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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. 
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. 
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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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^^That one gets me the MOST.
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Yes! My 
broke into a million pieces, I had no idea it was coming. I hate the Silver even more now. And to think, I was willing to stay giving them the benefit of the doubt…
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[spoiler] Yeah. That one really kicked the sense of overwhelming sense of doom to 11.
And I love the new content and characters Cjb. It doesn’t even feel new. It’s a part of the story that was always out there we had no reason to see yet. It feels right.[/spoiler]
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There was definitely some “how very dare you.”
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Oh! A night of unconscious ruminations birthed this thought: [spoiler]“What if life itself is a lie?” Well, that feels like it could crop up into writer brain again and have the power to do some quality adjusting to where this section ended, doesn’t it. 
[/spoiler]
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I just want to chat about the book like I didn’t write it, honestly. I know that’s probably an impossible interaction for a writer to have with readers, but I guess this comes as close as can be. I want to be like… “he finally explained ‘magimystic’!” and “Martin said in TMP he thought he remembered the book title being longer and Alistair confirmed it!” and “Zev stopped her in the parlor under the field and asked if she was sure she wanted to do this! He was having second thoughts and gave her an out, but also, A**HOLE!”
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I have had a few moments (especially listening to the audiobook right now) where I stop and think "oh, is that one of the things we were supposed to come up with when we were teased with early info goodness and came up with practically nothing in response? 
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HAAAAAAAAA I have just come to accept that my weirdly wired brain is preoccupied with Easter eggs and hidden details in a way no one else could possibly be and I have to accept that. 
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Go for it, man. I think it’s really refreshing to see an author fanboy about their own work! I’m sure everyone does it, but when do you actually get to see it???
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I’m still trying to wrap my head around some of it, and likely will be for weeks.
Seriously. Please do not read this spoiler if you haven’t read the story yet. Please.
The second biggest question* in the Briarverse was answered. The one question everyone saw when they first joined. Why do some people remember books no one else does? Was the world changed? Were we seeing an alternate reality or dimension? Was it some evil plot of some magimystic megacorporation like the kind that could push the Cagliostro around? Was it the Silver greedily trying to horde magic so noone could oppose them? Was it Monarch’s Mountain thinking it knew better than all of us and pulled our toys from us? Was it an accident? An attack? A punishment?
Nope. It was a bartender.
Now, I read what I just wrote and it might come off as flippant or disappointed. It’s not. Not at all. I just…never would have guessed that in …well ever. For years we’ve seen this event as the catalyst to so many problems and suffering. the missing Green sister was the biggest one as we read her life disappearing before her eyes. It was something to fight against, strive to undo and rally against. And the person who did it, seemingly a decent person overall, just did on their own for some reason (I’d guess some massive cataclysm she was trying to avert), which we may or may not find out.
As a reader, that completely blew me away and basically rewired years of thinking about this. I can’t say that happens to me much.
Looking at this “in world” I just wonder, if this book gets published in world like TMP did, what people like Endri, or Marty or Knatz or Cole would say about this. These people’s lives were seriously messed up by this event. Heck, I’m sure people went to asylums over this because they couldn’t handle what they remembered. There’s a LOT to shake out from all this. I’m looking forward to it.
*Of course the biggest question being what was up with Cumberland books and the phone number and that answering machine? Seriously…I will not let this die.
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There were definitely a few times over the past four years where I thought, They’ve come up with so many awesome theories about how and why it happened, I hope they’re not disappointed when they find out it’s a bartender in Santa Monica.
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