HoC: Book One - Faces in the Rock

[Scott]

Witness, if you dare.

Interesting start so far. A new character and culture introduced.

[Peter]

It's also interesting that the style is very different then the previous books. Typically Erikson is jumping all over the place with different characters in different places. However, this one is straight through Karsa, Karsa, Karsa, and more Karsa.

[Scott]

Yeah, I can't decide yet if I like it. I've gotten used to his jumping around and if this much time is spent with one character I was hoping it'd be an already established favorite like Quick Ben.

Either way, can't wait to see how he incorporates this story to the rest

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

God I hated Karsa at the start of this book. I was like..why does everyone seem to like him?

This is still my favorite opening. I think because of the character development plus the fact that I didn't have like 20 new characters dumped on me. More like 5 and really it mostly focuses on Karsa and his 2 buddies.

[Peter]

Yeah Karsa definitely seems like an elitist jerk right now...

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Peter wrote: "Yeah Karsa definitely seems like an elitist jerk right now..."

To put it nicely..

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

I'd rather hope you're not.

This is the Karsa section of the book. Book Two is more like you're used to.

[Peter]

Yeah I would agree that Karsa is written a certain way on purpose in order for me not to like him at this point.

Similar to Felisin in DG. She is a fantastically well written character but she is also a fantastically easy to hate character which I'm sure was part of Erikson's plan. (x

[Juliana]

I actually liked Karsa from the get go, even if he does act like a jerk. But what I love is the relationship between Karsa and Torvald Nom. So entertaining! In fact, there are so many relationships that I love in this series: Quick Ben and Kalam, Tool and Toc, Karsa and Torvald....plus others that we haven't been introduced to.

[Juliana]

Onrack and Trull!

[Scott]

Icarium/Mappo was definitely a favorite in DG. Hoping maybe Crokus/Apsalar become a badass team

[Scott]

So, I'm wondering if the Seven Gods these Teblor worship are actually some of the missing T'lan Imass that were mentioned in MoI. The way they are described and how they come up out of the ground made me think it.

I also wonder if the Teblor themselves are part Jaghut or Imass. They call 40 year old men "youngsters" and the "gods" talk about having to wait centuries for Dayliss' baby to become an adult.

So far an excellent start. Karsa is definitely an intriguing character but I find myself relating more to his companions at this point

The scene with the dogs was awesome, how they kill the one who would have challenged the pack leader

Oh and I also hope for more with Synyg, Karsa's father. Want to know more about what he thinks

[Scott]

Just finished this part. Damn, that Karsa had himself an adventure. Could kind of see where it was going to end up but it still made an awesome ending to the part.

Hope we get more from Torvald Nom, really like his character

[Geoff]

What could have been (in a badly written book) a prologue backstory to a character we didn't know needed one, turna out to be something pretty awesome and carries the character forward in a meaningful way.

[Peter]

Any ideas / guesses who Keeper is? Based on this quote,

I emptied half of Aren's treasury a day
before my tragic drowning.

my guess is he is either Cartherton or Urko Crust, admirals we heard about in DG that apparently drowned mysteriously in Aren Harbor.

In DG it's implied that the Captain of the Ragstopper is Cartherton (I went back and even found the quote)

'Aye, sir!' The acting First Mate snapped out the commands, then swung back to offer the captain a
grin. 'Glad you're back, Carther—'
'Shut your face, Palet – that's Malaz City out there and I drowned years ago, remember?' He
squinted at the warring demons. 'Ragstopper's not going to survive this—'

If that's Cartherton, then it makes sense to me that Keeper is Urko.

I also found this (info from Book 2: Cold Iron so I'm putting it in tags) (view spoiler)[

'Not even close,' Gesler drawled. 'I once saw Urko punch down the side of a mudbrick house.
Three blows, no more than four, anyway, and the whole thing toppled in a cloud of dust. That Napan
bastard could punch.'

Apparently Urko had quite the punch...which Karsa experiences. (; (hide spoiler)]

Either way I'm a fan of Keeper...hope he shows up somewhere else.

[Scott]

Liked Keeper as well. And that's a pretty good prediction especially finding out a little more info in book 2.

Dude is probably something more than human to be able to break Karsa's ribs with one punch

[Peter]

I had a question about the dates...they don't seem to work with the dates we are given in GotM and DH.

It says Karsa's journey starts in 1159 but then we get this quote from Torvald Nom,

Pale's just fallen, you see. A big battle, lots of sorcery, and Moon's Spawn retreated – likely headed to Darujhistan, in fact.

Doesn't this happen in 1163 in GotM? So do the events of Faces in the Rock span several years? It seemed like everything is happening pretty quickly though...

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

I recall there being some kind of issue with the dates in GotM or something from when I did the group read. But it's a been awhile and I don't remember the details.

And Alex with regards to your spoiler: (view spoiler)[I believe that is the reason, yes. But my memory of the details gets fuzzier and fuzzier on this stuff. Either way it's definitely the oil that makes him immune. (hide spoiler)]

[Peter]

Yeah I won't hold it against him if that is the case. xD

[Sky]

Finally finished this section! Don't have my notes or book with me, and I am sure I missed a bunch doing a lot of this in audio, but...

I like Kasra and it was interesting to seem him develop his open mindedness, critical thinking skills, the notion of regret, and even a small sense of humor as his journey continued. But he is definitely a more well rounded individual at the end.

So the ship the come across in the warren (anyone know which warren it was?) is definitely the one Gessler, Stormy, and Truth come across right? It was cool to see how they came to find the ship with some heads wrapped, the captain/mage impaled with a spear, ...

So we learn the Teblor are Thelomen Toblakai, and are somehow related to the Barghast and the Trell.

Not sure what is going on with the 7 gods/faces in the rock. The way they all get together and debate reminded me of the gods in The Grace of Kings. But as to who or what they are, I have no idea.

Yeah, I think The Keeper is definitely one of the "drowned" admirals. Peter I think your observations are right on.

As for the dates, I was confused too. The events in the start of the book (7 cities may rebel, Moon's Spawn fleeing Pale) put it in the middle of GotM.

But by the opening of the next chapter (very small spoiler) (view spoiler)[we see that we are in the seven cities post-coltaine's death (hide spoiler)]

I just assumed Kasra's journey took quite some time, what with him blacking out or fainting every few pages :P At some point I think they mention the trip to the otataral mines would take several months? And who knows how much time all the detours, re-captures, and fainting spells took

[Sky]

Hah - man reading on the Kindle is so much better than audio for figuring out what is going on. I was searching back in the books to cross reference stuff and realized that Kasra is one of Shaik's two bodyguards - the huge on referred to as "The Toblakai" that fights with a wooden sword and really wants to kill Heboric..Duh!

So without spoiling the next section, it seems Kasra's timeline is lagging behind what is going on in the next section, or as Alex suggests he's his own timeline/outside of the regular timeline? For now i'd wager his POV is lagging behind the rest of the book.

[Scott]

Sky notes!

That realization about Karsa hit me late too.

[Geoff]

I noticed the Karsa/Toblakai connection somewhere in the middle of the section. But I didn't realize that Karsa was Toblakai until the end. I kind of thought they were the same race but not the same person up until then.

[Peter]

Yeah I'm similar to Geoff. I noticed that there was a race connection between the two but didn't make the connection until Leoman showed up which makes it obvious.

Went back and looked around. There is definitely a lot of evidence to figure it out and know for sure beforehand though especially the face tattoo which is initially described from Kalam's POV in DG:

The hands released Kalam. Groaning, the assassin managed to roll over. A giant of a man stood over him, his face tattooed like shattered glass.

I completely forgot about / missed that Toblakai had that...pretty sneaky of Erikson. (:

[Scott]

It'd be awesome to get a peek at Erikson's notes and outlines for this series. The way he connects all these stories and characters is crazy

[Scott]

I remember seeing some kind of expose with JK Rowling and she's just sitting there with all these notes and folders spread out on the ground of back stories and character arcs and stuff. It was really cool, think it was 60 minutes that did it.

I have that in my mind with Erikson but more like he's drowning in notes because they're so extensive and he can't get out of the room they are housed in lol