Full Fathom Five Read-A-Long Week No.4

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The BiblioSanctum is participating in a Read-A-Long! Over the next few weeks, we’ll be joining many other fellow bloggers in a read through of Max Gladstone’s Full Fathom Five.

Full Fathom Five is the the third book in the Craft Sequence, however, each book stands alone. Want to know a little bit about the other books? Check out our reviews here:

Three Parts Dead | Two Serpents Rise

Week 1: July 20 Ch 1-13 – hosted by Allie from Tethyan Books
Week 2: July 27 Ch 14-32 – hosted by Lynn from Little Lion Lynnet’s
Week 3: August 3 Ch 33-50 – hosted by Heather from The Bastard Title
Week 4: August 10 Ch 50-62 – hosted by Lisa from Over the Effing Rainbow

1. So Jace was in fact responsible for the rogue Penitent, and for what was happening to the ‘idols’… And my guess last week regarding his reasons (that it was bad for business) wasn’t far off the mark… What did you make of his confrontation with Kai and his justifications?

Wendy: Everything Jace says and does makes sense, but I am disappointed in it boiling down to simply being him in charge of the whole mess. It feels very Scooby Doo villain at the end of it all, and a lot of the revelations are delivered in the same manner, though with far greater maturity and elegance than the Scoobies can muster. It’s not that I don’t like this revelation, but after reading three books in this sequence, it does seem to be the standard. I’d hoped for something different.

Mogsy: He’s nuts. Like all villains on a power trip, this is his master plan and of course he feels he’s right and of course he feels he’s justified and of course he believes the ends justifies the means. Pretty standard bad guy speech.

Tiara: Not surprised. However, though the book did pin the bulk of this on him, it did mention that a lot of people had to turn a blind eye or be involved for him to get as far as he did. Also, I kept saying there weren’t enough pages left in the book for the villain to be anyone else aside from him (or it’d be some generic mysterious organization) if I’m supposed to take these as standalones. It would’ve been pure madness to try to introduce a BIGGER BAD so late in the game and the Grimwalds were just too easy a target for me to believe he’d go that route.

2. Mako’s involvement in the subsequent events was a bit of a surprise. Or was it? Did you expect the old man to be involved at all, much less the way he was?

Wendy: Well talking to Tiara spoiled me on all things because basically figures out everything before it happens. She called Mako being the god returned a couple hundred pages prior. But again, disappointment in Kai’s realization where she talks about the spit insects and information she had just looked up without letting the reader in on it.

Mogsy: Yeah, I blame it on Tiara too, LOL. After reading her response to last week’s question in which she speculated about Mako’s identity, the seed was planted in my head and it all just seemed so obvious afterward.

Tiara:  *brushes shoulder off* I just have too many thinksies, and since I wasn’t overly attached to the characters I didn’t know, I think I was just able to make a bunch of theories up in my head, throw them against the wall, and see what decided to stick. All the signs just seemed to point toward him being more than the blind guy at the poetry bar on the beach.

3. Izza steals a goddess! What are your thoughts on the way her story ends (or begins, as the case may be)?

Wendy: I really liked Izza’s conclusion. She wanted very much to leave but it was evident that she was having a hard time leaving behind the kids and what she felt was her duty. It’s fitting that she ended up with Cat, who herself is sworn to a goddess, so it was nice to see the similar bond developing for Izza, with the added twist of Izza shaping the Mother’s story.

Mogsy: It was a touching, bittersweet ending.  I liked it. Pretty much agree with Wendy on all her points.

Tiara: I liked it. I’m sure everyone figured she wouldn’t leave the kids, but this ending made her role more significant, fuller.

4. We leave the story with Kavekana “waiting for the world to come”… Do you think this particular ending is for the best, or would you have preferred to see the island remain apart, and peaceful?

Wendy: Change never comes easily, but I think with people like Kai at the forefront, the island will be able to handle it, especially since she’ll also likely have the support of Kevarian, once the latter is through serving the Grimwalds.

Mogsy: I really enjoyed Kavekana as a setting. Change is probably inevitable; I just hope for the island’s sake that it won’t come too quickly or too drastically. It’d be a shame to see a peaceful, laid back place like this lose all that.

Tiara: Change comes for all things. Nothing can stay the same, and it might’ve been a little disappointing if Kavekana had stayed the same after the numerous changes that’d taken place in the book. I’d mentioned to Wendy in chat that I knew this title from one of Shakespeare’s plays (The Tempest): “Full fathom five thy father lies, of his bones are coral made. Those are pearls that were his eyes. Nothing of him that doth fade, but doth suffer a sea-change into something rich and strange.” And I feel like, as with many things with this book, Kavekana’s inevitable change comes full circle with that quote.