The Not a Book Club Club discussion

Section 5

Please keep all discussion and speculation to the events of Chapter 64 - Chapter 77.

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/books. Referring back to events from a previous section is fine.

Finished this part as well. Of course the dominant event in this part was the battle with all its preperations.
There were some neat ideas around the wallm although the whole building it in 4-5 days really strained my sense of disbelief.
I was quite "happy" with the outcome of the battle, cause it shows us that even superman Gavin can fail and not everything he tries automatically succeeds.

Another thing I realized that bugs me a bit with this book is that I'm not sure that Weeks makes the best decision with being so indecisive in his style.
With all the humor and the light atmosphere the books often comes along like a PG 13 story and then out of a sudden there is over-the-top violence that seems a bit uncalled for.
Looking at it from the other side, there is a violent story, that constantly gets interrupted by childish and uncalled for humor.
I think my main issue is that he isn't able to seperate these extremes in his characters. Kip makes inappropriate jokes in one minute, in the next he brutally murders half a dozen people.
Same with Gavin. Snarky remarks here, merciless killing there. Even Liv and Karris have elements where they could almost be serious characters, but then they are ridiculed in some way.
I think this book would have worked really well as a 450p epic without the humor (or with 1-2 characters being the comic relief), or as a 300p parody, but this indecision of what it really wants to be hurts it a lot in my opinion.
I think Weeks was aiming for a clever hop between extremes, but for me it is too random in its execution.

The idea of colour drafters reminds me of the Wheel of Time's Aeis Sedai, with different strengths and abilities for the different colours, etc.

Not really much else to add for this section.

This is where the story ramps up a level, shows the authors skill at writing a fast paced action packed battle scene.


Author needs to work on his comic timing some times where he inserts the jokes just spoils the story flow.

Mark is right, Weeks has written a good action-packed story. Sometimes I wish it were being told by a better storyteller though.

I did like the big battle and the run-up to it. I love the idea of an army of color wights. This might refer more to events in the chapters immediately after these, but I don't think it's too spoilery to say that I really love the way Gavin-Dazen (not even sure what to call him) struggles with religion. I identify with his lack of belief, but at the same time recognizing that people sometimes need that belief to make sense of their lives.

Alex wrote: "I'm going to sound like a super heathen here and apologies if I offend anyone...but I feel like the higher up in a religious organization you are, the less religious you actually are.

It's a busi..."

Sounds right Alex,

Certainly no arguments from my fellow super-heathen ass here, Alex... although since I doubt we have any upper-echelon religious leaders in this group, there's really no cause for anyone to take direct offense. I'd be careful about saying that sort of thing in the goodreads Vatican Book Club (this month's selection: I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell) though.

I'm a high priest of apatheism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatheism

Rob wrote: "I'm a high priest of apatheism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatheism"

As a pastafarian minister, I find your lack of faith disturbing...

http://www.venganza.org/

Well broken internet/TV means I'm likely to finally finish the book this week. I'm enjoying it more now at least.

Ch 64

You would think being picked on, Kip would think before he acted a lot more. What an idiot. Lucky for him Ironfist was there. At least he was able to draft.

Ch 66

Kip running off to save Karris is just dumb. Liv going with him instead of stopping him, is more so. *sigh*

Ch 67

I find Karris back story with Gavin disgusting. How does she not realize he's a fake?

Ch 68

I really don't get how get how a highly trained soldier like Karris never figured out the switch, broken engagement or not.

Ch 70

Drinking water from a river that both men and animals use as a latrine. Eww.

So we get a little bit of an idea of what Gavin was hiding of Kip's true ability in the test results. But of course he doesn't know what he's doing. Plus, I still find him completely unlikable.

Ch 71

Liv shows herself to be far more capable than Kip. Not magically of course, but her judgment is far better.

Ch 72

Using his superchromat ability that Gavin doesn't have in proximity to old enemies and allies alike. If he doesn't get discovered as a fake soon, I'll be disappointed.

So much for a gate...

Ch 73
I don't really understand what Gavin did there at the end? Did he create some kind of explosion that cleared out the enemy? Why wouldn't he use that power at another attempt to create a gate?

Ch 77

Harsh penalty. Then again it seemed like the governor was one of those thinly written, greedy noble type that was created for just such a purpose

And to me pastafarianism seems to be almost as bad as religious nuts. A lot of what I read about them make them come off like assholes to me. Live and let live imho.

Rob wrote: "Harsh penalty. Then again it seemed like the governor was one of those thinly written, greedy noble type that was created for just such a purpose."

In the next book, you find out that his entire family inherited the one-dimensional thinly-written greedy noble villain trait.

Call me shocked. We'll see if I do the next novel. Simon Vance reading the audio helps its case though.

OMG dat Simon Vance tho!!!
Seriesly, first time i ever read this series was on graphic audio, tried the normal audiobook version to discover Gavin sounds like a Surfer and kip sounds like a 12 year old..aside from that loved it..

Slick wrote: "OMG dat Simon Vance tho!!!
Seriesly, first time i ever read this series was on graphic audio, tried the normal audiobook version to discover Gavin sounds like a Surfer and kip sounds like a 12 year..."

Graphic audio I am finding it a bullshit in my mind instead of movie in my mind because the whole background sound is so irritating.

the battle was good I did not much get the wall part, I pictured it as he was building a wall of luxen with some paintings on it to distract the enemy but unfortunately it does not hold. Again a bit confused by the magic it's a bit too complex for my liking in theory it seems simple to understand but when someone does it practically it seems harder for me to imagine.