Series: Terra Ignota by Ada Palmer ("Too Like the Lightning")

[Anna]

Sigh. I went to see what's up with Perhaps the Stars, because it was supposed to come out this June. It's been pushed to August.

I'm honestly not sure I even want to read it anymore, I just want it off the BR list.

edit: Hmm, I must've known this already, since the BR list has it down for August :D

edit2: Aaaaaand Amazon says September, so it must've been pushed AGAIN.

edit3: Yep, September 7th. I edited all the GR editions.

[Eva]

Thank you for the edit!

Corona has caused quite a few publishing delays, but this gives me more time to catch up at least. :-D I've recently watched a video with the author in which she was such a genius that it made me extremely curious.

[Carro]

That caused me a mental moment - corona - as I'm used to Corona being a brand of soda when I was a kid, so I always use "covid". I was wondering what Corona'd done.... Probably the cherry flavoured one, that would delay many things..... :)

Removed stuff as in wrong place.

[Eva]

Oops, I slipped into my mother tongue there - we use the term Corona, not Covid. Sorry!

I think you mean the rest of your comment for another thread probably - this is the one for the Terra Ignota series. :-)

[Carro]

Oh foo.
I was aiming for the what else are you reading thread.
Wah.

[Dawn F]

Covid-19 is a corona virus, therefore lots of people colloquially refer to the pandemic as simply 'corona'. The only other corona I know is an awful, Mexian beer, which is also something of a plague, so it's fitting 😜

[Anna]

https://twitter.com/ada_palmer/status...

I thought it was finished like two years ago, but I guess that was the writing, and now it’s really finished? But will it be ready for September? In any case, maybe it’s actually finally happening?

[Anna]

Already said this in the BR thread but yeah, the pub date is October 19th now.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

noooo

[Anna]

Good news everyone, the pub date is still October 19th, and that's two days away! :) The audio will be out on November 2nd.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

yyaaaay

[Sarah]

In the US pub date is November 2nd. I've been looking everywhere and they all still say "Preorder now". So sad.

[Anna]

It's only two weeks away!

[Beth]

Glad to hear this, but I'm not ready to read it yet because I still haven't read The Will to Battle. Maybe I can squeeze it in this month.

[Anna]

I assume most people will be (re)reading the earlier books in the series before Perhaps the Stars!

[Sarah]

I’m retreading TLtL right now Beth if you want to jump in! I’m planning to reread all three- would love to have company.

[Beth]

I've already read the first two books twice!

[Sarah]

@Beth- I just meant if you wanted to jump in when we get to book three. No pressure though! I think a couple of us are on or approaching book three.

To the rest of my fellow (re)readers, I also just wanted to note, now that the political/economic landscape has changed, different things are standing out to me now than they did before. They’ve mentioned a couple times the 20 hour work week and I saw in Seven Surrenders that “wealth is measured in happiness”. This is perhaps the most appealing ideal upheld to me in these books.

I also find myself wondering how if it had been written post pandemic it might have changed.

[Sarah]

Perhaps the Stars chapter 11 through page 154:

(view spoiler)[Mycroft’s own version of Odysseus’s Odyssey. My only question now is- how much of that really happened?

I am relieved to have Mycroft back. I think introducing a second narrator was a mistake unfortunately. The ninth anonymous may be more reliable but is not as much fun to read. (hide spoiler)]

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

hnnnggggh I want to start so badly!!!

[Sarah]

Allison wrote: "hnnnggggh I want to start so badly!!!"

I hope you get to start soon then! Didn’t mean to pressure anyone, just wanted to leave my own notes for discussion later with whoever gets around to it.

[Sarah]

Through Chapter 17 Perhaps the Stars, page 295:

(view spoiler)[I love parts of this book and don’t love other parts. If it started as Sci-Fi it’s devolved full speed into Fantasy.

It went from feeling like some kind of social commentary on society to just a really epic story. I respect this for the complexity and grandeur of a story that encompasses the whole world plus the moon and Mars but it just feels so different to me now.

Bridger turned Achilles turned spaceweapon/defense system?! I have nothing to say but lol.

Remember when we talked about suppression of gender and religion and whether or not it was a good thing?

I find myself questioning whether Mycroft is really mad or I am? (hide spoiler)]

[Sarah]

Well I’m done. I have a lot of thinking to do.

(view spoiler)[My feelings on this are torn. I think it was way too long for starters, much of the beginning a timeline of events of a fictional war.

It picks up in the middle and then we get to the end and it felt a little drawn out but would have been more forgivable if not for the long beginning.

I’m not sure how I feel about the stuff regarding disarming death- it feels at odds with the rest of the theological stuff. Like- why disarm death if there is an afterlife? If there isn’t an afterlife what does that say of the Creator? Achilles says he hated the afterlife and would rather toil in the fields in obscurity than be celebrated in death but that’s just one afterlife that ignores all the others (from a creature that I’m not even sure counts as human- so who knows if Achilles’s memories are even real) .

Accounting for the fact that this is a post scarcity world, with 20 hour work weeks and relatively little suffering as it seems, perhaps the afterlife becomes irrelevant in the future? To have so much talk of disarming death without discussing the afterlife people would no longer go to just feels like half a conversation to me. Odd when Palmer’s been so very thorough with everything else.

I’m still mad they killed our sparkling Ganymede. Mycroft will be one of those fictional characters that I carry with me forever. I will miss his fits of madness and melodramatics and random screaming. (hide spoiler)]

[Ariana]

So I read the first two books a while ago, and was holding off on the third until the 4th one came out. Now I'm finally ready to start on the last two, but I need a refresher on what all was going on at the end of Seven Surrenders.
I found a great, detailed summary of TLTL on reddit by googling, but now I need one for SS, and I can't find anything as detailed, just versions of the vague blurb. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[Sarah]

Ariana wrote: "So I read the first two books a while ago, and was holding off on the third until the 4th one came out. Now I'm finally ready to start on the last two, but I need a refresher on what all was going ..."

On the Wikipedia page there is a summary of Seven Surrenders: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_I...

[Ariana]

Sarah wrote: "Ariana wrote: "So I read the first two books a while ago, and was holding off on the third until the 4th one came out. Now I'm finally ready to start on the last two, but I need a refresher on what..."

Oh! I glanced at this and thought it didn't have that much info, but it is more detailed than I thought at first. Thanks!

[Sarah]

I mean- there is a lot to absorb in each of the books so probably a few things will be missing but hopefully it will jog your memory. I couldn’t find anything else that gave a more detailed synopsis (sorry)!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I'm still not done with Perhaps, but thoughts as of chapter like 30? I think?

(view spoiler)[

This is absolutely buck nutty. The Iliad but people can be cloned, and ressurected, and turned into machines, with literal deus ex machina... It's fascinating but also losing me. I enjoy the parts when we get coherent streams of theology and philosophy, like when JEDD figures out why his peer is cruel and the sort of musing on how perfection is the enemy of good...in this case, literally.

I still have no idea how this can end?? Or what's up with the various Mycrofts? That's gotta...be resolved, right? (hide spoiler)]

[Sarah]

Allison wrote: "I'm still not done with Perhaps, but thoughts as of chapter like 30? I think?..."

I’m relieved to not be alone in this. But also:

(view spoiler)[Totally accepting of multiple Mycrofts. I don’t want to live in a world without Mycroft. (hide spoiler)]

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

Rereading this now and although I'm loving all the philosophising, there's no way I'm dissecting any of it any time soon.

If only it was done subtly so pretending that it wasn't happening was an option. As it is, I'm smiling and nodding my way through whilst dreading a pause where I'm expected to say something intelligent.

[Sarah]

Just wait til you get to Perhaps the Stars Ryan. 😂

I give you permission not to be profound.

But also still hope you’ll comment.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

man, i still don't know what to do with that book

[Sarah]

I am still thinking about it and I read it months ago. I may even reread them all again this year, and I can’t pay them a much higher compliment then that.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

So, uh...I've been mulling on this for quite some time and would like to revive conversation. If we can get sufficient interest, I will approach Ada and see if she has time to come talk to us. Any takers?

[Sarah]

Yes! I just got the second in the series off suggestions in the ‘unreliable narrator’ part of the trope thread.

[Sarah]

I will be here.

Because 5 years and a full series reread later this book still has more to tell me.

[Alexandra]

Sounds lovely! Terra Ignota is amazing🤩

[Beth]

Yes, that would be great!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

*Ahem*

I have an announcement coming soon, but if you'd like to enjoy it spoiler free, now's your time to prioritize finishing this series!

[Sarah]

Or re-reading it.

For the 2nd and a half time.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Or like 4th hahaha

I'm probably still gonna get spoiled somehow, too.

[Sarah]

Allison wrote: "Or like 4th hahaha

I'm probably still gonna get spoiled somehow, too."

😂😂