originally posted by HJ
Awww Janny, keep at it, what you do is unbelievable. I soak it all up! Can't see where the story is going but loving the ride. I've been loving these books for 15 years; the joy of having a brand new one in my hands is indescribable.
New arc, new twists and turns and things I didn't expect but… pure magic!
Thank you back for your kind words. Will try not to leave it so long before I post again. I haven't forgotten about that print - I will ask you about it in earnest one day when I've got a spare few ‘’’
Love H x
originally posted by Walt
SPOILERS POSSIBLE as I ramble along…
I couldn't wait for the local stores here in Salt Lake City to get the book, so I checked it out of the Library (as an aside, there was a 10-person que to read Initiat's Trial). Of course, as soon as it shows up at the local Barnes & Noble, I'm getting my copy to start marking and tagging.
As to the 250 year leap, I found that I liked how the bits and pieces were revealed even as Arithon had his own memory revealed - in fits and starts with a whole lot left to go!
Terans wins hands-down as my favorite new character, with the Light's dedicate Commander my new love-to-hate irksome target.
Now I'm chomping at the bit in anticipation for what will happen in Havish after the tragic sacrifice of the king. Will Arithon remove his carcass fast enough for the Fellowship to adequately step in and salvage the Havish/Tyson border? Will Luhaine's sacrifice be the spark to turn Davien around? We still have a rampant unicorn on an unnamed beach trying to disembowel our favorite Masterbard… Oh the agony!
originally posted by Julie
Hi Walt:
I'm with you- Tarens is my favorite new character although Daliana runs a close second. Would love to see her and Elaira team up! Davien will not be able to help Arithon directly but it could get interesting if he hangs out with Lysaer!
originally posted by Annette
Davien has not precisely been a team player so far, are we even sure he would honour the Oath of Debt that binds the other Fellowship Sorcerers? He is free of Seshkrozchiel for a while, so if he does not fall in line with what the other Fellowship members have agreed to, he would have free reign to meddle as he saw fit.
I would suspect like with the Grey Kralovir, Davien will be in on whatever Arithon schemes up to free Lysaer. So either Davien does not consider himself part of the Fellowship, someone does away with Selidie, Selide gets her chance to kill Arithon before the True Sect have their go at it (ladies first) or something else is going to happen that frees the Fellowship from the agreement not to interfere with Selidie being free to determine Arithon's fate. Not that Arithon is likely to ask for the Fellowship's help anyway. Like with the necromancer problem, I would think Arithon is more likely to let the Fellowship worry thinking they lost him.
I would suspect Davien will not be getting in contact with Lysaer, he is more likely going to be conspiring with the Biedar or keeping an eye on Selidie and her plots. Since Luhaine took Davien's place with Seshkrozchiel, would only be fair Davien kept an eye on the Koriathain for Luhaine.
Walt: please don't wait to see when B&N will shelve the book on their own. I had been so alarmed that no one had reported a sighting, I stopped by B&N on Friday - the NEW book was not on the shelf, but only listed in the warehouse…the customer service told me B&N has gotten - erm - stingy? - about shelving books now that they are shifting their emphasis toward the Nook.
I inquired very politely - how would readers and collectors who shop in stores even know the book existed? And the customer rep changed the setting to bring in some copies.
PLEASE don't wait for the book to arrive - go in and get them to order it. They WILL drop ship it to your home, and if you make a purchase over 25 bucks, the shipping is FREE. I do this all the time with pre orders and books not being on the shelf - it helps bring those authors to attention of the chain.
Meantime thanks for using your local library and how heartening that there is a waiting list!
originally posted by Chana
I finally convinced my friends to start reading. One is in the middle of CoTM. Another is already up to Fugitive Prince! It is fascinating to watch them read and to remember the story's development from the earlier books. One of them said to me today, "Yes, Lysaer is cursed and doing cruel things, but he really was all right…until he smashed Arithon's Lyranthe." 
I told her that she's hopelessly behind the times. 250 years behind, to be precise.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Daliana!!! She is so human. She is by far my favorite new character. Can't wait to read more of her. I'm also really curious to find out how Lysaer got to be so reasonable and aware. He seems to have really changed in the last 200 years… Was it simply Arithon's confinement that lessened the curse's hold on him? or did something happen to him? Maybe Sulfin Evend somehow got through to him before he died. Any Ideas?
Chana - your first post? Welcome here!
originally posted by Walt
I'm rather dissapointed in B&N for NOT having the Initiate's Trial on the shelf. They did have HoV and FP… I think this is a symptom of the closure of national competitors (Borders) and stores like B&N focussing more on their online/Kindle/Nook/whatever rather than good, solid, real bound paper! The good news: I pick up my hard cover copy of IT tonight (if I can beat the snow storm)!
Thank you, Walt!
My B&N has the whole set of books in paperback on the shelf, just not the new one. Perhaps the showing of two books is just a restock issue? Hopefully!
May the snow treat you kindly!
originally posted by Tamas
As with others, wanted to say thank you and that I really enjoyed it! Although, also as with others, I really wish I knew precisely why happened 250 years ago!
Hi Tamas, thanks for the nice word…as for the structure, grin - heh - I had my reasons. You will find out all in due time, at the moment when it packs the most punch.
Of course.
Meantime, 
- there is a lot of wailing over this time gap and this 'apparent' hanging thread…keep wailing, ye chorus.
It's Amusing to the author, who realizes you are all forced to take this step by step, where I know where all the pieces landed, will land, and how it's gonna play.
The next book should put lots of you agonized folks out of your misery; and set you up (wicked laugh) to wail some more over Other Stuff.
(While the author: takes aim at the silence that is surely destined fall after Song of the Mysteries). Oh, except for the wailing chorus of those who Don't want the series to End…
originally posted by Annette
No silence after the end, we will be wailing probably about those clues you left scattered all over the place that we never saw. And there is still all the artwork you could not fully explain till after we knew everyone's fate. And probably a few small grumbles for the interesting characters and events we never got to see more of, and are still hoping might turn up one day in a short story.
originally posted by Auna
Well, been a long while since I posted here or even looked at it - the wait became too much and I dove into other things for a while.
My feedback:
Janny, you are a wicked wicked woman to torture us so - I feel you are like a contented cat sitting with that smirkish grin, tail twitching, while batting the poor reader mouse from side to side.
I want to rip my hair in frustration at what the heck went wrong exactly with Dakar's oath since nobody seemed to bat an eye at the time. Now suddenly he's the fall guy? And we go from entire story arcs of Arithon escaping capture and then BAM! when we blink our eyes he's in captivity and dire straights without even a paragraph, let alone a long chase.
I realize this will be revealed likely when Arithon recovers his memory but the feeling of 'did I miss something?' kind of spoiled the enjoyment of the story in some ways. It might have helped if I reread the last book first because I swore the last book ended victoriously and then this book says nope, hence the confusion.
I love the new characters, especially Dalianna. I knew Lysaer would be moving forward from what happened last book but it was so awesome to see the possibility that he might be able to truly love someone again and forgive himself for his past. Gah I want people to talk about how he can get rid of the curse and lets go for it!
Poor Arithon took a step backwards which was sad but how else do you handle such a powerful creature when he's at full capacity? It's a shame because I enjoy him most when he is whole, though I appreciate the PTSD he has about imprisonment. It will of course be interesting to see how he regains his memory and what effects losing it has on his wholeness he had after Kewar.
Things I cannot wait to see - Davian! Oh I love this guy, he's so unpredictable… will he step in and help or will the Fellowship be one less sorcerer in doing their tasks? The drake might just spit Luhain out too haha!
I also can't wait to see the conversation when Lysaer awakes and faces Dalianna
I'm also curious about the horse of all things.
Finally, I can't wait to see what Elaira does next and if she speaks to Sethvir or absorbs even more knowledge to add to her collection of annoy Seledie tools.
Overall a very good read. I'll definitely have to reread it again as usual to catch things missed. Can't wait for part 2.
originally posted by Sleo
@Auna - If you read the scene at Athir VERY CAREFULLY, you will find the flaw.
originally posted by tony
@Sleo - please, PLEASE . . .give a hint here???
originally posted by Sleo
Read the way they set up the wards. Dakar in particular was so anxious to set things up so that the Koriani didn't get the child that he left out Arithon.
originally posted by Annette
I thought the mistake was swearing the Oath of Debt against Rathain's Crown, which would involve the Fellowship if Selidie tried anything. Without the Oath of Debt the Fellowship could have intervened once Arithon was free, and Teylia would not have had to die in order to save Arithon. If anyone's free will seemed to have been compromised maybe it was the Fellowship's. Dakar seemed to have overstepped his authority to act on their behalf a bit, I doubt they would have agreed to be compromised like that. So maybe Dakar did forget to ask permission from everyone.
Dakar got Elaira's back up in the first place with his secretive deal with Glendien, which was not in Arithon's best interests. Dakar was not doing that in order to save Arithon, he was doing it to gain the Fellowship a heir for Rathain, which Arithon had mentioned he did not want to give the Fellowship. In the end Arithon's free will did not seem compromised, Elaira had Arithon's permission to act on his behalf, and the topic of Oath's of Debt to her order had come up before. He had already said he would agree to it if it became necessary. And the Biedar made sure the Fellowship gave up their claim on the child before she was even conceived.
Elaira specifically asked for the Oath of Debt to be sworn against Rathain's crown, Dakar was not to use Arithon's Name. I did not see what else he could have done to avoid it. If Dakar had not made the deal to sell Arithon out in the first place, and had not pressured Elaira to make a decision maybe Elaira would have worded things differently, maybe not. Elaira seemed to think it was necessary to involve the Fellowship.
originally posted by Ruth
Just got and did a first reading of Initiate's Trial yesterday after Kinokuniya somehow got the book into Singapore earlier than they told me it'd arrive.
But what a ride it is! Physically, the book is as deliciously thick as the others - it looks slightly thicker than my hardcover-sized softcover copy of Stormed Fortress. Pacing wise? I feel as if it were… shorter. In a sense. And the opening… well. 200 over years of literally chained and bound imprisonment, completely alone except for the free wraiths he manages to free even without any idea of who he is and what he can do, barring the occasional 'visits' by a creepy Koriani witch in the pejorative sense… It really does set the mood, with Arithon being put through the wringer like that.
On a funnier sort of note? Considering Arithon and Elaira have apparently been enduring a very unpleasant separation for the past 200 over years, it's just as well that their love is so very transcendant. And literally earth-moving in how it is expressed in marital relations.
Though the tidbits of background lore were incredibly fascinating, as usual. Even more than all the plotting and whatnot, I have rediscovered that what draws me the most to Janny's writing is the lovely, lovely worldbuilding. Each new book just makes Athera more and more interesting and fascinating. If I could find them, I'd grab each and every last book set in this particular universe just so my mental headcanon gets a bit more complete. For instance, right now part of me is itching to know what precisely is Northgate, where it leads, and why it apparently is guarded on the other end by a great drake. And why whatever is on the otherside is apparently inhabited by great drakes with offspring.
And of course, if I could, I'd cheerfully rip Morriel's self out of the puppeteered body and shred it. Speaking of people who cheerfully toss aside every opportunity for redemption. And who seem scarily short-sighted and self-focused. Or maybe I should say, who assume that they can control all the ranging consequences of their actions, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
originally posted by Annette
I would not be so sure Morriel does not have a place to play in things, maybe she has good reason to survive no matter the consequences. She just lost sight of a few important things waiting all that time.
It will be interesting to see where Morriel might end up, and in what form.
quote:'May her black heart char for eternity, and her spirit twist in the lightless pits at the negative pole of creation.'
quote:'From the negative pole of dense-form matter to the exalted realms of pure spirit'
Asandir's had some other interesting thoughts that might be important in the next book, especially as we can be sure Morriel is eventually going to try a direct attack on Arithon. And Arithon is likely to be gaining a bit more power yet. Athilli, Rockfell and whatever wisdom those stones at Mainmere have. If Janny said 'no man' can go there we should be suspicious Arithon will.
quote:He dared not close with heavy energies while immersed in a transformed state of higher frequency. The smallest, most subtle attempt to engage adverse forces would open the floodgates to disaster. In unbodied form, the altered vibration of his physical being and the unbinding spells of attack would combine in one shattering burst of annihilation.
All the quotes are from Grand Conspiracy
originally posted by Kassandra
OK. This may not be a spoiler, but I'll put it here anyway.
What good are the Fellowship Sorcerers? Sethvir has been in a coma for the last 3 books up until this book, so everybody was on their own.
Now, Asandir has sealed an oath to necromancers who he knew BEFORE were body snatchers as well!
Poor Arithon! Nobody ever helps him for one reason or another, yet they all rely on him to cover their shortfalls. And then there's Elaira, don't get me started on her brave heart being left undefended.
i found myself pretty angry with the hair/beard pulling Sorcerers. I mean who keeps oaths to necromancers? And now, there was an inference that Arithon's bloodline may not matter since these same necros now have the power to break the compact!
That's a fine howdy-do!
And is Janny going to write another before 4 years are up and not go larking off with Feist and leave us hanging?
I remember a woman with cancer appealing to Stephen King before she died , she wanted to know how his Dark Tower series finished. She died not knowing. I'm beginning to think I will too with this series.
Criminy, I wish I could reach thru the pages and slap those sorcerers upside the head. Now they've lost Luhaine. I figure Ciladis ran off with the Paravians, so now they're down to 5 again.
What a way to run a railroad!
Forgive me, the book just came out where I am so I just finished it