I had a dream!

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In which Gen had heart failure, so Sophos cut his own heart out and gave it to him on a toothpick. Then Sophos went and became captain of all the pirates and completely destroyed the Medean Navy.
Eddis was very muchly not happy at all.

Yeah, and that's it.

In addition to the previous post

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( Sophos/Will Turner?! )

Greenwillow Q&A

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There is an answer and a question here that I think we will all find entertaining!

http://greenwillowblog.com/?p=3098

And so here is post one of the triple post of doom.

QoA observations

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Triple-post of doom number two!

So, yes, still re-reading QoA. I've been saving up my comments because I'm lazy. I apologize if there are any CoK spoilers.

1. On page 68 of the paperback, Attolia says that "I met [Eugenides] grandfather once, many years ago. He told me a thief's greatest asset, like a queen's, was his mind." I always assumed, like Nahasuresh, that she is talking about Grandfather Thief. However, this could also easily be Grandfather King. As Gen comments at the end of KoA, he has two grandfathers. Either grandfather could easily have commented on the relationship between the kings and thieves of Eddis. However, seeing as Attolia "wasn't a queen then...wasn't even a princess of any particular importance," (68) it seems more likely it was Grandfather King on some sort of state visit. What cause would Grandfather Thief have to speak to a minor princess? Anyway, I think it's funny how with these we always assume it's the thief side of the family.

2. Page 83: The Court of the Ten Nations. It's only mentioned in passing, but I'm wondering if these are the continental powers that are visiting in CoK.

3. Page 112: (Gen talking about his actions in Sounis) "I would have much preferred to slit Sounis's throat while he slept, but his heir is hardly ready to inherit the kingdom, and we can't have a civil was in Sounis for the Mede to step in and resolve, can we?" I think this sums of some of his actions in CoK nicely.

4.Page 187: Eddis is talking about the war with Attolia: "It's not the way I would like to think I would defend my throne, but in prosecuting this war against her I find myself...not commendable. I wouldn't have started a war to avenge you, Gen, or even to rescue you. Still, I wonder,  what opportunity for diplomacy did I miss, and did I overlook it because I was angry on your behalf?" (Italics mine) I think this is an ongoing fear of Eddis's. To me, this feels similar to her worry about the number of soldiers she gives Sophos  and the whole thing about the guns.

5. Page 242: "Eugenides shrugged, 'Eddis will have been a poor country for a long, long time before the Medes lose their grip on this coast, but there will be an Eddis long after Sounis and Attolia are gone. We have our mountains to keep us.'" For me, this just clarified the visit by the goddess of the end of this book. She is there to tell Gen that his mountains are not the safe haven he envisions and that if/when the Medes come and take the low-lands, no one (or at least very few) will be safe in mountains.

Yeah. Done.

Typography

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I'm taking a book design class right now. The funny thing about book design classes is that it makes you notice little details about books that you've never noticed before, such as that the Typographer is listed on the copyright page of the first three books as published by Greenwillow but not in the fourth, that they only tell which font they use in the third and fourth book (so is it Caslon in just those or in all four?) And that in each book they treat the story hour differently.

The interior designs of the first two books are done by Christopher Stengel, who also did the cover designs. In TT story hour is shown in a san serif while in QoA it is in the same serifed font (presumable Caslon) as the rest of the book. (I should probably take a moment to say that serifs are the little feet things on letters. This font I'm using is a san serif.) Why would he do this? In both cases the stories are set apart story-telling-wise from the rest of the text by having it as it's own section. There are no "the Magus said," "Gen said," or "Eddis said"s in any of the stories. And since interiors were designed by the same person for the same series, it seems like they should match.

The third book is set by Chad W. Beckerman and he portrays the story hour in italics. There are a couple of interjections during this story, but they are shown in the regular font face. In this case, the slight change in type makes sense, although it is surprising they tried to set it apart at all since Gen and Phresine both make comments during the story. This is also the first book with little diamonds bracketing the page numbers. (Exterior designer is still Stengel.)

The fourth book, which has not interior designer listed and present story hour in a fourth way. Let's say most of the book is set in 11 pt Caslon with 13 pt leading (leading is the height of the letter plus a little more which makes the spaces between the lines.) Then you reach story hour. This is set in 8 pt Caslon with 13 pt leading with bigger margins. Why? Why do all four (approximately...all the ones in TT are treated the same) stories look different? These books are a series, they should match! And clearly, at least for the first two, this is not explained by changes in the design personnel.

And so ends the triple-post of doom.