*Tunnels AND duplicates! Very clever, Simon. Also makes it probable Collins and Co. are key players in the larger plot. The skein runs a warp through the tapestry. ("Warp." See what I did there?) *Phenn was a great choice. He let you sneak in some exposition: the Tiny God (OK, we've met that one), and the disaster in the suburbs. Also a rare glimpse into a side of Palinor you haven't been able to detail yet. "Have Nots." Most featured Palinor characters are "Haves." Royalty, employees of Royalty (Palace Guard would be well-paid), Ambassadors, and dignitaries. Even the roving adventurers are independents, doing their own thing on their own terms - which is a position of privilege. We haven't touched on the poor or Palinor since the trafficked aen'fa. Once again you made the interesting choice. *And don't worry about interrogation scenes being infodumps. Those are a trope of the genre, expected, and you have to play into those tropes enough so innovations stand out. This isn't an experimental novel, after all. *Hell, even the success of the duplicates becomes commentary on the dehumanizing nature of the prison system. Crabbe not noticing minor changes in Collins for a year? There's no way they found a whole group of 6'3" bald men whose voices are the same timbre with the same accent. Crabbe just treats his prisoners as numbers to be ignored or beaten. 24601... *Hey, deliberate Les Mis reference, as Javert's insistence on the number is one of the clearest illustrations in literature on the dehumanization of a convict! *Hopefully the asterisks serve well enough as an ersatz line break. I'm trying!
*Tunnels AND duplicates! Very clever, Simon. Also makes it probable Collins and Co. are key players in the larger plot. The skein runs a warp through the tapestry. ("Warp." See what I did there?) *Phenn was a great choice. He let you sneak in some exposition: the Tiny God (OK, we've met that one), and the disaster in the suburbs. Also a rare glimpse into a side of Palinor you haven't been able to detail yet. "Have Nots." Most featured Palinor characters are "Haves." Royalty, employees of Royalty (Palace Guard would be well-paid), Ambassadors, and dignitaries. Even the roving adventurers are independents, doing their own thing on their own terms - which is a position of privilege. We haven't touched on the poor or Palinor since the trafficked aen'fa. Once again you made the interesting choice. *And don't worry about interrogation scenes being infodumps. Those are a trope of the genre, expected, and you have to play into those tropes enough so innovations stand out. This isn't an experimental novel, after all. *Hell, even the success of the duplicates becomes commentary on the dehumanizing nature of the prison system. Crabbe not noticing minor changes in Collins for a year? There's no way they found a whole group of 6'3" bald men whose voices are the same timbre with the same accent. Crabbe just treats his prisoners as numbers to be ignored or beaten. 24601... *Hey, deliberate Les Mis reference, as Javert's insistence on the number is one of the clearest illustrations in literature on the dehumanization of a convict! *Hopefully the asterisks serve well enough as an ersatz line break. I'm trying!