I am your (Revenant) Gun (sync read post)

[hamsterwoman]

Attn ikel89, cyanshadow, and anyone else interested in reading along with Machineries of Empire 3:

Let the Kel jokes, dodgy drama watching with robots, ADHD hobbies, and creepiest origami commence.

Comments

through chapter 6 / 21%

[hamsterwoman]

I have a lot of thoughts, sorry XD

Re: through chapter 6 / 21% -- too many thoughts on Kujen, apparently

[hamsterwoman]

- I don't really know how I feel about that reveal/direction, though. On the one hand, would-be revolutionaries (whether political, military, or, er, mathematical/magical/calendrical) doing drastic things to further their visions and costing lives in the process has kind of been the linchpin of this series anyway -- Jedao at Hellspin Fortress (presumably, anyway, since his motivations for that specific act are still not clear to me), Mikodez with the assassination of the other hexarchs, Cheris with her Raven Stratagem. Kujen just adds a technology-driven component to it (I mean, he and Cheris are altering the world using the same tools, but her aims are social and his are technical progress -- I guess, anyway.) On the other hand, I feel like this is a bit too tidily and quickly revealed, and I very much hope it's not leading to a cuddly misunderstood Kujen. I mean, it shouldn't, or at least not to a greater degree that our other favorite mass murderers are cuddly and misunderstood, but I'm leery of the 'I guess I never knew him at all

Minor stuff and quotes by chapter (ch.1-6)

[hamsterwoman]

Chapter 1:

- "Excuse me, I'd rather not go around in Kel drag." -- especially XD in light of Ninefox Gambit. Similar LOL at Jedao thinking he only came with "the standard-issue two eyes in front

[ikel89]

dropping first to CRACK KNUCKLES and also admire your title for this post, which, perhaps unintentionally, continues a noble tradition of scifi titles with parenthesis Eva-style: You Are (Not) Alone etc :DDD *delighted*

[hamsterwoman]

Why, thank you, re: the title :D It occurred to me on the morning commute and then I couldn't resist :D

(The parenthetical lyrics-like titling is semi-intentional, in that I know it's a thing, but have never actually consumed any media that used this convention :P)

through chapter 2 / 9%

[cyanshadow]

- Aww poor Kujen, having to deal with everything being run by upstart Kels :D

- Aww Jedao wants to assassinate himself like a stereotypical Shuos. :D

- … I know with his “it’s not anything I haven’t seen before” Kujen might just be referring to the generic male chest but it’s also an uncomfortable reminder that he has probably seen Jedao’s chest specifically many times before, in situations that I prefer not to look at the AO3 tags on. XD

- Jedao keeps looking for Ruo T___T

- I DO NOT TRUST Kujen’s reaction to finding out that Jedao doesn’t remember Khiaz. Or Kujen in general tbh. But especially when it comes to Khiaz. :P

- “governmental experimentalists of every kind” lol

- Hasn’t been sighted in the last nine years? I’m kind of surprised that the gap is that large, tbh - but makes more sense that the Compact has had some time to actually get off the ground, if that’s the case.

- Curiouser and curiouser re: Jedao’s new ability to math - I guess from that one flash we saw of him watching dramas (<3) it’s possible that

Re: through chapter 2 / 9%

[hamsterwoman]

Upstart Kel everywhere! XD

ETA: And, yeah, I also snickered at the fact that Jedao's first idea for dealing with "Red" is assassination. Those Shuos habits die hard, I guess!

I was also surprised by the time skip, but in retrospect it makes sense, because massive government institutions crumbling and transforming is not fast business, and when they're interstellar, probably even more so.

- Jedao keeps looking for Ruo T___T

I know :(((

I also wondered about Jedao's math abilities. Picking up pointers from his time with Cheris hadn't occurred to me, but would make sense -- as you say, different ways of looking at it rather than, like, osmosis. My guess had been that over the years Jedao had trained himself up to a basic competence his younger self didn't expect, but there's a bit where Kujen's surprise suggests it's more than that, so I like yours better :)

- But general awwww <33 at how his instinct is to figure out how to not only Shuos himself out of this mess, but figure out how to protect the Kel in his care too. <3 That

Re: through chapter 2 / 9%

[cyanshadow]

My guess had been that over the years Jedao had trained himself up to a basic competence his younger self didn't expect

Ahh, I wouldn't be surprised if that was true, too, and might fit better with the "automatically calculating something he hadn't been able to calculate before" bits. Maybe some of both?

(I don't know that Kujen's surprise necessarily means anything, given that he seems to have been surprised by a number of things about how Jedao came back ... on the other hand, I also wouldn't be surprised if it did mean something. :D)

because it suggests that whatever Ninefox!Jedao might've been faking for Cheris's benefit, his caring about the Kel was (almost certainly) entirely genuine.nod -- I'd guessed as much given that he seemed to be a fundamentally pretty decent person from the flashbacks (aside from the whole "deciding to try and revolutionize the system via mass murder and dubious immortality" bit ;) ) and some of the other hints he dropped about remembering people's names and his despair/suicidal impulses pointing

Re: through chapter 2 / 9%

[hamsterwoman]

"deciding to try and revolutionize the system via mass murder and dubious immortality"

Hahaha, I love this summary of Jedao's approach to social change, because yes, that's it exactly XD Shocker id didn't work.

And, yeah, I really enjoy being in younger Jedao's head, though my 'sweet spot' for that is probably somewhere between "Extracurricular Activities" and "Battle of Candle Arc", closer to the latter.

I can report that the Kujen/Jedao dynamic rather deteriorated for me as I read on (intentionally, I mean), but sadly nothing new has come to replace it as the same level of favorite. But I still have 20% of the book left, so maybe something still will.

through chapter 12 / 40%

[hamsterwoman]

- I knew it! The moths are sentient! (Well, that, or Jedao is nuts and hearing voices, which is honestly also a plausible possibility, considering everything his psyche has been through.) But, telepathic moths! And, Kujen was right to let Jedao name the shearmoth, because Jedao is way better at naming things than Kujen or his mysterious assistant.

- I'd been looking forward to meeting General Inesser ever since mentions of her had showed up in previous books and then yhlee mentioned she was going to be in this book, and I like her a lot so far! (I'm glad she showed up just as I was starting to feel a dearth of female characters in this book, with Hemiola's separation from Cheris-Jedao. Brezan's Shuos aide/bodyguard is nice and all but I don't find her terribly interesting.) Interesting that she has some history with Kujen

[q99]

Just bought it, plan to start reading it in a few days ^^

[hamsterwoman]

Awesome -- join in on the fun when you're ready! :D

[q99]

Ok, I am finished!

1- I kinda wanted more Cheris (she got, like, the 3rd or 4th amount of viewpoint space), but flipside, dramatically there's a lot more uncertainty with youngJedao as protag.

2- The relationships stuff with youngJedao was rough, Kujen's a real piece of work.

3- I want more epilogue on what comes next on the political side!

4- Since the last novel I kinda thought the servitors would be something of a larger deus ex, and I'm glad they're not. To be honest, having the ability to use an overlooked underclass that was nigh-invisible to the others felt like too much of an advantage. Hemiola was an interesting viewpoint character.

5- Jedao being a moth was an interesting twist, and I wonder what the Revenant is going to do now.

6- I do forget, what did happen to Ruo?