This section is really hard on Bren. Ouch, he's already had his basement interrogation, hasn't had a rest, is having major flashbacks to it constantly, and now he's getting tortured again! And forgetting, in the pain, which question it is he's not going to answer. I'm impressed that he was able to remember his computer codes and get it locked off to protect his files.
You know, if this was fanfic, the author's motivations would be awfully familiar to me in all these scenes of her pretty-haired main character getting tied up and beaten and rained on and frightened and cold. Surely pro writers don't have such unseemly fascinations, I keep thinking! But with the amount of punishment Bren takes through the series, perhaps some of them do.
Without any relevant training Bren did very well (and/or was very lucky) to evade the search parties. The assassin school should give him a few courses in this sort of thing! Banichi and Jago mainly want him to learn to obey them in situation where their expertise is relevant, and stop running around unpredictably under fire, but from the bedroom intrusion to the Wigairiin fight he's acquitted himself surprisingly well -- and his guards can't always be around him.
Banichi and Jago turning up at the last possible second deserves an epic orchestral score! Hooray, they're saved! I didn't remember exactly what happened in this part so it was edge-of-seat reading for me again.
Everyone seems much happier with Bren on the plane on the way out. They're all more relaxed now that they're out of immediate danger and they've got the paidhi in their hands in one piece, but are they also pleased with him for showing much more understandable and admirable reactions than he has been? Bren giving himself up to save Ilisidi makes perfect sense to atevi, even though he's not feeling exactly what they would; are they all happier with him now he's apparently revealed where his man'chi lies and is behaving rationally?
Oh, a thought hits -- now that he's shown that he'll run to Ilisidi's side in crisis, does it mean that he's a potential opponent to Tabini, no longer Tabini's man as he's always claimed? What ARE the atevi on the plane thinking of him? I don't remember if this is explicitly discussed in the next book or not.
Reactions to the end section
You know, if this was fanfic, the author's motivations would be awfully familiar to me in all these scenes of her pretty-haired main character getting tied up and beaten and rained on and frightened and cold. Surely pro writers don't have such unseemly fascinations, I keep thinking! But with the amount of punishment Bren takes through the series, perhaps some of them do.
Without any relevant training Bren did very well (and/or was very lucky) to evade the search parties. The assassin school should give him a few courses in this sort of thing! Banichi and Jago mainly want him to learn to obey them in situation where their expertise is relevant, and stop running around unpredictably under fire, but from the bedroom intrusion to the Wigairiin fight he's acquitted himself surprisingly well -- and his guards can't always be around him.
Banichi and Jago turning up at the last possible second deserves an epic orchestral score! Hooray, they're saved! I didn't remember exactly what happened in this part so it was edge-of-seat reading for me again.
Everyone seems much happier with Bren on the plane on the way out. They're all more relaxed now that they're out of immediate danger and they've got the paidhi in their hands in one piece, but are they also pleased with him for showing much more understandable and admirable reactions than he has been? Bren giving himself up to save Ilisidi makes perfect sense to atevi, even though he's not feeling exactly what they would; are they all happier with him now he's apparently revealed where his man'chi lies and is behaving rationally?
Oh, a thought hits -- now that he's shown that he'll run to Ilisidi's side in crisis, does it mean that he's a potential opponent to Tabini, no longer Tabini's man as he's always claimed? What ARE the atevi on the plane thinking of him? I don't remember if this is explicitly discussed in the next book or not.