Status Updates From The Way of Thorn and Thunde...

"There was no honor in rape. But neither was there honor in making a Man a laughingstock, or denying him the lice he tightly deserved."

Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will [rape] them.
(To adapt Margaret Atwood's words.)

Vergis Thane can take his victim-blaming and racism and fuck all the way off. And then he can keep fucking off.

End of Cycle Four.

That was intense and heartbreaking.

:(

Some very powerful moments here, but I can't manage the drive to read more than a couple chapters at once.

Whew, through cycle 4 and shit is going down

This is....not how I thought Denarra would reappear. Interesting.

Some of these story threads are taking a while to pick up steam.

End of Cycle 3

Well, talk about a pyrrhic victory for Neranda. I hope she chokes on it.

End of ch. 19: Whelp, that's a suspicion proven to be true.

"You can't expect your love-addled fahr to make you strong, Quill. You've got to do that yourself."

Real talk of the kind only a family member or close friend gets to deliver this directly.

I find Quill quite fascinating and am glad to be seeing a bit more of her after that exciting introduction.

...but they know now that Law is a lie crafted for Men's comfort. So they try to give her flesh, to place life in those nerveless fingers, and the more desperate their efforts, the greater the mirth of Chaos.

Finished Cycle Five. One cycle left, and it has turned into a bit more of a slog than I would like. I still like the world, but the pacing is just off for me.

The last section of chapter 11 gave me goosebumps.

"If they cannot be taught - and I am afraid that too many of our kindred have proven themselves uneducable - it is pur responsibility to make these choices for their best benefit, much as a caring parent forces a sick but obstinate child to eat the bitter healing root. This is why we were chosen to lead. Some must follow."

Yikes. I do not like Neranda.

Pumpkin cakes and hot apple cider? Yes, please.

(I need to make dinner or every mention of food will distract me.)

“We’ve been thinking about the future, now that it seems likely we’ll actually have one.”

I think I can manage the last *checks notes* 24 pages by eye. By percentage it seems there must be stuff beyond the actual story.

"Is our nation so fragile then, our vision so frail, that allowing others to live freely as they have since time out of mind threatens us so much? Can we not live as allies with a shared purpose and destiny rather than always be perceived as inevitably selfish potential enemies."

More than for an immediate plotted story, the book feels put together for the fun of imagining and reciting it's histories / cultural notions (and character concepts).

Not necessarily a bad thing at all in on itself (plot is rarely the attraction), but in this case missing some hook.

What I think could improve this a lot is dialogue; there's hardly any wit or charm anywhere - in the narration or the interactions.

Finished Cycle Three. It’s picked up the pace in a welcome manner. I continue to be drawn into the world and the themes. I appreciate that there’s a generational ache animating the world that Justice has created. I continue to wish that he had a bit more ability to be economical in his storytelling.

This time for real; end of chapter 37.

“Men are less trusting of the Folk these days, more willing than ever before to see difference as deficiency."

"For a moment he thought about ignoring the question, but he was lonely, and there was a sudden surge of need, a longing to speak and to be heard, to feel someone respond to his living presence. He needed to know that he was really still alive."

"It’s not enough to be a warrior if your heart is burdened by hate."

Ah! I have finally found my actual bearing. Cycle 4 read.

The fact that this evokes a bit of Elfquest might be partly to blame, BUT I keep thinking this could work in graphic novel form. The text itself doesn't do much to paint affecting sceneries or atmospheres, but does as if give action direction, the panel to panel flow easy to imagine.

Finished Cycle Two. The writing is serviceable, which is a bit of a disappointment, because I find the book’s themes and world to be quite compelling and haunting in many ways. I just want there to be more urgency in the telling.

Finished Cycle One. I’m appreciating the depth of the world building, and the sense of communal trauma and history. I wish the writing itself had a bit more forward momentum, though; it’s fairly weighty and formal. But I’m glad to be spending time in this richly imagined world.

"Something terrible attacked us tonight — it seemed to change, becoming something different each time we fought back."

This keeps having certain lingering, vague sense of Elfquest about occasional aspects of it. First time it jumped out this precisely, though.

(I still have no idea how far I am; somewhere between 40 to 80 %?)

Finished the first Cycle and I'm already torn between wanting to rush on to see what happens next and wanting to take my time to savor the richness of this book.

There is a lot going on in this book. I am enjoying the richness of detail, but getting a bit bogged down in story threads.

"They would die, Men and Women would die, the land would be torn and broken in the conflict, and everyone would suffer — all but the politicians, those Men who’d set this conflict into motion to begin with."

Finished ch 2 for buddy read