SFF Readalongs led by Kitty G discussion

Discussion of Chapter 11 ONLY please, no spoilers for any other part of the book!

The chapters of this book are enormous, with this one being 50 pages!!

Felisin and her group have become my favorite group in the book thanks to the revelations in chapter 11. The dynamic of everyone helping Felisin, yet in her ignorance Felisin hates them all has become the most interesting to me. They have wondered into a buried city to escape the whirlwind storm. Heboric seems to have an ability to see into the past after touching the finger in the desert. His blindness has also allowed him to become a complete person despite missing hands. In some ways it is completely bizarre but in this world it almost seems normal. Now they find a pool where great benefits will be granted from drinking the water.

Duiker barely escapes with his life from tunnels he was forced into. He notices The Claw helping him which eventually gets reported to Coltaine which Coltaine was not supposed to know. I am interested to see how this will effect the Coltaine/Laseen relationship as I doubt Coltaine will like the help. I think Coltaine is a very prideful man.

Lostara and Pearl kill Semk however at the end Lostara is knocked unconscious and we know not from what or who.

The buried city was a great scene. The changes in Heboric make me happy. The idea that not seeing your limitations and granting yourself those limitations because you can't see them is interesting. Knowing a little more about the history of the world, First Empire, beginnings of Soleshapers, Di'viners, and T'lan Mass was good. (I think I misspelled those words but I'm too lazy to grab my book atm)

Throwing stars solely being a Claw weapon might be something to keep note of. It was one of those little details that Erikson specifically drops like the Talon in Baudin's bag.

Who do you think the claw is in the Coltaine's group? or maybe someone that we haven't seen yet. Maybe Lull?

I was actually thinking Laseen sent a Claw to undermine the love Coltaine's leadership gets from his troops. To keep him from becoming another Whiskyjack. But if the Claw member is already apart of Coltaine's army Lull is as good a pick as any. The last we saw of Lull before the attack was him waving Duiker to move forward. Duiker sees no one else until he meets the Marine he escapes with. Lull, if Claw, could easily have snuck around other passages protecting Duiker.

Really interesting chapter (and a particularly long one). The scenes where they thought dead babies were being dug up and eaten were very graphic and dark which made the warfare seem really real and I liked seeing Duiker adjust to the true horrors of it all and seeing him changed because of it.
The Claw situation was indeed very intriguing and I wonder exactly what's going to be revealed when we find out who the Claw is and exactly what their orders are.

I liked seeing Heboric as a man who feel whole now and I think he's certainly one of the more interesting characters of this particular volume. I definitely liked the scenes in the City and seeing everything he revealed about the past was both interesting and informative which was great.

Overall a good (if long) chapter!

We don't talk about the dead babies being eaten Kaitlin, sorry. That never happened as far as I'm concerned. ;)(joking)

Paul wrote: "We don't talk about the dead babies being eaten Kaitlin, sorry. That never happened as far as I'm concerned. ;)(joking)"

That was just so brutal and gross! :S I can see why you'd want to gloss over that. I hear book 3 is really heart wrenching and sad so now I'm worried because he does brutality so well!