u/Xerxys

#All spoilers

I was wondering if the events of livesuit intersect with the people over at Anjin. Mostly because I **think** the livesuit soldiers have been lied to in regard to the time dilation that occurs. I base this off of a few things:

1. Interstellar travel in this universe is relatively fast. The Anjin crew took a few short months to go from Anjin to the world palace and then even shorter to go to the new world where they met the solder Corval.

2. JSAC tend to stick to real world physics unless they’re introducing something fantastic (like asymmetrical space). Based off of this, time dilation is not heavily dramatic and doesn’t fast forward you hundreds of years in short gaps.

With that said, I was wondering if the swarm is new technology for the deathless? The swarm on Anjin is highly developed. If so, absolutely nothing prevents it from successfully infiltrating a livesuit soldier and rebuilding it from scratch. Assimilating a livesuit would make swarm entity that much more durable. I think JSAC closed the ability to assimilate a carryx with that throw away phrase “the plague that infected us and the changes we made to our bodies to prevent it in the future”.

Another theory my mind is kicking around is the swarm is an actual intelligent life that was not made but evolved a while back. And it is indeed a sub race of the original deathless. Maybe they inherit memories like the jelly fish from expanse that made the gates. And this one was purposely cut off and given instructions to simply infiltrate the carryx and/self destruct afterwards.

I’ve read all the books so major spoilers ahead.

#What was Ishy’s relationship with the dark one like?

Was it ever discussed or a PoV of him being addressed by the Dark one? All dark friends, respected and even revered the DO. Except maybe Lanfear who wanted to challenge both the DO and the creator by using the Access Keys. Demandred questioned weather he sensed emotion in the DO’s statement when it said “I cannot reach across time” but then Demandred held contempt for any and everyone so his PoV really doesn’t count. In fact, most of the forsaken only turned to the dark for their own selfish reasons and feigned obeisance to it. It’s my opinion only lesser dark friends actually loved the DO not knowing what it was.

When Ishy was discussing this with Rand in the later books he revealed that he knew the DO winning was simply an end to all things. There would be no “after” modeled in the image of the forsaken.

Rand (in the last book) defied the DO by refusing to crawl into the cave, something along the lines of “no, we shall not approach you on our hands and knees”. Now maybe it was Rand’s will overcoming the DO’s disturbance in reality, but the collapsing cave effect was negated.

So was Ishy truly the only one who actually loved the DO because he knew exactly it had to offer? Or did Ishy also hold the same amount of contempt that the other forsaken did for the DO? Ishy didn’t strike me as short sighted as the others. In order to be a competent leader you need a level of understanding that only empathy can bring. I think Ishy neither loved nor contemn the DO, but a small amount of empathy made him apathetic to it. Thoughts?

#All spoilers but mostly emberdark.

So I don’t understand the swarm. They spent eons studying humans and learning how to look like them. And yet they never figured out the uncanny effect. Humans will be naturally grossed out by insects. Why doesn’t Chrysalis, while around her crew, wear a literal suit not of her own making but one without a face. Picture a mannequin. That would be preferable to looking at a face that you KNOW does not belong. Surely they learned this at some point in time.

Like Isaac from Orville. Or even R2D2 doesn’t have to be humanoid. That’s much better than just chilling letting the goods hang out (and not in a good way).

#ALL SPOILERS

This summary: “He will become the champion of humanity and its betrayer, the most hated man in history and the guardian of his people.” Could mean two things, he’s a silent hero that many will not know of his deeds and be hated for being a middle man to the carryx, or that he would betray humanity in the end for real. But that’s too simple. JSAC don’t do simple twists.

I think eventually Dafyd (fucking auto-correct to daddy!) is going to change. Given the fever dream he had, and the carryx ability to change themselves at will, and this universes already established ability to change bodies (swarm coming to mind), I think dafyd is going to be a new kind of carryx. Incorporating tech from the livesuit, the swarm, and the dispassionate mentality of the carryx themselves, he becomes a new type of librarian.

At their current state, the Carryx have peaked. The only next step is an evolutionary upgrade. This will introduce human concepts like deception, fear of death, etc. maybe back the carryx off their incessant march towards war. But not completely, just have them assimilate what they want and leave the rest alone rather than destroying what they leave behind.

Fuck I love this! Love the world building! Complete analysis! I will have to listen to it again when I get the ebook from the library! Love you Jefferson Mays. Last book I read was sun eater series and was thoroughly annoyed by the narrator so this is welcome professionalism at its finest!

I just get tripped up with the creatures. I tend to forget what the major alien species look like. I wonder if there’s a place with illustrations.

Also, I’m kind of annoyed at myself again for starting this series before its completion. Now I have to wait and not binge through an entire series set like I did cosmere!