#Dying of the Light

[nicstylus]

Skulduggery Pleasant Book Cover Redesign ✩ Master Post ✩

Here are all my covers in one place, all the thoughts and notes about each one and a link to the original post :] I had so much fun making these. Out of every project I've done, this is the one that wins 'most time spent' for sure. I'm so stoked with how they turned out!

Please read, I spent so long on this post... It's interesting I swear :]

Book One - Sceptre of the Ancients

Completed: ~ May 27th 2024 Links: Tom's Cover - Reddit Post (Ver 1.0) - Tumblr (Ver 1.0) (Ver 2.0) Changes made (besides character design/expressions):

Added the Book of Names to fill the empty space in the background

Repositioned Skulduggery and Serpine

Redesigned the Sceptre and changed it's lighting from white to black/purple

Changed the outfits of China and Serpine

Enlarged background flames

Notes:

Skulduggery's outfit: Grey suit, white shirt, black tie

Skulduggery is snapping with his right hand- summoning fire instead of already holding it

"Ghastly Black???" Yes, I draw Ghastly as a POC with asymmetrical scars. Yes, I'm aware he is not described as such

This is actually Version 2 of SOTA. I had to redo Serpine and Skul because I hated how they turned out the first time the more I looked at them.

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Book Two - Playing with Fire

Completed: April 20th 2024 Links: Tom's Cover - Reddit Post - Tumblr Post Changes made:

Redesigned the Grotesquery and repositioned it's... arm? Tentacles? whatever.

Swapped Tanith's Katana for a straight sword*

Changed outfits of Vengeous and Tanith (and Skulduggery's tie)

Added orangey light and sparks to fill the background

Notes:

Skulduggery's outfit: Black suit, blue shirt and black tie

This is the first time I've drawn the Grotesquery, and I still have to google the spelling every time I try to type it...

*I know that Tanith uses a katana, but 1) I think thats stupid purely out of spite (and reasons that make sense) and 2) I absolutely despise trying to draw curved blades

Worth noting again that I don't actually see Tanith like this in my head- but this version of her is more fun to draw imo. Here is how I see her.

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Book Three - The Faceless Ones

Completed: April 26th 2024 Links: Tom's Cover - Reddit Post - Tumblr Post Changes made:

Repositioned Skulduggery and fixed his anatomy

Swapped Valkyrie's black jacket for the jacket with red sleeves

Fixed Fletcher*

Added water reflections on the undersides of the Sea Hag and the Cleaver

Added more water splashes near the title

Notes:

Skulduggery's outfit: Navy suit, white shirt, ??? tie

I dont know that I ever want to draw the Sea Hag again- Tom definitely captured 'ugly creature' better than I did

*Fletcher done with Zero (!!) tracing :D (I mean all of it was but... It's a bad joke ok)

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Book Four - Dark Days

Completed: April 28th 2024 Links: Tom's Cover - Reddit Post - Tumblr Post Changes made:

Added the Faceless Ones portal to fill the background

Added Scapegrace and Thrasher to the zombie hoard

Brightened and added more detail to the zombies

Changed outfits of Sanguine and China

Notes:

Skulduggery's outfit: Black suit, white shirt, red tie

China <3 Billy Ray :] ...Jack :/

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Book Five - Mortal Coil

Completed: May 5th 2024 Links: Tom's Cover - Reddit Post - Tumblr Post Changes made:

Repositioned Skulduggery and fixed his anatomy

Added the Remnants flying/swirling around to fill the background

Replaced The Torment (?) with Kenspeckle Grouse*

Repositioned the headless horses

Redesigned Tesseract's mask

Swapped Valkyrie's black jacket for the jacket with red sleeves

Swapped the strange light in Valkyrie's hand for Necromancy and Fire

Fixed the lighting (esp on Tesseract) to favour the Dullahan's lantern

Changed the outfits of Tesseract, Dr Nye, and the Dullahan

Added hands reaching out of the Dullahan's carriage

Notes:

Skulduggery's outfit: Black suit, seafoam shirt, blue tie

*I'm aware its 'officially' the Torment on the Percival cover, but Kenspeckle won the 'who would you put here?' vote by a landslide on both reddit and tumblr so here he is in all his glory

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Book Six - Death Bringer

Completed: May 6th 2024 Links: Tom's Cover - Reddit Post - Tumblr Post Changes made:

Increased the purple lighting to fill empty space*

Redesigned Lord Vile

Redesigned Wreath's cane**

Changed Skulduggery's outfit

Made Valkyrie throw shadows instead of.. point at nothing?

Added the carved scars onto Melancholia

Increased shadows

Notes:

Skulduggery's outfit: Black suit, purple shirt, purple tie

*The official DB cover has suuuuper pretty flames on it, with the pink and purple lighting- I tried to replicate that as best I could, and actually liked how it turned out more purpley

**Solomon's cane turned into more of a staff/sceptre because I forgot was a cane oops- it would hurt to lean on :D

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Book Seven - Kingdom of the Wicked

Completed: May 12th 2024 Links: Tom's Cover - Reddit Post - Tumblr Post Changes made:

Enlarged the Universe background to fill empty space

Repositioned Skulduggery

Redesigned Mevolent's armour and exposed his face

Redesigned the Godkiller Sword

Redesigned Argeddion (added hair!)*

Put Kitana in Valkyrie's jacket as she takes it in the book

Swapped Mevolent's empty hand in favour of him holding Darquesse's head by her hair

Notes:

Skulduggery's outfit: Brown suit, cream shirt, ??? tie

This is my least favourite Phase 1 cover (and P1 book if I'm being honest) so I wasnt excited to work on this one- But! I think it turned out really well.

*I can't actually remember if Argeddion had hair or not in the story, but he looks bald on the cover and it looked strange to me

I really like how the stars and such turned out here :]

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Book Eight - Last Stand of Dead Men

Completed: May 26th 2024 Links: Tom's Cover - Reddit Post - Tumblr Post Changes made:

Added the Pyramid of the Brides of Blood Tears to fill empty space

Repositioned Ravel to face away*

Changed outfits of Ghastly, Saracen and Ravel

Added golden skull cufflinks to Skulduggery

Notes:

Skulduggery's outfit: Blue pinstripe suit, white shirt, ??? tie (and the golden skull cufflinks!)

*I decided to have Ravel facing away for two reasons: 1) To hide his eyes and 2) Because he's a BACKSTABBING BIT- yeah

Is the Yellow mist: Sand from the Brides? The Golden Eyes effect? You decide!

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Book Nine - The Dying of the Light

Completed: July 20th 2024 Links: Tom's Cover - Reddit Post - Tumblr Post Changes made:

Darkened and enlarged clouds to fill empty space

Added Devastation Day imagery behind Darquesse

Repositioned China and Valkyrie to show the red daggers and Meryyn Sigil tattoo respectively

Repositioned Sanguine raise his sunglasses to expose lack of eyes

Enlarged Tanith to fill space

Changed the outfits of Skulduggery, Tanith, and Valkyrie

Swapped Tanith's Katana for a straight sword

Turned the plain/random blue light near China into glowing sigils

Notes:

Skulduggery's outfit: Black suit, dark grey shirt shirt, black tie

You can see the bones in Valkyrie's right hand because her lightning is so bright.

The sigil tattoos under China's eyes and on her left wrist are glowing, because she is actively wielding her magic red daggers.

This is my favourite one. Part of that is probably because it turned out the best (I had 8 9 other ones to practice on haha)

I love how the Title looks like smoldering embers. Really gives that apocalyptic feel that most of the book gives imo

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Overall notes and thoughts:

I struggle with drawing kids/ young teenagers, but I think I did a good job of making Val look like shes growing up

Her eyebags get bigger/darker with each new cover lol

Skulduggery is wearing a different outfit in each cover! It starts with just the shirt, then the tie, then by Mortal Coil he's wearing a completely different suit each time (I really like this detail)

The Dying of the Light was definitely the cover that changed the most as I worked on it, and it also turned out to be my favourite

The Dark Days changed the least (although Playing with Fire and Last Stand of Dead Men both stayed relatively the same as well) On to Phase Two (after a break but they'll happen at some point) :D

All 9 Lines

All 9 Covers (SoonTM)

Reddit Master Post

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[doc42]

"It seems I must be a warrior."

Until one day Prince Rhaegar found something in his scrolls that changed him. No one knows what it might have been, only that the boy suddenly appeared early one morning in the yard as the knights were donning their steel. He walked up to Ser Willem Darry, the master-at-arms, and said, 'I will require sword and armor. It seems I must be a��warrior.'"

"In ancient books of Asshai it is written that there will come a day after a long summer when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world. In this dread hour a warrior shall draw from the fire a burning sword. And that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes, and he who clasps it shall be Azor Ahai come again, and the darkness shall flee before him." 

"He has a song," the man replied. "He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire." He looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany's, and it seemed as if he saw her standing there beyond the door.

. . . the shape of shadows . . . morrows not yet made . . . drink from the cup of ice . . . drink from the cup of fire . . . . . . mother of dragons . . . child of three . . .

The red priests believed in two gods, she had heard, but two who were eternally at war. Dany liked that even less. She would not want to be eternally at war.

"It is such a long way," she complained. "I was tired, Jorah. I was weary of war. I wanted to rest, to laugh, to plant trees and see them grow. I am only a young girl." No. You are the blood of the dragon. The whispering was growing fainter, as if Ser Jorah were falling farther behind. Dragons plant no trees. Remember that. Remember who you are, what you were made to be. Remember your words. "Fire and Blood," Daenerys told the swaying grass.

"I will require sword and armor. It seems I must be a warrior."

"I have seen it in the flames, read of it in ancient prophecy. When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone."

"Remember who you are, Daenerys," the stars whispered in a woman's voice. "The dragons know. Do you?"

The next morning she woke stiff and sore and aching, with ants crawling on her arms and legs and face. When she realized what they were, she kicked aside the stalks of dry brown grass that had served as her bed and blanket and struggled to her feet. She had bites all over her, little red bumps, itchy and inflamed. Where did all the ants come from? Dany brushed them from her arms and legs and belly. She ran a hand across her stubbly scalp where her hair had burned away, and felt more ants on her head, and one crawling down the back of her neck. She knocked them off and crushed them under her bare feet. There were so many … It turned out that their anthill was on the other side of her wall. She wondered how the ants had managed to climb over it and find her. To them these tumbledown stones must loom as huge as the Wall of Westeros. The biggest wall in all the world, her brother Viserys used to say, as proud as if he'd built it himself.

When Daenerys says "Fire and Blood" to the Grass Ghost Jorah at the end of A Dance With Dragons it is her version of Prince Rhaegar's revelation "It seems I must be a warrior" from the backstory revealed to her by Ser Barristan in A Storm of Swords, as Azor Ahai reborn is described in ancient prophecy as a warrior who draws a burning sword from the fire in the dread hour when the darkness gathers, and one of the story's central genre subversions from the Nineties a decade long gone is said warrior is someone nobody would think as such: a young girl who wanted to laugh and plant trees and was tired of war. When the red queen Melisandre tells King Stannis things like

"The sand is running through the glass more quickly now, and man's hour on earth is almost done. We must act boldly, or all hope is lost. Westeros must unite beneath her one true king, the prince that was promised, Lord of Dragonstone and chosen of R'hllor."

the literary quality of the viewpoint structure is devised to make you ask, "and what is Azor Ahai reborn doing right about now?" Azor Ahai reborn the Lord of Dragonstone is reading true histories of Westeros and feels those look an awful lot like songs and fairy tales.

"You are trembling, Khaleesi," the girl said as she knelt to lace up Dany's sandals. "I'm cold," Dany lied. "Bring me the book I was reading last night." She wanted to lose herself in the words, in other times and other places. The fat leather-bound volume was full of songs and stories from the Seven Kingdoms. Children's stories, if truth be told; too simple and fanciful to be true history. All the heroes were tall and handsome, and you could tell the traitors by their shifty eyes. Yet she loved them all the same. Last night she had been reading of the three princesses in the red tower, locked away by the king for the crime of being beautiful.

"As a young boy, the Prince of Dragonstone was bookish to a fault. He was reading so early that men said Queen Rhaella must have swallowed some books and a candle whilst he was in her womb. Rhaegar took no interest in the play of other children. The maesters were awed by his wits, but his father's knights would jest sourly that Baelor the Blessed had been born again. Until one day Prince Rhaegar found something in his scrolls that changed him.

We see the darkness gather at the end of A Dance With Dragons when Winter falls upon the world and time has come for all things to die:

Though she walked through a green kingdom, it was not the deep rich green of summer. Even here autumn made its presence felt, and winter would not be far behind. The grass was paler than she remembered, a wan and sickly green on the verge of going yellow. After that would come brown. The grass was dying.

Down in the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai, they say there are oceans of ghost grass, taller than a man on horseback with stalks as pale as milkglass. It murders all other grass and glows in the dark with the spirits of the damned. The Dothraki claim that someday ghost grass will cover the entire world, and then all life will end." That thought gave Dany the shivers. "I don't want to talk about that now," she said. "It's so beautiful here, I don't want to think about everything dying."

Not silver. White. The bird is white. The white ravens of the Citadel did not carry messages, as their dark cousins did. When they went forth from Oldtown, it was for one purpose only: to herald a change of seasons. "Winter," said Ser Kevan. The word made a white mist in the air. He turned away from the window.

The central poetic dynamic beating beneath all of Mr Writer's work is he writes pragmatic characters to say "life is not a song" only to turn around and make the characters go "but we can make it so." "I thought you were a singer. A singer should understand. The song, that is the way I really die. Coll knew that, when he made the song for me." "I'll have no songs about how brave you died, Kingmaker." Essentially what GRRM always writes follows the dynamic of "and yet it moves", e pur si mouve, itself a legend in our world told about Galileo Galilei, fitting to be sure.

Though the Citadel has long sought to learn the manner by which it may predict the length and change of seasons, all efforts have been confounded. Septon Barth appeared to argue, in a fragmentary treatise, that the inconstancy of the seasons was a matter of magical art rather than trustworthy knowledge. Maester Nicol's The Measure of the Days—otherwise a laudable work containing much of use—seems influenced by this argument. Based upon his work on the movement of stars in the firmament, Nicol argues unconvincingly that the seasons might once have been of a regular length, determined solely by the way in which the globe faces the sun in its heavenly course. The notion behind it seems true enough—that the lengthening and shortening of days, if more regular, would have led to more regular seasons—but he could find no evidence that such was ever the case, beyond the most ancient of tales.

The stars. Dirk paused and looked up. The Helleye had begun to edge above the horizon; most of the stars were gone already. He saw only one, very faint, a tiny red pinpoint framed by wisps of gray clouds. Even as he watched, it vanished. High Kavalaan's star, he thought. Garse Janacek had shown it to him, a beacon for his run. There were too few stars out here anyway. These were no places for men to live, these worlds like Worlorn and High Kavalaan and Darkdawn, these outworlds. The Great Black Sea was too close on one hand, and the Tempter's Veil screened off most of the galaxy, and the skies were bleak and empty. A sky ought to have stars. A man ought to have a code too. A friend, a teyn, a cause-something beyond himself.

"A MAN must have PRINCIPLES, said the man who has none." "A MAN must have HONOR." When Jaime jumps into the fighting pit for Brienne and she calls him "Kingslayer" and he replies "Jaime", he is making the song "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" come true. When Theon and Jeyne Poole jump from the walls of Winterfell and fly to reach King Stannis, the false Azor Ahai reborn wielding the fake magic sword Lightbringer, one of Daenerys' lies from the House of the Undying, they're making the song come true, and the song appears in the Bolton-run Winterfell chapters as well, sung by Abel the Bard. And when Daenerys jumps into Daznak's Pit, she tames the dragon and flies into the skies.

For a song has power, a power that can be used for both good and bad, with mixed results, to deceive and uplift both. In The Armageddon Rag the occultists Edan Morse and Ananda Caine, proto-King Stannis and Melisandre of Asshai, use blood magic sacrifice to enhance the power of the song played by the central rock band Nazgûl in order to bend time itself and turn back the clock so that the Eighties become the Sixties again and they could travel the road not taken from there. "The music can't do it all by itself, it needs us to make it come true." This would spell doom for the world, the bleeding will never stop and the dead will rise again as armies of the night to fight the wars long gone for all eternity, but through the Nazgûl song at the end the Sixties stand together once more as ghosts united at rest, freed from the eternal battle. Resurrection may be a lie, but the Sixties will live forever in the music.

Prince Rhaegar was a fool to believe in prophecy because he was the only one who saw the truth of the world, that the cold night is coming and the darkness gathers, and felt he must make the song true to face this dread hour. Jaime was a fool to jump with no fighting hand into the pit for Brienne, for he could only hope Lord Bolton's men would slay the bear in time to keep the Kingslayer alive. Theon was a fool to jump from the walls of Winterfell in hopes of reaching King Stannis, for we know Stannis would try to execute Theon first chance he has for being the Turncloak. Dirk t'Larien in Dying of the Light is a fool to embrace code duello in a dying world without stars and choose to honor the promise he made to a woman he more invented in his head than loved, his "Jenny." Joshua York is a fool in Fevre Dream to confront Damon Julian the most ancient of all vampires, for Julian is like the river of time itself and his order of life is older than Rome, the way of the masters and slaves, the way of might. For it is known that life is not a song and when the winter comes and the darkness gathers, there can be no songs as no one will be left alive to sing them anyway. "She is the prince that was promised and hers will be the song of ice and fire."

[n14-4cko]

Headcannon that the dragon that nearly killed Val and skul in dying of the light was actually just the Welsh dragon. Good chap he was just really energetic cause wales won the six nations that year

[melancholiast-clair]

talk to me about fandom misogyny and valkyire!!! am really interested

OKAY. hi. i have a lot of thoughts about this. this has turned in part into like... a val defense, i'm not even gonna lie to you, but there's some more specific discussion of fandom misogyny in there as well 😭

first of all, i find it to be much more rampant on the reddit community - go figure, lol - but it's definitely also present in the tumblr community to a more subtle degree.

it is also often mixed with some pretty deep ableism and sanism, so there's gonna be a brief discussion of that as well, just as a quick warning!

putting everything below the cut because this is. a long post. sorry!

if you're less familiar with the reddit community, one of the most frequent discussions is the talk about valkyrie's 'deserved' method of death and the comments regarding how her actions post-dotl make her an uninteresting or even disappointing character.

the discussions of how the only satisfying end to her character would be to die exactly how she thinks she's going to die - on her knees - both disappoint and sicken me. it feels like people are genuinely misunderstanding landy's inclusion of that as a theme; we are supposed to view valkyrie as an ultimately good character, and her belief that she's going to die on her knees is based entirely in a sense of deep guilt that we are not supposed to support. if you want to argue that she's actually terrible, go ahead, but i am of the belief that canon - and the intention behind most of her action - disagrees.

one of the most important things i feel like i need to outline is that she and skulduggery are extremely similar people. she spent a huge chunk of her life being absolutely dependent on him, and she learned the majority of her worldview and moral compass from him. valkyrie's life revolves around skulduggery.

i think it's both fascinating and extremely disheartening how people immediately shift their opinions once valkyrie is no longer considered a child. even when she's still a young adult - because like... surprise, reddit community, 24 is not actually old or a well-rounded adult, especially for someone who's spent her entire life isolated from typical childhood experiences - people immediately begin to demonize her actions. sometimes, this is even rightful - skulduggery and valkyrie have always been morally gray characters at best, and to judge their actions is an entirely fair stance to take. unfortunately, the majority of people who partake in this criticism aren't judging valkyrie and skulduggery.

they're judging valkyrie, all the while hailing skulduggery as their favorite character and continuing to excuse what he does and says while they denounce valkyrie for the same actions. going into the reddit comments when someone asks for 'least favorite characters' or asks people to rank characters always leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth, and there are so many posts asking why valkyrie is the main character or why the series would choose to focus val when characters like skulduggery are there.

there's also a lot of hatred for valkyrie's trauma responses post-dotl, especially her inaction in book ten, which i find particularly distasteful. in book ten, she has just returned to roarhaven after spending five years wallowing in her own guilt and is immediately met with confirmation from people all around her that she deserves all the hatred she's projected onto herself for something she could not have stopped. of course she's frozen and disbelieving in herself when things start to go down; she's spent literal years blaming herself for the deaths of over a hundred people and almost everyone around her except for skulduggery - who she knows will defend her no matter what she does - is telling her she's to blame.

i get exhausted reading people calling her a bitch over and over, raging about how she's no longer a child and can no longer be excused for her despicable actions - but she hasn't had anyone to teach her why anything she's done is wrong. she learns that the people who insist darquesse are her fault are wrong, but in learning this learns to dismiss people who call her wrong. and it makes sense, because those are pretty much the only extremes she faces - completely in support of her, or completely against her.

another thing i observe in this fandom is the obsession with pushing women characters aside. this is present in lots of fandoms, of course, but it is particularly prevalent within the skulduggery pleasant fandom.

the amount of the fandom that completely ignores valkyrie in favor of the dead men is immense, and it's kind of insane. excluding the main character and the only woman who ever joined the group is like... absolutely wild. and it's not like valkyrie isn't compelling - she faces a lot of similar issues to the rest of the group. if you're specifically looking for a war setting, you have plenty within the books themselves - or if you want to go against mevolent, stick with phase two.

but it's not just val. characters like tanith, china, darquesse, even stephanie/the reflection (which. the love/hate from the fandom towards her is a whole other discussion i'd love to get into) - they all get cast to the side in favor of the dead men. darquesse, a character who on paper sounds like the person literally everyone would, like... at the very least simp for - 6 feet tall, tatted out, crazy built and eternally powerful - is so often completely dismissed. china, a pioneer of an incredibly fascinating and individual branch of magic, gets pushed aside even as signum linguistics themselves get explored.

in the end, this is a fandom like any other with a lot of central misogyny. i don't completely blame the fandom - derek landy has his own issues with misogyny in his writing, and that certainly makes overall canonical content influential towards this behavior - but i am tired of it. sorry if this is a bit of a mess, im just kind of... blabbing.

[sunfloralchaos]

I actually did a normal Halryn doodle,,,, that I'm very unsure of so enjoy the tumblr (and patreon) exclusive

His design is very out of my wheelhouse but he is boorbo adjacent because of whatever is going on between him and Ayre

[timey-acey222]

finished dying of the light. what the fuck was that

[rawafmovies]

-🦝

(this is the unofficial director's cut of the film Dying of the Light for anyone wondering)

[tafferling]

Dying of the Light

Dying Light 2 | Sunset over Old Villedor

[sassinake]

meanwhile,

[pablolf]

Film Journal

"Dying of the Light" by Paul Schrader

[blue-mint-winter]

Review: Dying of the Light (Reading "A Thousand Worlds" stories by GRRM - Part 4)

Dying of a Light is a novel set in George R.R. Martin's "A Thousand Worlds" universe. I think it can be a good starting point to reading the series as it explains the shared history and worldbuilding both in text and in a short glossary in the end.

The main character is Dirk t'Larien who comes to a rogue planet Worlorn because he received a whisperjewel - a gift he once gave his ex-girlfriend Gwen. He made a promise to come to her aid if she sent the jewel to him. Dirk hopes to get back together with Gwen, but things are more complicated because she's sort of married to Jaan Vikary, a man from a hypermasculine culture of High Kavalaan in which women are property of men.

As they explore the dying, abandoned planet, Dirk learns more about Gwen's situation and High Kavalaan. He gets into trouble with other Kavalar people from Braithe holdfast, who still practice manhunting and flaying (like Boltons).

The main theme of the story is death - of people, the planet, the ecosystem, the cities, the culture and even love. I didn't enjoy the love triangle aspects of the story, it just seemed too hopeless for Dirk. Gwen wasn't particularly likeable, so it was impossible to understand what he and Jaan even saw in her. Strangely, Dirk had more interesting relationships with Garse Janacek or Bretan Braithe.

The second half of the book is mostly action-packed and was hard to put down. At the same time, it explored the question of what makes someone a human, what makes the difference between human and non-human.

Many characters in this novel were copied and pasted into ASOIAF later on - for example, Jaan is like Rhaegar and Garse is like Jon Connington. It's pretty fun to spot the similarities between the two works in this regard.

All in all, Dying of the Light was an interesting, thought-provoking read. It had a serious tone, similar to In the House of the Worm, as both stories are about dying worlds. The ending was ambiguous, but I felt it was satisfying and felt true to the character Dirk became after his whole journey.

Dying of the Light receives 7/10.

[nicstylus]

The Dying of the Light

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Completed: July 20th 2024

ITS DONE ALL NINE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[doc42]

"It is more than a story."

Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow in GRRM's very first novel Dying of the Light.

"In the holdfasts of the Ironjade Gathering, for example, boys were taught that the universe has only thirty stars, and High Kavalaan is its center. Mankind originated there, when Kay Iron-Smith and his teyn Roland Wolf-Jade were born of a mating between a volcano and a thunderstorm. They walked steaming from the lips of the volcano into a world full of demons and monsters, and for many years they wandered far and near, having various adventures. At last they came across a deep cave beneath a mountain, and inside they found a dozen women, the first women in the world. The women were afraid of the demons and would not come out. So Kay and Roland stayed, seizing the women roughly and making them eyn-kethi. The cave became their holdfast, the women birthed them many sons, and thus began Kavalar civilization."

"Most Kavalars think of the banshee only as a plague and a menace," Jaan Vikary explained. "In its natural habitat it is a frequent man-killer, and the hunters of Braith and Redsteel and the Shanagate Holding think of banshee as the ultimate game, with a single exception. Ironjade has always been different. There is an ancient myth, of the time Kay Iron-Smith and his teyn Roland Wolf-Jade were fighting alone against an army of demons in the Lameraan Hills. Kay had fallen, and Roland, standing over him, was weakening by the moment, when from over the hills the banshees came, many of them flying together, black and thick enough to block out the sun. They fell hungrily onto the demon army and consumed them, one and all, leaving Kay and Roland alive. Later, when that teyn-and-teyn found their cave of women and established the first Ironjade holdfast, the banshee became their brother-beast and sigil. No Ironjade has ever killed a banshee, and legend says that whenever a man of Ironjade is in danger of his life, a banshee will appear to guide and protect him." "A pretty story," Dirk said. "It is more than a story," Janacek said. "There is a bond between Ironjade and banshee, t'Larien. Perhaps it is psionic, perhaps the things are sentient, perhaps it is all instinct. I do not pretend to know. Yet the bond exists." "Superstition," Gwen said. "You really must not think too badly of Garse. It's not his fault that he never got much of an education."

And the dragonlore.

We shall not pretend to any understanding of the bond between dragon and dragonrider; wiser heads have pondered that mystery for centuries. We do know, however, that dragons are not horses, to be ridden by any man who throws a saddle on their back.

Who can know the heart of a dragon? Was it simple bloodlust that drove the Blue Queen to attack? Did the she-dragon come to help one of the combatants? If so, which? Some will claim that the bond between a dragon and dragonrider runs so deep that the beast shares his master’s loves and hates. But who was the ally here, and who the enemy? Does a riderless dragon know friend from foe?

These were the likely events, Vikary argued, self-evident truths that produced modern Kavalar society. Jamis-Lion Taal, wandering the face of the world many generations later, had been so much a child of his culture that he was unable to conceive of a world in which women held any status other than what he saw; and when he was forced to think otherwise by the folklore he collected, he thought the idea intolerably wicked. Thus he rewrote all the oral literature as he cast his Demonsong cycle. He transformed Kay Iron-Smith into a thundering giant of a man, made the Sorrowing Plague a ballad of eyn-kethi wickedness, and generally created the Impression that the world had always been the way he found it. Later poets built on the foundations he had laid.

On Braavos, it had seemed possible that Aemon might recover. Xhondo's talk of dragons had almost seemed to restore the old man to himself. That night he ate every bite Sam put before him. "No one ever looked for a girl," he said. "It was a prince that was promised, not a princess. Rhaegar, I thought . . . the smoke was from the fire that devoured Summerhall on the day of his birth, the salt from the tears shed for those who died. He shared my belief when he was young, but later he became persuaded that it was his own son who fulfilled the prophecy, for a comet had been seen above King's Landing on the night Aegon was conceived, and Rhaegar was certain the bleeding star had to be a comet. What fools we were, who thought ourselves so wise! The error crept in from the translation. Dragons are neither male nor female, Barth saw the truth of that, but now one and now the other, as changeable as flame. The language misled us all for a thousand years. Daenerys is the one, born amidst salt and smoke. The dragons prove it." Just talking of her seemed to make him stronger. "I must go to her. I must. Would that I was even ten years younger."

[verflares]

NOW SPELL: ANGEL Z-E-L-D-A WRONG! TRY AGAIN.

also on inprnt :]

[lascenizas]

The Last Movie I Watched...

Dying of the Light (2014, Dir.: Paul Schrader)

[sunfloralchaos]

Choices made in anger can't be undone