Today is week five of our readalong for Kushiel’s Scion.

If you’re interested in joining the readalong the details and other participants are below.  Feel free to join in with the comments and obviously, if you haven’t read this series but are intending to do so please be aware of spoilers – because they’re running amok below

This week I’m hosting.  Now, to the Q&A:

1. Firstly, what do you make of The Guild and why do you think Anafiel declined to join them.  Do you think Imriel should join them?

Well, I liked Anafiel and the fact that he declined to join the Guild makes me wonder whether Imriel’s getting involved in something that he shouldn’t.  The jury’s out for me with the Guild so far – I can’t see anything to be gained by Imriel for example.  And the whole thing with the student riots was a bit of an eye opener with Claudia telling Imriel to take care before she thought to tell her own brother.  I don’t know, I think Imriel wants to be part of something so badly that he maybe isn’t thinking about what’s actually the best thing.  The Guild, well, they obviously want to recruit people who are in a position to help them and certainly Imriel could do that.  And, they’re literally trying to seduce him into their fold.  So far, I can’t say I have an overwhelmingly good impression of them.

2. We have the philosophical debates – how do you think these are going to play a part in the story overall, if at all?

I like this aspect of the story.  It’s interesting to see the students, who all come from such different backgrounds, discussing things together.  I thought the discussion about war and the impacts that the Skaldi war had on them all was really interesting to read about.  Brigitta made an interesting point about the Skaldi just wanting to improve themselves, but it made me think of all our discussions during the Skaldi war – if you want to improve then you have to do it yourself, not just take what somebody else has achieved.  It was interesting to see Brigitta try to defend that stance.  I thought Eamonn was great during that discussion – in fact he’s really growing on me! I feel a book boyfriend in the making…

3. Claudia – what do you make of her.  Do you trust her?

I don’t really trust Claudi to be honest.  At the moment it feels like Imriel is very much in lust with her, and I admit I quite like this side of him, he feels like he’s developing, letting out some of his frustration, anger and becoming more comfortable.  Things are certainly changing very quickly for him at the moment.  I don’t know – this whole Guild is very dodgy and Claudia feels just like the tip of the iceberg.  I certainly wouldn’t turn my back on her – I don’t think any of her feelings for others run very deep.  She comes across as fickle tbh.

4. We have lots of possible attempts on Imri’s life, even going so far as to start a student riot – and his own attempts to bring these to a stop.  What do you make to all of it?

It’s very puzzling for me to be honest and I’m hoping that somebody else can shed some light on it all as the drama and attempts have certainly been stepped up!  It feels a little bit as though things are escalating quite quickly now, almost as though whoever is behind the attempts is becoming desperate – I’m not sure what’s behind that desperation, is it because Melisande is out and about?  It feels like things are reaching going to reach a head.

5. Two particular characters that I find intriguing are Canis and Piero.  What were your first impressions and how do they differ now?

Canis is very intriguing.  There feels like there’s a lot more to him than is currently being shared with us.  It seems a strange coincidence that his barrel found it’s way to being positioned directly outside their residence.  I can’t help wondering whether he’s keeping an eye on Imriel.  He’s either protecting him – and certainly somebody seems to be doing so, dispatching bodies with efficiency – or he’s spying on him.  I quite like him as a character so I’m hoping that he’s there to help Imri.  Piero – I don’t feel like we’re finding out as much about him as I would like to at the moment.  I enjoy his time with the students but Imri seems to skip a lot of class doesn’t he!  He took a chance on Imri and at the moment I don’t think Imri is quite repaying that.

That’s it for me this week.

Here is the current schedule:

And here is the current list of participators:
Allie at Tethyan Books
Lisa at Over the Effing Rainbow
Lynn at Lynn’s Book Blog
Emily at Emma Wolf
Susan at Dab of Darkness