Storyline

I was re-reading Lissa's stories and found an interesting tid bit ... Lissa's niece (Cora) has white wings but they seemed to only appear when she was applying power to her judgement to Griffin's mom. I wonder if that is where the avii come from and if Quinn is related to them. And as for female Laurentii the other niece (kyler?) Lissa says several times that she has the power of a laurentii. plus Grey house started with a Female Laurentii.

General Thoughts and responses:

re: Talking to the Orb
The Orb has spoken mind-to-mind exactly twice in-series - at the end of Finder to Justis, Gurnil, and Ordin - and then at the very end of Keeper to Quin. Quin describes the Orb's actions saying "as if it were guiding him (Ordin) to my side." Generally I think Quin is so used to KNOWing so much that she fails to ask some obvious questions. If Ordin doesn't tell HER that the Orb spoke to him (as he tells Justis), then she doesn't question it. (Similarly, she always attributes Kaldill and Daragar knowing her thoughts as being able to read her expression, never noticing their replies are awfully darn accurate, i.e, more like they are reading her thoughts?)

re: The Gate and the Orb
I'm confident that the Orb has some power to control the gate (maybe started out as the GateKeeper as one of it's duties - decides if you end up on Tirilia or "elsewhere".) I also see the Orb acting kind of like a big brother to Quin, including making plans for her without telling her about it. Most likely it was "saving" Quin by sending her through the gate, and also sent her where it decided she "needed" to be next. (Unless one of the Mighty interfered in where she ended up, which would be crappy of them to NOT TELL ANYONE that Quin is still alive.) I also suspect the Orb's actions (i.e. it KNOWs the planet is about to be destroyed) are what triggers Quin KNOWing, which allows her to alert Lissa.

re: Dangerous species
Note - many of those were created by other gods, several of whom later turned out to be among The Hidden. Frex: Quislus regrets creating the Sirenali and the Dark Elemaiya in Blood Finale .

re: The Mighty
The One now consists of the Four (Charles, Ashe, Lissa and Hank as Wisdom, Strength, Hope and Wrath), Breanne is still Love and is a seperate entity among the Mighty. Throughout Keeper, those are always referred to collectively as "The Mighty". (Randomly, I wonder what body part the Mighty Hope and the Mighty Wrath are associated with.)

re: Non-Interference
Exact wording of that part of agreement to join the Gods:
"Should you choose to accept, then you agree to hunt the enemy in all its forms and destroy what you hold the strength to destroy."
"You are held to the normal requirements— no killing of the innocent," The Eye said. "No unnecessary interference. No intentional tampering with timelines."
- Blood Finale (God Wars Book 5) (p. 16). Connie Suttle. Kindle Edition.

i know this rule seems fast and loose, but I can also see the original intention behind it, i.e., "All ye gods, ya can't just go and change the lives of all the mortals and disregard their free will whenever it suits you."

I can't believe no one has asked this yet!!!!

Who the Heck is Renée Coffin?? Random female vampire with ties to Montrose?

(At first I got confused and thought it might be Kathleen, until I remember she ties to Casamir.)

Anyone? Bueller?

(There is a real world Renee coffin who has all of Connie's books on her pinterest - but I thought the "Get your name in one of Connie's books contest" was next month?)

Renée Coffin won one of Connie's contests on FaceBook, she won having a character named after her. Yes, there is a chance to win the same prize next month .

Okay, there are so many things I want to say that I'm unsure where to start so if I jump around and start not making sense, I apologize now.

First, where the heck was Garde doing the whole time they were on Siriaa? He makes it a point to volunteer with Kifirin and the others to get back in Lissa's good graces but then seems to disappear off the face of the planet after Quin makes the introductions. At least Kifirin makes a couple more appearances while they are there but now Garde. Don't think just showing up is going to help his case with Lissa. This bugged me throughout the book because of the fact that I think that he shouldn't have volunteered if that was his only reason when someone who actually might have cared about helping the people and may have at least had some ideas on how to do that should have gone.

I believe that the gate/portal's destination definitely moves from place to place. I think this because of the fact that it is stated that the pile of bones and feathers are Treven's but Halthea's parents went through after Treven did so if the destination didn't move then those bones and feathers should have belonged to one of them instead. I think that the time of day/night someone goes through plays a part in where they end up. The other reason I think this is because if the time when an Avii goes through is unimportant, why do they wait until midnight before throwing Yevil through? I would think that they would want him gone asap. Sure, it could be tradition but traditions usually have a reason behind them so what started the tradition? I wonder if back when Liron brought them there he told them what the gate did but over time the Avii forgot. If that is the case then the orb may not have had anything to do with where Quin ended up.

On the comparison of Berel/Quin match up with Gavril/Reah, I don't really see the similarities other than they start out as friends. Unlike Gavril and Reah, Berel and Quin are close in age...Quin is 17 and Berel is 16. Sure both couples are able to talk and collaborate on ideas and such but Quin is able to do that with everyone. Berel is not her only confidante and even when she knows that people are going to disagree with her she still says what she needs to when she feels it is important. I also don't see Berel making the same mistake as the very young Gavril made, primarily because of his age and the fact that he is emotional more mature than Gavril was when he first met Reah.

About the mighty...do the rest of them not like using nexus echo? I am assuming that they can since Lissa said that she could but that she didn't like the idea of it in one of the other books. I don't remember it being mentioned in any of the GW books. Then again they would have to come up with a very obscure word to use with the nexus echo otherwise the other four would probably go crazy if they tuned every time someone said the word. I only started thinking about ways they could contact the four after reading Lissa's suggestion about the signal light... though, I wonder if Hank would understand what it was suppose to mean?

I am hoping that Kifirin is truly becoming a better god and being, though I think that it is a little late. He should have paid better attention to his own statement "the measure in any monarch is in how he treats the lowliest of his subjects" when it came to Jayd and the way things were going on his planet. Sorry, High Demons (with the exception of Reah) make me angry...especially the males.

Now back to Quin. I think I identify the most with her compared to all the other main female characters. I can totally understand her desire to know more but being afraid to find the answers. Having been adopted at a young age I have no knowledge of who my parents are. When I was younger I wanted to know more about them but was scared to find out. I can remember wondering about them, were they nice and just couldn't take care of me? were they criminals who just didn't want a baby holding them back? Unlike Quin, I at least know my heritage and that I have parents. The fact that she didn't go into a major meltdown or something similar when she found out that she didn't have conventional parents is a testament to her strength...I think I would have gone catatonic if it had been me. (yes, I know, I'm talking about a fictional character and shouldn't be transferring "real life" reactions to her but I can't help it).

The idea that Quin is Liron's daughter like Kifirin was Quilous' (sp?) son is intriguing. If that was true then having her be born in a corporal body could be because he wanted to hide her much like the mighty had been hidden. And it would explain why she is part of an immortal race (even if it's a race of one, lol). It would explain why some of her powers are as strong as the mighty. Which leads me to wonder if she would be able to read an obsession since she is able to read the Sirenali, Bree could recognize when an obsession was placed and could read most Sirenali but she couldn't see through the shield to locate them. It was stated in the GW that the princess and her sisters were going to hunt V'illi and the other rogue Sirenali but I think that Quin might do a better job in finding them.

Well, I think that is enough for now. I'm going to go back to the Blood series to try and kill time before the next book comes out otherwise I might go crazy watching the electronic calendar.

Jade... lots of good ideas and points.

I was thinking the same thing with Kifirin and Garde, they show up and kind of fade away.

The Orb and Quin are connected some way, I think the larentii established that. the orb pushed Quin through the portal and followed. The Orb, I think has everything to do with where Quin ended up. I am pretty sure the orb/gate did send her in to the future, that or Connie skipped over 5 years of Quin's adventures, and/or will cover them in Blackwing

Hank would know what a bat signal was. He was on earth during that time studying to be human. (GW books when he talks about his favorite drink (old fashions) and fighting in several earth wars that would span the Batman time period. on that note he would probably understand Lissa's Christmas holiday gift giving.

agree on the High Demon comment.