SO I made* my brother read God Eaters and here are his thoughts: him: "Im mad at you. Because it's done. You can preface to him my reading resume.** and then tell him thats the best thing ive read since radch, and before that to mistborn. Incredible" and then i was like "he likes insight & constructive criticism so if you have deep thoughts??" him: "I have no advice for a master. I was seriously astounded by how awesome it was" *left it in an obvious place and waited **he's the only other person i know in real life who reads as much/as fast as i do, so out of self defense he has a stupid large bookshelf(s) Wanted to forward that! :)
Just finished reading his on fictionpress! I want more adventures of Chaiel, he's my fave. Might do fan art if I have time tomorrow :)
I loved this so much - Tristan and I have our dead tree copy around here somewhere. And I loved the magic system so much I used it in fic.
Okay, so I've had a couple of days to percolate here, and I just want to say - It wasn't the magic system that got me (but that was excellent yes good and I loved the gods and how godhood worked and all that. Maths and magic should not be mutually exclusive.) It wasn't the characters (although as mentioned above I really really loved Chaiel and Kieran is my perfect edgelord trash child and Ash is almost exactly like my friend James, right down to the freckles - literally the only difference is in my head is that James is gray-ace het - so it was funny as heck to picture him in that whole situation XDD) It was the social realism. Usually, these days, if there's a queer relationship in high fantasy or sci-fi, either it's treated exactly the same as het, or it just doesn't occur to the characters that that is a thing that can and will happen. It really startled me at first, to have a world where 'faggot' and 'invert' and such words are still used as insults, where there's misogyny and racism and awful people. I think if I hadn't already known @jacktrash to be LGBT himself; and for that Ash and Kieran were destined to be together, I would have been pretty uncomfortable with it and put it down. But there's love in that world, too, and good people, even if they're few and far between and mostly self-serving. There's beauty, and kindness, and at least a little compassion. It hit a raw nerve, the homophobia, and knowing that the author was old enough to have been through the real hard times of the queer community... I don't know. But it did make me feel some feels. So I say to you, the author, our beardad Jesse - thankyou. Thankyou for making this novel, and may your days be yet long and well upon this earth.
Double-posting, sorry, but I also did a youtube playlist for this book :3 I don't feel like it's really finished, but I couldn't think of anything else to add, so I am definitely taking suggestions if anyone wants to?? :D
I return! With chapters two and three. Spoiler: Cut for length Ahh, I'd forgotten Ash's hatred for descriptive nicknames. "Er. No. I've never killed anyone." "Too bad." KIERAN. The fact that Kieran deliberately engineers a reason to fight people is kind of... wow. A part of me wants to think that it's just an excuse to be nice to Ash, but at this point in their relationship and character development I guess that's less likely. "Ghoul witch", that's such a cool name for it. "'You're not eating,' Trevarde pointed out, and laughed." Gee whiz, Kieran, I wonder why. "Poison-green". I have to reiterate how fucking creepy Kieran must be to make eye contact with. I really like that the dampening of Ash's empathy makes him feel like the people around him are fake and terrifying. Non-human. It gives us insight into how his empathy works and illustrates how heavily he relied on it without even realizing. It's a very passive ability, which makes it even weirder that he was taken to Churchrock. I don't remember the explanation for that. "'Does that make it okay, in your opinion? That the world is corrupt and you murdered corrupt men, that makes murder alright?' 'I never said it was alright.'" It's easy at first to to think of Kieran as this merciless killer, cold and unfeeling, who is unaffected by the lives he took. But that illusion fades away pretty quickly, and here's the first piece of it falling. Kieran's life sucked. Like. Ugh. Sucked. Also, I hate Kinter. Kieran's grief over Shan's death is mostly clear in what he doesn't say. Also, the way he cuts off and goes to "sleep" makes me want to hug him. Also2, was that Kieran reaching out for comfort? Kieran was with the White Rose when he was 17, and he's 19 now, so that's a maximum of two years spent with Shan. That's actually pretty sad; those were the only years before the end of the book that he was really free. I think Ash hit the nail on the head here: Kieran needed to talk to someone. He is one damaged kid, and... I just realized that I'm older than him. When I was 13ish and reading this for the first time, they seemed so grown-up. Now, they really don't. Not at this point in the story anyway. "Nevertheless, Ashleigh had to wonder whether the reason Kieran had given for offering his protection, as an excuse to fight, had been a cover for something a little kinder... Or for something more cruel." Don't worry, Ash, the cruelty in store for you will come from everyone but him. Spoiler: Ch3 Yay, Kieran's POV! I'd forgotten we get that. His desperate attempt at rationalization is actually really transparent. Huh. This boy needs therapy. It's good that he knows that blaming himself won't help anything, though. Wallowing in guilt is a thing people do, and it's not healthy. "If wishes were horses, Kieran thought, I'd be the only one walking." Kieran, bby, why do I feel like you're lying to yourself? Hey, Kieran's discovered a method of meditation. Neat. Is it weird that I really appreciate Kieran's scheming? Like, I feel like the whole "using Ash" thing should bother me, but it doesn't. The way Kieran feelswhen he exits the dead zone is really well described. Unsurprisingly. Also, it fills me with dread. Possibly because I've read this before, but also I think the first time I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. How do you shield against a power like Kieran's? Is the guy right, or does he just think he would survive it? The implication seems to be that Kieran is actually convincing the brain that it's dead, and the body follows, so a sufficiently strong mind could survive, but that doesn't really fit with how his power has been portrayed earlier, so maybe not. I'd forgotten how awful the Survey is. Eugh. But beautifully described, as usual. Aaaaaand attraction sets in! "No. I already decided no." Sure, Kieran. Suuuure. I love how analytical Ash is! It's true that you can tell a lot from what people try to get out of you, if you know how to look. Loser Unity! I'd forgotten that. Nice. Kieran expresses some of my frustration with fictional villains/heroes here -- if you'regoing to kill/defeat/whatever someone, just DO it, don't rhapsodize about it beforehand! Jeez. So, if Ash is right, they were studying pyrokinetics and now they're looking at something else. But the data pool is really too small to be sure, and if he's right it's most likely just luck. Aww, Kieran noticed Ash's crush! And Ash is adorable. Also Kieran is very straightforward about being gay. I guess he's right -- he's committed actual crimes, what does he care if people know who he sleeps with? Oh, no, Ash! And Kieran's all conflicted about it. Heh. And the reason he actually goes with is pure logic. Aaaaaand that attraction I mentioned begins to develop into a crush. Which he resists with all his might, of course. It is surprisingly difficult to actually pause and scribble stuff down for this. It's so tempting to just say fuck it and read all the way through. As a result, my notes are kind of... distracted.
Rereading the first time when I was older was so surreal, because I read it in high school the first time and now I'm like "but you're babies"
I don't think I've ever posted on Kintsugi before (or if I did I forgot) but since I've now stumbled upon this thread I have to say: I love this book so much. I recently reread The God Eaters and was genuinely amazed at how much of my own current creative work is inspired by your concepts and writing (not in a plagiarizing way, promise!). I remember loving it but I didn't realize that it made such a mark on my subconscious. I am enamored with the color "storm-green" to this day, which as a Californian I didn't know existed until I read The God Eaters in high school about six years ago. Thanks for writing the first gay published fiction I ever read!
wow, seeing this thread come up again got me to reread it and i am feeling the love. y'all are wonderful.
I didn't know this existed until a few hours ago, but I've spent my entire morning reading it, I'm on chapter 21 now.
Two fun facts about this color: - It's probably the actual color of Athena's eyes according to Homer, not Generic Cloudy Grey - The word for it in French, "glauque", has recently switched meaning to "creepy" in part because of it also being the color of shitty fluorescent lighting
Was looking for a discriptiob of Chaiel so i could draw him. Ended up rereading most of the book. No regrets.
Also! Patterns! Math magic! Kieran vs Ka'an! Ash in general! Projective empathy! Aaaaaaaaa i love this book so much!
I keep posting separately as I think of more things, but - Ash and Kieran, as characters and as a pairing, were way more formative for me than i remembered. To this day that is one of my favorite dynamics/character archetypes.
