Ahira's Hangar

Am nearly done with it...like it better than Night of Knives but not as much as Return of the Crimson Guard.

The Korellian subcontinent is a societal and religious mess...the death goddess everyone traditionally thinks is their protector is really creepy!

got a question:

I have no idea. I don't even remember that off hand. I'll look for it.

I CANNOT IMAGINE why that scene didn't register with me! An amazing thing, and I didn't even notice! Musta skimmed that paragraph. Yeah, one would surely suspect Mael, eh?

As for Mallick Rel, I hope there's a horribly painful death awating him. How much better off would the empire, and the world, be with Coltaine in it? Even the story of the Chain of Dogs and Coltaine's reputation was turned to Grilli. Doesn't really matter what Mallick does now, he's done the greatest evil to get where he is, and his best won't be as good as Coltaine's would have been.

I also have always hated him for what happened to Coltane and then the later actions against the Wickans. But after reading this book I cannot help but wonder if he won't be better for the Empire in the long run than Laseen was. She was too vindictive, he seems more flexible towards his real or perceived enemies. Maybe the difference in thought patterns between an assassin and a merchant?

I don't know. Even if a lot of the empire's direction was momentum from Kallenved, and I'm sure it wasn't entirely momentum, I think Laseen was proving to be a good ruler. As rulers go. Heh. Annomander thought things were going pretty well. And Kalam didn't want to kill her. And she knew to put differences aside with Rake & Brood because of the Pannion Domin. Politics isn't my strong suit, so I really don't know. But she may have been pretty good at it.

Yes, but on the other hand look at all of her purges - such as the nobles, the old officers who supported her predecessor, the attempted genocide v. the Wickans - which she went along with - etc.