QoA observations

[creative-lefty2.livejournal.com]

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.

Comments

[beth-shulman.livejournal.com]

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.

This whole point is interesting. I think it shows what a balanced person Eddis is - that she's a person and a queen at the same time. It's something Gen struggles with in ACoK when he's with Sophos.

And :( to the mountains. (Eddis is my favorite country.)

[hazelwillow.livejournal.com]

I knooooowwwww. :( Eddis is my favourite country too. In KoA I miss Gen's bedroom with the mountains and the footboard... imagine if the palace with the griffons were gone!! *sob*

[beth-shulman.livejournal.com]

I hadn't even thought of the specifics, but now - his bed :( and his library :( He won't have anything to look toward... then again, hopefully soon he won't need it?

[brandy-painter.livejournal.com]

Regarding #5:
I had thought of this before too. I think that this had to be crushing for him. The books mention so often how much he loves those mountains, how they make him feel safe, how he likes them hemming him in, how he hates the wide open expanse they travel through in TT and he stares out the window longingly at them in KoA. It has to be killing a little piece of him.

[stubefied-by-gd.livejournal.com]

Yay, I love question and discussion posts!

1. I like to think it was the Theif grandfather stopping on a spy mission to chat with a little girl and then disappear into the night. My logic-evidence is that she says she met Gen's grandfather "once," when she wasn't queen, and I would be surprised if she hadn't met the king of Eddis more than just once as a girl, and then at least a few more times after her coronation.

4 I need a little bit more on. An ongoing fear of making mistakes in general, or of specifically letting her emotions cloud her judgments?

5. :( *sob*

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

When Irene was queen, wouldn't Helen's father have been king of Eddis, not her grandfather?

[stubefied-by-gd.livejournal.com]

*Thinks hard* Yes? I think so. Highly likely. You're probably right. I'm trying to make notes on things, but the only note I have about that so far is that her two older brothers died of fever a few days apart, and a few months later she was queen. I also have a memory of reading something about Gen's father being the one to insist on it being her. It stands to reason that she inherited from her dad, although I suppose he could have died before his father the way Gen's mother died before hers. Or had a super-quick reign that began after Irene's. But most likely you are right. She could have met Eddis exactly once before he passed the throne to his son.

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

Ooh. Your number 5 point especially is really good. That never even occurred to me, but it makes total sense. It's almost like he has this conviction and then the goddess comes and says, "Ahem... sorry to drop one more thing on your plate, but... no, Eddis isn't going to be safe forever."

It's just compounded by the fact that, as of the decisions they all make by the end of CoK, there won't be an Eddis forever. It's getting absorbed by Sounis, which is, in turn, now a vassal of Attolia.

[crazededdisian.livejournal.com]

*agrees* It's a scary thought, really. And I think that it is a very good thing that Gen is safely in Attolia!

[stubefied-by-gd.livejournal.com]

I, not knowing much about volcanoes and loveloveloving Eddis, would like to think that some of Eddis would survive and still call themselves Eddis, at least as a region within Sounis/Attolia. Maybe like Kathodocia? We know that no one in the city of Eddis will have a chance, but that's not the whole country. Maybe?

[doreenahk.livejournal.com]

QaA post by Mette Harrison in honor of Valentine's Day:

http://tinyurl.com/4ozdbqo