Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!
Spoiler Courtesy
Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).
Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:
Example
This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.
The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.
This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
Posting Advice
When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.
Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!
Participation
Will you be reading along with us this week?
I’m reading along
I have finished this part
I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this part yet
I’m reading this book after the club has finished
I’m no longer reading the book
0voters
If you’ve already read this book but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this part.”
Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to stay abreast of discussion!
Finished! This part felt much shorter than I’d expected it to be. On the first few pages, the amount of names and unknown kanji was overwhelming, but I managed to get used to it surprisingly quickly. Oh, and I love the archaic writing style.
And about the story
I’m looking forward to getting to know the mentalities of the different nations. For now, the Empire seems to be the good guy, but I bet we’ll learn some of its dark secrets too.
The main character(s) died pretty quickly. I wonder if it’s just stasis, or will there be some straightforward magic?
Indeed ! How …. suspicious ….
My money is one some herb/poison that closely mimics death but can be identified by its subtle-but-obvious-to-a-trained-nose smell.
Finished this week just in time for next week. Really enjoying it so far. It’s refreshingly less text-dense than 六人, too.
The cliffhanger
I‘d bet on that, too. Aisha seemed to know exactly what was in store for her before she drank it.
Btw, does anyone know what リタラン is? When I googled it, everything that come up was about this book. So is it some in-world thing that hasn’t been explained yet or did it get explained and I missed it?
I’m behind as always, but I’m finding it a bit challenging so far. Lots of lookups and people/worldbuilding to learn. I’m only partway through chapter 1.1, but I should be able to finish this week’s reading by tomorrow.
I assumed it was the name of a tribe or nation or similar. She says it’s because he smells of some kind of grass, so my guess was that’s a plant that grows in a particular area. So her thought process would be “smells of this thing that only grows in one place” → “comes from that area” → “maybe a member of the tribe/ethnic group/nation of that area”.
Hooey!! So many lookups!
It’s Saturday June 7 (officially Week 2), and I’m finally up to 1.2… But I’m hoping the reading will go more smoothly now that I’ve forced my way through…
This paragraph is in regards to ヂュークチ and I’m a little confused by it. So ヂュークチ has royal lineage and because of his intuition for battle is given permission to borrow soldiers to protect the empire in an emergency. But after that I’m getting confused by who is referred to in 王位に就きながら and ケルアーン王 and 前王を倒して. The first is confusing because I thought these 藩王 weren’t technically 王, so is it referring to ヂュークチ or not. The second is I assume the main character’s grandfather. For the third is that just referring to the grandfather again or someone else?
Not quite – he borrows the soldiers to take control of 西カンタル, and the condition (~を条件に) under which he’s allowed to borrow them is that he (with his soldiers and the country he now controls) will act to defend the empire in case of war. Essentially he has agreed to conquer an independent country for the empire, turn it into an imperial province/satrapy, and become its new 藩王. (Looking on the map, 西カンタル is effectively now a frontier province; control of it gives the empire a buffer against possible invasions.)
Before ヂュークチ took over, 西カンタル was an independent country; its ruler was a real 王, not a 藩王. The ケルアーン王 who got 追われた was the main character’s grandfather. After he fell, somebody else took the throne (王位に就きながら) (and was also a real 王), but couldn’t control the squabbles between clans; that’s the 前王. The 前王 is who ヂュークチ defeated in order to take control of the country, turn it into a province and become 藩王.
I also was confused and did a handwaving shrug, because, although I kept flipping back to the map, I didn’t understand the relationships between geographical areas and all of the senior statesmen and clans. I’m on 1.3 now, but my impression of 1.2 is that I really want to like and respect this military guy (blanking on the name Edit: マシュウ?) who hangs out with the dude with the 犬. LoL “deep cut”, I know, but I’m ちょっと “out of my depth” at the moment. Collins jisho on “out of my depth” meaning
Thanks for the explanation. Sentences like this are frustrating to me. I know Japanese has different rules, but in English it would be a run on sentence. Breaking this into two sentences would have helped so much.
It is a bit overlong; for instance all this is just modifying 前王:
ケルアーン王が追われた後、王位に就きながら、氏族同士の小競り合いを治めきれなかった
and there’s no grammatical reason that ケルアーン王が追われた後、王位に就きながら have to be modifying 前王 rather than the head verb of the sentence so you have to figure that out from the meaning as you hit the verb. I wonder whether a native speaker would think it a little awkward or if they’d just read it without thinking particularly about it. (OTOH I just read it without thinking about it when I was reading the chapter, so )
You probably would split it in two in an English translation, because I think English is a bit less keen on having long modifiers of noun clauses in the middle of a sentence.
Word. I just gave up on the whole politics exposition part and hoped that it would be brought up again later and explained in clearer, shorter sentences at some point .
Wow, I would never have guessed this. The thought that someone else but Aisha’s grandfather was the 前王 never even crossed my mind. Maybe because the crisis seemed so fresh with Aisha and her brother still on the run.
It’s not really “still”; they were left alone for a long time til ヂュークチ suddenly decided he needed to do something about them. (one of the characters asks なんで今更, p15).
The timeline becomes a bit clearer in the week two reading: it has been nine years since their grandfather was overthrown.
I hope the political parts of the story are coherent and becomes easier to understand. I love the ecological aspects of this author’s stories, but the political aspects have always been hit or miss to me.
I wonder if it’s just stasis, or will there be some straightforward magic?
Breaking this into two sentences would have helped so much.
)