Coldfire reread: BSR Book 2
Nov. 3rd, 2008 05:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trobadora posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
hunters_forestWe're through the second book of BSR now! So it's time to look back on "Night's Keep".
Gerald and Damien have met and joined forces now. And the relationship that is at the heart of the trilogy has finally started developing.
Here are our discussion posts for "Night's Keep":
Chapter 15
Chapters 16-18
Chapters 19 & 20
Chapter 21
Chapters 22 & 23
Chapter 24
Chapters 25-27
Generally when I reread the trilogy I skip the first book and start with this, because the Gerald/Damien relationship is what I most often reread for. I suspect a lot of people do the same, but I certainly appreciated the first book more the second time through. Rereading it all now, knowing what we know about the trilogy as a whole - is the second book of BSR "better" than the previous one? More interesting? More engaging? Or is it just that it caters more to the slashy interest?
Which brings me to my second question: A lot of people get Coldfire recced to them as "slashy" books, and this is the part where that really begins coming true. (We all know it's barely started here, of course. *g*) Were you expecting slashiness when you read it the first time? And if you weren't - did you see it coming, the way the rest of the trilogy focuses on the relationship between these two, or did that come as a surprise?
And to get back to the really important part ;-) - how do you read these early encounters between Damien and Gerald? Jostling for power? for control? What's the dominant element - hatred, distrust, necessary evil? Instant attraction? ;-) I'm really curious.
And now that we've had something about Gerald's identity and past, it's time to revisit our early discussions about the Church. Gerald's mortal identity was written out of the Church's history quite thoroughly, so that even though Damien knew the Prophet and the Neocount were one and the same, the name "Gerald Tarrant" didn't ring any sort of bell with him even after he knew the Neocount was the Hunter. How much more revisionist history do you think there is in what Damien and others know (or think they know) about the origins of the Church? How much do we really know about Gerald's mortal years, and his falling out with Gannon and the Church? What exactly was his role - how did he do it all, what sort of organisation was the Church at that time? Any thoughts?
And how much of what Damien believes about the Church is true? There's one point where he claims that no adept has made peace with his faith since the Prophet's time - but we know about the Patriarch, and there may have been others. Is he buying into propaganda here?
Yes, I admit it, the complexities of the Church and its history still fascinate me. *g* So let me know what you think!
On Thursday, we'll be continuing with chapter 28.
Gerald and Damien have met and joined forces now. And the relationship that is at the heart of the trilogy has finally started developing.
Here are our discussion posts for "Night's Keep":
Chapter 15
Chapters 16-18
Chapters 19 & 20
Chapter 21
Chapters 22 & 23
Chapter 24
Chapters 25-27
Generally when I reread the trilogy I skip the first book and start with this, because the Gerald/Damien relationship is what I most often reread for. I suspect a lot of people do the same, but I certainly appreciated the first book more the second time through. Rereading it all now, knowing what we know about the trilogy as a whole - is the second book of BSR "better" than the previous one? More interesting? More engaging? Or is it just that it caters more to the slashy interest?
Which brings me to my second question: A lot of people get Coldfire recced to them as "slashy" books, and this is the part where that really begins coming true. (We all know it's barely started here, of course. *g*) Were you expecting slashiness when you read it the first time? And if you weren't - did you see it coming, the way the rest of the trilogy focuses on the relationship between these two, or did that come as a surprise?
And to get back to the really important part ;-) - how do you read these early encounters between Damien and Gerald? Jostling for power? for control? What's the dominant element - hatred, distrust, necessary evil? Instant attraction? ;-) I'm really curious.
And now that we've had something about Gerald's identity and past, it's time to revisit our early discussions about the Church. Gerald's mortal identity was written out of the Church's history quite thoroughly, so that even though Damien knew the Prophet and the Neocount were one and the same, the name "Gerald Tarrant" didn't ring any sort of bell with him even after he knew the Neocount was the Hunter. How much more revisionist history do you think there is in what Damien and others know (or think they know) about the origins of the Church? How much do we really know about Gerald's mortal years, and his falling out with Gannon and the Church? What exactly was his role - how did he do it all, what sort of organisation was the Church at that time? Any thoughts?
And how much of what Damien believes about the Church is true? There's one point where he claims that no adept has made peace with his faith since the Prophet's time - but we know about the Patriarch, and there may have been others. Is he buying into propaganda here?
Yes, I admit it, the complexities of the Church and its history still fascinate me. *g* So let me know what you think!
On Thursday, we'll be continuing with chapter 28.
