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Ok, my first post on the FBR group. Just posting that I'm in on this read.

Tnkw01 wrote: "Ok, my first post on the FBR group. Just posting that I'm in on this read."

Yay!!! Welcome to the madness:)

Yeay!!! New people on our BR! Welcome everyone! 🤗

Starting this today. Trying to do 1-2 sets a day.

Janny has provided me with a link to a great story timeline summary of the first book, The Curse of the Mistwraith, in case anyone needs brushing up before beginning book 2: http://www.paravia.com/JannyWurts/web...

Of course, it has many spoilers for that book if you haven't read it yet :)

I was just complaining to my other half that fantasy series should have a summary of the previous books somewhere !!

I’m in. One to two chapter sets a day sounds like a reasonable rate.

Started this evening.

Starting today also. :)

Same here. I like that pace too... 😀

I don’t have much to say about the first two chapter sets. The first took me a while to get into and wrap my head around prose and characters. The second flowed nicely and I’m enjoying the antics of the mad prophet.

Olivia wrote: "I don’t have much to say about the first two chapter sets. The first took me a while to get into and wrap my head around prose and characters. The second flowed nicely and I’m enjoying the antics o..."

Yea, the mad prophet is, to say the least, interesting. He adds humor relief at times but just drinks too much. Reminds me of my frat days many years ago when I was in college. He could have been one of my brothers.

I thought I posted here yesterday but it’s disappeared! I plan to follow the 2 chapter sets a day as well. Seems like a reasonable pace

Olivia wrote: "I don’t have much to say about the first two chapter sets. The first took me a while to get into and wrap my head around prose and characters. The second flowed nicely and I’m enjoying the antics o..."

I remember struggling with this as well, trying to orient myself after the intensity of Curse.

I read those pages describing the entrance into Jaelot while laughing.

Faery-toes is a treasure (I tried imagining him dropping belly-down in a splay legged heap to a whistling grunt of astonishment and burst out laughing 😁).
Dakar's reaction to all that mess was hilarious. And the reaction of the bystanders nothing less
'I doubt if that bundle of incompetence is able to move four feet in consecutive order.'
'Well, that says it all in a nutshell.'

Dakar seems to be a genuine walking disaster! But I love him anyway! :D

Chapter Set 3. In my Kindle version on page 79, 12% there’s a paragraph starting with “the last time Lysaer crossed the Thaldeins by way of the Orlan Pass....”

Halfway into the paragraph my copy says “With the visible sky 4 ribbon of blue”

What was that originally?? Before someone snuck a 4 in??

Olivia wrote: "Chapter Set 3. In my Kindle version on page 79, 12% there’s a paragraph starting with “the last time Lysaer crossed the Thaldeins by way of the Orlan Pass....”

Halfway into the paragraph my copy s..."

(view spoiler)[ The last time Lysaer crossed the Thaldeins by way of the Orlan Pass, the mountains had been mantled in mist and blizzard. Hastened then in the company of a Fellowship sorcerer, he recalled no landmarks beyond drifts and treacherous abutments of seamed rock. With the visible sky a ribbon of blue overhead, the scarp traversed today under knives of morning sunlight looked savage and strange, a tableau of hanging slate overhangs, windchiselled ridges, and stands of gnarled evergreen slashed and skewed with the boulder-strewn scars of old slides. (hide spoiler)]

Ah cool! The 4 used to be an “a” - thank you. I was worried that maybe more had been lost! Thank you!

Olivia wrote: "Ah cool! The 4 used to be an “a” - thank you. I was worried that maybe more had been lost! Thank you!"

Always, no problem:):):)

Chapter Set 3. I’ve not yet got lots to say. But I really struggle liking Lysaer these days.

Ooo, I don't like him at all! Something has to happen for him to wake up and realize he is turning into a bad guy...

You have to hand it to the guy though - he is brilliant on plotting and making others do his bidding.
In chapter 3 the way he (view spoiler)[made sure he'll get the support of the mayors by having the clans take the gifts he received proves him a mastermind.
I just don't know if I should feel sorry for him because the curse made him so twisted or hate his guts for doing so much harm. He seems utterly mad at times. People are either with him or must be crushed. That is so sick. :( (hide spoiler)]

After the chapter set 4 and the meeting of the mages (view spoiler)[everything seems so hopeless. There doesn't seem to be the slightest chance of lifting that curse.

And there is this little explanation given by Sethvir 'Both carry the attributes of 2 royal families.' So Lysaer also has the sight? I had missed that somehow. Can it be that he planned the whole meeting with Maenalle's people based on foresight?

And I do hope Faery-toes will be saved from the knacker. I really really like him. (hide spoiler)]

I'm a little further along than some here, 50% through. The brothers are more similar then one would think IMO. Lysaer does have some good qualities (view spoiler)[ He sacrifices his dignity and experiences harsh treatment all to prove he will not tolerate slavery (hide spoiler)], and Arithon is also manipulative. (view spoiler)[ He manipulates Dakar's hatred of him into helping blow up a armory. (hide spoiler)] I have to say not sure what to think about the brothers and Dakar. Dakar, to me, seems to becoming more and more of a buffoon.

Finished Chapter Set 4. It all sounds quite hopeless. And I have no idea yet where it’s going.
Agreed Laura on both Lysaer and Faery-toes!

@Tnkw01 - could you please include the chapter set no. in your post so we know when we can open your spoilers as we are behind. :)

Just finished Chapter set 5 and I have to say it:

I got so very angry at first when (view spoiler)[those pompous rich fools treated Halliron so badly and then chained Dakar to the post in the middle of the room. (hide spoiler)]

And then I cried when (view spoiler)[that guard knocked Halliron down and he remained there senseless with blood pooling under his head amid the snickering and laughter. I cried because of the manner in which Arithon was forced to play for his master's and Dakar's lives and because of the indignity of it all. (hide spoiler)]

And then (view spoiler)[the music was so beautiful - and there was hope again because if cripples were able to walk and blind could see, even the wound of the masterbard must have healed. So he should be all right.
And Arithon got his power back! Yeay! and
Damn it! I missread again. He probably said he couldn't have broken Dakar's iron cuffs before because he had been caught up in the music. Duh! (hide spoiler)]

I hate the way the (view spoiler)[Order is using Elaira. Openly scorning her and showing that she's only a pawn. As if she's just a faulty witch and not one of their own. It's so sad and so wrong! (hide spoiler)]

Laura wrote: "You have to hand it to the guy though - he is brilliant on plotting and making others do his bidding.
In chapter 3 the way he made sure he'll get the support of the mayors by having the clans take ..."

Exactly! It is not a healthy, regular outlook on things... That curse is really doing a number on him...

Ya’ll are way ahead of me! I’ll get cracking today! I came to hate both Lysander and Dakar in this book.

Sandra wrote: "Ya’ll are way ahead of me! I’ll get cracking today! I came to hate both Lysander and Dakar in this book."

I am sure they both deserve it:)

Tnkw01 wrote: "...Arithon is also manipulative. (view spoiler)[ [ He manipulates Dakar's hatred of him into helping blow up a armory...." (hide spoiler)]

I didn't read it that way at all. (view spoiler)[Arithon is manipulative, and he plays on Dakar's hatred to get him into the armory, as he needs the S'Brydion's to basically open the doors for him, whereupon he basically follows them in, but it's Dakar's attempt at getting Arithon killed by the S'Brydion and not giving Arithon the actual details of the job that the Fellowship assigned to Dakar that causes that armory to blow up. If Arithon had known about the blackpowder and how it worked, he would not have put the guards lives at risk. (hide spoiler)]

Did any of you get the difference between mage sight and mage power? Are they both the same? Because I'm a bit confused.
It's said at times that Arithon lost his powers and at others that he blinded his mage sight.
I thought the mage sight was what allowed him to sense magic and people and other living things or power objects, etc; and his mage powers are what makes him able to manipulate shadows. Did I get it wrong?

Here Arithon still seems to be able to do magic but in several places it is mentioned he has lost his powers.
Can anyone help me get it straight please?

Sandra wrote: "Ya’ll are way ahead of me! I’ll get cracking today! I came to hate both Lysander and Dakar in this book."

I wonder if I'll come to do that too.

Darned autocorrect! Lysaer is not Lysander!

Laura wrote: "Did any of you get the difference between mage sight and mage power? Are they both the same? Because I'm a bit confused.
It's said at times that Arithon lost his powers and at others that he blind..."

He found mage power through the sound energies of his music but did not recover his mage sight. Two different powers. His music is so powerful that it charges the energies that are the basis of magic in this world. This rings true to me as the power of music releases so many things in our real world.

@Sandra - Thank you. That makes sense.
In chapter 5 when Arithon (view spoiler)[broke Dakar's chains I actually thought that was the moment he got his powers back (and the way he did it through music was new and awesome if I may say so) but then it didn't make sense because he was putting up a glamour all that time, which means that he had power all along. So I edited my comment.

And then the mages telling Arithon has lost his powers meant that they didn't know he got it back and is using it now through music? (hide spoiler)]

He was using his shadow mastery to create his disguise. That is a separate thing. Independent from mage powers. Like lysaer has the power of light and no mage power.

Laura wrote: "Sandra wrote: "Ya’ll are way ahead of me! I’ll get cracking today! I came to hate both Lysander and Dakar in this book."

I wonder if I'll come to do that too."

Well, I misspoke a little. I didn’t hate lysaeras much as Dakar. Pity is mixed with extreme dislike.

Laura wrote: "@Tnkw01 - could you please include the chapter set no. in your post so we know when we can open your spoilers as we are behind. :)

Just finished Chapter set 5 and I have to say it:

I got so very ..."

Both were in chapter 7.

@Sandra - Arithon was turning (view spoiler)[his hair from black to brown and his eyes from green to another colour also. Shadows should only turn his dresses black or cover scars so that they become invisible right? Did he use those to change his hair from black to brown also? Shouldn't that fall under mage powers? (hide spoiler)]

Laura wrote: "@Sandra - Arithon was turning [spoilers removed]"
I know but he creates all kinds of things with shadow - soldiers, play ships and people with the children. Changes his eye and hair color, covers his scar. I can see colored shadows covering darker colors. Maybe it was a glamor but I don’t think so because Dakar would see right through that.

Thank you Sandra. :) I hadn't thought about it this way. Now it makes sense.

Laura wrote: "Thank you Sandra. :) I hadn't thought about it this way. Now it makes sense."

There’s reference in chapter six to all of it.

Chapter Set 5 Oh, wow, that was very intense. I loved the entire scene with Arithon. I'm very intrigued still. Loving the prose. And still not liking Lysaer. That part with (view spoiler)[Halliron knocked down, Arithon worried about him, blood, lifeless and they tell him he has to play or no healer/litter made me sooooo mad! (hide spoiler)]

Chapter Set 6 done as well. Things are starting to happen ha! Can't wait to see what happens in 7 and 8 when I sit down tomorrow.

Olivia wrote: "Chapter Set 6 done as well. Things are starting to happen ha! Can't wait to see what happens in 7 and 8 when I sit down tomorrow."

Yes, I’m starting 7.

John wrote: "Tnkw01 wrote: "...Arithon is also manipulative. [spoilers removed]

I didn't read it that way at all. [spoilers removed]"

So, I admit I was wrong. I now officially do not like Lysaer AT ALL. I'm starting to like Arithon even more. I'll add more later because I'm a farther along and don't want to tempt anyone.

I’ve just read 7 and despite all the questionable things Arithon does I just really like him!