Nolyn: Book 1 of the Rise and Fall Trilogy discussion

What do you think after reading this chapter?

Sephryn's allies are turning out to be as varied and delightful as Nolyn's. And this lesson in karma couldn't be more fun!

I finally like Sephryn. Like others, I warmed up to her slowly. Her disregard and disbelief of the stories her parents told and her loathing of her mother put me off a bit. But I see her wit and intelligence shining through. I think she will transform through this book/series and I look forward to it.

I agree with Sarah wholeheartedly. I already adore Augustine. I appreciate his desire to make right the wrongs of his people’s past. I can hardly wait to hear Tim’s voice for him! (Rain’s voice was one of my favorites.)

Rain v Gronbach was a clever way to set up Augustine’s choice. And having Errol in the room was fun. Errol isn’t as ‘thick’, by which I mean full and rich, a character as I’d expect for someone we hope sticks around. He’s a bit Royce but doesn’t really have his own shtick yet. I suspect he’s a FIFO character...

But also, I am really starting to wonder about the economy of the empyre (the impyrial economy?). There is evidently currency now - did Nyphron introduce that? Is currency sovereign-backed? Again, why doesn’t Nyphron employ someone to clean up after him? Is the military paid for by the sovereign or levied from the people?

And thus there is evidently some basic widespread numeracy - how much can you spend on accommodation, for example, between Sephryn and the monk. But writing is banned. How is a wealthy merchant like Augustus likely to keep a ledger, as surely he would, without writing?

And what about theories of the state. How is there a bureaucracy and massive archive, without widespread writing? Does Nyphron keep a class of scribes who are forbidden to write anything except records of how little he spends on tidying up? #freethescribes

I really enjoyed the way Errol told Sephryn all the things that have been going on through the City’s morning. Was a nice little insight how the city works :-)

Unfortunately that’s a topic that is also frustrating me a bit at the moment. While reading about Sephryn I‘m really heading from one page to the next, just hoping to find a few answers how we get to the actual Percepliquis. All those questions in my head (getting more and more) seem to prevent me from letting myself fall into her actual storyline.

But that also might be just because I‘m still not „warm“ with her character. I really don’t like her way she‘s talking and thinking about her parents. Not just not believing but in a kind of disrespectful way. I‘m sure there are reasons for that, that will be revealed later on, but for the moment it seems I just don’t like her character and arrogant behavior. Hopefully my feelings for her will change during the story, when I get to understand why she‘s acting/talking/behave the way she does.

@Hanna: Interesting thought about how to run a business without writing. Hope that the whole thing about writing & reading will be explained soon.