The Not a Book Club Club discussion

This is the fifth 106 pages or so (in my edition).

Please keep all discussion to the events and speculation from the chapter: Tomorrow's Hero to the chapter: Reckonings.

No spoiler tags required.

Please do not discuss events from later chapters/books. Referring back to events from a previous section is fine.

Lot going on this section. Glokta really hit his stride but was sad at the fate of Severand and Frost. Especially didn't see Frost's betrayal coming. Nice that Glokta was able to put some of the pieces together and bring down Sult.

A ton of battles going on. We get told a lot about the battle from West pov but missed out on some action. Enjoyed getting to see the power of the eaters through Jezel and Ferro povs. I totally didn't catch on about Yoru even though we were given the clue about the two colored eyes. Thought it was going to be an eater.

Logen just seems to be completely done with the north and willing to sacrifice anyone to save Ferro. So glad the Bloody Nine didn't Dogman.

Bayaz is now my least favourite character.

I didn't see Frost's betrayal coming either. And with no explanation why. Very annoying.

I was kicking myself for not realizing who Yoru was.

I was really glad about Dogman too. I don't want him to die, but if he does, just please don't be Logen. I had to skip ahead to see what happened because I couldn't focus on anything else.

I agree that I've liked Bayaz less and less as the series has gone on. So he killed his master because he didn't believe his peaceful methods would work?

He doesn't seem purely evil, be he's far from good. He was quiet for many years. It seems like the mess is all of his own making.

Good for Ferro sticking it to them all.

So the Queen's Father has shown up with a fleet of ships and 10,000 men. He's helping now, but will he stand down if the Gurkish are defeated and the Union in tatters?

Can't wait to finish tomorrow night.

In my opinion, JA, the author, intentionally didn't give the clue earlier for Frost's betrayal. JA wants the readers to just realized in the last second, "wait a sec. If Severard didn't report to the bank..." then Glokta saw Frost.

My personal fav moment at the betrayal scene is the Glokta's swordsmanship. After so much praised for the brilliant talented Colonel Glokta, at last we "see" the jab-jab-jab of the champ.

Gotta love the sword cane!

Alex wrote: "I noticed the coloured eye hint earlier, and remembered that I had read it, but couldn't remember who it was supposed to be."

Me too. And for some reason I saw the Frost thing coming. Nobody would expect him because he barely talks and has a lisp so people might underestimate him.

Bill and Alex, sorry I don't understand, is an eater has two colour eyes? I thought it was just for showing Yoru has Heterochromia Iridis.

Jokoloyo wrote: "Bill and Alex, sorry I don't understand, is an eater has two colour eyes? I thought it was just for showing Yoru has Heterochromia Iridis."

I mistakenly thought it was an eater because I didn't pick up the two coulour eyes so I didn't know it was Yoru.

So, a lot of stuff is happening and my personal favourite supporting northman goes back to the mud. Was a good man, Grim! Uh!

The battle now seems to turn in favor of the Union coalition, Bayaz got rid of most of the 100 Words and Yoru was revealed.
But does his appearance as Morovia mean that he also killed the High Justice?

I have to say I'm a bit underwhelmed about how the whole thing with the 100 Words is handled.
Characters, who seem to be really interesting are introduced and die within a few pages.
And, in the end, the battle is pretty one sided. All of our pov characters are actually from the Union or are at least roughly on the same side.

What I would have really enjoyed would have been an Eater pov.
In book 1 he could have been introduced, allowing us a glimpse into Uthman's and Khalul's world.
In book 2 he could have been in the attack on Dagoska and now part of the invading force. Now all the enemies are just pretty faceless and the typical display of arabic hordes invading is at least debateable.
I think that could have been handled better. The potential is there, when you look at the dialogue between Logen and one of the Eaters. One of the best scenes in the entire book.

But now off to the final part. I'm eager to find out more about Sult's motivations and who will make it to the end and can say: "Still alive."

Mpauli wrote: "But does his appearance as Morovia mean that he also killed the High Justice?"

No. He was killed by Sult.

@Mpauli I like the eater who fought Logen too. Only with few lines, I sympathize with that one eater. And want to know him better.

@Rob I also thought Morovia was killed by Yoru too. Do you mean Morovia killed by ritual magic from library?

Yeah. The ritual magic. Maybe that's just me taking what Glokta believed as true.

I had a look at the First Law wiki, which doesn't have an entry on Marovia himself, but his death comes up in Yoru's entry:
(view spoiler)[
One ability that Yoru Sulfur has is shapeshifting, like some other Eaters. At one point, he turns into The Tanner, and later into High Justice Marovia (probably killed in the process).

So, the "probably" tells us that there isn't a definite answer to the question.
It would certainly fit into Bayaz's style. Jezal would get a protector for the battle and Bayaz would get rid of a Closed Council member that has definately ideas to Bayaz's way of ruling. (hide spoiler)]

Yeah. I can buy Sulfur doing it. I don't think we can know for sure, but given how weak the ritual appeared to be, Sulfur doing it does seem more likely.