The Not a Book Club Club discussion

Section 3

Please keep all discussion to the events and speculation from Chapter 17 - Chapter 22.

No spoiler tags required. Though it would be highly appreciated if you Uncheck Add to my Update Feed to avoid accidentally spoiling this for your good read friends.

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

My notes from this section:

We find out a little bit of why Taniel is more powerful. Kapoel has put some kind of protective magic on him, that not only prevented him from dying at Kresimir's attack, but was responsible for making him more powerful.

I don't understand why Tamas is so concerned about Vlora and Olem. Is he holding out hope that she'll get back together with Taniel?

Adamant figures out who the Proprietor is. I only vaguely remember the accountant from the first book.

I didn't like General Ket to begin with, but threatening Kapoel with rape? And it seems way worse coming from a woman.

Bo finds a loophole in the magic forcing him to avenge the king, by killing the headsman who directly killed him instead. Interesting.

Alex wrote: "Aha, so we find out that there's something not quite right with the powder on the front lines. It's being set up right now as someone profiteering on the war, but I wonder if it doesn't have to do ..."

I forgot to note the missing powder thing. Personally I don't think it's a money grab, but a plot to create a shortage. It relating to Powder Mage Wardens is a good theory too.

I like that analogy of reverse burning the ships. That seems fitting.

Kaleb wrote: "Olem and Vlora? I honestly did not see that coming."

No. But Kapoel and Taniel - can see that coming.

I was thinking about the powder problems a bit and Adamat had problems with his gun too during the fight at his house. He dismissed it as he dropped the gun and the bullet must have rolled out. But...could it be related? It may be a global problem.

I was a little confused, I though that Vlora cheated on Taniel before he met Kapoel. In this section, when fighting with Tamas she said it was because she heard about Kapoel. Am I remembering things wrong?

I dont recall myself.

I'm really psyched for this upcoming battle, I'm especially interested to see what a pitched battle is like in this 'flintlock fantasy' setting. I don't think I've mentioned this before but I'm loving the way so much of Tamas' campaign is dictated by obtaining and managing food. I'm a military history nerd and I really appreciate how thorough and realistic the logistics of this march are. Most fantasy and 'pop history' books focus on tactics and battles when looking at military campaigns , however pitched battles were only a tiny part of military operations. The success of a campaign hinged completely on logistics and a general of Tamas' ability would recognise that. It's also written in an interesting and engaging way so that even people who aren't history nerds haven't made any complaints (that I have seen).

Vlora in this section was annoying. Like mind-numbingly annoying. Which is disappointing because I was hoping Vlora was going to step up and become a cool, important female character. Now she's just annoying (repetition for emphasis*). I guess all of my hopes are on Nila now(and Ka-Poel who is still super-awesome. Obvs.). Vlora's explanation for cheating on Taniel was terrible. No one said anything nice to her because they were too afraid of Taniel, so the first time a guy complimented her she slept with him? WTF. Then after totally betraying Tamas (not to mention Taniel), the guy who adopted her when she was an orphan with no where to go and treated her like a daughter, she shows how remorseful she is by sleeping with the one guy in an army of 10,000 who is the closest to him, his bodyguard. When Tamas is obviously really upset and uncomfortable about it and tells her to stop she snaps at him. Granted it was an uncool move from Tamas, but he's still her commanding officer and it's within his rights to stop a relationship between 2 of his most important officers that could damage the mission. And then Vlora disrespecting him in front of the men and refusing to answer a summons. All of this petty, juvenile stuff being done by an important officer and powerful mage in the middle of a desperate, highly dangerous campaign behind enemy lines. Facepalm*. The explanation of her affair also really messed up her character building. She's supposed to be a strong-willed and capable mage, but she was easily seduced by some sleazy fop. She's supposed to be intelligent and perceptive but she believed for like 6 months that aforementioned sleazebag loved her when it took Taniel only a few hours of sleuthing to ascertain that he was just a knobhead trying to embarrass Tamas. I don't get it.

Section summary: Logistics good, Vlora bad.