The Not a Book Club Club discussion

Part 3

Please keep all discussion and speculation to the events of Part 3: Chapters 15-17.

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 section/book is fine.

So I'm still in the middle of this one, but since no one else is comment, I'll post some thoughts on this so far.

1) The Beast is loose. It tricks the Pontifex of the black and now it's got 4 bodies. We learn later it's got 2 special abilities that make it a major threat: The ability to inhabit multiple humans, and the ability to learn. It's doing both again and that looks bad for our heroes. They couldn't even handle some of the Penitent Damned that well..

2) There is a rebel faction of former priests referred to as Magi that have rebelled/fled. It appears part of that group is how the Thousand Names ended up in Khandar, and are possibly the origins of the cultists there.

3) We get a lot of great details here on demons and the history of the church from the outcasts at the mountain. It's a bit info-dumpy, but I was too fascinated by everything we learned to care about that. I hope more info is forthcoming.

4) Racina is performing a coup on her own army. It was very well done. We'll call this the bacon coup. Mmm. Bacon.

Sky wrote: "Another thought I had: the first Penitent Damned they sent to Kandar had a very impressive set of powers. I'm wondering why the Order of the Black hasn't attempted to re-summon that demon, especially in light of the army coming for them. And if they did... what would happen? I'm assuming the Infernivore destroys other demons that it eats, so would the name just be a bunch of nonsense now? Would the summoning always fail, even if they said it perfectly? Would failure no longer be lethal? Or have they been trying to find a new host for the Beast this entire time, and haven't been able to really work on any other demon? Or are there just not enough trusted priests to become Penitent Damned to entrust with a major demon? "

So based on what we learn in this section, the priests of the Black seem to be opposed to magic, but are determined to jail every demon they can. It's certainly possible that their struggle to trap the Beast again has been top priority so they haven't been able to spare anyone. Since they are a hidden order and given their aversion to magic in general though, I feel like their numbers have probably grown thin as well.

Rob wrote: "Since they are a hidden order and given their aversion to magic in general though, I feel like their numbers have probably grown thin as well."

I could see that, and (I'm not sure if it was in this section or not) they do mention that there aren't very many Penitent Damned.

So, it's been a few years since The Thousand Names (I assume), and in that time they've lost... 4 Penitent Damned? 5? And haven't replaced any of them. I'm making the assumption here that the pool of people they were using as potential hosts for the Beast is a different pool than potential Penitent Damned. Add in the few demons that have handlers whose powers they have access to and suddenly I don't feel like this is the supernatural powerhouse organization that we were led to believe. They seem to just barely be scraping by on a couple useful powers, and that's it.

The Pontifex of the Black certainly seems like he would have begun churning through his most holy priests trying to pick up as many of the currently unused powerful demons with names at their disposal (or even kill a few hosts to put those names back in the rotation), especially considering that he was willing to try to tame the Beast (seriously... they had one job). But you're right, they are so afraid of magic that maybe they wouldn't have considered this, or only considered it too late for it to actually matter.

However, if they're really this understaffed in the demon department, you'd think that the mages on the Mountain would have swept in and taken them out at some point. Although, maybe that's part of why Alex was so critical of them... it seems that they had the superior power, but weren't willing to use it.

Not that I'm really complaining, I enjoyed the heck out of the book, it all made sense, and I just might not fully understand the fanatically religious mindset. I guess even the bad guys have to make bad choices and fall victim to bureaucracy sometimes.

So I guess I was pretty close to the end of this section. Not to much else to note, but all pretty significant.

1) We find out a bit more about this woman Janus is obsessed with. It looks like she was taken. Janus seems to feel guilty that he should have been taken instead. He also seems to believe she even more intelligent than he is.

Winter speculated that Janus came to Khandar for the thousand names, but it sounds like he really came looking for her. It appears he's looked a few other places too, because Elysium sounds like his last resort to find her. He says something to the effect of "there is no place else she could be".

2) Andy dies heroically saving what's left of Marcus's men by ensuring their makeshift fort blew up and took out much of the enemy. Luckily for her, the sacrifice wasn't in vain, because it looks like Recinia sent help. I'm still really bummed she's dead. She was probably my favorite of the secondary characters after Sight.

3) Janus seems to be back to himself. Marcus thinks this must be due to Winter succeeding, but we know better. I suppose we could find out in the next section she penetrated the city and took out the assassin, but I think it more likely that the Beast getting lose is somehow the cause. What will this mean for Recina's plans for peace now?

I'm enjoying this a ton, and I need to drive or do SOMETHING to give myself some audio time.

I liked learning more about the demons, so I didn't mind the part with the car mountain at all. and it was really interesting seeing the different demons residing there.

I also like how Racinea handled her army. she has functioned very intelligently this whole time.

I keep thinking we will find Mya as the ultimate demon. The beast us scary!!

Ha the bacon rebellion. I guess bacon tastes better than horse. not that they would know since they abandoned the horses! :)

There's so much starting to come to a head in this section. I had grown rather attached to Andy's character. Hated to see her go, heroic or otherwise.

Re the expired penitents, given the several mentions of how many hosts it can take before a Demon is captured in it's meat-prison, and given that it's been mentioned that the more powerful the demon the more rare the host, I'd presumed that the penitents were still trying to bring their missing demons back into the fold. Granted, their re-capture isn't directly mentioned anywhere and does appear to be conveniently missing.

Racinea keeps kicking ass but I hate to see the growing collision between her and Janus, although Janus has always been mired in an air of questionable intent. It will be interesting to see how Winter handles that division especially given the fairly heavy suggestion that she is Marcus's sister (and how that will effect her selection of sides).

I hope Winter isn't Marcuse's sister.

I hope so too - however, if that does happen it never crossed my mind until you guys!

Haha. Yeah, I guess I missed all the heavy suggestions..

I'll have to see if I can go back and dig up the details, but I recollect a number of mentions, specifically in this book, that made me think things were heading towards that eventual revelation.

-I wish I could remember the details. Two particular notes that stood out was a mention, I *think* from Racinea to Soothe or Marcuse to someone else about how his sister was brought to a, now defunct, home for girls. Another clue that I may or may not have read too much into was a mention of Winter having dreams of being surrounded by fire as a child. There were a few other nods in that direction as well but I can't remember them off-hand at the moment.

Yeah. Another member bright it up in the next section.

Oooh yes - i remember the mention of the surrounded by fire now. Boy I must turn off my critical brain when I read :(