[Cüréthañ]

What a great read! (Excepting the silliness of the Whale Mothers.)  What were your favourite portions?

So, the climax in Ishteribinth was my favourite part. Made the hairs on my neck stand up, really kick-ass.

I thought there was a lot more humour, strangely enough. The 'halflings' and the oil, "10'000 pigs", Khellus making wisecracks at doomed Saubon and Psatma... or should I say, "Splatma".

[H]

I really liked all the stuff we learn about Nonmen and Ishterebinth.  Aurang showing up was great and had me real excited, but unfortunately he didn't really do much.

[Bolivar]

Kellhus' internal monologue, Saccarees freaking the fuck out about Aurang and demanding a Disputation, Khoringas' experience with Qirri, Saubon's insane elation at his "temple," the march of the Scalded, as horrifying as it was. And of course the nuke, and Achamian seeing the mushroom cloud in the distance.

So many parts where I found myself holding my breath, my heart pounding, dopamine flooding through my skull!

[themerchant]

Kel spying on the WLW.

I thought Kellhus was a bit too jovial with malowebi etc. "think her goddess let her see that". The scenes before his appearance are great, Malowebi just thinking "FUCK, i should have left"

The Dagliash Chapter in it's entirety is crazy.

[Madness]

Curethan! Bolivar! Glad to see you both rustled up copies !

[CondYoke]

The "Dunyain in extreme distress"- the madness, recollections, and insights of Kohringus. An amazing character who lived too short of a time in the books. One of my favorite descriptions was how he would run among the scranc, snorting like them to drive them into a frenzy- intertwined with his admission of how he stole his son, knowing he was "defective".  Great stuff, and I wish there was more!

[Wilshire]

Visualisation of the years in the Thousand Thousand halls battling, endlessly, sranc and nonmen. So awesome.

The descent into the holy deep I loved too. So many great moments in this book.

[MSJ]

Cnaüir urs Skiötha, and his damned, smoking ruin of a soul. I don't think it was fan service. TBH, I think that he will have a critical role in TUC. If he doesnt, I will be hugely disappointed.

The Proyas/Kellhus talks and the way Kellhus just strips (literally) him bare, was great. So much revelation.

Ishterebinth. Sorweel has quickly become one of my favorite character, even though I was warming to him by the end of WLW. Ironically, after his revelation that Kellhus is his saviour, I still feel there is a huuuge chance that he will indeed do what the WLW couldn't. And, it's got me thinking, if Yatwer seen the death of Kellhus at the hands of the WLW, why would have she placed trust in Sorweel also? There's a thread in that question.

[themerchant]

Yeah MSJ i thought the same thing, if it is "guaranteed" the WLW is going to do the biz what need of Sorweel.

[Seomus]

Cnaüir urs Skiötha, and his damned, smoking ruin of a soul. I don't think it was fan service. TBH, I think that he will have a critical role in TUC. If he doesnt, I will be hugely disappointed.

Bakker doesn't strike me as the type of author who would do that. Everything in his books is there for a reason and serves either narrative development, character development, or idea development (the philosophy of the series)

The nuke was the most surprising. Just hearing Kellhus telling everyone to run, the fear on Katyusus's face. Great scene of first tension, what's about to happen, and then destruction. Also meeting Kellhus's other son and the boy.

I loved seeing Cnaiur. I knew he wasn't done with the story. I had a crazy theory that he might end up being the no-god. Cnaiur, when he's traveling with Kellhus across the Scylvendi steppes, he stares at Kellhus and thinks over and over "What do you see?" And that question always makes me think No-God.

[Wilshire]

What a great read! (Excepting the silliness of the Whale Mothers.)  What were your favourite portions?

Other than the direct Herbert link there, I thought the Whale Mothers thing was done very well. It created a jarring and visceral reactions for many people, including myself - so maybe a favorite scene for quality rather than content.

[Cüréthañ]

Ymmv, I guess. My negative reaction to the Whale Mothers was due to the way it is jarringly inconsistent.

Really destroyed my immersion because it makes very little sense according to the in-world logic Bakker applies elsewhere.

[Madness]

What a great read!

...

I thought there was a lot more humour, strangely enough. The 'halflings' and the oil, "10'000 pigs", Khellus making wisecracks at doomed Saubon and Psatma... or should I say, "Splatma".

Lol - what a great book, indeed .

Splatma... Lol.

Saubon's insane elation at his "temple,"

Love this one. "Death can only be meted in so many ways... few as glorious as this" or something. Despite the fact of his unfortunate post-life circumstances, whatever they are.

The "Dunyain in extreme distress"

Visualisation of the years in the Thousand Thousand halls battling, endlessly, sranc and nonmen. So awesome.

Especially the Survivor's later recollection of the Dunyain fighting in "exquisite silence."

The nuke was the most surprising. Just hearing Kellhus telling everyone to run, the fear on Katyusus's face. Great scene of first tension, what's about to happen, and then destruction.

Yeah. That's so great. It reads too like Kayutas actually hears Kellhus' first call to the Knights of the Desert Lion and the remaining Swayali rather than the general call above the Ordeal.

[Bertxi]

Ishterebinth hands down, the holy deep as a way to hide from the gods, knowing that Nonman kings were descended from a line/person, confirmation of the tall, and the resigned way the last Siqu knew his race was finally dead and he sacrified himself so his  father would remember himself.

[EkyannusIII]

Visualisation of the years in the Thousand Thousand halls battling, endlessly, sranc and nonmen. So awesome.

Especially the Survivor's later recollection of the Dunyain fighting in "exquisite silence."

I've yet to finish but the recollections of the underground war are BY FAR my favorite portions of TGO so far.  That's despite my thinking it silly that the Dunyain left themselves no secret escape routes in the Thousand Thousand Halls despite having lived in Ishual for two millennia.  Even animals know not to let themselves get cornered. Still, all in all it was a great read.

Cuts and cuts and cuts.