Ok, I've been rereading and the chapter where Grimm meets Folly and Master Ferus for the first time is full of interesting things. I'll post a few in a separate thread but this one deserves its own one.

I remember in my first reading to have read that in the TAW world there is a moon. I specially noted it because of course no moon or 2 moons would have indicated there is no chance TAW happens on Earth. But in this chapter, Grimm mentions the mural that seems created by a child. It's all colorful and it has many unknown creatures and a moon too big for the sun. I was thinking. Could it mean that the TAW world is another world, but the aetherealists remember/know about our Earth? Or TAW is Earth so many years in the future than the moon is farther away from Earth? Other options, besides "it is not important, it is just a drawing?". For instance, atmospheric changes making the moon look smaller in the TAW present?

Hubby has began reading the book. He is struggling with it because he is irritated for the constant racism against the Aurorans (corrupt, inneficient). As we are Latin Americans and have Spanis inheritage he feels offended when the Spaniards are attacked. I've told him that the book only reflects the English point of view of British against Spain, at least in the Victorian times. So, it's accurate. He feels it is offensive anyway.

I know you are not of Spanish descent, but do you think someone should be offended by a novel written by the point of view of something who hates your country? I actually loved this book but I am wondering if I should have resent its treatment of my people. I am being not patriot enough?

So my question is not about the particulars but about the general idea of "should we be offended when a book speaks poorly of our country, even if it is in the mindset of an enemy country?" What do you think?
I

What are the scenes you liked the most? and the least? I can't decide one for the first but I am sure of the latter.

Like:
The prologue
Gwen with Kettle helping with the cristals.
Grimm watching Bridget carrying Benedict (and Rowl)
Master Ferus being attacked by 3 men.
(and about a hundred more!) 


Don't like
The scenes preceding "Cavendish twitching a finger". Seriously, I understand we needed an excuse to see Cavendish power and why Spira was so wary of her but the excuse itself felt too forced for me. We were told that Aurorans officer are proud of being gentleman with the ladies and here we have a young officer who directly offends the woman who is having tea with his commander. He is being rude even after his commander has told him to leave the room. And he offended a lady, because Cavendish is a not so young woman with fine clothes who is having tea with Spira and protected by custodians. I think his behavior would have been rude in a pirate but was totally out of character in an Auroran officer.
(sorry, I was carried on)

I am very scared too. I don't want to see the Predator destroyed, specially not after we heard her "talk". I am also worried for the Albion sphere itself, as it the home of the characters and their families, but I think my worse fear is for the ship. After what Jim did to the Blue Beetle I don't think anything is safe and Folly's vision terrified me.

I loved the book but I specially wanted to thank you for creating awesome female characters. Gwen, Bridget and Folly are great and Cavendish is a scary villain. The only character I don't like is Ransom. The "evil ex-wife" it a tiresome plot and even when she tried to save Grimm, she fired over the other ships and the shipyard and she caused many, many deaths. So she really deserved something worse than what she got.

I love the humanity in Gwen, Bridget and Folly, they are very different women. And even when Gwen, the petite trigger-happy girl has some reminiscences of Murphy, she never annoyed me as much as Murph in Storm Front and other books. I think Gwen is actually my favorite character (it's difficult, I love most of the characters)

Oh, and Jim, thank you for allowing a balance, the girls are not always the ones in danger, sometimes they are the ones who rescue their male friends. And sometimes, they are rescued by them too. And that is fair. Grimm, Benedict and Master Ferus are awesome too. I also love Bayard, Kettle, Journeyman, even Creedy. And the Spirearch! And I can respect Spira as a foe.

I've seen several threads without spoiler warning, and some of them with spoilers in the title. I tried to tell this in some of them, but it would be good if a mod could do a quick revision.

First of all, some comments about the forum in general:

a)   You need to have 100 posts to be able to change your avatar
b)   Avatars should be not bigger than 150 x 150 pixels.
c)   In this section (Bar), threads are locked every 7 days and after a time they disappear. In other sections, the policy is that threads are locked every 30 days.
d)   WoJ means Word of Jim. That is, things that Jim Butcher has said
e)   MAEN: means “Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Night”. We use it as a greeting, as we have people from all the time zones.
f)   The owner of the forum is Iago. He is awesome and he has the last word and the Fist of God. So you know, don’t argue with him
g)   The goddess of this forum is Priscellie, we usually worship her in her own thread, mainly with food.
h)   The moderators are the most powerful beings here, but they usually let us play in the Bar.
i)   Ms. Duck is a famous forum member who has strange theories about the books and is famous for her poetry…that most people follows with a bottle of Brain Bleach.
j)   Many posters have avatars or signatures mentioning Bob. That Bob was not the Dresden Files character, but a beloved and most respected member of the forum who is no longer in this world. His widow, Frogge, is still one of our most lovely members.
k)   We have a pun dumpster, a pun truck and pun related things, so puns are under your own risk.
l)   Sometimes we have theme weekends (i.e. tv characters) and change our avatars accordingly.
m) We have sections for pretty much everything: fanart, just art, advice for new writers, Dresden Files RPG, and so on.  IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DON'T POST ANY OF YOUR ORIGINAL WRITING WHERE JB (Jim Butcher, who is a member of the forum) CAN SEE IT.

Now: In some threads of the “Billy Game´s Den” section, we like to roleplay. Some of us have “forum personas” like balrogs, or wizards and sometimes what happens with them in some threads transpire to other threads. This is intended as an orientation guide for those who are interested. You don’t have to read all of this.

We have a thread called Unionizing Antiminionizing thread, or something like that (it changes, as it is not sticky). Here is the thing. Some…beings here like to force/seduce other members into minionhood. This Union is a group oriented to help. We are an important group and our members will not be recruited.

Some tips about here:

The punch has rampire spit in it. Chiroptera is a recruiter for the Red Court. She succeeded with Magnus, Grey Knight and Me Grimlock King (IIRC). Also, DocChaos, who is now a rampire, but it's not Chiro's minion.


Fireworks, a balrog, wants to rule the world. He has a lot of imps, servants, minions (NPC=non-player characters), etc. But I think only Annie Wilkes is her minion (forum member) now.

Also, Sir Huron Stone likes playing with explosives. If you see him running, RUN FASTER!!!
.
We have some historical threads:

a)   Hellfire Bar. The bar of Hell is owned by Persephone (of course) but as she is not around anymore, the bar is ruled by Warden John Marcone, her…closer associate. He is a VERY powerful being and a crimelord in the normal world. If he is not around, his delegate is Garrat, a wind god (who looks more or less like a gargoyle). The bar is accorded neutral territory, so no attacks, or recruitments there. Also, as it was historically a place to relax, the idea is to reduce the conflict. If you feel the need to fight, there is a saloon where physical fights are allowed and no real durable harm occurs. Sometimes, you can see in the Hellbar WJM sister, Lady Silver: Serenity. And she likes to have fun

b)   Weird (in the Bar section): It is a place where we speak about everything we want, but mostly out of character (ooc). The legitimate ruler is Pharaoh. Another VERY powerful being who is seldom online. The physical location is a volcano. SHOV; Secret Hollowed Out Volcano

c)   There is now a General OOC Thread we use to discuss general RP ins and outs . Feel free to use it for any long discussions related to Roleplaying.

Here is a link to a sticky thread with our characters bios (well, most of them, anyway)
http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,36866.0.html
 
If you have any doubt, feel free to ask. You can do it in Weird (Bar Section) or the OOC thread for RPG (Billy game’s den section). You can also open a thread in the “Story of Us” section.

My friend has created an application for throwing dice that is very accurate with real physics. He has spent a lot of time doing so, and that is why I am announcing it here. It only works for Windows Phone 7.5 or higher, but check it if you can, anyway.

It is called Hedron, here is the link http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/hedron/1a08eeae-2e89-414e-9dfc-e5250cbba25e

Please, check it!!! Do it for me...*pleading eyes* ((also, I think if you click in the "windows phone" add, he will receive some cents  . But that is a bonus. Check the app, please. It is very good!))