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I’ll say it again - the way Dinniman sets up forward momentum is so good.

Hilarious.

“I’lllll beeee gone, in a day or twoooooo,” I cried, hitting the extra-high note.
There was a chime from the performance gauge floating by my head, and digital sparkles showered off it.
Half the crowd stopped fighting at that. I caught eyes with Florin, who’d stopped dead in mid-punch. He looked at me and mouthed, Wow.
Both of our performance gauges were buried to the right, all the way in the green..."

Short previous chaps. Gut punch of a chap.

Operation Bouncehouse got me back on this train. So much happening in the first quarter and literally all set-up which, for me was helpful trying to get back into what was going on and with whom. Even still with the almost zip action, Dinniman still able to plant seeds for continuous forward action. Admirable in this vast worldbuilding, plot points and cast of characters.

“If people didn’t cart about seeing us die maybe they’ll care about seeing us live”

There are different kinds of fighting.

Felt a death flash went up. I think Sam’s gonna die

Right. Ok. So I knew Dinniman can write very amusing, funny adventures with interesting characters - wacky with unexpected hidden depths times well (ie dungeon crawler series) but this is different book altogether. Still keeps Dinniman’s brand of wit and joviality in bleak circumstances. But this has a bleakness (dark human sin and greed) running through it. Compelling writing.

The modern revival of multiverse theory is the other side of the age-old question of choice or inevitability

The trinkets Ancel kept as placeholders of the trinket his mother had gifted him but then inadvertently kept for herself during her escape.

Saffy and Ancel (esp when they finally reach the interrogation room together) gave me Jean Valjean and Javert vibes - in the cat and mouse chase, in the potential symmetries and sides of the same coin (but in this case mawing, clawing pain -> search for release/soothing -> the throbbing emptiness of incomplete salve/salvation)

“I don’t know why…”.

Chilling

“This was her story now… she would be rewriting a narrative the rest of her life. Shaping it. Defining it. Hurling it against the wall.”

There is something dreamlike in this story. Is it the yearning apparent in each and every one of the characters? (Which, btw well done). Also how the chapters are organized - countdown & changing POVs.

On my. On my to read because of a GR challenge but oh dear when I started this - for wtvr reason - I had it in my head that this was a Cory Doctorow 🤦🏾‍♀️ no wonder the vibes were different. I was waiting for something to drop the way Doctorow does. Guess I gotta re-align expectations or just try to obliterate priors (ie learn to go in with flat priors)

Erm k idk man there definitely is more to this story but im feeling hesitant to continue. I sense a twist that may break my heart - or at least a jostle if not a crack

Lavender’s chapter is heartbreaking. A mother, devoid.

The author has excellent timing - what is revealed during different parts of the story and the character’s responses of where they themselves “are” in the story / of what they know in comparison to what readers know. Adds emotional layers and impact. Exquisite.

Still, well-written and compelling characters navigating complex situations. Introspective crime and murder isn’t my typical genre but am enjoying this — if “enjoying” is the right word to describe being enthralled and appreciative of the storytelling while needing to pause and pray for the depths of depravity in a world separated by God.

Well done.

That his ego is his own downfall and yet he blames a woman, blind in his inability to see outside of himself. It is gendered but also hits at fundamental qs of good and evil. Of what can he be but who he is if this is “how he was made”. While curious about alternate realities.

I appreciate many things about this book but as a Christian, the theological stance I must fundamentally disagree with.

TW: abuse, heart-ache of evil and sin’s affects in this world

As in the comedy/humour is from the juxtaposition of the different circumstances (masked men and mysterious red-haired woman with a stick chasing after Logen VS Bayaz getting increasingly annoyed with waiting on the boat and from Jezal pov all he had to worry about was Bayaz getting annoyed with Bayaz saying he’s gonna take a bath as his last chance)

It’s hard not to notice how playfully Abercrombie writes, especially the trick he uses of cutting back-and-forth between 2 (often polar) characters (like going b/w Logen, Glokta, and Jezal, Bayaz in same banquet with different levels of understanding what’s happening). In this case, Logen and Farro in the midst of tense fight/chase vs Jezal distraught but air of lazy waiting on the boat. It’s comedic writing