Challenge Corner discussion

What if you knew how and when you will die?

Csorwe does. She will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice. On the day of her foretold death, however, a powerful mage offers her a new fate.

Csorwe leaves her home, her destiny, and her god to become the wizard's loyal sword-hand -- stealing, spying, and killing to help him reclaim his seat of power in the homeland from which he was exiled.

But Csorwe and the wizard will soon learn – gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.

Commenting so I can be notified when anyone comments. I'm excited for this one. I've heard audio is the way to go because of the complicated name pronounciations

Starting!

(view spoiler)[
Already upset about the "chosen bride" trope. Glad its a British narrator on Audible though, love British narrators (hide spoiler)]

Ruthie wrote: "Commenting so I can be notified when anyone comments. I'm excited for this one. I've heard audio is the way to go because of the complicated name pronounciations"

Yeah, the number of times I've ended up looking at the pronunciation guide for EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER NAME - I might go half and half on this one if I can get my library to get the audio.

25% (view spoiler)[Ok, so who is this Talasseres guy anyway, and what are his motives? I highly doubt that's the last we'll see of him. (hide spoiler)]

This one's going to keep me on my toes!

End of part 1 (view spoiler)[I hadn't realized they would kill both the opposing general and Olthaaros in the very beginning. Honestly have no idea where this is going, other than rivalry between Csorwe and Talasseres (hide spoiler)]

End of part 2 (~50%) (view spoiler)[Okay, some of this is getting hard to follow, especially with the random POV switches. I don't know how I feel about this one. There's just a little too much going on, and I feel like I'm only half understanding everything. I get the basic plot, but not the nuances. (hide spoiler)]

Through chapter 16 (about halfway through part 3) (view spoiler)[Okay, things are making more sense now that Csorwe has someone on her side as an actual friend. Shuthmili was the obvious choice for the love interest from the earliest LGBT tag, but she's a good, well-rounded character who is very human. She and Csorwe work nicely together, and I hope nobody was hoping for romance between Csorwe and Tal.

Somehow I'm kind of surprised that the villain actually is Oranna. I guess it makes sense that it was someone known to Sethennai and Csorwe from a plot standpoint, but I didn't suspect her at first. (hide spoiler)]

End of part 3 (~75%) (view spoiler)[The battle scenes and the traveling are what I find most confusing. There's so much going on at once, and it's not even about who to trust, but about where all these characters are coming from and their very convoluted motives.

TBH, I can sort of see why Csorwe left Shuthmili behind. Certainly I don't support it, but I can see why she did it and what she felt her duty was after all those years. But I don't like Sethennai's reaction. There's something suspicious about the way he says the Reliquary "made him whole again." We never actually did know what he planned to do with it.

Also, how did it end up that that place was his treasury cellar? Had the Reliquary been there the whole time? And had he known? (hide spoiler)]

FINISHED (view spoiler)[Okay, so I didn't expect Csorwe to actually work with Oranna when she left Sethennai. That seemed like an odd choice, and it was interesting how it worked out.

What was completely predictable was that Tal would make an alliance with Csorwe in the end. I didn't expect that Sethennai was Pentravesse, though looking back I can see the signs, but I figured he's reach his breaking point sometime.

I don't know how to feel about this being a series. I liked the ambiguity of the ending, and I'm not sure how Larkwood would follow this up without creating so much more unnecessary conflict. (hide spoiler)]

Still towards the beginning-will have to try and read more tomorrow!

Hey Celia! I'm so sorry I ghosted on this BR, I still haven't finished it ahhh! I'll have to message you when I get it done. Got into some other reads instead, sorry about that