2-3-4 Challenge Book Discussions #1 discussion

At the beginning of the story, Celaena is the last to know about the capture and death of her comrades. Was she kept out of the loop deliberately? If so, why?

I didn't see many hints as to why, other than that she was particularly close to Ben (I think).

I think Arobynn kept her out of the loop on purpose. She seemed very close to Ben and I think that Arobynn knew that she would run off to retrieve his body and avenge his death without thinking. He informed her at the meeting so that others could help stop her if needed.

Yes, she did seem to be quite close to Ben. I was wondering whether Arobynn might have wanted to keep her out of the loop for another reason...

Don't read the spoiler below until you've read until the end:

(view spoiler)[Now I think that like with Sam, Arobynn had Ben because he was close to Celaena and Arobynn doesn't "share his belongings". (hide spoiler)]

I’m wondering if it might have something to do with (view spoiler)[ the reason she and Sam got sent away (hide spoiler)].

Can’t read spoilers on my phone so now I’m wondering if we wrote the same :)

Lieke wrote: "I’m wondering if it might have something to do with [spoilers removed]."

I wondered the same thing!

You know me...queen of conspiracy theories.😏

Something was rotten about the whole mess involving Ben and Gregori, who is still missing. Couple that with the awful mission Arobynn sent them on, I believe there’s a lot more we have to learn about him and what happened to Ben. Calaena was Ben’s protégée and he her mentor and her late notice of his death felt calculated.

Me too, Jonetta!

I didn't know what to think about why Celaena was told last. It appears Arobynn would have dispatched an assassin to ensure Gregori died to protect the group but there was no follow up to the opening other than it mentioning Celaena did go out and retrieve Ben's body. I know the purpose of a novella is to introduce characters, writing style, etc but I rarely read one that feels whole to me. This one felt as I was missing a whole lot of background information about the Ben and Gregori thing, like this should have been the second novella of the series and the Ben/Gregori story was the first but I skipped it on accident. Like the beginning was actually an epilogue for the unwritten first novella as well as a prologue for this one. Does that make sense?

Yes, it makes sense. I had issues with the world building, there not being enough. That’s a real switch for me:)

There are definitely details missing here, and I really hope they will be provided in the main series.

I'm hoping the full novels will provide the missing world building as well. Not to mention I'm hoping Celaena will rub off on me as well.

I agree, Christina. The short stories mention so many different places.

I can definitely see Lauren's theory that it could have been (view spoiler)[Arobynn manipulating events to isolate Celaena and 'keep her' for himself (hide spoiler)]. Is there more to it than that? I'm wondering if we haven't heard the end of this. Maybe Celaena will discover more about it later.

Allison wrote: "I'm wondering if we haven't heard the end of this. Maybe Celaena will discover more about it later. "

I'm sure we haven't heard the last of it. In fact, as the prequel's were written after the first couple of book in the main series, I think that it is a significant issue there and Maas decided to establish the foundation for it in the prequel.

It's interesting reading the prequels first and wondering what has significance and what is new.