#these books are great to reread cos 10+ years have meant that theres been a lot of time to built up the foreshadowing
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in-a-trans-like-state · 5 hours ago
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I've just reread winters gift and in his cameo Peter says they dealt with a small malignancy in Kew Gardens, so I think I'm wrong,though I guess there could have been more than one incident at Kew, OR Gussie's spell somehow created a malignancy which unless a 3rd party twisted it somehow doesn't seem to line up with what we know about malignancies or Gussie
also i only know this because i listened to the audiobook yesterday (for the 3rd time this month..) I'm pretty sure the first reference to skytower is in Moon over Soho when Peter says he ran into tower block 30 seconds before it was due to be demolished (and it still wasnt as stupid as kissing Simone)
but yeah apart from very small things - e.g. Peter is called a PC and a DC in moon over soho (and we know he becomes a DC much later), and he says Dr Framline had his face fall off when it was actually the cycle courier, and that the term malignancy didn't turn up till October Man (as far as I remember) but its now being used by Peter with no explanation of how he learnt the term despite it not even being suggested as a possibility during the Punch so it feels like a retcon though its only noticeable if you are on your 3rd go through in a month. THOUGH Peter does keep mentioning having to go back and add in some mistakes to his reports to make them look more authentic, as members of the public always misremember things so thats a decent watsonian explanation (I don't think it was on purpose though)
my point though was that BA is great at foreshadowing and intra-referencing. The first 3 books where published within a year or two so I think he probably had the arc pinned down for the first 4 books, if not all the way up to Lies Sleeping, and I think he also somewhat plots out side stories that go in the comics and novellas as he goes along because throw away lines have a tendency to become fully fleshed out stories. Though theres some weirdness going on with Body Work (comic 1) because I could swear Peter and Guleed aren't meant to have meet before in it and then in the Hanging Tree (i think) when Guleed reintroduced start Peter mentions them bonding over the events of Body Work and not that they've been working together since Moon over Soho. I'd have to double check that though and see what the publication dates of the comics are.
Theres definitely quite a bit of planning going on, but I think his "chekhov's garden shed" approach also means he can just go back and flesh out throw way lines. I do kinda wish he'd go back and dig out some of the things he left hanging in the first book though, like who did the portraits in the coach house and whats up with Nightingales eyes. I think I found another tiny inconsistency in that its implied that Nightingale's eyes go grey when he starts ageing backwards (because they are blue in the portrait) BUT im pretty sure Gussie describes him having grey eyes in 1926 so either BA forgot or he has blue-grey eyes and it depends on the light.
ive recently relistened to all the RoL books TWICE and caught up on the comics and novellas
I know most of the comics suck but I have to say I do like Monday, Monday. Nightingale and Molly end up looking after the twins! (who look like they are about 3 years not 3 months but whatever) They have bee onesies! There are flashbacks to Nightingale's school days but I thought it fitted in quite well and worked with what he says in Amongst our Weapons. The story was fun and either i've been desensitised to the art or its vastly improved (i do not remember being revoluted by any of the panels at the minimum)
More or less binging all the books and comics did make me notice how often they reference each other thought the chronology vs publication order is wacky. One thing that is repeatably brought up though it Kew Gardens which is not specified in anything and iirc Peter mentions the incident in book 2, and by the later books he says he's talked to a tree. So big mystery that I half think is just a running gag and won't be answered. BUT in Masquerades of Spring, Gussie says he enchanted a tree in Kew Gardens to sing but that it would only be noticed by other practitioner. SO I think Peter rang into Gussie's tree, somehow activated it and knowing Peter he probably set it on fire.
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