The Not a Book Club Club discussion

Part One

Please keep all discussion and speculation to the events of Chapters 1-19.

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.

It took a few chapters to get back into the world but I got there eventually.

I liked the parallel story telling where we follow the course of the Palace Examinations and Zomi's backstory. Although, I was frustrated by Zomi's dissatisfaction with the examination procedure. But that's on me, not her or Ken Liu. In real life, I'm always annoyed by people who complain about things that are pretty good but aren't perfect. It just sounds like whining to me. To be fair, Zomi proposes a solution, which is more than most people do.

A lot of intrigue between the empress and the consort. Who the heir will be? Who of the kings/regents/govt officials will end up with power?

I feel the novel is going to be much more about political intrigue than war/rebellion, as the first book was.

I enjoyed the dual story lines as well. The book so far has a very slow pace but I am actually enjoying it immensely. It's a good change of pace after reading The Crippled God. I am still hazy with some of the events in the last book and who was who, but it's not really interfering with my ability to enjoy TWoS.

I am really enjoying the philosophies, languages, and writing styles Liu invented and tells through Luan. I'm a little sad that the teacher/student arc is ending. I agree that the story is building up to be a lot of political intrigue in the next session, with the question of who the heir will be, the battle between the empress and the consort, the empress and Gin, the military and the merchants, the nobles and kings vs the emperor.

In the final chapter the empress learns that Zomi was never recommended for the examination. I am a little confused if this means she never had the pass in the first place, and lied about it being burnt in the fire during the fight with the fake far-seerer (could she have staged the whole thing?) or what. Gin (sorry I am doing the audio, dont know the exact spellings) gave her a new pass, but presumably the empresses brother would have seen and known of the original.

The empress giving Rin the idea to invent rebels to enlarge his department, or rather, funding them to root them out and then expose them depending on your perspective - seems she is manipulating Rin, but to what end?

I expect the drama and pace will pick up in the next section.