Other Jimness > Cinder Spires Spoilers
Like and like not (major spoilers)
Second Aristh:
--- Quote from: KevinSig on November 05, 2015, 04:33:16 PM ---I pretty much liked everything, except a few things:
I really didn't like that Bridget's second kidnapping happened without a fuss. I'd like to have seen something of a fight. It just felt so very unsatisfying.
We know Etherealists progressively grow more mad as they work with the powers. However, in the context of the book, the characters seem to remain at a static level of madness.
I somewhat feel this gives the Etherealists a bit too much power & wouldn't have minded that grand displays of power would be followed by either a temporary increase in madness, or some other drawback.
I mean, I don't see anything from stopping Lady Cavendish from pointing at every one of her enemies & getting people to claw their eyes out, just like Oprah handed out cars.
Gaunlet's overheat, but what stops an Ethrealist from just going overboard? We really were never shown.
Those are my two major issues. One I hope sees some self correction as the series goes on, the other is just a minor quibble.
--- End quote ---
I thought the growing madness was a very gradual thing in general for etherealists. We did also see Folly nearly pass out after the lightning show with the silkweaver horde. I'd imagine there's a personal cost to channeling large amounts of energy into crystals.
KevinSig:
--- Quote from: Second Aristh on November 05, 2015, 08:46:56 PM ---I thought the growing madness was a very gradual thing in general for etherealists. We did also see Folly nearly pass out after the lightning show with the silkweaver horde. I'd imagine there's a personal cost to channeling large amounts of energy into crystals.
--- End quote ---
Since we've only seen Folly collapse, I'm not certain to take that reaction as a given. Consider in the Alex Verus series, apprentices can get winded, but trained Mages have a nearly unlimited ability to call upon their magic.
Since we haven't seen the limits of Cavendish or Ferus, it could be the same here.
In the Alex Verus series, it's only Mage on Mage action for the most part. However, since Ethrealists have limited numbers, I'd like to see a bit more limitation on their power.
Second Aristh:
--- Quote from: KevinSig on November 10, 2015, 01:18:36 PM ---Since we've only seen Folly collapse, I'm not certain to take that reaction as a given. Consider in the Alex Verus series, apprentices can get winded, but trained Mages have a nearly unlimited ability to call upon their magic.
Since we haven't seen the limits of Cavendish or Ferus, it could be the same here.
In the Alex Verus series, it's only Mage on Mage action for the most part. However, since Ethrealists have limited numbers, I'd like to see a bit more limitation on their power.
--- End quote ---
I wouldn't expect Jim to be hitting the full etherealists' limits in the first book of a series anyway. Overall Ferus and Cavendish didn't do much in the way of heavy lifting in this book. Ferus's shutdown of the Auroran assassins and Cavendish keeping up the reins on the silkweavers were the flashiest bits of power they threw. Folly's light show was a lot more intense.
One more thing towards the idea of a limited etherealist, the etherealists seem to need crystals to be effective. Ferus needed his staff, so he wasn't much help against the silkweaver matriarch only throwing the lighting crystals, and Folly needed her crystal jars to do most anything. Cavendish didn't seem to work directly with crystals, but the text kept referring to her large red crystal like it was more important than it might otherwise seem.
Quantus:
--- Quote from: Second Aristh on November 10, 2015, 06:20:07 PM ---I wouldn't expect Jim to be hitting the full etherealists' limits in the first book of a series anyway. Overall Ferus and Cavendish didn't do much in the way of heavy lifting in this book. Ferus's shutdown of the Auroran assassins and Cavendish keeping up the reins on the silkweavers were the flashiest bits of power they threw. Folly's light show was a lot more intense.
One more thing towards the idea of a limited etherealist, the etherealists seem to need crystals to be effective. Ferus needed his staff, so he wasn't much help against the silkweaver matriarch only throwing the lighting crystals, and Folly needed her crystal jars to do most anything. Cavendish didn't seem to work directly with crystals, but the text kept referring to her large red crystal like it was more important than it might otherwise seem.
--- End quote ---
Agreed, they seem to be dependent on a crystal to act as a focus. Especially if you consider how Folly described the process, it seems that the Crystals are still responsible for manipluating the energy, while the etherealist is somehow able to alter the grain patterns withint the crystals to temporarily alter their native function.
One thing though, I got the impression from Folly's encounter with it that The Enemy was the one controlling the silkweavers, not Cavendish directly.
Second Aristh:
--- Quote from: Quantus on November 10, 2015, 07:16:59 PM ---Agreed, they seem to be dependent on a crystal to act as a focus. Especially if you consider how Folly described the process, it seems that the Crystals are still responsible for manipluating the energy, while the etherealist is somehow able to alter the grain patterns withint the crystals to temporarily alter their native function.
One thing though, I got the impression from Folly's encounter with it that The Enemy was the one controlling the silkweavers, not Cavendish directly.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, I got the same impression about the crystal structure. As far as Cavendish, I don't think it's entirely clear who's doing the bulk of the puppeting for the silkweavers. Her preferred attacks seem to be mental anyway. I initially read it as the Enemy giving Cavendish a power boost and possibly "filling in" the holes incurred for the extra etherealist power.
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