A long, disjointed look at ACoK
Mar. 31st, 2010 08:39 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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queensthiefI decided to re-read (again) and just write down comments as they came up. So this is terribly disjointed, but pretty much in order.
And very spoilery, too. So don't click if you haven't read the book!
Who but Gen would be able not to react when being hit in the face with a peashooter?
Okay, it's petty and spiteful of me but it serves those servants right that they got killed, after turning Sophos over to the invaders.
I wonder which tooth Sophos lost.
"Everything I desired was in the room with me," says Sophos, describing his dreams of the library (p. 53). It's only much later, at the end of the book, that we learn that Eddis was there, too. Sighhhhhh.
Moira calling Sophos "Bunny." (p. 54) Love it!
'"Well," my tutor murmured, "at least he stayed."'(p. 55) Ouch!
The tutor, re: the dust motes: "They are beautiful in the light, are they not?" (p.67) Which rather helps explain why the gods are taking such an interest in those dust motes.
"I had expected the men to be in a private dining room on couches..." (p.89). That explains the later scene with the four monarchs - they're in a private dining room, not a big formal one with tables. (I've always thought it would be rather difficult to eat while lolling on a couch).
Sophos' constant punching out and picking up of people makes me think that back must've been his. All those accumulated shovelfuls of dirt really did help him!
Poor Sophos, everbody's so jolted when they see his face (Gen, his father, the magus) and up to p.101 when it's the magus he hasn't even seen himself yet.
You know, if I were Melenze (on the northern border of Sounis) and I saw all that was going on with Gen and the three kingdoms, I think I wouldn't be sleeping very well at night. And even if I were one of the Powers of the Continent, or the Mede, I'd be being very thoughtful...
"Your uncle is dead." "You are Sounis" really rocked me back on my heels, even though I knew already that at some point he became king. (p. 104)
"He [Sophos' father] looked so pleased that I checked over my shoulder to see if there might be someone else behind me who had drawn his attention." (p. 105) Heee! Poor, self-deprecating Sophos!
The magus is one heck of an actor if he can make his face turn purple and then pale!
"we had used years ago when we went adventuring after Hamiathes' gift..." (p. 116) makes it sound like a long, long time ago. I know it's been a couple of years, but I'm thinking part of it is that Sophos is now so different than he was that it seems even longer.
"what a time to have my mind go all to pear." (p. 123) I've never heard this expression. I assume it means his mind quits working, but why "pear?"
"We tried approaching Baron Susa..." (p. 125). Why Baron Susa? Was there some connection between them that I don't remember?
Hey, wait a minute - why's Sounis got long blond hair on the front cover? It's only short and blond after the very first part of his story. When he was riding hell for leather with his father (and wearing his father's ring) it would've had dark ends!
"beaded jacket and lace trim" (p. 130) I never thought of beaded jackets on Gen so much as heavily embroidered, including lots of gold braid. And lace didn't occur to me much, either. Though now I can see him through the eyes of Bertie Wooster: "I remember reading in one of those historical novels once about a chap - a buck he would have been, no doubt, or a macaroni or some such bird as that - who, when people said the wrong thing, merely laughed down from lazy eyelids and flicked a speck of dust from the irreproachable Mechlin lace at his wrists."
Bravo for Sophos' self-control and diplomacy, when Gen hit him with "the quickest way to end a war." I'd probably have said something like, "What do you think I came to do, you loathsome little brat?" (p. 132)
"If we are comfortable with one another, is that not sufficient," asks Eddis (p. 142), clearly not yet aware of how much she loves Sophos.
So now we know that Gen didn't move into the royal apartments.
"He wouldn't have minded the never-ending measurements if he could have eaten during the process..." (p. 150) Sophos and his huge appetite!
"She only ever gets angry at him." (p. 153). Spectacularly!
"No doubt she had overcome her own rebels with ten men and a penknife" (p. 158) My favorite "what if" from this book is "What if Sophos had said that aloud?"
"and that Baron Erondites won't rise up inside our dooryard..." (p. 158). Fat chance of that, I would think. I got the idea he was thoroughly ground into the dust.
"So long as Gen maintained his impersonal role, Sounis meant to do the same." (p. 160) Two people trying to out-stiffnecked-stubbornness each other.
The ambassador "pausing to bow where he stood with one foot on a higher step and his hands bunching the fabric of his flowing trousers, lifting them as a woman lifts the hem of a dress." (p. 162). That reminds me irresistibly of the stupid baggy pants that guys wear, and the way they have to hitch them up daintily to cross the street or walk quickly.
I was worried that Sophos was going to get drunk and do something foolish when the Mede ambassador was plying him with strong drink.. (pp. 165-6)
"We are not well disposed toward Attolia." p. 166 Understatement!
I don't drink - can't stand the taste of alcohol. Is remchick like any drink any of you know about?
When Sophos says "Gen's very fond of his boots," it sounded to me as if he was trying to comfort Ion, though that isn't how it was taken (p. 169)
"If I am taking his country, I'll take it. I'm not going to charm it away." "You're being a fool." Gen's stubbornness again; he won't make it easy for Sophos. And I do love Attolia's bluntness.
re: Relius: "Damaged," said the magus. "Attolia will not be able to use him again." (p. 171). I didn't get that idea from KoA. It seems to me that they're out to deceive everybody about that.
Sneaky Gen pretending he couldn't defeat the Mede ambassador if he wanted to. (p. 173) And now he can't even lure him into another fight that he *can* win because the ambassador knows he was being toyed with. How frustrating, especially since he's the one who trained Nahuseresh.
I thought the small man who sparred with Sounis was going to turn out to be Ornon. (p. 177)
And Sophos snags a roll on the way through the dining hall (p. 178) - there's that appetite again!
Gen is referred to variously as Eugenides, Gen, Attolis. Sounis is called only Sounis.
195 "my cousin inherited her throne on the strength of my father's right arm. He swore that she, and no one else, would be crowned." I don't remember any other uncles being mentioned (though since there are cousins presumably there are uncles). I wonder if the MoW was the next in line for the throne, and bless his honest, loyal heart he refused to let anybody take Eddis' throne.
Sophos embracing and kissing Attolia "with just a shade of deliberation, too slight to call a hesitation" (p.205). "A shade of deliberation" as in, "I can't believe I'm doing this, she's going to tear out my throat; aieeeeeee!"
Attolia holding Eddis' hand - awwwww!
Good thing this be-caped hug of Eddis wasn't during QoA when even resting on her knee sent Attolia into a furniture-throwing temper...
"Eugenides had warned me in the tavern that letters could go astray" (p.211) Just how long did they talk, I wonder?
"just as I must assume that anything I said aloud in his palace would be conveyed directly to the Mede" - Attolia's court is still a cesspit, then
"The food was never-ending. When I pointed out the attentions to my appetite..." Yeah, sure, it's merchants wanting the "purveyor to the king" sign. Or else they've *heard* about his appetite lately! (p. 212)
The first battle went as planned; the Attolians broke, everybody fled; but it's sad to think that going according to plan meant that men died. Poor Sophos. (p. 215)
"Eurydice could be heard, if she chose to exert herself, across several fields and a small river." (p. 226) Considering that we barely see them, she and Ina are certainly fascinating!
Nomenus. Grrr. Duplicitous weasel.
Like Attolia, Sounis hates the scent of Medean hair oil. No wonder Eddis laughed when he told her. (p. 227)
"demonstrating that character in a woman is far more important than the superficial beauty or excessive pretensions to intelligence of her counterpart in Attolia." (p. 230) "Excessive pretensions," huh? Stings, doesn't it, that she outwitted your counterpart ambassador with the equally icky hair oil?
redundancy repeat alert: "only one other route sufficiently wide enough" p. 240
"'Green wood,' I suggested, but even he sensed that there was something unfortunate about a metaphor for a king in which you dry out your royalty before you set fire to it." (p. 253) I do love Sophos' voice.
(p. 255) Until someone pointed it out on the list it never occurred to me that the "obvious dents in the lines of my elegant coat" Sophos mentioned were the outlines of the guns.
(p. 256) Sophos appeals to the better nature of his barons, and makes all the right arguments, and shows them how things *could* be. Stupid barons.
(p. 257) When Akretenesh says, not realizing that everybody can hear it, "Did you think they would make you king?" I wonder why all the people in the amphitheater "as a single organism, recoil." The contempt in his voice? They don't have any respect for Sophos, either, so why should that bother them?
(p. 259) "If I couldn't be Eddis, I would be Attolia." He tried being Eddis. Maybe he should've threatened them. "You do what I want or... I will ask the Queen of Attolia to come and have a little chat with you!"
(p. 264) Meek, mild, self-deprecating Sophos pitching a royal fit. "In my port! Mine!"
(p. 267) "I waved my hand to dismiss them all; I needed to be alone to think. They didn't move. '*Get out!*' I shouted, and that had more effect. " Not quite Attolia. She doesn't need to shout!
"Berrone was content to stand in the doorway with her hair a wild mess and her face streaming tears, but her mother, bowed over obsequiously behind her, must have given her a pretty savage poke..." (p. 270) Snortle!
"...and we'll live on the street and I won't have any pretty dresses and all my kittens will be drowned." (p. 271) Berrone makes great comic relief.
"It was a plan that might see most of them dead by nightfall of the next day, and they nodded agreeably and went to inform their men." (p. 275) Sort of like when Gen said "If I had known that all I had to do was hit you hard with a stick..." "If I had known that all I had to do was shoot one of you and an ambassador..."
(p. 302): "The queen of Eddis was surrounded by her attendants, all of them armed, which was enough to take anyone aback, never mind her Eddisian guards arrayed in front and behind, watching for attack from either direction." Xanthe? And all the others? Those graceful, calm attendants? Hard to envision! (And I wonder how long before the Attolian court is a safe place).
"I need to give every man and woman and child a reason to think that life would be better for them away from the mountain, down in the lowlands, out on the islands. Anywhere but Eddis." (p. 308). How will her marriage do that? It'll give them a choice, but will that make it seem *better* to them?
"But Sophos had to know that she and Eugenides had let him ride away with an Attolian army at his back, believing he needed it. With more faith in himself, and his father's army, he could have retaken his throne without Attolia's aid. He might not have followed that bloodier and more costly path, but Eddis and Attolis hadn't offered him the choice." But he *didn't* have more faith in himself, and I doubt that anything they said would have given it to him.
And very spoilery, too. So don't click if you haven't read the book!
Who but Gen would be able not to react when being hit in the face with a peashooter?
Okay, it's petty and spiteful of me but it serves those servants right that they got killed, after turning Sophos over to the invaders.
I wonder which tooth Sophos lost.
"Everything I desired was in the room with me," says Sophos, describing his dreams of the library (p. 53). It's only much later, at the end of the book, that we learn that Eddis was there, too. Sighhhhhh.
Moira calling Sophos "Bunny." (p. 54) Love it!
'"Well," my tutor murmured, "at least he stayed."'(p. 55) Ouch!
The tutor, re: the dust motes: "They are beautiful in the light, are they not?" (p.67) Which rather helps explain why the gods are taking such an interest in those dust motes.
"I had expected the men to be in a private dining room on couches..." (p.89). That explains the later scene with the four monarchs - they're in a private dining room, not a big formal one with tables. (I've always thought it would be rather difficult to eat while lolling on a couch).
Sophos' constant punching out and picking up of people makes me think that back must've been his. All those accumulated shovelfuls of dirt really did help him!
Poor Sophos, everbody's so jolted when they see his face (Gen, his father, the magus) and up to p.101 when it's the magus he hasn't even seen himself yet.
You know, if I were Melenze (on the northern border of Sounis) and I saw all that was going on with Gen and the three kingdoms, I think I wouldn't be sleeping very well at night. And even if I were one of the Powers of the Continent, or the Mede, I'd be being very thoughtful...
"Your uncle is dead." "You are Sounis" really rocked me back on my heels, even though I knew already that at some point he became king. (p. 104)
"He [Sophos' father] looked so pleased that I checked over my shoulder to see if there might be someone else behind me who had drawn his attention." (p. 105) Heee! Poor, self-deprecating Sophos!
The magus is one heck of an actor if he can make his face turn purple and then pale!
"we had used years ago when we went adventuring after Hamiathes' gift..." (p. 116) makes it sound like a long, long time ago. I know it's been a couple of years, but I'm thinking part of it is that Sophos is now so different than he was that it seems even longer.
"what a time to have my mind go all to pear." (p. 123) I've never heard this expression. I assume it means his mind quits working, but why "pear?"
"We tried approaching Baron Susa..." (p. 125). Why Baron Susa? Was there some connection between them that I don't remember?
Hey, wait a minute - why's Sounis got long blond hair on the front cover? It's only short and blond after the very first part of his story. When he was riding hell for leather with his father (and wearing his father's ring) it would've had dark ends!
"beaded jacket and lace trim" (p. 130) I never thought of beaded jackets on Gen so much as heavily embroidered, including lots of gold braid. And lace didn't occur to me much, either. Though now I can see him through the eyes of Bertie Wooster: "I remember reading in one of those historical novels once about a chap - a buck he would have been, no doubt, or a macaroni or some such bird as that - who, when people said the wrong thing, merely laughed down from lazy eyelids and flicked a speck of dust from the irreproachable Mechlin lace at his wrists."
Bravo for Sophos' self-control and diplomacy, when Gen hit him with "the quickest way to end a war." I'd probably have said something like, "What do you think I came to do, you loathsome little brat?" (p. 132)
"If we are comfortable with one another, is that not sufficient," asks Eddis (p. 142), clearly not yet aware of how much she loves Sophos.
So now we know that Gen didn't move into the royal apartments.
"He wouldn't have minded the never-ending measurements if he could have eaten during the process..." (p. 150) Sophos and his huge appetite!
"She only ever gets angry at him." (p. 153). Spectacularly!
"No doubt she had overcome her own rebels with ten men and a penknife" (p. 158) My favorite "what if" from this book is "What if Sophos had said that aloud?"
"and that Baron Erondites won't rise up inside our dooryard..." (p. 158). Fat chance of that, I would think. I got the idea he was thoroughly ground into the dust.
"So long as Gen maintained his impersonal role, Sounis meant to do the same." (p. 160) Two people trying to out-stiffnecked-stubbornness each other.
The ambassador "pausing to bow where he stood with one foot on a higher step and his hands bunching the fabric of his flowing trousers, lifting them as a woman lifts the hem of a dress." (p. 162). That reminds me irresistibly of the stupid baggy pants that guys wear, and the way they have to hitch them up daintily to cross the street or walk quickly.
I was worried that Sophos was going to get drunk and do something foolish when the Mede ambassador was plying him with strong drink.. (pp. 165-6)
"We are not well disposed toward Attolia." p. 166 Understatement!
I don't drink - can't stand the taste of alcohol. Is remchick like any drink any of you know about?
When Sophos says "Gen's very fond of his boots," it sounded to me as if he was trying to comfort Ion, though that isn't how it was taken (p. 169)
"If I am taking his country, I'll take it. I'm not going to charm it away." "You're being a fool." Gen's stubbornness again; he won't make it easy for Sophos. And I do love Attolia's bluntness.
re: Relius: "Damaged," said the magus. "Attolia will not be able to use him again." (p. 171). I didn't get that idea from KoA. It seems to me that they're out to deceive everybody about that.
Sneaky Gen pretending he couldn't defeat the Mede ambassador if he wanted to. (p. 173) And now he can't even lure him into another fight that he *can* win because the ambassador knows he was being toyed with. How frustrating, especially since he's the one who trained Nahuseresh.
I thought the small man who sparred with Sounis was going to turn out to be Ornon. (p. 177)
And Sophos snags a roll on the way through the dining hall (p. 178) - there's that appetite again!
Gen is referred to variously as Eugenides, Gen, Attolis. Sounis is called only Sounis.
195 "my cousin inherited her throne on the strength of my father's right arm. He swore that she, and no one else, would be crowned." I don't remember any other uncles being mentioned (though since there are cousins presumably there are uncles). I wonder if the MoW was the next in line for the throne, and bless his honest, loyal heart he refused to let anybody take Eddis' throne.
Sophos embracing and kissing Attolia "with just a shade of deliberation, too slight to call a hesitation" (p.205). "A shade of deliberation" as in, "I can't believe I'm doing this, she's going to tear out my throat; aieeeeeee!"
Attolia holding Eddis' hand - awwwww!
Good thing this be-caped hug of Eddis wasn't during QoA when even resting on her knee sent Attolia into a furniture-throwing temper...
"Eugenides had warned me in the tavern that letters could go astray" (p.211) Just how long did they talk, I wonder?
"just as I must assume that anything I said aloud in his palace would be conveyed directly to the Mede" - Attolia's court is still a cesspit, then
"The food was never-ending. When I pointed out the attentions to my appetite..." Yeah, sure, it's merchants wanting the "purveyor to the king" sign. Or else they've *heard* about his appetite lately! (p. 212)
The first battle went as planned; the Attolians broke, everybody fled; but it's sad to think that going according to plan meant that men died. Poor Sophos. (p. 215)
"Eurydice could be heard, if she chose to exert herself, across several fields and a small river." (p. 226) Considering that we barely see them, she and Ina are certainly fascinating!
Nomenus. Grrr. Duplicitous weasel.
Like Attolia, Sounis hates the scent of Medean hair oil. No wonder Eddis laughed when he told her. (p. 227)
"demonstrating that character in a woman is far more important than the superficial beauty or excessive pretensions to intelligence of her counterpart in Attolia." (p. 230) "Excessive pretensions," huh? Stings, doesn't it, that she outwitted your counterpart ambassador with the equally icky hair oil?
redundancy repeat alert: "only one other route sufficiently wide enough" p. 240
"'Green wood,' I suggested, but even he sensed that there was something unfortunate about a metaphor for a king in which you dry out your royalty before you set fire to it." (p. 253) I do love Sophos' voice.
(p. 255) Until someone pointed it out on the list it never occurred to me that the "obvious dents in the lines of my elegant coat" Sophos mentioned were the outlines of the guns.
(p. 256) Sophos appeals to the better nature of his barons, and makes all the right arguments, and shows them how things *could* be. Stupid barons.
(p. 257) When Akretenesh says, not realizing that everybody can hear it, "Did you think they would make you king?" I wonder why all the people in the amphitheater "as a single organism, recoil." The contempt in his voice? They don't have any respect for Sophos, either, so why should that bother them?
(p. 259) "If I couldn't be Eddis, I would be Attolia." He tried being Eddis. Maybe he should've threatened them. "You do what I want or... I will ask the Queen of Attolia to come and have a little chat with you!"
(p. 264) Meek, mild, self-deprecating Sophos pitching a royal fit. "In my port! Mine!"
(p. 267) "I waved my hand to dismiss them all; I needed to be alone to think. They didn't move. '*Get out!*' I shouted, and that had more effect. " Not quite Attolia. She doesn't need to shout!
"Berrone was content to stand in the doorway with her hair a wild mess and her face streaming tears, but her mother, bowed over obsequiously behind her, must have given her a pretty savage poke..." (p. 270) Snortle!
"...and we'll live on the street and I won't have any pretty dresses and all my kittens will be drowned." (p. 271) Berrone makes great comic relief.
"It was a plan that might see most of them dead by nightfall of the next day, and they nodded agreeably and went to inform their men." (p. 275) Sort of like when Gen said "If I had known that all I had to do was hit you hard with a stick..." "If I had known that all I had to do was shoot one of you and an ambassador..."
(p. 302): "The queen of Eddis was surrounded by her attendants, all of them armed, which was enough to take anyone aback, never mind her Eddisian guards arrayed in front and behind, watching for attack from either direction." Xanthe? And all the others? Those graceful, calm attendants? Hard to envision! (And I wonder how long before the Attolian court is a safe place).
"I need to give every man and woman and child a reason to think that life would be better for them away from the mountain, down in the lowlands, out on the islands. Anywhere but Eddis." (p. 308). How will her marriage do that? It'll give them a choice, but will that make it seem *better* to them?
"But Sophos had to know that she and Eugenides had let him ride away with an Attolian army at his back, believing he needed it. With more faith in himself, and his father's army, he could have retaken his throne without Attolia's aid. He might not have followed that bloodier and more costly path, but Eddis and Attolis hadn't offered him the choice." But he *didn't* have more faith in himself, and I doubt that anything they said would have given it to him.
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Date: 4/1/10 03:18 am (UTC)That line made me laugh out loud!