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“Untitled Synopsis (The People of the Black Circle)”

Nothing unusual here. This is a more or less straight summary, with some of Howard’s poetics, of “The People of the Black Circle”. If anything is notable it’s how much prose he dedicates to setting the scene and establishing action, with his summary getting more and more sparse as he gallops toward the story’s climax.

“A Witch Shall Be Born”

This one is a little less coherent…? The main plot feels novel for Conan. The queen of a small kingdom is ousted by her twin sister, who was born with the mark of the witch and thus left for dead as a baby, and who has come to use her likeness in order to wreak chaos in her birthplace. The demonic horror in this story is surprisingly flimsy.

“The Hour of the Dragon”

Longform Conan started to fall apart toward the end but it’s still a galloping, crazy adventure worth reading. This story is rife with elements that Howard had used in previous Conan stories; some stuff only hinted at include an immortal (and immoral) sex-crazed femme fatale as well as a city that is capable of returning from the ruin of history.

Pretty good so far! The moment I talked about women, Conan was rescued by a fangirl named Zenobia, and when he was being chased, saved and then was saved by a witch named Zalata, and then rescued a countess, Albiona, in a daring prison raid. And he was saved by Not-Indian Hindus who he had not persecuted during his rule?? This book is pretty awesome (but I would not be surprised if Hadrathus tries to use the heart)

Thus far the story is borrowing from The Black Colossus as well as it appears The Scarlet Citadel. There’s also nary a female character in sight, which is rare for Conan, but not so much I guess if Howard wove some semblance of the villain of Colossus into the plot of The Citadel.

“The People of the Black Circle”

These longform Conan adventures feel more satisfying than the fast-paced, goofy 20-page romps. This one has Conan in the intersection of India, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran, falling into a plot of sorcery as an Indian princess becomes the focus of so many sorcerous machinations. There are quite a few fun segments in this one.

I think that this story is lacking in something when Frank initially meets the cenobites. I know that they’re vastly grotesque humanoids and Barker kind of gets at their body modifications but it’s lacking a sort of punch that I believe his previous works carried.

It’s a tough book that builds up a reservoir of sympathy for Tea Cake. I hate that he beat his wife—slapping her in public a few times—because he has otherwise been a great partner to Janie. Oh, and blowing almost 200 dollars of her money.

The hurricane sequence is apocalyptic, both during and after. And I’ll probably think about this more and more in the years to come with the superstorms.

The life on the muck is a great story of the love between Tea Cake and Janie but Hurston pulls back when we get to the internalized racism of Mrs. Turner. I assume that we’ll hear Janie’s feelings on what happened but it’s more testament to Hurston’s complex characters.

Now we are in the segment of the tale patterned after those Hurston short stories where the newly married woman must contend with the previously unknown character of her husband. Tea Cake blew nearly all of Janie’s money that she took with her on a lark and now he is telling her a story about almost certainly how he failed to win back her money through gambling.

Joe Starks is such a mythic character in Hurston’s prose that I was surprised to see his human end. It’s a hard story for Janie, married for some twenty years with no real love to show for it. Her reaction to her husband’s passing reminds me of Come Along With Me, except—of course—Jackson’s widow is aged and “quirky” whereas Janie is in the prime of her life and feeling her squandered womanhood.

All of these Eatonville regulars like the mule or the reference to John Pearson or Mrs. Tony begging for food when everyone knows how well Tony provides for their family feels like old friends. There is a common theme through Janie’s two marriages in that it is jealousy that leads her husbands to distance from her or keep her isolated. This is a clever metaphor about the nature of the African-American struggle.

I was not expecting this story to contain something of a creation myth of Eatonville with Joe Starks whisking Janie away from her first, loveless marriage. Between Jonah’s Gourd Vine and the Eatonville stories in A Straight Lick With a Crooked Stick, I am getting a feel for the character of Eatonville sort of like Márquez’s Macondo.

“She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage!”

“She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman.”

I am dying at the guards coming together as a unit trying to even the odds to a million to one chance and Carrot getting in on it.

Carrot is a great, fun character but in reading this I get that this is more about Vimes’s character arc and really I think that’s why this story hits so much better than, say, Wyrd Sisters or Pyramids or… really, anything involving Rincewind, seeing as how his entire deal is “coward who eventually brings himself to do the brave thing” over and over again.

I think the fact that this book lacks the picaresque adventures of the previous ones and sticks more or less to Ankh-Morpork helps a lot in anchoring the setting, the character, and the plot.

The cast of characters in this one is just great. I can’t wait for Men at Arms when Angua and Littlebottom join in. The Night Watch books are probably my favorite sub-series of Discworld. The ones with Death come close (I love Death as a character, the stuff he gets up to, and my first Disc book was Soul Music; I think I crushed a bit on Susan Sto Helit)

I love the Discworld and it’s fine comedic fantasy but the first seven novels that I re-read were fine but Equal Rites and Mort were two GREAT ones. The intersection of Vetinari with Vimes and Carrot with the sort of magic noir plot is awesome. Maybe I just have a soft spot for it from the time I was working night shift security… but probably not. Carrot is a great take on Twoflower.

😬

Snicket is the master at giving you just enough explanatory details alongside new, questionable ones in order to keep you on the cusp of understanding everything… and I think the long speech by Ishmael and the one by Widdershins is a long prep toward the fact that there will be no satisfying, ultimate conclusion that reveals all.

Like, it was a given that the island was a holdout of the VFD, but the why of Ishmael and everything else… I kind of know how this story is going to end and however Snicket ties this all together, it’s going to be DENSE.

Halfway through and I don’t think that we will get some sort of huge series of revelations that blasts away the secrecy of the series… but I could be wrong.

Lots of dark academia type shipwreck jokes, here. The coconut cordial is not exactly a joke; I’m sure it’s a reference to the lotus-eaters from the Odyssey or something similar, just as an extended metaphor for people who isolate and refuse to do anything heroic OR villainous.

It thankfully didn’t take long to get on an island. I know that there is something very going on with this coastal shelf and Ishmael and the sole tree with the “bitter apple”. All of this wrapped up in a book literally called The End…

It sucks that Robin is following a similar tragic arc to Rin as this book nears its close. But that’s the whole spread, I think, as these characters demonstrate the myriad viewpoints in this extraordinary situation.

Why do I get the feeling that this story ends with an Our Violent Ends explosion

In a way I kind of wish we had a more cozy tale of this world but doing so would deny its purpose for existing, reminding me of Reid’s notes in the Wolf and the Woodsman of how the glut of Russian-inspired fantasy was depoliticizing the nation’s history. This is part of why Gabriel Garcia Márquez is so rewarding to read; he is not the least bit apolitical.

Umm, I didn’t think that would happen at this point in time the novel but given the scope of what Kuang is aiming for the idea of this ending with… one particular death… was not tenable.

Well the cat’s out of the bag now! I’m guessing that Anthony was the voice that Robin had recognized? It certainly wouldn’t have been Ramy or Victoire given how surprised they were. Anyway moving the setting to Canton post-fallout ought to be great at galvanizing Robin now that he is directly exposed to the horrific English interests and must represent them in the negotiations.