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+--- Thread: Blue Boots in Songs of Love and Death, SPOILERS for everything (/thread-228.html)
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Blue Boots in Songs of Love and Death, SPOILERS for everything - Mervi - Dec-10-2010
Yes, this topic IS in the correct room because this story DOES take place in the Realm of the Elderlings... in the good old Buck Duchy to be specific!
Now, first I have to say I'm impressed how well Robin & co managed to keep this story and everything about it a secret.
Nothing about it was mentioned in any previews or blurbs, Robin was VERY elusive when asked directly and even the first reviewers never mentioned it was a RoTE/6D story! I had my suspicions because the character names were obviously very 6D-y, but then one reviewer called it "an Old English love story" or something like that and completely threw me off... anyway, at this day and age with internet and spoilers everywhere, WELL DONE! 
Sooo, the big question.... is Lord Just Just? Well he does seem to be very fair-minded so the answer is yes... but if you mean if he's Just, the son of Burrich and Molly - I don't know. I got excited when his "black curls" were mentioned, but then as Timbal later points out, that's the case of three-fourths of Buck (I was thinking about Farseer's theories the moment the hair colour was brought up!
) We're never given a time-frame of when this story takes place, but it seems to me it's a time of peace and prosperity in Buck, and the King's Patrol seems to be very efficient. Somehow in my mind I imagined this to happen during the reign of Dutiful - or even Prosper, but I have absolutely nothing to prove that with. One oddity made me hopeful too - Timbal describes "the queen" bidding a farewell to an aristocratic couple and then when a king is mentioned I started to wonder what they were doing visiting such a minor keep... but then from the context it's clear that these titles refer to the lord and the lady of the keep. I don't know if this is young Timbal's mistake (or even possibly the authors) because obviously there's only one king & queen at a time in 6D. So, there's nothing to prove that Lord Just is an older version of the boy we met at the end of Fool's Fate and I think it would require a lengthy explanation to give him even a minor keep of his own (it's made clear it's his and not lady Lucent's) since he's one of the younger sons of Molly, and not Skilled or Witted.This was a well-built "palantir" type of story - I mean the kind of tale where the gist is not to draw conclusions from the inconclusive evidence you're presented with and then act on it. It did make me wonder how different if would have been told from Azen's point of view. I also loved the way Eda & El were incorporated into the story and how the reader is never quite sure whether they really are fiddling with Timbal's life or whether she just assigns that meaning to her life events.
Also, because checking this is my new hobby - it passed the Bechdel test (which I honestly didn't except from a girl-falls-in-love-with-a-boy story).
RE: Blue Boots in Songs of Love and Death, SPOILERS for everything - joost - Dec-10-2010
I started SoLaD yesterday, and am reading the stories in order. I am halfway the third story so far, and the first two were excellent. Not sure when BB is appearing in the book, but once I've read it, I may post something about it.
RE: Blue Boots in Songs of Love and Death, SPOILERS for everything - Mervi - Dec-10-2010
Please do! And I can't believe you have that much self-restraint, I could barely make it through the two-page introduction before jumping right into Robin's story!
RE: Blue Boots in Songs of Love and Death, SPOILERS for everything - Rendezvous - Dec-11-2010
I was the same, I read the intro and BAMed to Blue Boots
RE: Blue Boots in Songs of Love and Death, SPOILERS for everything - joost - Dec-11-2010
Can you believe that I've had SoLaD for over 3 weeks before I even started reading it? I guess I'm just good at waiting. I had Dragon Keeper for almost a year on my shelf before I read it, because I wanted to wait for Dragon Haven.
RE: Blue Boots in Songs of Love and Death, SPOILERS for everything - Farseer - Dec-14-2010
(Dec-10-2010, 08:42 PM (UTC))Mervi Wrote: Please do! And I can't believe you have that much self-restraint, I could barely make it through the two-page introduction before jumping right into Robin's story!
I can't believe you have that much self-restraint either, joost! I don't mind admitting...I have NONE! Here I am, at almost half past midnight, reading posts in a spoilered thread on a story that's still coming in the mail to me!
Yikes! I just read your last post, joost..you had SoLaD for three weeks
?! And you waited a YEAR to read DK 
??!! I am hereby gobsmacked 
!
RE: Blue Boots in Songs of Love and Death, SPOILERS for everything - joost - Dec-14-2010
Well .... Hmm .... I can't say I'm blown away. It's a nice story, but that's it. I never really felt a connection with Timbal.
Is it a 6D story? Yes and no. It takes place in 6D, but there isn't anything 6D-specific in it. It could've been an 'Old English love story' just as well.
RE: Blue Boots in Songs of Love and Death, SPOILERS for everything - joost - Dec-16-2010
The Lisa Tuttle story in SoLaD features an event that's very similar to a major event in Fitz' life.
RE: Blue Boots in Songs of Love and Death, SPOILERS for everything - Mervi - Dec-17-2010
Well I have to disagree a bit with you joost, I think the Eda&El element makes it very much a 6D story.
But I'd love to hear what your criteria is for this?
RE: Blue Boots in Songs of Love and Death, SPOILERS for everything - joost - Dec-17-2010
The concept of gods is present in any world, so it isn't something that's specific for the 6D-world. Things like Elderlings, the Skill, white prophet, that's specific for 6D.