Interlude - The Revenant and the Naga

It seems to me most of the Earthers are pretty busy just surviving. Also, the slavers are considered to be one of the major powers of Innworld, right? Between their own strength and the tacit support of so many other nations that either buy their slaves or simply fear to face them, how could they ever be threatened by a few Earthers? Getting themselves killed by attacking a few slave traders will have zero impact on the institution of slavery in Innworld as a whole. The only way to truly address the issue is to have the backing of sufficient powerful nations and none of our young heroes wield that kind of influence. Also, most of our characters are in Izril, Baleros, Rhir, or Terandria, while the majority of slave trading and slave owning happens in Chandrar, right? Most of them only know of slavery in Innworld as an abstract concept that exists somewhere else.

I also say “give it some time” although with the length of the story it may be a long while. I must admit I really don’t see the problem here. This is the first time we hear about this slaver, from his “point of view”. It was revealed that he is behind the person behind the fake phone identity that the main characters already view as an enemy. What more of a setup for this being a major conflict at some point do you need?

KDP

Although I'm keenly worried about our bird stolen hero ... will we get a smidgen of an idea of where he is currently?

Beth Rasmussen

Eeesh -- the Naga is so creepy to me... Not the scales part but the mindwashing basement upon basement upon basement. Oo *shudder*

Beth Rasmussen

I'd say give it some time. There are a lot of spinning plates at the moment. Not saying that you're wrong, I'm also annoyed at the lack of motivation to confront slavery but there is only so much that can be covered in every chapter. It'd probably have to be an entire arc much like the goblins had.

Parker Groseclose

The most obvious bit of false equivalence is the [Emir] is comparing his practices rather than the average slaver's practices in Roshal. The fact that life of a slave to the most powerful and wealthy man in the world is better than the live of a poor serf isn't really a compelling argument. The [Serfs] don't have the right to choose where they farm, but they can't just be tortured or raped on a whim like a [Slave] can be. The prisoners of war are put to hard labor if they can't be ransomed, but their children aren't forced into the same labor force. The child of a [Slave] is born a slave and can only become a [Slave]. Plus he is lying by omission since he fails to mention the fact that he literally brain washes all of his slaves to love him.

Alan McBrayer

part of my annoyance of the stories portrayal of slavery is Erin is like a living Godhead of "discrimination is bad" Mr Rogers like being and combats discrimination constantly through the story while slavery in various horrific forms has so far resulted in a brief spasm of violence from trey and nothing else. IRL plumbers from Britain were perfectly willing to fight slavers in the middle east and that was without a world-spanning system that feeds into Earthers hero complex's yet we see no equivalent.

Varisis

A whataboutism aims to derail an inconvenient topic by pointing out other evils. What he is doing is false equivalence as persuasion. Exactly how false the equivalence is is also not clear. The tsars prided themselves in not owning slaves, yet Serfs where bound to the land and were killed for leaving or refusing to work it. While serfs could not generally be sold directly, the land they worked could be. The evil slavery and well as feudal societies wreak lies as much in the deformed conscience it creates as anything else. Tying the right to abuse to property or blood does not matter much, it's the very idea that prevents good societal institutions from forming. There are really only two characters from terandira we have seen much about. One is Lynette, the other Perill, neither is exactly a moral paragon and if you said they were from a serf style feudal society, it would not surprise me. .

Midjji

I enjoyed this in part as a breather from the inn melancholy, which started to feel a little unrelenting to me. Characterisation of Roshar felt fine, didn't read any endorsement of slavery, I'd expect a culture founded on it to manifest it in lots of (differently) monstrous ways. Will be interested to see where it goes.

Tom Seaton

This last chapter felt like another book to be honest, like something old that didn't make the cut the first time, dusted off and just edited a bit to add something to tie it to the rest in some way, hope it doesn't make to the audio book version, cause I don't go easy on audio books that disapoint

CromCruach

Our Author keeps giving power to all the bad guys in this world. as if there isn’t and the bad guys with power. Or she is preparing them when the gate to earth opens and earth people comes in with gun blazing. We are taking this planet or pocket dimension which I think it is.

Caanbo

" He wished they would make more of themselves," I read this exactly right and yet horribly wrong on first pass xD

GopherAtl

Are we reading the same story? I expect the snake king to leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouths... You make it sound like Pirate tried to paint him in a good light. I say Pirate very artfully made it clear what kind of person the snake king was and the system he represented. There is even an entire section of the chapter devoted to saying how those “stories” does not reflect the truth...

KDP

What do you mean “side stepping”? There was nothing positive about this aside from self glorification. If you somehow found this putting slavery in a positive light, I do not know how you can read anything without being offended. It was even made very clear with direct comparison to other forms of slavery like the horrible serf system.

KDP

Man, I'm hoping the Emir gets a shotgun to the face

jj

Eh, we're seeing the Emir from his standpoint and that of the ruling class of a city-state that runs on slavery. They might not be the best at their jobs if they thought of themselves as monsters. When we get a look at Kent and his fellow captives, we'll get a different story. We'll possibly get the brief viewpoint of someone who caves in to the dependency the Emir is trying to instill, but I would like to believe none of the Earthers will accept their Naga overlord (however unlikely).

Joshua Flowers

At least they are physically well taken care of, for now. Mentally and emotionally, however... I wonder how many he has in captivity and it didn't sound like any of them have been *broken in* just yet, unless Kent has exceptional resilience compared to his peers.

Joshua Flowers

the sidestepping of the horrors of slavery is pretty distasteful to me. You can have a slaver be as kind as possible all i see is a rapist.

Varisis

The snake king left mad test in my mouth.No matter how much the author Drew him in flowery background or say he is not that bad. The undead king was fun to read but it was dark chapter. And hold earth people didn’t help it. Kaven .2

Caanbo