Sarah Connell > Recent Status Updates

“Galad never counted the cost of doing right, not to himself or anyone else.”

“I could live with you being a sniveling wretch if that was what you were. I take ppl as they are, not as I would like them to be or else I leave them. But that is not what you are, and I will not accept your reasons for playing at them.”

“Rand bloody al’Thor. Fall in love with a man and you ended up doing laundry. Even if it did belong to another man. When she marched into the kitchen to demand a wash tub and hot water, she was snarling every bit as much as Siuan.”

“There were oil lamps wedged into the soft dirt every ten feet or so, and she could smell their thick scent, along with the wild odour of Euriale’s dirt. And another, stranger smell. That was the Spinner.”

“There were signs now that she was nearing home – skulls propped on sticks and wedged into tree hollows, their smooth foreheads painted black and white, banners of bird feathers and bear skins hanging from the trees.”

“She felt a sneaking admiration for someone who was courteous without need.”

“It is what they expect old women to do: feed them care for them listen to them” — she writes a fed up old lady soooo well.

“To see the end of a deed in its beginning was the prime virtue. To lay a trap where only prey not allies walked was the first lesson of the stalker.”

Plot. Thickens.

“The moon had painted the clouds with light, and they hung in the sky like ghostly courtiers paying homage to their queen.”

I knew this book would break my heart

‘We will help you, Father,’ she looked at him, her yellow eyes steady and without mercy, ‘gladly.’ ‘Then let’s bring them a nightmare on the sunrise.’

Twisssst!

“Magical libraries usually have a life of their own.”

“The man with livid-blue veins turned his blank eyes on them, an expression of faint puzzlement creasing his face. The light that was inside him pulsed. ‘It can see your soul,’ said Xinian, in a matter-of-fact tone. ‘You are about the only thing here left with one. And that will make it hungry.’”

“Inside the thorn bush, the fire became her entire world, so bright it blotted out the cold and the black. Nuava stared into it, telling herself the same things over and over until her eyelids began to droop: Things will look better in the daylight, and I will be able to find my way…”

“But the world…does not shape itself to your wish any more than dough mixes itself when you’re hungry. That was truth. She had never found it otherwise.”

I don’t think this one’s for me… a lot of crying and being cold. The women characters all hate each other, vying for the attention of emotionally distant men. And the only reason the MC joined the rebellion side of the war is bc she had a crush on the leader guy who treated her as a pet. Hoping there’s more to it.

Such effortless storytelling. Never thought I’d read anything this reminiscent of Le Guin.

“Defeat,” drummed the right hand. “Not defeat! Victory. They are gone and we are here!” drummed the left hand. One by one, the right hand changed places until the left hand drumming carried all the power of the people.

“Her sleep was broken by dreams of water.”
“Her body felt heavy but new, washed clean by the rain.”

“He saw her standing in the middle of the cobbled street, waving her dagger at the retreating thugs who had been trying to kill him, laughing so hard she had doubled over, clutching her stomach with mirth. When she’d got the last of her giggles out, she had turned to him and grinned, offering him a hand. ‘Come on, big man,’ she’d said. ‘That ale in your stomach will be getting lonely by now.’”

Ohhh… is this a ‘falls in love with captor’ theme?

“His arms were burning with spells, and his head swam with words – so many held in balance at once, changing and shifting and being brought together.”

The monster smashed its bony head against the invisible wall again, its mouth opening slightly to let a thin stream of bubbles past its jagged teeth, and for a few seconds the force keeping the sea out flickered ominously…
Another crash, and suddenly there was a tear in the sky and the sea was pouring down towards them in a solid band of grey and white. It hit the buildings behind…