The Not a Book Club Club discussion

Please keep all discussion to the events and speculation from Part II

No spoiler tags required. Though it would be highly appreciated if you Uncheck Add to my Update Feed to avoid accidentally spoiling this for your good read friends.

Please do not discuss events from later chapters. Referring back to events from a previous section/book is fine.

Wow that was a powerful ending to this section. I had a feeling that Bright was going to attack the city. Skara has had a good part in this book and there is certainly a significant war coming also with the people skinner guy. I really Queen Laithlin and Koll has also had some great parts in the story.

I like how Abercrombie has taken characters like Koll and Blue Jenner and continued their stories through to this book. It is very sad to see Brand die though.

I've had a knot of anxiety in my stomach about what was going to happen to Brand since shortly after his character was introduced. We all know what Joe does to "Good Men" in his writings. I'm glad he gave him a quick death, but still, so sad.

Nothing insightful to add. It was sad to see Brand die but agree with what was said above. I was thinking Rin might die as well to solve the issue for Koll but no such luck for him!

Things are building up - I still like the second book better thus far, but am also hoping we finally get more revealed about the breaking of the world and the elf relics. I feel a strong finish coming!

Sky wrote: "Nothing insightful to add. It was sad to see Brand die but agree with what was said above. I was thinking Rin might die as well to solve the issue for Koll but no such luck for him!

Things are..."

I'm going to be pretty disappointed if we don't get more back story and a satisfying answer to the breaking of the world and the elf relics. It will probably cause me to lower my rating of the book by a whole star even if I really enjoyed the rest of it. If you're going to tease that much, Abercrombie, you better put out!!!!

I wasn't expecting Brand's death, either, and was really sad to see him die. I expect that we will see one of bloodiest, violent killings in the book when Thorn gets a hold of Yilling.

Speaking of bloody deaths, I really don't enjoy reading battle scenes that much. My favorite parts of epic fantasies are the world building, magic systems and political intrigue. So, the whole battle in this section between what Grom, Uthil and Skara thought was Yilling's fleet and men, was not easy for me to read. I think what was most disturbing to me was how blood thirsty Raith was the entire time. He never has any remorse for what he does during this battle. Seeing the dead and mutiliated bodies just seems to energize him even more. It was very disturbing for me and made me really not like him at all.

Thorn is a killer, too, but she had lots of scenes, especially in book 2, where she felt sick about what she had to do. She needed time to process things. Brand, even more than Thorn, struggled about the need to kill people. But Raith seems to live for it. I'm hoping there will be a scene where he reflects more on the seriousness of war.

Maybe that is why I don't like the romance between Raith and Skara. I have a hard time seeing why she would be attracted to him in the first place. Now, I'm definitely the type of woman who loves a take-charge, rough, manly man, but not someone who thrives on violence for the sake of violence. I'm more of a Brand girl, I guess :)

I'm a bit behind (as usual) - I'm babysitting a 4 year old almost the whole month, and between that and getting ready for school, the reading time is limited.

I was surprised to see Brand die and it made me sad. He really was a good character and a good person, and I'm also so sad for Thorn.

Raith seems like the classic berzerker - needing the thing in his mouth, etc. I'm not loving his character yet, but I don't hate him. I do love Blue Jenner. And I think Skara is doing very well with what she has (which is almost nothing).

RIP Brand. You were a good man

I hate that he died, but I can't wait to see Thorn take her vengeance out on Bright.

Surprised to see Yarvi outsmarted so easily but it is nice to see that it can happen. Hopefully he is more careful going forward and takes his revenge

Wonder who the mole/spy in the alliance is. Thinking it's Mother Scaer, never liked her

I've never liked Mother Scaer either. Or really any of the ministers, except Yarvi.

Brand dying cost this book a star!

Haha. Poor Brand/Thorn. I liked Yarvi's plan failing as all of his plans worked so well in the previous books.

Raith's battle scene kind of reminded me of Logen's from First Law minus the laughing. I like how it kind of shows the chaos of battle.