#pale lights

[gwennafran]

Pale Lights Book 3 Ending

Gotta say

I did not have in my expectations that EE would heavily rearrange 5 chapters at the end of Book 3 - with some important rewriting done - and turn those 5 chapters into 7 chapters. (Although, to be fair, the main edit to old chapter 66 seems to be that it now will be chapter 68).

This is going to be so confusing when talking about things going forward.

For those not in the know: Royal Road chapter 62 got about 1/3rd removed compared to Patreon, with a small rewrite for a remaining section. And going on from there, sections has been rearranged heavily in almost every chapter. With one of the main end plots being fully rewritten (For the better, I have to add).

I've had to redo chapter art overviews for the past four weeks. And will need to do it for chapter 66 and 67 as well (68 probably just need to be renamed from formerly being 66).

[lipstickchainsaw]

There was a ripple in the workshop, then a beat of silence. The Machinist dissolved, reforming as lines of light snapping into place besides him as the gold-crowned deity studied him. The... words came quick, lower, less like a seal stamped and more like letters printed on page. He could make them out, and though intonation was beyond him to infer he could at least feel the structure of the thought, more or less. “alchemical.reaction.scavenged.hemeran.silviculture.concentrated.aethyr.harmless.contaminated.thesis:ignorance” A god, Izel dimly realized, had just called him stupid. “I wasn’t for you,” he got out. “It was for her.” The goddess on the hook, lifeless and wan. Her once vividly red dress little more than wan rags, her skin paper-thin and her hair white. Or at least it had been, before Izel shot her. Now she twitched, wriggled on the hook. The red was a splash of blood, light burned in her fair curls. Her eyed opened, the color of molten gold. Fortuna’s sole priest and celebrant had spent hour after hour blessing the contents of the percussion cap, after all. Izel hadn’t shot her with raw aether, he’d shot her a hard infusion of her own power. And there was one last thing still. “O Fortuna,” he gasped. “You bet on your high priest. What were the odds he’d make it here, do you think?” Her gaze snapped up to him. “I would call them long,” Izel Coyac said. “So take your winnings, Lady of Long Odds, and get us out.” A bet made, a bet paid out. Fortuna laughed, the sound like clear bells, and Izel grinned as the Machinist screamed and his little pocket burst apart at the seams.

Oh hell yes.

[lipstickchainsaw]

So spoke one of the foremost representatives of the ‘ambitious brigades’ corner of this crew, though she stood in fine company. Assorted standouts were Nenetl Chapul from the Third and good ol’ Ferranda from the Thirty-First. Captain Beremundo from the Eightieth was also there, presumably because almost his entire brigade was from Garrison families and down below garrison men were still dying like flies. He was not the only captain here for that reason, even a first-year brigade showing up to honor that legacy of service. Well, it took all sorts. “That implies we made it to the ramp in the first place, captain,” Muchen He said. “Which is already dubious.” It had been made dubious in part by virtue of Tristan having the mildest of disagreements with Scolomancia, who was currently expressing her displeasure by mustering an army of slavering lemures to mount his head on a pike. Some gods just took things too personally. Anyhow, that army of kobaloi led by a very large and very angry onjancanu had been hiding in the forest below and was now stomping around looking for something Tristan-shaped to murder. The big one was missing its eye, though, so already things were looking up. And not for the onjancanu, because it was blind.

It's so nice to have Tristan back.

[crowns-of-violets-and-roses]

“You are added to the list, Song Ren,” the Librarian said. “Books can be borrowed for exactly seven days from the moment of borrowing. Restricted volumes from the cages cannot leave the premises. Late fees will be directly collected.” “Late fees?” Angharad skeptically asked. “The very hours of delay,” the god said. “In lifespan.” That sounded more than fair, Song thought. What sort of savage madman brought back library books late, anyhow?

I love her your honor

[shittily-reviews-books]

Reason #18057 why I Love Song Ren.

She spared a moment of deep dismay at the thought of so many rare books being so callously destroyed, lore perhaps forever lost to the murderous thing’s tantrum. A petty evil compared to the rest of the night’s work, but an evil nonetheless.

A thought to deplore later, she chided herself.

She's like -------

God escaping prison - fine whatevver. BUT NOT THE BOOKS.

[general-abstract-nonsense]

Gotta love the Tianxi approach to theology

[literary-illuminati]

Great book for Angharad though.

[literary-illuminati]

Okay having reread the finale for this book of Pale Lights now that the whole thing is out, I fear I'm a bit cool on it.

The structural experiment jumping across the timeline for the eleven scenes is blunt and clunky, but also does serve a real purpose in terms of resolving all the running plots in an order that carries some momentum and thematic cohesion.

Which could really have been avoided entirely by just actually resolving any of these half-dozen threads and character arcs before the finale. You really don't need to do them all at once! Especially when you're splitting reader attention between so many side-villains with them all. The resolution to the lenslight plot works but felt very rushed and unearned, and to a lesser extent the same thing's true of how Morcant was dealt with (a shame, because it's a very cool beat in theory).

(The student association scene worked really well by contrast, just because it felt like there was enough groundwork for it laid.)

This book's entirely sincere dramatic speeches on the power of love and friendship and epilogue of top brass boggling at how the unluckies are the main characters of reality also just kind of made my teeth ache in a way book 2's didn't. Unsure why.