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WARNING HFQ SPOILER! Thrisk minnisnippet poll

This fascinating series is a combination of historical seafaring, swashbuckling adventure, and high technological science-fiction. Join us in a discussion!

Thirsk is shot do you believe it is:

1) part of an elaborate escape.
12
14%
2) death of another beloved character to make the series not war porn.
16
19%
3) something even sneaker by RFC.
58
67%
 
Total votes : 86

Re: WARNING HFQ SPOILER! Thrisk minnisnippet poll
Post by Charybdis   » Sun Dec 14, 2014 10:15 am

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PeterZ wrote:
Graydon wrote:Is Thirsk the only Earl in the room?

Those are suspicious eclipses.


Very good! Didn't catch that. There is hope after all.

And here is another 'out' that still keeps the "snippet's snippet" valid (to RFC's varying and evil notions of authorial validity!)

The Earl of Thirsk is a 'reign' name and the person subsumed by the title is only the current office holder. While I do think that Graydon's answer introduces fewer complications, leave us remember that this is RFC writing. Fewer complexities is all right for writing technical manuals, not so much for Safehold narratives. The ellipse will bedevil us to November ? of 2015, and I am CERTAIN that there is a certain and specific malefactor within the bounds of a state due south and adjacent to North Carolina that has a smirk that won't quit! :?

Anyone else notice the spellcheck 'correction' in Graydon's post? Happened to me just now as I tried for 'ellipse' and got 'eclipse'! Technology is wonderful until it isn't and about now I'm really getting antagonistic to my spellcheck!

FYI: Assuming an availability date for HFQ of 10 November '15 (2nd Tuesday), we now have 331 days of discussion.
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Re: WARNING HFQ SPOILER! Thrisk minnisnippet poll
Post by Randomiser   » Sun Dec 14, 2014 10:58 am

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Graydon wrote:Is Thirsk the only Earl in the room?

Those are suspicious eclipses.


I think RFC is way too classy to cheat that obviously.

Ahlvyn's first line is pretty hard to get round. It could just about be a set-up he is privy to if what he means is 'l regret the Church's attitude to you has forced you into this desperate expedient, l've always respected you.' Especially if the plan involves him probably never seeing Thirsk again.

On the gripping hand, it says a whole lot about our author, and the posters, that option three is winning by a country mile!
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Re: WARNING HFQ SPOILER! Thrisk minnisnippet poll
Post by Charybdis   » Sun Dec 14, 2014 11:37 am

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Randomiser wrote:On the gripping hand, it says a whole lot about our author, and the posters, that option three is winning by a country mile!

Prior snippeting on "fatal wounds" of beloved characters will do that!

Thirsk may not be at that same level but, like Hektor Aplyn[-Ahrmahk], he has been with the series since OAR and such personages, even if enemies, are not disposed of lightly. Given that Thirsk is a brave and HONORABLE enemy by circumstance and birth, it would seem that we readers (#3 selectors) prefer to think that our resident evil-genius author is throwing us a similar 'MacGuffin' as for the prior mentioned Hektor.

FYI: This is as good a place as any to say that I have given up waiting for the Kindle version of LaMA to drop in price before I buy it. I think that there has been a permanent price change so that a hope of a price match to the previous editions of Safehold novels is unlikely. While I have the dead-tree hardback, the ability to 'search' the Kindle versions is not worth a longer wait. OF COURSE this means that TOR/AMAZON will drop the price in the New Year just because of me and to spite me! Woe is me! :(
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Re: WARNING HFQ SPOILER! Thrisk minnisnippet poll
Post by fallsfromtrees   » Sun Dec 14, 2014 1:33 pm

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Keith_w wrote:I voted for number 3 because I don't think it is a sneaky escape, he is too devoted to his country, and what happens to his family when he resurfaces in Charis?

I don't think it is number 2, because, among other things, he is not, at least in these forums, a beloved character (more likely the opinion would be, couldn't happen to a more deserving person, too bad he didn't get to suffer more), which I totally disagree with.

Obviously (although very little is obvious with RFC), he will not resurface in Charis until his family has been safely removed from the clutches of the Inquisition.
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Re: WARNING HFQ SPOILER! Thrisk minnisnippet poll
Post by Kakai   » Sun Dec 14, 2014 2:57 pm

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Randomiser wrote:
Graydon wrote:Is Thirsk the only Earl in the room?

Those are suspicious eclipses.


I think RFC is way too classy to cheat that obviously.

Ahlvyn's first line is pretty hard to get round. It could just about be a set-up he is privy to if what he means is 'l regret the Church's attitude to you has forced you into this desperate expedient, l've always respected you.' Especially if the plan involves him probably never seeing Thirsk again.

On the gripping hand, it says a whole lot about our author, and the posters, that option three is winning by a country mile!


Readers have to adapt to author, and if author is devious, what can readers do? ;)

I voted three. How about the scene ending up like this:

Thirsk looked back at him . . . and Khapahr squeezed the trigger.

The heavy bullet hammered the earl out of his chair in a crack of thunder.
***
He woke up screaming.

It took some time before he managed to calm down enough to realize that he's still aboard his ship, still alive, still without a gaping hole in his chest.
It was just a nightmare.


And let me make a tiny prediction of the future. The last snipped before the release of HFQ will end with this scene... month before we could buy the book :lol:
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When in mortal danger, when beset by doubt,
Run in little circles, wave your arms and shout.

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Re: WARNING HFQ SPOILER! Thrisk minnisnippet poll
Post by Bahzellstudent   » Sun Dec 14, 2014 3:34 pm

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I like that kakai!. How could any of us vote anything other than option 3 - assuming that we've read more than a page or three of any of David's books! More sneaky than a sneaky sneak!
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Re: WARNING HFQ SPOILER! Thrisk minnisnippet poll
Post by n7axw   » Sun Dec 14, 2014 4:04 pm

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Which would be sneakier: for this to turn up a dream for Thirsk or for our beloved author having set up his loyal fans with that snippet about Hektor in LAMA to now have this turn out to be an actual assasination?

The thing with sneaky is that you can't predict how it will go...

Don
When any group seeks political power in God's name, both religion and politics are instantly corrupted.
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Re: WARNING HFQ SPOILER! Thrisk minnisnippet poll
Post by ka8wtk   » Sun Dec 14, 2014 4:43 pm

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I have to go with #3. This author puts more twists and turns in his books than any I have read in a long time. And, I love 'em!
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Re: WARNING HFQ SPOILER! Thrisk minnisnippet poll
Post by TN4994   » Sun Dec 14, 2014 6:04 pm

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n7axw wrote:Which would be sneakier: for this to turn up a dream for Thirsk or for our beloved author having set up his loyal fans with that snippet about Hektor in LAMA to now have this turn out to be an actual assasination?

The thing with sneaky is that you can't predict how it will go...

Don

Ack! The DALLAS ploy?
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Re: WARNING HFQ SPOILER! Thrisk minnisnippet poll
Post by McGuiness   » Sun Dec 14, 2014 6:38 pm

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Option 2 is very unlikely. RFC hasn't spent this many books developing Thirsk's character only to kill him off so casually. Plus the text of the snippet says absolutely nothing about the bullet actually hitting Thirsk, it merely states that the earl (which earl?) was hammered from his chair by the heavy bullet. The whole scene could be a dream for all we know.

I voted for option #1, part of an elaborate escape.

We know from as far back as OAR that Thirsk would have signed on with Tarot if it weren't for his family being held prisoner in Dohlar. He has an incredibly strong sense of duty, but he knows he's fighting for a side whose motivations are immoral, and whose propaganda bears absolutely no resemblance to the truth. Despite the scene where he stands in fury while the Inquisition recounts the "kidnapping" of Princess Irys and her brother Daivyn, during which Thirsk counts the ways in which he's sworn to serve the cause of the CoGA, he wants a better cause to serve, as Cayleb noted in OAR. Many of us have been expecting him to defect (or escape at least) if his family could be rescued from the Inquisition's "protective custody."

RFC has stepped in and cooled our ardor in this respect at least once, emphasizing Thirsk's dedication to duty, country, and the archangels. Thirsk's endeavors to improve the technology of his navy, their cannons, and their rifles shows that he's taking a lead role in helping the CoGA win the land war. He's managed to protect his tame wizard, and was instrumental in the creation of Dohlar's angle guns used as field artillery.

So for a guy who deeply resents the his superiors all the way up to the Grand Inquisitor, he's certainly acting like a faithful son of mother church. Of course we'd like to see him defect, if only to remove his creativity from the cause of the CoGA, and he gives hints that he'd do it, except that his family is in "protective custody" to ensure his good behavior.

But if he were "dead," the Inquisition would let his family go, and I'm certain that Merlin could find a way to spirit them away. Of course that's what RFC wants us to believe based on this snippet - for those of us who have learned to expect his sneakiness. ;)

Since we can't believe option #2, an assassination, if we accept the obvious sneaky alternative, a setup for an elaborate escape, it's guaranteed that RFC has something even more sneaky in mind. (Although I still think Thirsk will join the good guys eventually.) As far as advancing the plot, I don't see how a staged assassination serves any purpose other than letting Thirsk escape with his family, but RFC has shown his innate sneakiness in these partial "snippets" many times before, so we simply can't accept this scene at face value. The ellipsis make it clear that some of the scene is missing - perhaps a very large part of the scene that would tell us what is actually going on. We aren't given the location, the context, or anything that explains why Thirsk's faithful subordinate would abruptly decide to shoot him. (If that happened at all!)

Thirsk isn't killed here. He may be engineering his escape, but we simply don't know because RFC has deliberately withheld a crucial part of this scene. So as much as I'd like to believe this is part of a scheme for Thirsk to defect, and I voted that way, it's more likely that this scene is more sneaky than it appears. Those who voted for option #3 are probably going to be proven right.

This doesn't mean I've lost hope that Thirsk may eventually join the good guys, but this snippet probably obfuscates more than it clarifies. (Which is what RFC intended!) :twisted:

Why does this entire post remind me of Viscini's drinking contest against the Man in Black in "The Princess Bride?" :lol:
Last edited by McGuiness on Sun Dec 14, 2014 6:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

"Oh bother", said Pooh as he glanced through the airlock window at the helmet he'd forgotten to wear.
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