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Toll the Hounds
Group Read - Toll the Hounds
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TtH - Chapter Twenty Two - No Spoilers
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Lee, High Priest of Shadow
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Jan 05, 2014 02:09PM
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So we begin to understand why Kallor is like he is. Erikson is doing a great job of making him harder to
I hushed no problem still hating him. He was cursed because he is a hateful person, he has no heart and doesn't give a damn about anything or anyone. He kills thousands because they are meaningless in playing his games of power.
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Traveller is met by Cotillion who apprises him of the situation with Hood (I’m guessing) Traveller/Dassem is staggered. His vengeance denied – still he keeps plodding on towards Rake.
We now know the task that Rake had assigned to Spinnock – the Tiste Andii Champion is tasked with keeping Kallor out of the city.
And high in the night sky the moon is shattered - falling apart completely
Nimander is still waiting for the right time to take down Clip. And we learn what his secret weapon is. Nimander is a soletaken eleint as are his companions.
Nimander Golit, the blood of our Lord is within you. The blood of Eleint, too – is that the secret? Is that the one weapon Clip did not know you possess? How could he know? How could anyone? We have suppressed it within ourselves for so long now—’
Because Andarist told us to!
What strikes me about this is that it sheds further light on Andarist’s angst concerning Rake. It wasn’t just the fact that Rake left his children to defend Drift Avalii – but the whole deal with killing Tiam and drinking her blood appears not to have sat well with Andarist – disgusted him even - to the point that he would allow the defender’s of the true Throne of Shadow to die before wave on wave of Tiste Edur rather than allow them to veer into their dragon forms.
Anyway – I think Clip AKA the dying god is not totally unaware of the danger to him – he opens up a portal, but only very quickly allowing only a couple of the Tiste to follow through.
And Hood arrives in Dragnipur – along with the armies of Death – here to make one last stand against chaos. Whiskey Jack and the Bridgeburners along with a whole host of other military companies are to spearhead the assault on chaos.
For the first time in forever – the cart stops rolling – and what’s more, Hood orders it turned around.
‘I often wondered what it looked like, this Hold creaking on its wooden wheels . . . a pathetic thing, really. Crude, clumsy.’ He faced Draconus, rotted skin curling back from the tusks. ‘Now, turn it around.’
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Lee, High Priest of Shadow
(last edited Jan 05, 2014 07:06PM)
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And yet he literally begs, Spinnock not to get in his way. I'd say the last thing he wants to do is kill Spin, yet his agenda cannot be stopped, just like Hood, Rake and Traveller. They all have their reasons to be there.
'Did you think it was my intention to murder Whiskeyjack? Do you think I just cut down honourable men and loyal soldiers out of spite? You weren't even there! It was Silverfox who needed to die, and that is a failure we shall all one day come to rue. Mark my words
Everyone hates him for killing Whiskeyjack, but how do we know he wasn't right? He still maintains that Sliverfox was going to cause untold damage. What if that comes to pass and it proves she shouldn't have been allowed to do what she did.
What about Hood's involvement? How do we know that Hood didn't make it happen that way so that WhiskeyJack could lead the dead?
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Silanda is doped up and whirling her blades, Gradithan has a bunch of virgins ready, the dying god is coming, The Seerdomin and the Redeemer are at the battles edge with what looks like little hope and a hoary great dragon sits on her perch smacking her lips. (do dragons have lips?)
Looks like Spindle has the right idea. You can imagine that there is going to be a messy ending there as well as at Daru.
So we begin to understand why Kallor is like he is.I totally agree with lee it is getting hard to hate kallor because he just like rake,traveller or karsa of indomitable will although his actions are always wrong but he regrets doing many things which he has done.
Also what a convergence it is turning out to be
1.Rake
2.Traveller
3.Karsa
4.Shadow Throne
5.Kruppe
6.Pust
7.Hood
8.Spite
9.Envy
10.Kallor
what more you want :p.
Traveler is met by Cotillion who apprises him of the situation with Hood (I’m guessing) Traveller/Dassem is staggered. His vengeance denied – still he keeps plodding on towards Rake.
Yes i think david is right in this, but what drives traveler along with his will is it the sword vengeance??.
We now know the task that Rake had assigned to Spinnock – the Tiste Andii Champion is tasked with keeping Kallor out of the city.
Looks like spinnock is truly having a burdensome task assigned to him.
And high in the night sky the moon is shattered - falling apart completely
Is t his happening due to the jade statues coming down again? or is it happening completely for a different reason?.
What strikes me about this is that it sheds further light on Andarist’s angst concerning Rake
But wasn't rake clear as to why he did this? because he knew mother dark was going to throw them out and so for tiste andii to survive rake did it out for their concern.
For the first time in forever – the cart stops rolling – and what’s more, Hood orders it turned around
I am loving hood aka jaghut do we know anything about his identity, also draconus has a conversation with him regarding who will collect the souls of dead which he says let the gods they worship do it and then he asks what about the ones who do not worship anyone which he replies what about them so what does it actually mean ?. So if somebody who does not worship anyone dies what happens to his soul?.
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The moon has been breaking up since Bonehunters so I think thbis is the same conflagration. Even though they dodged a bullet in BH it was only a temporary reprieve.
Which brings about another point - It was Hood who was responsible for that reprieve at Paran's request. Hood let Heboric or Heboric's soul out so he could embrace the falling worshippers in the falling jade thereby drawing the falling pieces to himself and away from everyone else. But Hood wanted something in return - we never get to hear what he bargained for but it surprised Paran as well as Quick Ben (who was hiding in the gate and listening in). I think he's now getting what he asked for because...
‘You damned fool! You asked for this, didn’t you? Have you lost your mind?’
‘A bargain, old friend,’ Hood replied, still studying the chains on his wrists. ‘A . . . gamble.’
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Yes - but Mother Dark did not consider the end justified the means - and neither did Andarist I'm guessing.
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Lee, High Priest of Shadow
(last edited Jan 06, 2014 03:08PM)
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2.Traveller
3.Karsa
4.Shadow Throne
5.Kruppe
6.Pust
7.Hood
8.Spite
9.Envy
10.Kallor
what more you want
11. Hounds of Shadow
12. Hounds of Light
13. Vorcan
14. Humble Measure
15. Pickled Seguleh
16. Actual Seguleh
17. Cotillion
18. Rallick Nom
Oh, and don't forget Baruk. And Raest is still in that Azath House. And Dev'ad Anan Tol is on his way. Wow!I really like what's going on with Kallor and how many ways there are to react to it. On one hand, we can see what's going on in his head, we know he has emotions, he can feel a kind of compassion and he isn't cruel just for the sake of cruelty like so many characters. At the same time, he stays overwhelmingly selfish. He doesn't like killing people who get in his way, but he can't consider even for a moment not killing them. In this last scene, he almost gives me the impression that he thinks people get in his way just to make him feel bad. "I have nothing against any of you" - true enough, but I think it's beside the point. So I think "You do not understand. You never did, Kallor," is still true.
I think what's happening with the moon is new. Erikson hasn't really been telling us what's going on, but what I gathered before was just a shower of magic jade fragments. First some hit the moon, then some hit the earth. Now it sounds like something blew up the moon - a much, much bigger deal, if Erikson is carrying over as much real world astronomy as it's sounded like. If some of those moon fragments impact, it would be nothing like a few measly chunks of jade. Not to mention whatever exploded the moon in the first place.
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Don't forget he is hundreds of thousands of years old. So most people are of little interest to him because their lives are so short relatively.
It's also possible that what Kallor wants is not that different from what the Tlann Imass wanted. His primary goal is to break the curse put on him. We all assume he wants that so he can resume his empire, and that's probably true. But the other part of his curse is his immortality. He won't die and he won't ascend. He'd probably like to ascend, but he might settle for death. 300,000 years is a long time. At least the Imass had some purpose for much of that time. Kallor has had none. Maybe all he wants is to break the curse on him so he can be done with everything.
And David, I guessed the same thing about Paran in what I posted in the last chapter. But I don't think its clear which part was the bargain and which was the gamble. He clearly had to have had some arrangement with Rake for this to happen. The gamble, I think, was relying on Gaz and his wife to make his appearance possible. (Note that we've had his vulnerability set up here by Heboric pulling Fener into the real world and thus becoming vulnerable.) So I still think we are guessing at Paran's role in all this, but then, what else could it be?
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And this is probably way off, but based on one of the passages in this chapter, I'm thinking Aranatha might be Mother Dark.
I haven't read as much as I wanted to this week, but now that it's the weekend I'm hoping to finish the rest of the book today..
I think you're all forgetting why the curse was placed on Kallor - because he was a monster as a mortal.
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I am not saying I like him, I am saying that the simple 'Kallor is a traitorous, murdering, single minded evil man' is not the case anymore. He has shown that in this book. Now he is just a single minded murderer :)
OK that I can buy. Altho I think if he got to be a tyrant again he'd continue killing masses.
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I think Kallor is still evil, though it's qualified evil and not absolute. I really don't think he wants to break the curse and die because of how much he prides himself on being a survivor. I think Lee could be right that his long life has something to do with why he values other people so little, but I don't think that's supposed to be a point in his favor. Any ascendant would have the same excuse for their callousness and Erikson hasn't been suggesting it's a good one.
I kept wondering if the army of chaos was in fact the army of the dead, I was close. When both Rake and Hood showed up I figured it out and wasn't shocked During this tirade, Hood continued to stare at the wagon, at its towering, tottering heap of bodies. And then the Lord of the Dead spoke. ‘I often wondered what it looked like, this Hold creaking on its wooden wheels… a pathetic thing, really. Crude, clumsy.’ He faced Draconus, rotted skin curling back from the tusks. ‘Now, turn it around.’
What an awesome line!
