Tome Time discussion

Read to the end of Chapter 18 by 08/06/20.

Leave your insights and comments below.

I find the interruptions with (Sloane’s...I’m assuming) research papers and documents really distracting from the story. Like it builds up some great cliffhangers, and then whomp, back to research. Those pages are always a slog for me, and I kinda wish they were placed in a central file (right in the middle of the book), so you almost had a copy of the full file to look through in your own time.

Also, I get the sense that Roth went back and added in the paragraph about siphons on a second draft run, having perhaps included a fight scene where all these things are used, and wanting a sneaky setup for them earlier in the book. They didn’t seem to fit well into the chapter here. It was like ‘hey is your bad guy powerful?’ ‘Yes, and here is how to overpower his army of the dead later...you can control them with a siphon’.

Also, also...I reckon Albie will turn up not dead in this iteration of Earth, and will either return with them, or will give them a resurrection siphon thing to bring him back...you know, because he wanted to be cremated and his ashes dashed in a magical drain place.

I'm behind a bit. Have to say, this is not the direction I expected the story to head off in!

I don't mind the files, it's quite a common thing in my reading. A huge info dump in the middle would be awful for me!

I’ve read the next few chapters, and the files seem near-entirely unnecessary. Roth could have added this information in more fluidly using dialogue, but it feels like the files are just there to be alternative from her previous works. The voice in them doesn’t change between articles, so unless there is a single character (maybe the dark one spreading myths) writing them all, who gets revealed to have a press stronghold later, then I’m lost on why there is so much pausing to read dissertations and articles.

Veritas. I'd guess it's a stylistic device to make it all seem more 'reality' and reportage.

Which it does. But when I stopped reading them the whole book became very Avengers level dramatic, whereas when I was reading them it was more flailing and narcolepsy. 😄