Book Two is Better
A fantasy readthrough podcast with Avery and Travis. Bug us on Reddit/Twitter @BookTwoIsBetter, or email us everything you love or hate at booktwoisbetter@gmail.com
Book Two is Better
Of War and Ruin by Ryan Cahill: Episode Two
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Ch. 19-35.
Toot toot! Hop on Cahill's Magic School Bus as it takes everyone on a field trip to Berona!
We just have a quick pit stop on the way at the Burnt Lands of despair and friendship-ruining. Oh, and then a bathroom break at Dikadika for some dwarven king-killing. Look out your left-hand window! It's a wyvern army and a human battering ram!
Anyway, book is good. Keep up with us at booktwoisbetter@gmail.com, love ya.
Hello.
SPEAKER_01I'm Carl's Reckoning. This is Michael Kine, and this is Book Two is Better. It's called Very, Very Loud.
SPEAKER_00Batman. Alright. Batman. Enough of that. Enough of that. Did they call you a bunch of cunts?
SPEAKER_02No, they were so nice. No, okay. Like the nicest people I ever met. Oh, never mind. But they weren't good at beach volleyball.
SPEAKER_00Don't ask them about Murphy's stout. They'll jump down your fucking throat.
SPEAKER_02Man, you you should still just be ruining the fact that you're going to be able to do that.
SPEAKER_00I'm wondering what the I'm wondering what like a U.S. equivalent of the dumb question I asked is.
SPEAKER_02Like is Buckies your favorite restaurant?
SPEAKER_00Oh, that would be a yes. What do Texans prefer? Shiner Bach or Buzzballs? Yeah. Oh my god, man.
SPEAKER_02My buzzballs have really been in my life more than I'd like them to be recently.
SPEAKER_00Debbie sent me a photo, a photo of him drinking a buzz ball in a car.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, on Sunday night. What is wrong with me? I don't know. Passenger side. As far as I can tell. Yeah, let's let's clarify. Thank you. I don't know how to drive. I live in New York. Never buzz and drive. Never buzz. Buzz drive on the drive. I thought about getting the humongo ball. The biggie.
SPEAKER_00Don't they have one that's even bigger than a biggie now? Oh, I hope they do, because I'm ready to hit that.
SPEAKER_02Man. You think I'm not bringing that to golf trip at Chambers?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I think that's like a break in case of emergency. I'm playing bad and need to have a good time. I tried to, I bought a bunch for the World Cup and we got to the stadium very early. Realized we left them at the fucking apartment. No. I know. We had a we had a bunch of World Cup themed buzzballs. And I think that's probably why Columbia didn't score.
SPEAKER_02That that is true. I had the goal. It was gold. That's the one I had.
SPEAKER_00I like the Telemundo guy who goes, Gold. I don't know if you heard that one.
SPEAKER_02I did start watching Telemundo a lot more because the Fox commercials pissed me off.
SPEAKER_00I they gotta have a rotation of more than six commercials. It's the same Jeep ad over and over. It's a killer. My great-grandmother doll, rest in peace. What a good name, great grandmother. I mean, she's old as fuck when I was a conscious thinking person. Uh lived with my grandparents and she had her own room and she's basically deaf, as most 90-year-olds are. And really all she did all day was sit in her rocker and do word searches, not crossword, because you know, 90. And uh she watched Telemundo soccer full blast, didn't speak a lick of Spanish. I kind of love that. But that got the 90-year-old pulse going. A huge wake up from your nap to a hundred volume goal. FC Yare S. She's just fucking turned.
SPEAKER_02Let's go.
SPEAKER_00Doing word searches.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I never thought World Cup would take over my my life this much, but it's been really fun.
SPEAKER_00It's been fun. It's been a great time. I'm sad that it's like kind of almost over. Well, now that America's out, there's no point in watching. All my adopted America's out, Canada's out, Columbia's out. Now we've got our Viking, our friendly idiot Viking. That's pretty much it. He's my favorite. He's the fucking best. I think that's my takeaway to the World Cup. I hope I know these days in my life. I'm man child. Best.
SPEAKER_02And I also want to see more foreign tourists eating big American foods. I I've really discovered that makes me happy.
SPEAKER_00I saw this Japanese couple getting interviewed, and they're like, they go to the guy first. What do you want to try? He's like, Texas barbecue. And they go to the woman, like, what do you want to try? She's like, Big beef. It's like, all right. I'm sure you can find that in some some form.
SPEAKER_02It's gonna be available. Welcome to Texas.
SPEAKER_00Big beef, baby.
SPEAKER_02Dinosaur Rib.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Well, what is this book called? Of War and Ruin?
SPEAKER_02Of War and Ruin. Of War and Ruin. That was nice.
SPEAKER_00That was a soothing voice you just did. Yeah. I think my post-flu voice is more soothing when I'm not coughing and sounding like that. To be fair, you gave yourself the flu by staying out till four in the morning every night in Miami. I tried to be I tried to be Colombian for one weekend. Didn't work. I am not. Um Okay. I think we're doing chapters 19 through 35 today. We are. More or less gets us to the midway point, but a nice, a nice stopping point. I think we've got it's a pretty good stopping point plot-wise. Dicka Dicka. Unless we're wrong. We haven't read any further. Yeah. It feels famous last words. It feels like Dickka Dika kind of hit a little wrapping up point. Uh see you in book four, and Dick A Dicka.
SPEAKER_02I actually think it was too neat of a wrap-up, but we'll get to that.
SPEAKER_00Suspiciously tidy. Um I believe you have I believe you have some funny games for us.
SPEAKER_02I do. I have a little prompt for you. And the question What's the worst thing you've ever done? Yes, on camera now. Um what fantasy world would be the best one to live in?
SPEAKER_00What about the worst?
SPEAKER_02You can also do that.
SPEAKER_00Well, can we do that too? Yeah. Okay, cool. Um so I thought about this a lot. And sadly, I arrived at a really boring answer.
SPEAKER_01Oh. That's Harry Potter, man. Okay, for best or worst.
SPEAKER_00I don't know. I'm assuming I'm magical. I know that I wouldn't be. Come on, look at me. You're obviously a muggle. Yeah, I I know. I know. But that's the thing about the other fantasy worlds is I would be like a I'd be a fucking peasant. I'd be a cobbler. I'd be in the fields. Yeah. Um, so I'm going to Harry Potter because one, I think we could solve poverty with that type of magic. Um, you know, I'd I'd live in a weird tower somewhere on the heath and play lynx golf and have ten cats.
SPEAKER_02I mean, that's cool. I think like the existence of hogs mead, the existence of talking photos. Which we have already. Well, I got Alexa right here. What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00You ever seen a jiffy? Look at this. It's just a chimpanzee and a cat's AI, whatever, who cares? They're talking.
SPEAKER_02I think okay, my disagreement with Harry Potter is wizard war.
SPEAKER_00Brother, what fantasy world doesn't have wizard war? A lot. Really? Yeah. Okay, but the war is over.
SPEAKER_01The war is never over.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I'm gonna turn that logic back on you in whatever world you pick. I'm saying it's got the whimsy, it's got the charm, it's got baddies. Um, alright. Do you want to hear Angela's best?
SPEAKER_02Oh, is it gonna be fucked up? It took me by surprise, I'll be I'll be honest.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02Uh Magic school bus. Does that count? It does. It's a it's a fantasy world where the teacher, Miss Fritz, or whatever, takes the children and just really wants to like ride a red blood cell or something. Yeah. You want to go, it's like Osmosis Jones, you know? Get in there.
SPEAKER_00I don't like that at all. It's just our world. I don't know. I okay. I also didn't watch that a lot as a kid, and I found there's something off-putting to because you were watching Christian gospel music. Veggie Tales? Yeah, actually. That's the answer.
SPEAKER_02Oh my god. It's not because it's all parables, and parables are disasters.
SPEAKER_00Dude, do you think I would fuck I would oh my I would shit my pants if I saw Goliath the giant cucumber. Exactly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um so my answer was either blue-pilled matrix, where you're just having a great time.
SPEAKER_00Well, are you having a great time? I'm pretty sure Neo's just working a desk job.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_00It's just our world.
SPEAKER_02It is just our world. But that's kind of cool. Or San Finocchio from Big Hero Six.
SPEAKER_00You know, I do really didn't think about I guess I guess Harry Potter is kind of for kids. But yeah, I didn't really think about like children's media. That would be where you go to a place with no pain.
SPEAKER_02I don't know, but yeah, I mean so many Pixar I thought about all the Pixar movies. They just don't quite feel right. Although I did pick up Pixar movie.
SPEAKER_00No, no, no. Wait, isn't it is that not DreamWorks?
SPEAKER_02Maybe it is. Yeah, I guess it is DreamWorks. I like Princess Mona.
SPEAKER_00No, dude, all the Ghibli stuff is too scary. It's scary, man. Yeah, no, no. I can't see no face, no thank you. No. Yeah, that's the thing, is I'm such a coward.
SPEAKER_02Um That's why San Francchio is cool. You just do cool science.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay. You have a Baymax buddy that that's like the tire man. Um okay. Worst.
SPEAKER_00Worst. I got I got two. But you should lead off this time because I did I went first last time.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna go with NPC and Dungeon Crawler Carl.
SPEAKER_00Well, like, oh Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02Are you in the dungeon? Yeah, yeah. You are like an NPC helper in Dungeon Crawler Carl.
SPEAKER_00That sucks. Yeah, that's really bad. That's very interesting. Because I don't think of that as like the darkest series in the world. No, but it's dark. But it's a good answer for one you'd least want to participate in.
SPEAKER_02And also kind of the big one of the big points of the series is NPC awareness. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's really that's a really good answer.
SPEAKER_02Thank you.
SPEAKER_00I was I was just gonna go straight down the pipe with Malazan. I thought about Malazan, it's just like a chain of dogs. I don't need like Jochnikar, the god of pain and blisters, like to be walking the earth with me. I was also thinking just like straight up Game of Thrones. Where's like I don't want to just be like a hacking peasant in 14th century Hungary. It is brutal. Because it's like pretty realistic, plus everyone is way meaner and they're dragons.
SPEAKER_02And anything where you just like have no society or technological advancement and live in like medieval squalor.
SPEAKER_00I mean, pre-sewage, honestly.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00We gotta have sewage. And I don't think they consistently had sewage. I don't think they did at all. Yeah. That sucks. Okay. Well. Okay. Pretty good. Uh listeners, let us know if you think of anything else. I uh the fifth season would be it would be on a short list of horrible.
SPEAKER_02Fifth season. I will earthquake land. I was thinking an honorable mention is the cocaine cocaine cowboy magic society or whatever. What was that? What's that?
SPEAKER_00I don't remember uh Powder Mage. Powder Mage. I don't remember much other than that it was like kind of vaguely French.
SPEAKER_02It's like every setting of like castle feudal stuff, I think. But uh dudes just rip cocaine and fire off magic spells at each other.
SPEAKER_00I mean, just being dropped into any like from software game, like having to live in Bloodborne or Elden Ring or Dark Souls. Ooh, yeah. Would be miser- I mean, uh pretty much everyone there is undead. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. That's back in hyper-realistic pre-sewage societies.
SPEAKER_02Oh man. I mean, like cyberpunk, still no for me. I don't want to be in cyberpunk.
SPEAKER_00I wouldn't mind living in like Final Fantasy VII, though.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know? That kind of I think like a dystopian future would be f It's a hop, skip, and a jump from a. I live in Los Angeles, dude. I am in the dystopia. This place sucks.
SPEAKER_02You're either on fire or in traffic. So I don't know what's better about that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, okay. Yeah. Um okay. Do we want to talk about this section at a high level, or do we want to just raw dog the summary and then go? We're 12 minutes in.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think we can just hop in there.
SPEAKER_00Um you say something to prime the pump, and then I'm gonna start my summary. Prime the pump? Gas is 650. Hey-o! All right, summary of chapters 19 through 35 of War and Ruin by Ryan Cahill. Kayla and Co. are still on their backpacking trip through the burnt lands, and all that taint got the boys feeling different. After the group realizes that their madness is supernatural and not a logical response to being dragged through the desert by an 18-year-old boy king to save a teenager who has no strategic importance in the revolution, they come up with a plan that I will now describe in the style of Christopher Rocchia. With madness so close at our heels, I ordered our men to fashion ropes and straps from their vestments. With these we would bind our hands and gag our tongues so that we might be hoisted in turns through those lone and level sands, through that land in which the might of Osmandius fell to its inevitable decay. So bound we were each, as Odysseus, tied to our own masts, and the sirens were the primal howlex of our own minds. And when we finally passed through that dismal place, like the dead aboard Caran's infernal ferry, we found ourselves on the shores of that grandest of kingdoms, Italy. And then I told my companions that their gods were not real. Well done, well done. It was like reading Hadrian all over the game. Thank you, thank you. Oh, and Calen turned half the desert into glass. Sick. Now that we're five minutes into the summary, let's check in with the others. The book book two is better editorial committee, is forced to eat a little crow because the Dicka Dicka plotline is actually pretty good here.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Dalin and Belina sneak through the sewers at Cairo's request to play the role of poopy diplomat slash kidnapper. They nab Damon's would-be assassin, who, reminder, is not Damon himself. They meet with Ivan and convince him to convince Damon to meet with Dalin, who's going to convince Damon to not be shitty. The details don't really matter. Dalin completely blows his meeting with Damon, but that doesn't matter either because those nasty, treacherous dwarves start throwing bolts again and Bedlam breaks out. In a surprise hero turn, Damon rushes out to defend his people and his reward is an axe to the chest. Ivan is also killed in the battle, treachery still unconfessed, which proves the truth of the old adage, it's only a lie if you get caught. Kyra ultimately saves the day by marching in her troops and committing a bit of heretofore unheard of dwarfed on dwarf violence. And now that Belduar is kingless, she's got her eyes on a replacement, Dalin, whose skills and diplomacy are clearly unrivaled. But that doesn't really go anywhere. It's exam season back at Wizard School, and Wrist is presented with his hardest test yet, the trial of faith, which requires him to use blood magic. Pass the test, and you bind yourself to the traitor god, fail the test, and your professor rips your soul from your body. Wrist spends some time weighing these two delightful options and is eventually visited by the one and only fame mortem, who tells him that the traitor god is actually a really nice guy, and it's racist to call essence blood magic. I'm convinced, give me the death juice. Dane is tasked with reforming the legendary Voltaran force known as the Anduri, but he's got to kick a little ass first to convince all those stodgy Voltarans to follow him. Does it work? Not really, but it's a step. Finally, Kalinvar spends an afternoon at the map of the Dark One's taint to plot out a very important attack. A snack attack surprise, it's a charcuterie chapter. Kyle penned the first mukbang in fantasy history, and you can watch Travis recreate it on our Patreon. Subscribe now. Finally, a quick update on Dan and Ella. They're still alive. The end.
SPEAKER_02Bravo.
SPEAKER_00Bravo. Thank you. Thank you. I worked a little harder on that one.
SPEAKER_02That was a really good one. There's some truly hilarious moments in this section, and I'm glad you captured them.
SPEAKER_00I did. Yeah. I no longer read with an eye for plot or lore. I read with an eye for jokes I can make in summer.
SPEAKER_02My my favorite part, the thing that made me laugh out loud, getting a one-page POV cameo of Damon where he just says, I fucking hate flowers.
SPEAKER_00I'm so tired of these luminescent flowers. Give me a bowl. I hate them. Sharp things you could hate, like refugee quarters with no sewers. Yeah. Fuck it, persistent darkness. No, it's the glowing flowers.
SPEAKER_02I'd like to really focus on this entire review on the Calinvar eating sequence, mukbang.
SPEAKER_00Mukbang.
SPEAKER_02In honor of Joey Chestnut's victory this past weekend.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, shout out. Did you see the thing that they were asking people? Who do you think would win if the competition was to eat one hot dog, run 100 meters? Usain Bolt versus Joey Chestnut. Eat the hot dog first, then run. I've thought a lot about it, and it's Joey Chestnut. I talked through this with Gaffy and um she was not interested. So nice little one-sided conversation. Yeah, I was really just hashing it out and she was uh not listening.
SPEAKER_02I did the classic where I saw different groups of friends on the same day, so I got to recycle the same interesting question and seem really cool.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so you got more thought. What's so you landed on Joey? What's the reasoning?
SPEAKER_02Because it's gonna take him one second to eat a hot dog. Yeah, that was my assumption as well. And then probably 15 to 18 seconds to run 100 meters.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's gonna take an average person more than 10 seconds to eat a single dog. So you're saying both sides. Like it's just it's not gonna go down that fast.
SPEAKER_00He gets the soggy dog.
SPEAKER_02I I don't think the layman can swap it up. I don't think the layman can slock a Glizzy that quick. And then run.
SPEAKER_00And then run a hundred meters. Okay. But yeah, my mat my back of the napkin math was a little sketchy. Oh, so I was like, okay, you saying bolts run that shit in like nine, ten seconds. Sorry, I'm gonna be coughing this whole episode. Ums for his 100. I don't know how long it's a really short distance. So I don't know how long it takes a normie to run it, but I was assuming like 15 seconds? I was saying like 15, yeah. So he only has to eat the dog in like five seconds. Right.
unknownFuck.
SPEAKER_01I just think you might be right. Do you know how fast one?
SPEAKER_02Two, three, four, five. You can't get a dog down that fast. Like if my life depended on it. Well, also, was that not the greatest podcast content of all time? Us counting to five. Slightly offbeat.
SPEAKER_00Uh we've got a new show coming out called Zero to a hundred in which we count to a hundred. Isn't that how Mr. Started? Didn't he just count to a million, Mr. Beast? Bisme Street?
SPEAKER_01Mr. Beast.
SPEAKER_00Oh, he just counted to a million? Yeah. Wait, I have an idea for a new show for us. It's a YouTube thing, it's gonna take us years. We play a full a full game of campaign for North Africa 1940 to 1943.
SPEAKER_02I think if we played it in true DD fashion, where we gave everybody characters and voices and lore and backstory, so the Italians.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Listeners, I feel like the average person who listens to the show does know about this, but it's uh a famously convoluted board game that yeah, I think the stat was like if you met with a group and played for three hours twice a week, it would take you like 30 years to finish a game. Um I don't know, it's got thousands of components. The the rule that everyone points out to explain how dumb this game is is that if you're playing as the Italians, like you have to provision your troops with more water so that they can boil pasta. Um it's worth a Google. There's a good Wikipedia on on this. It is. So if you're interested in that, uh drop us an email and Travis and I will play a full a full round.
SPEAKER_02I think my New York apartment is physically too small to host the board game. I think there are too many pieces and components.
SPEAKER_00There's so many pieces that they ask you to make your own at some point. Oh my gosh. I was reading the rule book today. It's on like archive.org. Um where are we at? Uh I think we're at lightning round characters that aren't in the book very much. Oh yeah. Okay. We're gonna do like we're devoting 90 seconds or less to each of Dan, Ella. Honestly, we're We can't even do Farda because he literally isn't in it. Okay, it's just Dan and Ella. And Calinvar. And we c just because you want to tell you.
SPEAKER_02You can get 120 seconds.
SPEAKER_00Okay, let's start with Ella. Okay. Um, one, I question the necessity for her to get in really good shape and become a fighter.
SPEAKER_02You know, it's weird because she's always been a natural fighter in this book for no good reason. Like she's always held her own and slashed Uruk throats for We did learn she's 5'6.
SPEAKER_00Which uh giving her Uruk, I kind of thought she'd be more of a hoss.
SPEAKER_02I mean, she's she's smacking throats in. Yeah, I know. Um But yeah, I agree. I don't think a training.
SPEAKER_00She should be like a D1 softball player.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah, she got a way, she got a wicked underhand, you know. But I also kind of wish she had a cooler, I don't know. I don't I'm less interested in her becoming a traditional sword warrior Amazon S, you know. She needs like throwing knives or something cool.
SPEAKER_00I think she needs a 50 wyvern that she can remote control.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, wouldn't it be cooler for her to practice druid magic than a mountain? She does. She back a little bit, a little bit.
SPEAKER_00I you know what's horrible is that the first time she mind melds with her dog, she experiences deep sadness.
SPEAKER_02I felt really bad about the set. The dog's like, I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_00Dude, if I went into Billy's mind and felt even a hint of sadness, I would not recover.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, what if he's just going through all the regrets he has in his whole life, you know?
SPEAKER_00I vo I vomited on the rug and the hardwood was right there. I could have puked there. Avery was so mad. I can't believe I did that. He loves me so much. Also, where's my fucking dinner?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. You know, okay, so I didn't love the training montage. What I also didn't love is her Joe Rogan interview style of listening, where they're trying to tell her a story and she keeps fucking interrupting about they're trying to tell her about druids, and she's like, what does this have to do with me every 10 seconds? It was infuriating. I hated it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, I'm not like not interested in where she's going. Like the druid stuff's cool. Their role in the revolution, very cool. Um, it's just like she just really wasn't in this section that much.
SPEAKER_02As a like listener one-star review pointed out. I actually like the book. Don't worry.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, first of all, thank you to the listener who sent us a one-star review. We will we will um cherish it. Um we'll read that one aloud once once we get through uh our coverage of this book. Yeah. Um Calendar. Don't let me forget that. Calendar, a snack attack. Wow. You know what blew my mind? There's a section break in this chapter, and when it comes back, he's still snacking.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. But he's he's snacking even more aggressively. Yeah. He's like slathering a roll with butter.
SPEAKER_00There's so much slathering and smothering.
SPEAKER_02He made like what? Like a it was like a ham and cheese and honey and bread, and like it sounded really good.
SPEAKER_00Each mouthful is artfully assembled.
SPEAKER_02Indeed. He's a uh sandwich artist.
SPEAKER_00Oh man. But that's pretty much all I have. Knights of Akron opened the Jimmy John's franchise. Could be something there.
SPEAKER_02All the notes on Calumbar are extended eating sequence.
SPEAKER_00Extended eating sequence. He also um I this is just a fantasy classic. He doesn't know how to do something with magic. Someone gives him an idea and he's like, what if I try that? And then it fucking immediately works. He's trying to he's he's trying to figure out where the taint is, which I mean, honestly, aren't we all? And uh the guy someone gives him the idea of sort of like superimposing it onto a map, and he, you know, he ends up with the taint map.
SPEAKER_02I mean, pretty cool. And he gets a book of pretty much all the secrets of the grandmeisters of the past. So he's gonna he's gonna learn how to be a grandmeister.
SPEAKER_00Yep. And I assume this is going somewhere, but there's there's a tremendous amount of taint in the burnt lands. And I'm not totally sure why. Um too much. I s yeah, too much spread the taint. You gotta get that oil dispersed. But I I don't know. I guess that'll go somewhere, even though our characters are no longer in the burnt lands.
SPEAKER_02But yep. And confirming that Arden slash Haim is gonna be a very important character, one way or the other. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yep. They're not leaving the stage. So that's kind of all we got for uh Caliburn the KOA.
SPEAKER_01Peace. Dan's Dan.
SPEAKER_00Dan, Daniel. Um, I mean, all we really get from them is that they go to the edge of the burnt lands. Like, fuck that shit. Realize that Kalen went in, get mad, and end of sequence.
SPEAKER_02And then they they ask their furry friend to send a uh thought cord around the desert.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah, that's interesting. And uh the furry says, we don't really have people in there, but we'll do our best.
SPEAKER_02He's also like it's uh it's more of like a physical thing, and it's a little weird, and I don't want you to watch me while I do it. Yeah, fascinating. Um two fun other parts from this bit, because that's that is plot-wise, pretty much all we get. Um is ASAN losing the spark? Interesting. I didn't pick this up. Did you notice that? There's a point where he's like, the spark was harder to access than it was in the past. And it got me thinking, what is the age limit on spark users? Like is do they ever like we haven't really, you know, they're clearly all like four to eight hundred years old or something.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, how about the other I don't really know? You think it's just uh proximity to the burnt lands kind of thing? It could be. It could be. That'd be the like lamest, simplest explanation.
SPEAKER_02But it could be something about him being a Rakina and he's like you know, because some some can't access the spark after their the dragon's right. Right.
SPEAKER_00I wonder Fart is still ripping, but yeah, it's just it does like it hits everyone different. Yep.
SPEAKER_02The whole uh being uh bound and then broken. We get uh Dan's new nickname. I don't know if you caught it.
SPEAKER_00Dan Urexplitter? No, I didn't catch this.
SPEAKER_02Dan Sherhart, which is really sweet. Okay, I'll use this. I'll take it. Uh and farda scene, none. Really?
SPEAKER_00Nothing from Farda, yeah. Nothing really from Theron. Not man. No like yeah, and no like little fun odds and ends like Eltoir or whatever.
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah, we do get new POVs from I wrote them down. Damon, Alina, Veryl, Ivan, and Kira.
SPEAKER_00Ryan Cahill has heard the haters, and now we got three few male POVs. Suck it.
SPEAKER_02They get four pages each.
SPEAKER_00Back to Kayla. Do you want to save Alina? Because I actually thought her section was really interesting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Why don't we wouldn't you want to do Dickadicka or Burnt Lands?
SPEAKER_00Let's end with Dickadicka, because I feel like that's the that's the heart and soul of this. Okay. It feels like the soul of this. Burnt lands. Um We really got a we got a salmon fro dog going nuts and Mordor type of thing going. Oh yeah. Yeah. How did at a high level, how did you enjoy our march through the burnt lands? It was a bit of a march. Um a little chain of dogs. You gotta suffer.
SPEAKER_02To me, it's a fantasy mainstay that I don't love personally, and that that that is more of a me thing. Like I don't I don't love the like desecrated place evil aura turning people against each other. And like because there's no actual conclusion. Like it kind of cheats the like friendship sequence where it's not an actual test of friendship. It's like as soon as you walk out of this veil, everything's fine again.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's like if you had a bad trip on asset or something. It's like, well, ultimately that wasn't real.
SPEAKER_02So you know It's like when uh you cheat on like your your partner wakes up and is like, you cheated on me in in my dream, and I'm mad at you today.
SPEAKER_00I like the first the way you started saying that. It's like when you cheat on your partner. I need to say this carefully. And then you lie to them about it, and so they don't know. So effectively it wasn't real.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's just like Caleb.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, I was feeling that. It's like it wasn't badly written or anything, but it's just like I guess the more generous read is that the evil taint or whatever is kind of they're saying stuff that they feel but wouldn't have said, you know? Yeah. And I think they they do confront that, right? They're like, Yes, I fucking have my questions about this mission, Galen, but I'm with you.
SPEAKER_02Um I thought Eric actually did that the best. Like Eric's speech was actually quite good. Um, I don't trust you. I don't I don't know if this is the right thing to do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But I will say, and like when I was most down on this sequence, Kyle Hill whipped out a fucking crazy ass action sequence and Caitlin turned the desert to glass and uh won me right back.
SPEAKER_02So God was that cool when he made it, he made the glass spikes and everything just dangling like Christmas ornaments.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, because he doesn't know what he's gonna do, and then we sort of time jump, cut to another perspective, and uh he has officially gone sicko mode. So that was really cool.
SPEAKER_02That was the the Naka or whatever, the little gremlins that are like Giraffe 1 2.0.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, every yeah, every biome has its own like kind of level five critter that you've got to be able to kill. Um I don't know. End on a high note. They ended up ended on a real high note. They really did. Um that was a really cool sequence.
SPEAKER_02So very cool. Uh there also I I actually thought there was more humor in this, maybe just the way I was reading it than I thought there would in a you know march across the desert. But I like uh there was a good phrase that Kaylin used, which is it's not rotting like I'd expect. Didn't sit well with my constitution.
SPEAKER_01All right, Kaylin. Hit me. Um fuck, I completely forgot what I was gonna say.
SPEAKER_02Dragon mode dream sequence.
SPEAKER_00Oh another, I don't know if this is intentional comedy, but there's a part where they're all supposed to be marching, and Kalen is like having a mind meld with Valeris and like cuddling his little doggy boy. Everyone looks bad at him back at him, like, what the fuck are you doing? Get on the road.
SPEAKER_02Um that's cool. Also, when they have to spin the spirit webs to keep people from going insane, all I was imagining was the uh Disney Channel wand drawing, you know, before every Disney Channel show. Corey in the house.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's good. Anyway, I'm sure that's what Kahel wanted us to do in this section. I'm thinking, I'm kind of thinking like a Corey in the House thing in the desert of madness.
SPEAKER_01Would that work?
SPEAKER_00Um here's a here's a thread that's left dangling for me. What's up with Ilnayan in this whole like fallen city shit?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00It's a calling to Kalen. I kind of thought we were gonna go there.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I had it I had it kind of as the uh one of the riddle solutions. You know, they have to find the lost city that's part of the riddle. I thought this would be a nice, you know, puzzle piece.
SPEAKER_00I just thought they were going now. I I'm sure like that, you know, it's not forgotten, it'll come back, but I just I don't know. I thought it was gonna be in the shitty desert and they would go do a quest there.
SPEAKER_02I really didn't expect them to pop out in bur in Italy.
SPEAKER_01Like through just instantaneous. Here's a question. Are we sure they're in Italy? I think so.
SPEAKER_00It's not like a mirage. They're not in the Forbidden City and it looks real nice, but it's actually Devil City.
SPEAKER_02I think it would be Actually, you know what? It could it could totally be. You could totally be right. But I for some reason I didn't think that. Um Mainly because I'm not betting on it. They have the actual description uh where I forgave Cahill for his earlier tower descriptions. Towers, Tower Sins. So the reason the towers are so big rectangle vibes in Barona is because dragons can land on top of them. And I was like, cool, I'm with you now.
SPEAKER_00Dragons can land wherever the fuck they want. Wait, they can land on a dome.
SPEAKER_02I just thought, yeah, I'm uh I'm a cockalapologist. What can I say?
SPEAKER_00They can't land on a pyramid. No, they could land on a pyramid.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they're like hawks. They can land on whatever. They're birds of prey. Um one question I have for you. Uh yeah, what'd you think of the dreams? What was your take on his very, very real dreams?
SPEAKER_00Great song by Fleetwood Mac. I don't know if it's druid shit or something else. Yeah. If he's a druid, he's one of the backwards-looking ones. Yes.
SPEAKER_02Because he sees real things that happen, like Rhett getting uh justice for Rhett. Justice for Rhett.
SPEAKER_00A good guy. Notwithstanding what the chainbreaker says about him.
SPEAKER_01Indeed.
SPEAKER_00Um I don't know. I don't know. I I'm also that's another fantasy thing I'm not crazy about as dream sequences. I think I'm still scarred from Wheel of Time books like one through nine. Too many teleron reads. Yeah. Um I don't know. I'm interested to see if he's gonna be a truid, also. Yeah. And I'm sure they'll end up being useful.
SPEAKER_02I think so. Um Yeah, the last thought I have on this section is I'm still scared Kalen's going too far into dragon mode, aka goblin mode. His eyes are getting a little purple.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I do. There's some stuff. We we're gonna have a lower corner coming up when we have wrist and fane talking. And there's a little bit about like um, you know, humans, elves, whatever being tethered to the dragons to temper the rage of the dragons. And I think that points to some of our same concerns. Um, yeah, I'm still like maybe on a on a nuclear disarmament kind of track with the dragons. I think so. Love you, Valeris, but um, they're troubling creatures without very scary. They're very scary. I'm just saying, if FELTier had made the dragons, we'd be talking about them a little different. A little bit like some evil ass dragons. Yeah, I think they might be as ghoul as it is. Um it's well, you know, guns don't kill people, people kill people. That's true. Dragons kill people, though. That's the thing. That's that's where the logic doesn't hold.
SPEAKER_02That's true. Speaking of that moral quandary, might be a good transition to wrist and the argument about whether killing is ever okay.
SPEAKER_00Shout out philosophy.
SPEAKER_01Shout out moral relativity. Relativism? Sure. I don't know. I had to take an apologetics class in high school. I had to learn defense of the faith.
SPEAKER_02Wow. We did we did have a theology class in high school. But yeah. I didn't apologize for shit.
SPEAKER_00Ours was taught by like a real own the libs guy.
SPEAKER_02Nice.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's a C.S. Lewis fuckers. Yeah, you know the type.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02I do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um Yeah, what are we at the the the read this book called The Case for Christ? And it was about like this journalist who like tell me this isn't a great setup for uh this type of book. Journalist who set out to disprove the existence of Jesus and ended up becoming a Christian. Holy fuck.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I do want you to read um the Polo Colo, the whatever it is, the Alchemist book at some point. We'll get your takes on that. Yeah, it's not it's not long. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I don't know. Bonus up? Bonus up, religious literature. Yeah, why not? Um okay, wrist. Magic school, trial of faith. We introdu the trial of faith last time, right?
SPEAKER_02I think so. No, we didn't. We didn't. This is new.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02We knew there was a trial of faith, but this is when they actually tell him what it is.
SPEAKER_00Well, Garamond takes him in to the library. And we get the test, which is do blood magic. Try drugs. How about that? Yep. You have one week in the library with all these books. All the you know what's a great little bit here? He's like, no, there's no forbidden books. It's just uh it's up here because people want privacy.
SPEAKER_02I love it. He's like, there are no not a single book here is forbidden. And it's like, well, you just burned all the ones you didn't want people to read. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Don't give me none of them are forbidden. We've taken care of the ones we wouldn't want you to read.
SPEAKER_02But you can read this whole propaganda magazine.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Every page. Um But yeah, it is funny. It's like trial of faith, but you can you don't have to take it on faith now. Uh this is like their best honeypot, is that they like kind of let wrist be himself a little bit and like find his own way to uh to accepting their doctrine. So they're playing him really well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they're playing him well, and and he is like throughout, he is a doubter. Like he is kind of stone cold at one point. It was like, without facts, this is another story, is something he tells Fane, which is a badass thing to say to the Empire.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, who's he's like honest to a fault, like yeah, but at least Garrett eventually Fane are like kind of charmed by his just like straightforwardness.
SPEAKER_02Um and he in turn is charmed by the fact that if he says no, they will That's my one complaint about the trial of faith.
SPEAKER_00It's not like okay, and then just you're out of school. It's like, oh, we're gonna flay you.
SPEAKER_02Um strip the spirit from your body.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Is that here's the question is that where all the Alamance stuff is going? Because there have been all kinds of stuff about him wondering what's going on with Alamance. He can become one somehow, you know.
SPEAKER_02So this actually brought up a theory. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned it because on one hand, for I'm like, okay, if this is if an Alamance is somebody who refused the trial of faith, then they're way cooler now in the book. Like they are powerful mages who just said no to blood magic. Yeah. And potentially could be like part of the rebellion arc and storyline and maybe even take wrist in or something. Or they could just be both people who weren't good enough at magic and funct out the academy. And I don't know which one they are.
SPEAKER_00Both useful in their own way. Indeed. Yeah. Um yeah, very interesting. We also get there's some like other stuff that's in here. One, um, wrist receives a recommendation to read James Islington.
SPEAKER_02Yes, again, uh, The Weak Are Many, The Strong Few by Gorgomel Artier.
SPEAKER_00Wait, what was the you asked me for the title of the fourth book of uh The Will of the Many, and I gave you a fake one? Yeah, I can't remember what you text. I believed it though. Hold on, I'm gonna find it. Because what's the third book? Okay, you said quote Travis, June 30. Highlington's third book is named The Justice of One. IDKY, but I fucking hate that. And I responded, book four is tentatively titled The Unity of All, which is appalling. I bought it. I mean it it fits.
SPEAKER_02The Unity of All. We've already proven that your your made-up book titles can fool the best author. We've already established this.
SPEAKER_00That's a great point. That is my talent. It is um Okay. We also get man, we get some philosophy stuff that I don't I don't know. I like when authors include this stuff, but for me they they get into this whole debate about like, yeah, wrist is like, you can never kill. And they're like, well, what if there's a serial murder who's gonna stab your mom on the neck? I was like, okay, well, yeah. Like wrist probably would have thought of that, I I would think.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and then I mean, we also get the I mean, at the end of it, it's kind of this argument that like life is equal, like life is life in the eyes of the gods. Um like they don't love is love. But you know, his argument towards the end, once we get the Urach lord dump, is that you know, why is it worse for them to kill to save their own versus humans killing each other in pointless war? And it's like, who's who's to say an Urak life is worth less than a human life?
SPEAKER_00And that's what the gods are just all about. And I don't know. It does it does a little bit fall apart under scrutiny. We'll see if Rist gets there or not. I think the fan conversation was a little more interesting, but the like, is it ever okay to kill one felt a little I think wrist is smarter than the conversation that they were having was probably my complaint with it.
SPEAKER_02Do you think it it delved a little bit in we we chatted a little bit about this, but like one of our complaints about wind and truth was Br Sanderson writing philosophy when that's not his strong point.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean, honestly, that is exactly what I was thinking of was Yeah. I like like I like the concept. I like trying to work on this, but I think if you're gonna go in it, you probably need to go a little bit deeper and get to some of the knotty issues in this sort of philosophy. Because the types of questions that they're asking and answering, I think, are too elementary for these characters, you know. Yeah. Hey, I don't think it I don't if you're gonna do this, I don't think it should be baby's first trolley problem, you know. Right.
SPEAKER_02Like we give us a little bit more credit than that, maybe.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And like obviously the author's capable of that. And like the characters are capable of having, I think, more interesting conversations than one than the one we got. Um like even I mean, I think even in this section, like it's super basic, but Belina and Dane have this whole conversation about like honor and uh, you know, I think Dolin.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Maybe this one's easier to believe because Dolin's kind of a dummy. But you know, they have this whole thing about like Dolan's like, yeah, you follow orders, you honor, you know, serve or whatever. And she's like, okay, well, what if your king's a crazy person? It's like, oh. But that's more believable coming from Dalin. And I think it's a more classic hard case, too. You know, like, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh also Dalin's the guy who's like, as you pointed out, like, you mean I can help people without killing them?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he does have a realization. He's it's like, what man, maybe I could just go around and like feed people and just like do acts of service instead of killing all the time. This is this is great. He's working with way less PTSD. He should be king though. He should be. Okay. So as Roost is pondering, he's paid a visit by the humble Feynmortem. Takes a break from the desk. How'd you find it? And a dead bird. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You want to say a magic trick kid?
SPEAKER_00Uh, spoiler, this was fucking great. Loved this.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, again, every chapter Fane has been in because it's it's so edging for for me as a reader. I'm like, oh, give me that one Fane chapter at the end of every book. Um, it's fantastic. Top tier, S tier content for me. So yeah, Fane comes on in here. He's like, kid, you want to know the history of the world?
SPEAKER_00You want books?
SPEAKER_02We're all immigrants.
SPEAKER_00Hey, one love, man. Uh one one person is blowing up a continent, is another person's looking out for your kids. Yeah. Who's to say? Who's to say? I do love that he's like a he is like a scholar. Yeah. He's like a think he's a thinking man. He sees himself in rest. It's a little library. Just like a fucking goth overlord who loves blowing man.
SPEAKER_02He wasn't yeah, you're right. He he does talk about his backstory that he was a scholar, but he was just so good at shooting spells of lightning and fire that they're like, yo, battle mage.
SPEAKER_00Even eat darkness to mention Ravenway.
SPEAKER_02Uh, do you want to talk through the Faint of Morton Lore Corner?
SPEAKER_00Lore corner. Okay, baby. Okay, let's start at the beginning. Humans. They ain't from here. No, they ain't. They're from in fact, somewhere else, from a place. It starts with the letter T. Great Lord Corner. Terencia, my friends. Yes. Humans. It says, Did you know humans were not born in Ephia? We migrated here thousands of years ago from Terencia. There you go. And they brought their gods with them, the Druidic gods.
SPEAKER_02Give me some Cosmere shit.
SPEAKER_00That's what I'm feeling. We got Kagan, we got Dvalin, we got Bjorna, we got Vethnir, and Fenrir. How about them?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, all gods are Norse, no matter whether you're a human or a druid or it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00It's Norse. It's Norse shit. When are we getting some Egypt? Okay. So here's the thing. They're the Druidic gods. However, it's a lesser brand of god. It's uh it's uh um what is it? What's the off-brand Lego? Playmobil? Oh, uh-huh. I was thinking Lincoln. Megablocks? It might be megablocks, yeah. Yeah, okay. They're the megablocks cops. The Lego gods are the Inkara, these friends. And these guys, they had a pact. A pact of non-intervention. Shout out to Cosmere. They live in an ethereal plane, but you know, we I think we were we were like, why is a traitor god a traitor god? Who would make a traitor god? Seems like a bad god to make. Um became the traitor god by interfering directly in the world of mortals. He did not like that people stayed dead. He didn't like all the killing. What the fuck, guys? Per this account of the gods, let me throw a huge asterisk in the floor corner. I think we we are now creating the propaganda library that Rist is reading.
SPEAKER_02Can't we preface the unreliable narrator that is the Emperor of Darkness and Death?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So per Fane's telling, Ephi Altier was sort of like the god of life. Like, you know, there's a god that made the seas, there's a god that made the mountains, it's whatever. And he's the god who like gave everything life. And then when people started fighting idiots, he's pissed. I brought you into this world and I can take you out. I could take you out or bring you back. So he came back down, and then we get the whole essence thing, blood magic, whatever.
SPEAKER_02He smooshed the realms together.
SPEAKER_00Yep. So there's now a tether between the gods and the whatevers. And uh that's how we get essence. And you know, life can come from death.
SPEAKER_01Which is the recycled spin on all this.
SPEAKER_02Um he invented reincarnation. Sounds good.
SPEAKER_01Would you like to see a bird?
SPEAKER_00Okay. Um, but we also get a bunch of Urach lore too. He uh he says, like when I was upon my travels, I came across a shaman. He invited me into his home. Yeah. So he meets an he meets an Urach shaman who says, Would you like to know of my people? And he learns that uh the Urax got a taint of their own. Um, some sort of disease has taken the Urax. It's transmitted whatever. You're born with it and it kills you. So Ephi Altier says, How about if you evil blood gems and if you kill people, you can heal each other?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm the when we're gonna be able to do it.
SPEAKER_00It doesn't sound quite as good. Yeah. He tries to frame this in a positive way. Because wrist is obviously like, well, couldn't the God have like made it so that they could heal without killing a bunch of people? And he's like, listen, people kill each other all people kill. I killed a guy this morning. Yeah. Yeah. It's uh it's a man. When we say I wish he'd offer a better answer, but like maybe there is no better answer because his God is evil. So I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean he gets into the like Uraq life is just as good as a human life. Again, but when we're saying this argument out loud, it's not a good argument.
SPEAKER_00No, it's not great. We also don't really have any evidence that like Uraq can they really like think and talk and shit? I was gonna say just the shamans.
SPEAKER_02The only shamans that I've seen have also been batshit lunatics. So I'm not buying it.
SPEAKER_00I don't know, man. This is also are we Adrian? Yeah, I think it's wipe out the fucking Urax, God told me to. Yeah. Um Paula Treaties. Yeah. I don't know. But that's our lore corner. So now we know why the Urex be killing. Yep. And we also know uh fun fact, dwarves can't bond with dragons. Yes. Oh yeah, yeah. Okay, we already mentioned this, but yeah, that like one god created the dragons, and it's like they're wrathful creatures. He I don't know. He coded them that way. So so to temper their never-ending wrath, they can bond with humans, elves, Jotnar, and they'll become less wrathful. So I would have made them less wrathful from the get-go. So, oh yeah. I I guess that's kind of it, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and you know, it ends with Rist, I think, being a little more warm to the Empire than he was before. He's like, you know what, Fane, kind of a normal guy, not like the bloodthirsty lunatic I thought he was. Do you think he's gonna do it? I'm wondering if the intervention of Kalen and Co. comes before, after, or during.
SPEAKER_00They find him with the gem in his hand about sucking.
SPEAKER_02It might be a gem. No. And then he's like, can't wait, no, but he's sucking the gym. And it's like, oh.
SPEAKER_00His eyes go all red. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Fuck. That was a witch atelier sequence. I'm behind. I know you are. Oh, okay. Cool. Well, I look forward to that sequence in which atelier. Oh, can I pause to say Kathy was supposed to be camping this past weekend, so I downloaded uh Xenoblade Chronicles. Wife is gone, time for an anime game. Unfortunately, camping trip cancelled, so I'm left with an embarrassing anime game that I kind of can't play. Sucks. Sucks, man. Man, that was that was a just for me game.
SPEAKER_02It's just part of the plot.
SPEAKER_00Listen, I didn't design this character, and if I did, I would have made some different choices.
SPEAKER_02Good game, though. Yeah. My Trails in the Sky experience has been similar because I'm like, yeah, this is normal. It's just some friends running around. And yes, they have playable cat ears that you can customize their outfits with.
SPEAKER_00No, it's not weird. They're adopted siblings, so it's le there's nothing illegal about it. Socially weird, but not illegal. Um okay. Is that end of wrist? Yes. Cool. Dane time.
SPEAKER_01Oh, is wrist on the spectrum?
SPEAKER_00Because he just like immediately says what's on his mind? No, he has a whole section.
SPEAKER_02Uh let me pull it up, where he's talking to his girlfriend and he's talking about how he like doesn't understand people's emotions.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. It's like Discovery's like, yeah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02Wrist, the touch of irritation in Nira's voice let Rist know she had asked a question and he had not answered. Wrist had never been good at reading people, not like Caitlin or Dan or anyone else for that matter. It had gotten him in trouble on more occasions than he could count. Was someone joking? Were they serious, sarcastic, annoyed? Wrist had never understood how everyone else seemed to know these things almost instinctively. Of course, if someone was smiling, he knew they were happy. Then again, that wasn't always true either.
SPEAKER_00What's going on here? Wait, that's a great point. Yeah, I mean, that's totally a valid read. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Interesting. It it surprised me a bit because I hadn't necessarily read that as his character when his interactions were with his friends and with Nira and other stuff, but Yeah, and there's the whole other bit where he sort of like he kind of says something to the effect of like, I don't know, I don't really ask people like how's your day or how you're feeling or whatever.
SPEAKER_00He's like, I'm more interested in like bigger shit than that.
SPEAKER_02Um which he's like a books over girls thing, you know? So like it there's there's some patterns here.
SPEAKER_00Well, I love him.
SPEAKER_02I know I love wrist. I was just I was actually curious if Kahill was going for that with the character, which would be a man.
SPEAKER_00It's hard to imagine him writing that sentence that you just read without that sort of being in mind. That's why that's why I marked it down. I was like, Yeah, especially with kind of a mental health conversation that we talked about. Um, I mean, yeah, it seems like the sort of thing he cares about. Um also wrist, he's a he's a big deal. Fane's paying attention to him. He's like the most badass candidate they've had in a very long time.
SPEAKER_02So Yeah, dude, if we if Kalen's magic is this cool, I'm very excited to see Wrist in action.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I want to see Wrist Unchained because it seems like he's gonna be able to really blow shit up.
SPEAKER_02Wrist blew up an Urach before he knew how to do magic. Let's just put it like that.
SPEAKER_00Wrist Urak splitter.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Okay. Um let's do Dane. That's kind of all we got left. Let's go. Um, okay. Dane talks to Alina, she's got big plans. He needs to be the head of this legendary fighting force.
SPEAKER_02Uh which 10 different hey, you can't skip over the the in my opinion, terrible love sequence with him and uh uh holds her up and does the superman you baby bitch.
SPEAKER_00Doesn't he also like do the Superman with her? He like holds her up by the waist. We that shit was crazy. Yeah, no, we were skipping that one, unfortunately. Yeah, we'll skip it.
SPEAKER_02Kyle, I'm gonna give you a pass because I love you, but that was not your finest.
SPEAKER_00It it honestly didn't bother me. I don't care. Whatever. Um but yeah, it's also every character has like a wise old mentor. Now we got Marlin, who's just there, Amon. Like this same guy. He says wise things to his hothead.
SPEAKER_02I mean, there there is a lot of parallel character structure in this book. Um, just one thing to to note. You have the yeah, the aged mentor, you have like the Dalin Belina, Dane Belina, you've got like wrist even gets a new Dan Tamin at one point. Like the jokey side buddy, Ella and Calen both have their animals. Like, there's a lot of like Damon's same thing happening on the other side of the earth.
SPEAKER_01But yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh I said this our last thing. Holy shit, we got Dickka Dika. Let's be quick with Dane here. Okay, so the Anduri are getting reformed. Um, there's a weird sequence where like three people tell him the exact same thing. They're like, the Voltarans will find it very important. They're like, oh yes, yeah, for sure. The the seeing those Anduri, you're gonna gas them up. Anyways, yes, I guess it will mean a lot to the uh to the common folks to see these legendary warriors reformed. Always 300 for some reason. Who better to lead a guy who hadn't been there for a long time, um, which he's quickly reminded of.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, he gets the classic um you know dick measuring contest where a guy who's like, You didn't save my family, very Islington sequence here. Yeah, it really is. When you were 12, you didn't beat up three dragons.
SPEAKER_00I don't I don't get why Alina is still mad at him. I don't either. I don't either. She knows the story, right? Yeah. This man got yeeted out of window twice.
SPEAKER_02Like, yeah, they were gonna kill his whole family if he didn't leave. I mean, like, what's the one? Yeah, what the fuck else is he gonna do? Okay, whatever. But he does have a cool fight scene with the angry soldier. He beats the crap out of it. He slices his Achilles tendon, which was really cool.
SPEAKER_00I was thinking that was pretty unfixable for a real long time in human history.
SPEAKER_02It's like this guy's not gonna be marching in a way. What do you do if you're if it's uh 14th century Hungary and you pop an Achilles? I think you're done, but he luckily has magic healers, so they fix him up real quick.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, punctured lungs, ever tend and set in the center of the healer. He does the quick, like fucking the pit assessment.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. Um but yeah, he becomes Andurios, the leader of the Anduri, and everyone Except the 43 deserters. Yeah, I was gonna say a lot of people who are still not down, but 15% of the army leaves, you know?
SPEAKER_00I do sort of agree with them. He's like, well, fuck him. I'd rather have people who are actually gonna follow me. Um defeating a spearmaster. Um He also I I don't know. He he went to the school of hard knocks. I guess all uh the real killing was better prepped than the fake killing that the spearmasters have been doing on the training field. He did kill like 900 people in the U.S. You know what I thought he was gonna do in this sequence? What? You use the spark and rip this guy's head off?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it was interesting that he chose not I I guess he does make a comment later that Valtarans don't necessarily love the spark. Like they don't they're more warrior vibes, um you know, hand-to-hand combat, spears and swords, kind of full.
SPEAKER_00I think in his head he was probably more confident that he was gonna win this fight than I was. Because if he were actually gonna die, surely he would have just used the spark and not died.
SPEAKER_02And also like using the spark is just cheating. I think they wouldn't respect him as much. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00He also didn't know this guy was like actually gonna try to kill him instead of do a duel until he's repeatedly trying to behead him.
SPEAKER_02So Yeah. Yeah. It is what it is. Um Marchin. Oh, sorry, go for it.
SPEAKER_00Alina P O V. Yeah. This is just before this, but they have a really strange exchange, and then Alina reflects on it. And I I think they both might be completely fucking insane.
SPEAKER_02It's weird. It's weird. I I yeah, again, I don't really understand the conflicts. She's like, my beautiful brother, I hate him, I love him. I'm like, what's going on in Ahmed?
SPEAKER_00But okay, when they're talking, they you know, and she gives them the plan, like, you're gonna reform these guys, whatever, rebellion time. She also says, like, this is it. Final stand, everyone dies, or we're free. I was like, Well, that's a big decision to make on behalf of all of your people. Yeah. Like, I get that someone's gotta call the shots, but like she did sound a little crazy. And again, how bad is Fane really? You know? Like, are you gonna get fucking everyone killed for I know your parents died.
SPEAKER_02I mean, they've done it twice. Might as well go for a third.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but don't but don't get everyone in your kingdom killed in the process, right?
SPEAKER_02The difference is this time they made it out of their house.
SPEAKER_00It's better than the world's worst revolution. It could, you know, it might be the second worst, but um and then she also after that sequence when she we get her POV, she's like reflecting on I don't know, just like being with Dane. She's like he's different and kind of fucked up, like from what I can tell. There's coldness in his eyes.
SPEAKER_02Messed up in the head, but I'm I'm a little messed up in the head.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Which I think we've been talking about because he did just go in like a John Wick arc in The Exile, and Yes. I don't know. I think I think there's something there, and we're gonna be dealing with his mental stability through this whole thing.
SPEAKER_02We're also gonna find their long-lost brother, and I don't know when that's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00Dead sibling theory. Yeah, you're probably right. They're never dead.
SPEAKER_02They never call is always coming from inside the house.
SPEAKER_00I do think Garamond's kid is dead.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that was also like 400 years ago, but yeah. No, no, no. Was that yeah, you're probably right. At some point in the last 400 years, he had a kid.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Could be an ASIN thing where he found a nice uh age gap wife. We'll see. Um Okay, we have to do dicka dicca or this episode.
SPEAKER_02No way. We get we we okay, but because we have to cut chapter 35.
SPEAKER_00No, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02We get the wyvern fight sequence and we get Dane turning into a human battering ram and Spark thrusting himself through a gate. No, that's what he's useful for. He was very useful.
SPEAKER_00That's when the coldness in his eyes is not treble, in fact.
SPEAKER_02And we we get some great John Quinn shield wall action, I will say. Yeah. Pew pew. I'm the old shield wall. Shield coke. Um yeah, they kill some Loriens and they recruit some new Voltarans. And they are now gonna march onward to bigger battles. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So again, leaps and bounds better than. Their parents' revolution.
SPEAKER_02So they made it out.
SPEAKER_00Um, this is a funny sequence where Dane like bursts into tears because they recovered his parents' armor. Yeah. Which I don't know why that struck me as odd. I don't know, man. Who gives a shit? They're still dead.
SPEAKER_02That's that's very callous of you.
SPEAKER_00I don't know. I feel like my parents got killed and they found like, here's your dad's shirt. Like, great. Man love Eddie Bauer. Like, still dead. Um, I don't know. Dickka dicka, man. Take me there. Oh, baby. Uh curagood, daemon bad plan. Who bad? Cure a good daemon bad. Damon bad. Unfortunately, Damon bad. Damon dumb. Yeah, okay. Well, this is the least important thing. They okay. We've we've heard about a million fucking times that the refugee quarters do not have sewage systems, uh, which is bad when you're in a mountain. Um so they are able to sneak in through the half-finished sewer tunnels. Um, but we get the craftsmage, which is kind of cool. So she uh finishes the tunnel and lets them into the refugee quarters. And gives them a pocket watch.
SPEAKER_02Did that what did you think about that? It's a pocket watch with standard earth time with 12-hour increments. She has okay.
SPEAKER_00The exact same thought. I was like, all right, well, maybe more credence to the we're on earth theory. The Sun Zoo theory. Um It struck me a little bit like uh Dan flipping a shit when he saw the ball deer. Yeah. This thing is fucking tiny. Whoa. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02He also he had a similar reaction to the vertux, the vertux, the little um the furry.
SPEAKER_01The furry needs to burn.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. These things are fucking crazy. I can't believe they're letting their kids pet them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um this is the least important shit we could have said about Dickka Dika. This is the big stuff. Long story short. Oh, also I felt there's a part in Wind and Truth where there's like all this like Sons of Honor fucking secret society stuff that got really convoluted. And at some point, Sanderson has two characters recite the plan. It's like, hold on, what's up with all these secret societies? And then someone explains it. Yeah, Kyle knew what he was doing and had Dan, he had Dalin and Belina recite the plan because he knew that it did not make sense. So anyways, what we're gonna do. So here's what and then one of them is like fourth wall breaking. He's like, it's a pretty simple plan. I don't think we need to recite it. Whatever. Honestly, I appreciated it because I did not know what they were doing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's it's good at Ocean's 11 montage. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Grab the assassin, bring him out, talk to Ivan, try to arrange a meeting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Not really that complicated.
SPEAKER_02And it works. And then uh, you know who fucks up the second meeting in a row?
SPEAKER_00I was gonna I was gonna talk about Belina's plan to get past the King's Guard, which is uh smearing her own blood all over her face and saying, he's gonna kill me.
SPEAKER_02She's the best. She she really is hit or miss for me, but that was a good scene.
SPEAKER_00I'm getting. It's not that he's doing anything wrong with Belina. I just think I need her in small doses. Exactly. It's like if I had to have a grape soda with every meal.
SPEAKER_02Which is uh I like grape soda. It might not be the future because I was looking at a uh Cothillo QA he did recently. They said he wants to write uh mini multiple vignettes or short stories with just Dane and Belina.
SPEAKER_00Just Dane, like from their time.
SPEAKER_02Exile 2.0 vibes.
SPEAKER_00I mean, the thing is I would still enjoy them. I just also by the end of the sequence, I think we do start to see a slightly different Belina. Yeah like taking I don't know. I mean, she's just fought in like a kind of bona fide war, and I think we do yeah, we get the honor.
SPEAKER_02There's a good the good honor and religion conversation. There's the ballad of the breaker of chains, which was a cool sequence.
SPEAKER_00Shout out Calen's dad.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, what the fuck?
SPEAKER_00We get some He's got a whole ballad.
SPEAKER_02And I don't know. Just let's zero in on that. So my understanding was that he broke his oath when it was time to like kill, when he was ordered to kill without good reason, and that assumedly helped stop a war.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I'm trying I've been trying to figure out. I was trying to piece together like what is the significance of that, because it was clearly a capital B big deal, you know, for multiple races, the Ongans, the elves, the like.
SPEAKER_00This is so lazy of me, but I know that we're getting a we're getting a Kalen's dad novella. Yeah. Okay. And rather than digging too deep into the palette, I was like, well, we're gonna get the full like IMAX version of this in like four episodes from now. Sorry for reading in order, you know. I know. I probably should have paid more attention, but I was just like, this is cool. He's a big deal. Can't wait to read the novella. So um, so they have a weird negotiation with the assassin where he's like, honestly, I will just tell you guys whatever. Um, just don't kill me. I mean valid. Yeah, fair enough. So and unfortunately, he doesn't really know who sent him to do the killing. So no, totally useless. Yeah, not like ultimately not helpful at all.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, that was pretty lame. Um we do get uh some serious heavy for like stupid foreshadowing here, which it doesn't turn out to be the case, but a full quote if Dalin Verander had been king of Beldwar instead of Damon Byrne, Bryn, this all would have been different. It's like okay.
SPEAKER_00I guess let's save the that conversation for the end. Yeah. The whole yeah, okay, we'll get there. The more consequential conversation is with Ivan, because the assassin's kind of a nothing burger. Um he agrees to Well, well, they tell him the truth, right? Um, and he agrees to talk to Damon, see if they can arrange a meeting with him and Dalin and sort of try to broker some sort of peace treaty between him and Kira. Um he does it, and uh Dalin fucking blows it. He really blew it, man. Kira sends him in with pumpkins and food and creepy furry ox friends, all this shit. And Dalin makes it through like four sentences before losing his temper. He's like a dummy. You'll never be your dad. Crazy. Crazy. Belina rightly lays into him, but like, how the fuck could he not hold his temper for one exchange? Because he had to crawl through a shit tunnel. He was poopy.
SPEAKER_02He was cranky.
SPEAKER_00Okay. I was angry. Well, eat one of the pumpkins.
SPEAKER_02Let's go back to the fact that he's like 18 years old.
SPEAKER_00Rise to the rise to the occasion, man. I'm sorry, you gotta step up. This is a big internship, but don't fucking um well I guess it doesn't end up mattering because I think Damon's been doing some self-reflection.
SPEAKER_01Realizes maybe he has been kind of a shitty king. Daddy you didn't like daddy problems? I really didn't like his tiny redemption arc.
SPEAKER_00I don't think he was redeemed for shit. He ruined everything. He did ruin everything. He didn't said anything right.
SPEAKER_02I guess okay, maybe less redemption. It's more like an empathy arc. You know, we get the POV and he's like, I'm just sad and I miss my dad, and I just wanted to be good.
SPEAKER_00I just wanted to be good like my dad. Yeah, that is tough. Is this like eat these fucking flowers? It's like he's like the Jacob Dylan of or no, no, he's Chad Hanks. Oh, Chad Hanks. Chad Hanks could kinda I think he could play Damon in the adaptation. Yeah, I'm in. Big dwarf time. Sorry.
SPEAKER_02Oh, it's so good.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay. I thought Ivan Ivan had some good points in this conversation. He had the um, you know, any any group of people is three meals away from chaos, which I thought was actually a really good line. Yeah. Um when it comes to governance.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I feel like that's a a theme through a lot of this, is like king should be a servant of the people, right? Yeah. It's not about the title, it's about keeping your people happy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But as uh Damon is reflecting and thinking about how he can grow as a person, uh throwing some bolts. Shoots through his guard.
SPEAKER_00Another thing that uh Ivan was right about, those fucking dwarves are treacherous. Can't trust them as far as you can throw them. Ivan on his deathbed's like, I knew it. I knew it, I knew they sucked, I told you. Yeah. Um yeah, this was very confusing. Um I'm still confused. Uh I guess all I know is that it wasn't Kira's people, and it was every definitely Pull Rone's people. Pull Rone's people.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. But there is a weird, I was also confused because there's like some sort of like group that was visiting from afar that they referenced as some other some something or something, but it was Pull Ron's people, but it was also someone else's people. Like, I don't know. Any the the whole point being it was a different dwarf faction than Kira. And uh they get in a little fight.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, this is when I now I think I've noticed it before. Mikaelin or Cahill loves people's teeth getting broken in fights. There's a lot of people getting stabbed in the mouth and their teeth getting snapped and shit.
SPEAKER_02I've got shoving his sword in people's mouths.
SPEAKER_00He's the king of it. It's crazy that I'm reading and stopping. Like, is that hard? Could I aim a sword through someone's mouth? I don't think I could.
SPEAKER_02Why does Ivan get all the creative? He killed a guy with a book in the mouth, also, I think. Jesus Christ. In book one?
SPEAKER_00They also he gets oh yeah, that was the with the Wind and Truth beatdown. That was crazy. Yeah. He ends up getting stabbed too with like a gimli axe, like the points of it. That was interesting. I was thinking about that one a lot. This was a this was like a pretty fucking bloody throwdown here. Like I thought this was close quarters horrible.
SPEAKER_02Climax to Dick A Dika.
SPEAKER_00No, this was Yeah, this was great. Like I I really enjoyed this ending sequence. Great fight scene. Um Kira comes in and saves the day. Like and man, Ivan and Damon. They're cooked. They're dead dead.
SPEAKER_01No dead sibling theory.
SPEAKER_02To be honest, we hadn't lost a main character in a while.
SPEAKER_00Um I'm trying to think, like Kalen's fan. I think Kalen's dad die, you know, I guess dad and mom was like pretty surprising.
SPEAKER_02But that was like that was almost like a whole book ago. It's book one. Yeah. I mean, we had like Rhett dying. Um also book one.
SPEAKER_00Uh but they're like there have been some bit characters who've died, like the the wacky wind runner pilot and so. Exactly. But I mean Ivan's been like uh one of our like kind of tertiary POV characters and shit.
SPEAKER_02Like he's this is a big kill-off. This is a big one.
SPEAKER_00And Damon, I mean Damon, geez, big character. Um I mean it makes sense. Like I I like their being gone creates all kinds of interesting narrative stuff here. And at some point you gotta kill a main character. You know, you can't just it's fantasy, baby. Yeah, you can't all survive. Um so I okay. Ivan Ivan's secret goes to the grave with them. Hilarious. What the fuck?
SPEAKER_02So does Damon's.
SPEAKER_00What's Damon's? Oh, the his his self-owning?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. I mean he g he tells Ivan, but nobody else. And I guess Dolin. I mean, Dalin said it, but nobody believed him.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and Dolin's like also been withholding that information a lot to because people will rightly freak the fuck out if they know.
SPEAKER_02And and Polrone is dead.
SPEAKER_00Who's dead inspired with that? Crazy. Um I'm just really surprised that Ivan never was faced with his own like treachery.
SPEAKER_02That's wild. It it made originally I thought it would make me dislike the character more, and I ended up making me like the character more. Like I I came around on Ivan at the end. I didn't like him in many parts of his character development.
SPEAKER_00Well, actually, I can't remember if I came around on him, but by the end I definitely liked Ivan. Yep.
SPEAKER_02At the very end, yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's a weird thing where it's like Yeah, it makes sense. He could have died with this. Like it did the truth did not need to come out. Right. But it's very odd to have that be part of a narrative and have it not come out. Like just like from a plot standpoint. It's really strange to set that up and then not have anything come of it.
SPEAKER_02But I guess it's not consequential, you know. There's no deeper plot happening.
SPEAKER_00And now that he's not around, it almost doesn't matter because whatever, the horse is out of the barn, right? The fucking fade came in, they're they're fucked. So like what they're the only thing that ever would have come of it was Ivan gets punished. Um Yeah, I don't know. I I wonder if it'll come up somehow. But uh But they both die as heroes, yeah. Yeah. Probably won't come up. Uh but it's a very interesting one. I wonder if I would have loved to ask Cahill about that decision. Yeah. Um to see. I'm sure there's a reason for it, but I I just don't know what it is. Um so we're kingless, and man, I thought we were ready for King Dallin. Nope. There was a tremendous amount of of hinting to that point. And uh I they just picked what's the guy's name? Olmeg. Oleg, yeah, that guy. The human dwarven ambassador.
SPEAKER_02The guy who was just sweaty and running in the tunnels for like a few chapters here and there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, it'll be better than Damon. I I promise you that.
SPEAKER_02He it was such a quick bow to wrap on this whole story. It's like, Oleg, you're king. And Dalin.
SPEAKER_00Oleg, you're in this room right now.
SPEAKER_02You seem great. And also, like, then Kira telling Dalin, like, all right, get out of here. Scamper. Take Belina with you. She's weird. Yeah. Why don't you just uh get out of here and put us off screen for another book?
SPEAKER_00Man. Do you think anything's gonna come of the uh Dalin shall become king of Bildoar thing?
SPEAKER_02Maybe. I mean, the one dwarf lady had a crush on him, Namara.
SPEAKER_00That's some classic Belina stuff right there. Belina had a little crush on her. Yeah, she did. What was it in five hours? Oh, love triangle. Yeah, she said she needed five hours with her. My goodness.
SPEAKER_02My god. Um, yeah, I guess it's two open questions. Like one, are Dolan and Belina gonna go squat up at Barona where everybody else is getting.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they talked about going to find Asen, which makes sense.
SPEAKER_02And then two, are we gonna get any more content in Dickadicka? Or is this it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I wonder what there will be aside from eventually there's gonna be a big war and they'll probably recruit Kira's people, but well, unless Kira becomes a main character, which she very well could be. Yeah. No, a lot of questions left.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I have no fucking clue where this goes, but it wasn't a good one. But it is a great place to wrap.
SPEAKER_02I mean I feel very satisfied that we wrapped up like three storylines in this section.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. A good yeah, this is kind of just as far as we got in the books, but it did end with like it was very neatly wrapped up. Dickka Dicka ends like Galen makes it out of the desert, unless he's in Demon City and it's a mirage. Um and like the revolution's underway with Dane.
SPEAKER_02So um Yeah, it does feel like we're the pacing out right better. The pacing was a little rough at the start of this section. Yeah. A little slow, a little montage-y.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It did it did get a little homeworky for me. Like it's probably the first time in this series that I've I was like, I gotta read, man. I gotta sit down and read. Um, but I I I highly doubt I will feel like that for the rest of this book.
SPEAKER_01So No.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um Do you wanna do you wanna do a one-star review of our book and then uh maybe get out of here? I think so. I think so.
SPEAKER_01Do you got it? Let me pull it up.
SPEAKER_00Uh first of all, thanks for sending this in. Uh and honestly, it wasn't too hurtful. No, it was it was now we're out of our depression phase. We're good.
SPEAKER_02Uh one star. Book two is better podcast. They say you should always criticize the things you love. If that is true, this podcast must have really loved Sun Eater. You can tell because they always mention that. Actually, we really like this book, which at this point should be the show's slogan. True. Strangely, that same logic does not seem to apply to anime with titles like Reincarnate in my Reincarnated in my mom's basement as a vending machine, which get almost as much praise as the books being reviewed. One star, but I'm now interested in learning more about cacti.
SPEAKER_00One cacti are great. Two. Yeah. Two cautious hero, the hero is overly powered but overly cautious, is good. We are not being ironic.
SPEAKER_02Mashle Muscles and Magic, number one show out there.
SPEAKER_00Three. I'm not gonna lie to you guys. There have been times when I've said actually we like this, and I didn't, I didn't like it. That's I'm not gonna point to anything. So disappointing. But there have been times when I've lied. It said I've liked something and I really didn't. I keep saying I like everything I read.
SPEAKER_02I think we we struck a pretty good balance as critics and lovers of what we read. Yeah. Um Hadrian got us a little dark, and so we feel like so people keep listening to us. We need to actually find things we love.
SPEAKER_00It's tough too, because like as many of these series I've read, I've learned that like book three of any series, you've lost me. If I'm reading them in sequence, like it has nothing to do with that particular book. Like I love Oathbringer. I fucking hated Oathbringer when I read it the first time because it was my 3,000th page of Stormlight in a row, and I was tired of it. And yes, A Prison of Piss and Pain was the 3,000th page of the Hadrian that we read in a row. And I just like wasn't in a good headspace to do it. Um, so it is what it is. I wish like, yeah, I wish we could just make it a show where we only bring books we love, but like just due to scheduling, we pick a series and we figure out if we're loving it as we're going through. Um try not to be too negative, but you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I mean that yeah, you're you're spot on. Like this happens to me with most series I read because I tend to to binge really hard when I find a new series I like. And then, you know, by the third book of Brent Weeks, I was like, if I think about colors one more time, I'm gonna kill myself.
SPEAKER_00Um You know, dude, my my latest insomnia thing was uh I read a summary of books four and five of Lightbringer because I really wanted to know what happened, and I just knew that I was not probably going to be able to power through those books. I'm staring at it right now. Um seems like it jumped the shark a little bit. It did. It did. I think it might have jumped the shark from page three, but regardless.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, all that being said, yeah, we it's tough because you know, we're now I don't know. Yeah, I think we're about 3,000 pages into Cahill. And so yeah, you're gonna hit a little bit of a lull. But yeah. I it is genuinely fun. It would be really like this series. In between each book that would make us a little happier, maybe. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I feel like can we say what we're considering reading next? Because I feel like it's like getting close to being written in pen. Uh yeah. Yeah, yes. Why don't you introduce it? Because it's your idea. Black tongue thief. Hello. Yes, very exciting. Very pumped. Yes. I've we might do an author deep dive because I had to shelve it for this series, but I was reading Between Two Fires, same author. Yep. Unbelievable. So good, so good, and like would love to read that for the show.
SPEAKER_02So and I've read The Daughter's War, which is the prequel to Black Tongue Thief, which I don't think I necessarily want us to read on the pod, but the second book or I guess now third book in that series is coming out in October. So that's the rough plan. And then Ave, I got ships of magic sitting on my shelf.
SPEAKER_00Like a Robin Hobb in 2027. It does feel like discussing it would be like a it'd be like Rachia having a podcast and commenting on the Bible. Um like I I hold ro I hold Hobbes so sacred that I feel like it'll be weird to throw her into the vibe of this show, but um I also am dying to read that series, and I kind of don't have time to read stuff not for the show. So um so yeah, I think that's what we're that's what we're looking at um in the coming months. But I mean still uh we're halfway through the uh the book cube, uh which is of war and ruin, and we've got another chungus after this. So uh way more way more valeris to come. Hell yeah, brother. Okay. Um well with that, I wish you good night. Um kind of wish I'd written the whole summer in the style of Raggia. That was really fun.
SPEAKER_02I was really cool.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02I enjoyed it. It it kind of kind of brought me back to a moment that it was a special moment.
SPEAKER_00It was. I miss man, I miss it. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Well, back when my partner was like, why are you doing this?
SPEAKER_00You look so unhappy on the couch with the prison of prison pain. You're just so mad. Yeah, whatever. Okay, we'll be back in like a week with the next quarter of this book. Um, yeah, pretty dead set on four. And uh yeah, keep checking in with us. We we appreciate all the uh messages, everything uh that we've gotten. Okay, Travis. Um can you end with a joke? Okay, I got one for you. Good. What do you call a pony with a cough? What? A little horse. A little horse. Good night.
