Book Club: The Book of Briars

Well we don’t know much about her, but I think Janie could be Flinterforge, only because we know she likes to garden. It’s what Ben sees her doing the second time he goes to their house. I mean a lot of people like gardening for a lot of reasons but if we’re really speculating randomly, we might as well go on something completely meaningless, what’s the harm!

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Or Lexington’s second passage, taken with some of what else Ed said about factions, There are some extremists in every group of people.

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I love that we get a glimpse of walking stick lore, which is one of my favorite parts of the Briarverse.

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Oh man, my brain is just doing weird things. :deirdrexd:

[spoiler]Veronica standing there against the baddies, shouting “This is my boom stick!”[/spoiler]

Or going full Gandalf [spoiler]“You shall not pass!”[/spoiler]

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  1. Part 3-B. AAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH! Talk about cliff-hangers.

  2. Has the place for posting small errata changed? I picked up a couple and wanted to turn them in.

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It’s still here! https://forum.thebriararchive.com/t/the-book-of-briars-novel-error-report-topic/5183

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Thank you—I was having trouble finding it.

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All 3 characters I’ve met so far live in near poverty. Alastair’s book room, Ben’s barely habitable cabin, even Ilya, although the house seems to have been nice once.
But somehow it doesn’t feel awful to me? I’m not sure if this is just my escapism powers kicking in or what, but I wouldn’t hate to be in that room smelling of cooking grease and full of worn books? Or in a cabin with creaking sounds from nowhere, and a ceiling leak dripping into a bucket while I doze off. I guess although both are objectively not good places to live, there’s still a sort of coziness to them that I like? Idk where I was going with this.
I just started reading an hour ago and the word painting is so pretty, I feel like I’m just sort of drifting through the worlds these people live in.

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I finally got the chance to plow through the most recent installment.

:spiritseergimme:

Also [spoiler]I see that Adler there, can’t hide that from me. :eyes:[/spoiler]

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Are you kidding me?! WHYYYYYY?

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I’ll let you like this @CJB…sadist.

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:grimacing: :sob: :cjtea:

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Well, now we know why this age is called the Book of Briars. So much pain. Continuously, from all the angles.

(Can you all tell I’m concurrently reading Part 4a and harvesting my backyard blackberries?)

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@CJB duuuuuude, seriously? Oh man, oh man. So lost things that hold memories do have a place to go or multiple places to go. Also what the mountaineers know couldn’t fill a thimble ow but yeah, okay fair point.

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Sometimes I write lines and think… this is really gonna get the Mounties. :slight_smile: that was one of them.

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Huh. So much time and so many answers.

It’s certainly a lot to take in, and well written and gave me the feels. You continue to do good work, Sir. As always.

I love some of the simpler descriptions of magic as a narrative, etc. The was poetic and carried the thread of the last few years well. The more explosive stuff felt a bit out of place to me, but I get they were hopped up on wrought magic.

I hate to form an opinion only knowing part of what’s to come. But I suppose my take away from this is I honestly couldn’t tell you, as villains in a story, which of the Morrow sisters I really hate more. If I keep with my claim that Vernoica is a Balmora then I can almost forgive it. Doing what you see needs to be done even if it’s not ‘what you’re supposed to do’. But…damn.

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I feel you on Veronica and Marjory, even though I really enjoy writing them both. It was freeing and fun to write the Morrows because characters like that don’t seem to play as well in an interactive arena where you want readers to want to interact with all the people you make up. Veronica as written wouldn’t work as well in a TMP-like experience, at least not long term. Even Knatz was a hard sell to some back in the day.

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I tried to balance familiar and new in the BoB. My hope with the new character types and new explorations of magic is that it will also open up new avenues of prose and interactive storytelling possibilities for the Briarverse down the line. That the world of magiq will get bigger and deeper, not smaller and more circular. If I’m going to be exploring this for the foreseeable future, I want it to stay interesting for me and for you all.

And “hopped up on wrought magic” is the perfect way to describe it. :joy:

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I think this was honestly my favorite section yet. I LOVED the scene in the restaurant where Veronica finally comes to and Alistair says a liiittttllle too much.

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I love the Morrow sisters. It’s Zev that I hate. Screw that guy. His betrayal actually broke my heart.

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