened to

the human pilot and co-pilot? I doubt that Kalorians were allowed to pilot any transport, let alone a military one.) and use it to carry out the mission.

The earlier part of the chapter, with the exception that the demonstration is part of the

mainline of the story, at least to me, read like something that would be in an

interlude.

[pietro]

Yes, I would agree, this chapter did not advance the story very much.

Obviously something goes wrong with the plan, of course, else Jamie and the Gahdar wouldn't have ended up at Rood.

The question is, just how far wrong does it go? After all, thousands of Kalorians are presumably making their way to the Stone Gate. How long were they left hanging and how many died as a result? Or did word get out to delay everything at the eleventh hour? And what happens to Trio Chrysalis and the rest of the Mondele? Does anyone else find their absence from Book 1 ominous?

And what about the rest of the Icarians? In book 1 we have only encountered about 150 surviving, about a fifth of the Icarian population at the time. What happened to the Icarian populations in Eagles Rock and other places, what happened to the Gahdar nestlings?

Did Jamie's plan go that wrong? Is he a FAILURE?

If there is only one more chapter to go there are still an awful lot of questions unanswered

[TalonRider]

As an update, we still have two chapters to go in Part 3, followed by the Interlude, so in the sense, we have six chapters go.

We may never know what happens to The Trio. Did they go out in a blaze of glory or did they escape? There is the possibility that they survived and are somewhere on the other side of the barrier. Currently we can only assume that there were survivors on the other side. The bulk of the story has taken place on the north side of it.

[pietro]

As an update, we still have two chapters to go in Part 3, followed by the Interlude, so in the sense, we have six chapters go.

We may never know what happens to The Trio. Did they go out in a blaze of glory or did they escape? There is the possibility that they survived and are somewhere on the other side of the barrier. Currently we can only assume that there were survivors on the other side. The bulk of the story has taken place on the north side of it.

Yes, I did wonder if there was any life left on the Altinestran side, if so, why the barrier? And with all the advanced tech and more importantly, technicians there how come they didn't drop the barrier and take over the rest of the continent? See, now you've introduced another uncertainty

Given that it has been 2000+ years I can't see there being anyone there at this time. So what happened to them? OMG! Is Jamie a mass murderer as well as a failure? Or is the barrier a country sized stasis unit and they are all asleep?

Joking aside, even with two more chapters there still seems a lot to resolve, one hell of a lot of 'i's to dot and 't's to cross, although those resolutions could, and probably will, be revealed in Book 3, I suppose. Especially since there is a book 3, after all, you don't need a whole book to say "and they all lived happily ever after". At least I hope there is a book 3.

[TalonRider]

Hhmmm, I hadn't thought of a giant status unit. Jamie has said we will find out in the interlude what that giant machine is underground.

About the only thing we know about the barrier is that it's blocking the way to The Circle of Ondra and to the Tower of Argamon. And speaking of the tower, does anyone else think it odd that Ludiwic is the only person to mention the barrier and the tower? No one from the other kingdoms has said anything. It's almost like no one has ever thought about trying to find a way across the mountains.

The focus of Part 4 is going to be on Jamie and Loran, and getting to the Circle.

[pietro]

Hhmmm, I hadn't thought of a giant status unit. Jamie has said we will find out in the interlude what that giant machine is underground.

About the only thing we know about the barrier is that it's blocking the way to The Circle of Ondra and to the Tower of Argamon. And speaking of the tower, does anyone else think it odd that Ludiwic is the only person to mention the barrier and the tower? No one from the other kingdoms has said anything. It's almost like no one has ever thought about trying to find a way across the mountains.

The focus of Part 4 is going to be on Jamie and Loran, and getting to the Circle.

Thanks for the tip re the machine, that it is big, important, probably crucial to the story and obviously very powerful but no other knowledge has irritated me since I first read it.

The other kingdoms are aware of the barrier and told Jamie et al that it extended all the way around and even encompassed part of the sea. Many attempts were made to breach it but none were successful and eventually any interest among the ruling classes waned and it passed out of general knowledge.

Remember that the planet was reduced to an iron age level after the Fall and the Church kept them there, not to mention that any form of travel was difficult at best, you couldn't rely on inns and villages to provision you off of the established intercity routes.

Ludwig and his people are aware of it because they can actually see it, if the weather is right, as they leave the Pass of Tears.

[dioscuri]

Hhmmm, I hadn't thought of a giant status unit. Jamie has said we will find out in the interlude what that giant machine is underground.

About the only thing we know about the barrier is that it's blocking the way to The Circle of Ondra and to the Tower of Argamon. And speaking of the tower, does anyone else think it odd that Ludiwic is the only person to mention the barrier and the tower? No one from the other kingdoms has said anything. It's almost like no one has ever thought about trying to find a way across the mountains.

The focus of Part 4 is going to be on Jamie and Loran, and getting to the Circle.

Thanks for the tip re the machine, that it is big, important, probably crucial to the story and obviously very powerful but no other knowledge has irritated me since I first read it.

The other kingdoms are aware of the barrier and told Jamie et al that it extended all the way around and even encompassed part of the sea. Many attempts were made to breach it but none were successful and eventually any interest among the ruling classes waned and it passed out of general knowledge.

Remember that the planet was reduced to an iron age level after the Fall and the Church kept them there, not to mention that any form of travel was difficult at best, you couldn't rely on inns and villages to provision you off of the established intercity routes.

Ludwig and his people are aware of it because they can actually see it, if the weather is right, as they leave the Pass of Tears.

We stand on the edge of a knife, or rather the point of the knife and the story can fall any number of ways. We, the reader, are still in the dark. We do not know what Jamie's plan actually is, we've only been shown a few elements of it. THE Plan, the one which any number of unknown groups are working on all at the same time, we know absolutely nothing of. Until Renaud very recently reviled the discontent within the Vipers themselves. That shocked me. I had not anticipated their discontent or that they could be part of any plan at all.

One thing has been made clear to Jamie and Niklas (and all the Ghadar) is that they do not fit into the Emperor's plans for escape from the planet.

I will again take a guess at things to come since my last guess was washed away. The generator has been hijacked by Jamie, for what purpose we do not know. It is possible the this could interrupt the plans to leave the plant, leaving the human members of the elite to perish in the plague. Personally, I do not believe that either the Emperor or Savaron Loka survive the coming tidal wave.

The show at Castle Rood is planned to distract the population of the planet from the fact that the plague is out of control and that the Emperor is leaving them behind. One thing we do know, is that Jamie is the fly in the ointment. It has been made clear that no one paid very close attention to the results of Icarian bonding. By bonding I do not mean the legal paperwork connected with it. By Icarian bonding I mean the bonding of two senient being by thei own consent where a bond for life is biologically built into them. We do have some real animal models of life bonding; in geese. Some geese, if bonded to another and one dies, the other never takes another mate, even though it may take part in caring for young.

There are also models of male/male bonds. Elephants for example, spend time with female elephants only for as long as it takes to breed. Then they return to their male cadre where they often have formed bonds with other males which last for years.

No one in the Empire has thought of what will happen if the mate of a bonded pair thinks that his mate is in danger. This is precisely the situation they are setting up for Jamie and Niklas. Jamie has powers even he is unaware of (yet), and when he see's Nic and his Ghadar brothers in danger his reaction will be completely unexpected.

This, I believe, is the catalyst for the other disparate parts of THE Plan to kick into high gear and do their part. I think that at that moment perhaps a dozen different "plans" will lift off, catching the Empire completely off guard.

I know, I've not said much; I've merely used what we know to forecast what might happen when certain things we know have been planned take place. These are all things at the Empire's control. In essence, they throw the switch which throws THE Plan into high gear.

I have refrained from speculating on other parts of plans which have been hinted at but for which we have not enough information to even guess. I doubt that the Kalorians are killed as planned by the Empire though, its one of those events that is thwarted when Niklas life is threatened.

Now, we wait' we go hunting for other fantasy fiction stories which never are quite as good as TSOI or are left unfinished.

cheers,

dioscuri

P.S. I've read all of David McLeod's "Book of Heros" translations (and dearly wish for more);

"I am Not From Earth" It had possibilities until the end. I hate Cinderella stories where the Cinderella finger ends up back in the ashes -- no better than at the beginning.

Rick Spencer's "Chronicles of Kadin" which remains unfinished -- leaving off in the middle of part two of Book One. We are left in suspense with no end in sight...s

Libby Drew's "Paying the Piper" is worth read at least twice and is complete!

So while you wait for TSOI, keep reading!

[TalonRider]

Part of the fun for the reader is speculating on what is going to happen with the clues given. There are some things that we do know will happen, but we don't know when for sure or just how.

IF the under ground machine is stasis unit, I can see one major problem. There's not enough Darroot Tea to go around. So any Icarian that goes into cold sleep will probably wind up loosing some of their memories. That would include the Trio if they survived.

[dioscuri]

Part of the fun for the reader is speculating on what is going to happen with the clues given. There are some things that we do know will happen, but we don't know when for sure or just how.

IF the under ground machine is stasis unit, I can see one major problem. There's not enough Darroot Tea to go around. So any Icarian that goes into cold sleep will probably wind up loosing some of their memories. That would include the Trio if they survived.

All we know is that Jamie and friends could not get their hands on any more Darroot tea. I would imagine there is actually more somewhere in the palace(s) or that those in official control may have access to, so I wouldn't count that possibility out.

At any rate, Jamie has almost the same access to Trio Chrysalis minds as he did to Niklas or to Charlie, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that Jamie can restore their memories!

So much for not speculating!

cheers,

dioscuri

[TalonRider]

I have to wonder if the Emperor was planning to give any of the Darroot Tea to any of the Icarians who were going into stasis at the same time. Castor did say that the amount of the Tea they did get, came with a price.

I think we can safely assume that Jamie has entered the minds of Jeremy, Yves, and Lucas at least once. If he did do it more, we don't know about it.

[dioscuri]

Yes, I would agree, this chapter did not advance the story very much.

Obviously something goes wrong with the plan, of course, else Jamie and the Gahdar wouldn't have ended up at Rood.

The fact that Jamie and the Ghadar end up at Rood as Entertainment Execution is a mere glitch in the master plan. The glitch is cleared up when the Empire is stupid enough to threaten Nicklas' life in front of his bonded mate thus incurring the wrath of an almost fully developed Imperial. This turns out (I gather ) to be an illustration of the craft of Croal and his deciples in creating Jamie, Niklas and the Ghadar! With a small earth quake, and some fire balls and perhaps some lightening, the plan gets back on track more or less.

And what about the rest of the Icarians? In book 1 we have only encountered about 150 surviving, about a fifth of the Icarian population at the time. What happened to the Icarian populations in Eagles Rock and other places, what happened to the Gahdar nestlings?

We don't know that there are any Ghadar nestlings. We don't know if that "experiment" was cancelled or if it continued. We await that answer to.

150 surviving Icarians? No ... 51 Duets (the Ghadar) make 102 plus Nicklas is 103, then 1000 PAIRS of the Wizard's own protectorate which he awakened, then the Princes and Scribes of the Icarian Government and so forth, I think that makes in excess of 2200 Icarians. There are, as I believe is pointed out in several places, questions about what happened to the rest, but we have no information at all about those nor do we know what's on the other side of the barrier.

If you notice that Taldor Valeron trades regularly with the farmers from the Green Valley (destroyed by Loran) and are well known by the keepers of the vineyards where the Ghadar are sequestered. This raises questions about the lineage of the farmers from the barrier all the way up to the North where Domain Carolus is. We also do not know who the Vache are either!

Jamie's Plan is not a failure by any means, it just didn't go off exactly as planned. However, I think things were planned so that they would not go off as planned. This is complexity theory! So, we await 2 chapters and 4 Interludes as well as another book!

cheers,

dioscuri

[pietro]

Yes, I would agree, this chapter did not advance the story very much.

Obviously something goes wrong with the plan, of course, else Jamie and the Gahdar wouldn't have ended up at Rood.

The fact that Jamie and the Ghadar end up at Rood as Entertainment Execution is a mere glitch in the master plan. The glitch is cleared up when the Empire is stupid enough to threaten Nicklas' life in front of his bonded mate thus incurring the wrath of an almost fully developed Imperial. This turns out (I gather ) to be an illustration of the craft of Croal and his deciples in creating Jamie, Niklas and the Ghadar! With a small earth quake, and some fire balls and perhaps some lightening, the plan gets back on track more or less.

And what about the rest of the Icarians? In book 1 we have only encountered about 150 surviving, about a fifth of the Icarian population at the time. What happened to the Icarian populations in Eagles Rock and other places, what happened to the Gahdar nestlings?

We don't know that there are any Ghadar nestlings. We don't know if that "experiment" was cancelled or if it continued. We await that answer to.

150 surviving Icarians? No ... 51 Duets (the Ghadar) make 102 plus Nicklas is 103, then 1000 PAIRS of the Wizard's own protectorate which he awakened, then the Princes and Scribes of the Icarian Government and so forth, I think that makes in excess of 2200 Icarians. There are, as I believe is pointed out in several places, questions about what happened to the rest, but we have no information at all about those nor do we know what's on the other side of the barrier.

If you notice that Taldor Valeron trades regularly with the farmers from the Green Valley (destroyed by Loran) and are well known by the keepers of the vineyards where the Ghadar are sequestered. This raises questions about the lineage of the farmers from the barrier all the way up to the North where Domain Carolus is. We also do not know who the Vache are either!

Jamie's Plan is not a failure by any means, it just didn't go off exactly as planned. However, I think things were planned so that they would not go off as planned. This is complexity theory! So, we await 2 chapters and 4 Interludes as well as another book!

cheers,

dioscuri

Ah, but the plan does go wrong, as Moltke said after Clausewitz "No ... plan survives first contact with the enemy". What we don't know is just how far wrong it goes and what the results are.

I know it is Christmas and there is probably much good cheer of liquid variety around but, "However, I think things were planned so that they would not go off as planned." is a little, er, um, not quite right

As to numbers of Icarians, I was referring to those known, the Wizards Own were not common knowledge, besides which it isn't relevent, except in the sense of maybe my asking, "And what about the rest of the non military Icarians? In book 1 we have only encountered about 150 surviving, about a fifth ...."

Anyway, as you say '... we await 2 chapters and 4 Interludes as well as another book!'

[TalonRider]

Let's consider this chapter part of Jamies plan going into action. Some of the questions stated here will be answered. Some of our questions from lost discussion will be answered as well. Others won't be answered, or hinted at, immediately but will come. We still have chapter 44 and the interlude to go.