#tristan abrascal

[lamb200345567]

Tristan Abrasbal book 3 post chapter ten

[lipstickchainsaw]

Speaking of characters' proximity to power, it's kind of funny that, of all the Thirteenth, Angharad, the character who's practically defined by her aristocratic background, doesn't even make it into the top half of the brigade's relative status within their respective societies.

Izel, favoured son of the bigshot general, grew up in the center of Izcalli power, engaged to a cadet branch of the royal family.

Maryam, daughter to one of her culture's kings, albeit far removed from the line of succession, given that her mother was hardly her dad's first wife. Still an heir to magical royalty, essentially. Might even be above Izel depending on how you count.

Song, daughter to the, admittedly disgraced, former governor of one of the ten Republics, making her a member of one of the ten most important families of Tianxia, hated though that family now is.

Angharad, daughter of a minor Malani noble family, with their own estate yes, but far removed from the Malani center of power, given that Pereduri is essentially a particularly well-integrated colony of Malan.

Ishanvi (she counts), trained as a scribe at a Someshwari school for the kids of the rich and powerful, an incredibly unglamorous position that would essentially see her as a perpetual servant to those rich and powerful.

Tristan, street rat, although he does also have a last name, and his dad was a violinist, which isn't the sort of job available to the completely destitute, so even he didn't grow up at the bottom rung of his society

It really does add to the idea that Malani nobility as an institution is so well respected that, despite all this, Angharad still registers as the 'aristocrat' of the group.

[gwennafran]

Fortuna forcing his eyes to meet hers, her golden locks and eyes dimming.

“Scholomance,” she whispered. “It’s taking us into Scholomance. I bet on you.”

-

Pale Lights Book 3 chapter 47 fanart

Tristan and Fortuna - falling.

I really wanted to have this ready for the chapter release a few days ago. But I got sick when I was almost done. Figures.

[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.

[laura-in-calernia]

Do you think Scholomancia plays the violin just because of Tristan's dad, or does she like it herself?

[alicelufenia]

From Long Prices to Long Odds - yep, I'm starting Pale Lights

Pale Lights

Pale Lights Vesper is a world built on the ruins of older ones: in the dark of that colossal cavern no one has ever known the edges of, empi

While chipping away at my re-read of A Practical Guide to Evil, and with patch 8 of Baldur's Gate 3 STILL a ways out, I've started reading ErraticErrata's next big project - Pale Lights.

Right away I can tell how much the author's improved since book 1 of the Guide. We've got two point of view characters for our journey through the subterranean, post-apocalypse world of Vesper. Tristan Abrascal - orphan, street rat, and thief, with a vendetta to settle against the nobles who've wronged him; and Lady Angharad Tredegar, a noble in exile with nothing to her name save her sword arm and unshakable sense of honor, who has sworn vengeance against her family's killers, even as she's dogged by assassins at every step.

Both from worlds like night and day (or I guess that would be Gloam and Glare in this world), they could not be more different, but fate has set them on the same path; to survive to see their enemies punished, they must first survive the trials on the island - the Dominion of Lost Things - alongside other competitors from all walks of life, in order to escape their past and join the Watch, that special band of elite god-killers that toe the line between civilization and the monsters who lurk in the endless dark beyond the points of light.

And it really isn't any big spoiler or anything to mention contracts, basically pacts with supernatural beings for power and guidance. Both our main characters have them—Tristan with a minor god of luck (he's literally her only follower) called Fortuna, the Lady of Long Odds, who only he can interact with, and is constantly snarking at him; while Angharad's contract is with a mysterious entity of few words known only as the Fisher. Many other characters possess contracts that are detailed to varying degrees, but we get the closest look at them through our main characters, both patrons being just as different from each other as their human charges.

It's only a few chapters in that the supporting cast expands immensely, with over a dozen other competitors shipped off to the same destination. Some are paid for by a sponsor, like our protagonist duo, others are here by their own expense, mainly a group of Sacromontan nobles for whom getting even partway through the trials will gain them status with their families. And some are here because they have no other choice, forced in by debtors and legbreakers to pay with their lives or their eventual service in the Watch. Think Man in the Iron Mask meets And Then There Were None.

Keeping track of so many characters early on has been a challenge, but luckily the extremely prolific @gwennafran has created visual guides per chapter of the entire cast, their origins, abilities, affiliations, and status of living or dead or mia. It also serves as a handy reference to visualize what everyone looks like, the cast being just as diverse and multicultural as in the Guide, except everyone's human this time around.

Where the Guide draws from Mediterranean Europe and North Africa for its naming conventions and cultural touchstones, Pale Lights starts us off with a very Central and South America-inspired setting. Place names like Izcalli and Sacromonte, the nobles of the latter being referred to constantly as infanzones (literally minor nobles in Spanish), are just a few early examples. Right now the scope is very limited, starting in one city before moving to a "deserted" island, which is actually totally occupied by hollows, or "darklings", the extremely indigenous-coded pale-skinned people who have completely adapted to living in the total dark of Vesper, away from any pits of Glare (the perpetual light shining through cracks in firmament above, where most civilization gathers). Especially given we're already exploring class dynamics of nobles and non-nobles, I expect we'll also find the "Red Eye cultists" to be more than they appear at first.

I'm only 16 chapters in, and already am very much hooked. Both Tristan and Angharad serve as excellent foils for each other; pragmatist vs idealist, street smarts vs noble scion, untrusting to a fault vs too honorable for her own good. It's all very delicious, and I have reasons to root for both of them even as their beliefs and methods remain anathema to each other. One of the coolest things about a primarily single-perspective narrative are those times when you can see that character from an outsider's view, and because each chapter or two flips between protagonists, we get an impression of how both of them come across to other people, giving us a chance to be out of their heads for a bit.

Dunno how often I'll post live reading thoughts on this one, but I'll certainly try, including anytime I finish a book; which right now is just the two. But hey, at least with this one I'll be catching up to current releases, which is a nice change of pace.

[eddathegreat]

I love that the guy who snapped and shot a woman in the back remains the same guy who needs to go around his friend group and talk to them to straighten their shit out.

[liliennacht]

First Meeting