The Unholy Consult | R. Scott Bakker | Ch. 17-20

[@mikeyschmid-bq6pg]

A History of Earwa helped me so much, I highly recommend reading this after!

[@ReadingByTheRainyMountain]

Definitely on my list for a review for some lore discussion that we're planning to do! Thank you so much for listening :)

[@qaztim11]

O wow, almost 3 hours, this is going to be good.

[@ReadingByTheRainyMountain]

Haha - we started quotes at the two hour mark, and then talked for an hour longer. Was great fun to discuss this series. Thank you so much for being along with us for the ride! :)

[@EricMcLuen]

'Found the Scalded difficult to swallow.' Nothing? 😅 Like Dan, I didn't realize how long the appendix was so the ending was rather abrupt. Apparently I missed a lot with the ending with the decapitants and more. Might break a lot of rules and just reread this when Philip and Johanna get to it. For a quote, this book has the best final line. Mixed feelings on a possible sequel. Ending was perfect but would not complain. Regarding reading the ICE books, really enjoyed Paths. Lots of Easter eggs and origin stories for MBotF. Like there really was a bridge that burned.

[@ReadingByTheRainyMountain]

LOL I didn't even realize we did that! I agree about the final line of this book. That's the one I accidentally read when I was trying to find where the appendix started well before I actually started this book. Gave me chills then, and gave me chills again now when I finished the book :D Am definitely looking forward to a series about the No God. It is possibly the most interesting thread for me in the series, so I would not say no to Bakker writing that series :D And I'm looking forward to reading some ICE to expand my Malazan reading. Thank you so much for listening and all of your thoughtful comments throughout the podcast, Eric! Hopefully we'll see you around on the Malazan discussions too :)

[@HistoritorJimaldus]

Re the head on the pole, the theory that felt most correct was that it was Kellhus’ link back to the material world so he could come back from the outside - if he had to swap heads to go to the outside maybe his own head was on a pole waiting for him to switch back after he returns 😂

[@ReadingByTheRainyMountain]

That's a really cool theory about the head on the pole. I'm going to go down many rabbit lanes for theories about the "future" of Earwa after the events of the Unholy Consult :) Thank you so much for listening and for your comment! :)

[@qaztim11]

Congrats on finishing the series, now is where the fun starts, re-reads are extremely enjoyable, and i would urge you to at least read the prologue of darkness, you will see so many tiny nuggets that are directly linked to the ending. The golden room sequence is one of the best finales i have read in fiction. SO much gets recontextualized, Dunyain are the true bad guys, Inchoroi know nothing and are being manipulated by the Dunyain, the entire inverse fire sequence. The Chorae are not made by the inchoroi, there was an ancient school of magic all about negation, and one of its members ended up learning how to open the ark and start the consult, i belive one of the atrocity tales are about him. Kellhus definetely has contingencies, i fully believe this was a part of the plan, my theory is that kellhus will try to starve the gods in order to achieve the absolute in the outside, and due to that, he needs them to be weakened or killed, it also adds another layer as to why he dammed the entire ordeal, if belief = power in the outside, combined with his powerful soul, he surely will descend upon the outside as a hunger that shall consume all, similar to how the no god is acting on the material world. Head on a pole could be an entire podcast worth of discussion. The first scene of The Judging Eye is Kelmomas torturing the bug under a statue of Ajokli and he says "they cannot see", the foreshadowing was always there. The No God was "fixed" by the consult(mostly non-men and humans). Another cool god "easter egg" would be Cnaiur in the first trilogy killing so many people that people saw horns sprouting from his head.

[@ReadingByTheRainyMountain]

The reveal about the Dunyain was pretty intense. And yeah I loved the Dunyain v. Dunyain conversation in the Golden room. Definitely got to do some head on the pole discussion! Interesting re: Kelmomas and "they cannot see", and Cnaiur with the horns sprouting from his head. I'm sure this series will be extremely rewarding on a reread. I do plan to reread it in a few years.