The Not a Book Club Club discussion

Part 1

Please keep all discussion and speculation to the events of Prologue, & Part 1 (Chapters 1-9).

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

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

Well damn. That was some prologue. Were there any hints that there were other Pontifixes of different colors (Red, White, others?)

I guess I always just took his title as Pontifix of the Black for granted.

So Jane's got a demon now. And a very powerful one from the sounds of it. I guess they turned her pretty easily..

Man. I was so tempted to quote the part where Abbie goes something like "don't let me stop your story about heroic fucking"

I cracked up so hard. Man I love the characters in this book.

Ah, remembering why this series is one of my favorites. Django Wexler does an amazing job with his tone, there's always just enough levity to balance all the dark things going on so that reading his books doesn't feel like having my soul slowly crushed.

I 100% believe his soldier interactions, and while we were listening to the battle scenes last night, my wife paused it just to mention that he does a great job with tension in the battles.

And of course Jane has a demon now. She had to find some way of becoming even worse, right? I'm glad she's more firmly a villain now.

Any theories on Janus's motivations and endgame? Wexler has placed a pretty big gun on the mantle with the whole demon-of-the-end-of-the-world-in-a-main-character thing... is Janus trying to free it to destroy the world, or have Winter eat it to save the world? Are we setting up to have her primed to eat it, and then let it loose instead because it's inside Jane?

I hated Jane so much in the last book that I didn't feel at all bad she has some big demon - but yes that will provide some angst for poor Winter.

I was firmly in the Janus camp through the past books in spite of the speculation by others - but I'm finally starting to be suspicious. I do NOT like the way he ignores Rasinea (I know that is spelled incorrectly - sorry). But yeah, making her wait, keeping her ignorant of plans, etc. - and then when Marcus had to wait for not nearly as long, Marcus got an apology. Raes IS the queen, and I like her, and yeah...that is making me like Janus less.

And yes Rob, that was an excellent line :)

Good points Sky.

I gave up on Jane sometime just before she tried the kill Janus, but always wondering if that really made her a bad person, or if we'd wish later she had been successful.

Janus's motivations have been the center of my curiosity for several books now. Maybe even since the beginning.

He seems like a good guy, but the reality is we know almost nothing about him except he's well read, and a brilliant tactician/general.

I have literally no idea what he's going to do. I keep waiting for that other shoe to drop.

I'm with Suzanne and not a fan of how Janus is treating Racinia.

I'll steal a term from the kids and say I'm shipping Racina and Marcus and Winter and Sight. She ran away from Winter after their kiss just like Winter ran away from Jane apparently. Normally I'm not big on romance in my stories, but for some reason I'm rooting for both of these things to happen.

Will Winter hooking up with someone else make her better able to deal with demon wielding Jane, or worse/more guilty? It's not like Jane didn't find someone else while they were apart last time..

I keep HOPING Winter will just decide Jane is over. It is fine to want to rescue her, but Jane took way too much advantage of Winter last book - ha it must be well written because whenever I think of Jane I'm still....so...angry....

I agree - Marcus and Racina and Wnter and Sight - that'd work for me!. I like that Marcus and Racina have been eating dinner together - it is a start!

I keep wondering if Janus has plans to set himself up as the demon king. We are lead to believe that the Black priests are the bad guys because we think we are following the heroes story but what if Winter and Marcus are just ignorant and on the wrong side.

So Winter mentions her nightmares and that her earliest were of a fire. Didn't Marcus have a little sister that went missing when his parents were murdered and their house burnt down? Hope this isn't the case.

I always hate book romance because they always feel so shallow and forced but the ones you all mentioned are working for me also.

Winter being Marcus's little sister? Hmm. I hadn't thought of that. I also hope that isn't true.