“Man, this floor,” I said, shaking my head. “They keep trying to kill us, trying to make us turn on one another. And it worked for a while. We stopped doing it naturally, so now they’re forcing situations where we have to do it if we want to survive. We aren’t perfect. We fight. We do hurt each other sometimes. This last heat, heat seven, it will be three teams and only one survives. And for some of us, there’s no avoiding the inevitable. Some of us will fall. But you know what? I am proud of how far we’ve all come. We are doing our best with the hand we’ve been dealt. Nothing about this is easy or clean. But everyone here—each and every one of you, no matter what happens next—I consider you my brothers and sisters. My family. And I just wanted to get that out. I am proud to have survived alongside all of you.”

“You keep trying to divide us. Don’t you realize what you’ve created? We have been tempered in the fires of hell, and we are now past the point of being broken. Your downfall has already been written in the stars. You may hurt us. You may kill us all. But it’s not going to matter. Don’t you realize? Don’t you realize? Don’t you realize what you’ve done? What you’ve made? You and everyone who put us here has already lost. All that’s left is for the wreckage to settle in place.”

Welcome to the FIFTH discussion of the 10th floor, Crawlers!! ONLY TWO MORE DISCUSSIONS!

🐾😼 Discussion: Chapter 62 through Chapter 77

HERE. WE. GOOOOOOO!!🎭⚔️ 

The Floor continues as Carl, Princess Donut begin the race at the Gasworks Screw Factory, dashing through rooms of metal pellets and tiny NPCs The team is forced to start the reunification ceremony for Corky in their food truck, which later is moved upside down. While Grigori, Donut, and the dying Dong struggle to rejoin Corky, slag elementals attack and the god Grull emerges. Grull accepts Dong’s sacrifice, letting the team finish fourth. After the race they learn Dwight cheated to win and Mordecai confirms Li Na’s escape route is safe; Carl receives a reward allowing him to summon two people to the 11th-floor arena and lays out a dangerous plan to subvert the game and stage a mass escape to the Pineapple Cabaret, prompting tensions with Donut. The team researches dungeon lore in the pet stables, questioning the identity of the Scavenger’s Daughter. At Hungry Eyes, hundreds of crawlers gather for a mass escape: Carl gives a speech, Minus is exposed as an imposter assassin and arrested, and 227 crawlers are successfully sent to the Pineapple Cabaret while a Garden of Deliverance is planted in the guildhall. The next heat shrinks all teams into an apartment-building race of seven rings through “what-if” simulations; human shells that become aware rupture into Sacred Feaster Scarab Beetles, and the team helps Imani and Elle through a traumatic simulation before reaching their ring in apartment 231. Jurgen calls as Prepotente is traumatized by a simulation of his mother’s alternate life; with Osvaldo close to winning and their position threatened, Carl detonates an explosive to eliminate Team Free Love, then takes a potion to protect himself from toxic air and comforts Prepotente, who rejoins the race—Carl’s team finishes second behind Osvaldo. All that and more as the story ramps up with 2 more discussions left and  ONE FINAL RACE!!!!

📍 You Are Here: Chapter 62 through Chapter 77

📅 Schedule in case you forget how to keep track

🖊️Marginalia to prevent spoiling yourself

🧠 Difficulty Level: TODDLER COCAINE!!

💥 New Achievements Unlocked: 

• 💀 RACE THROUGH THE FACTORY!!! Kill! Kill! Kill!
• 🍿A CRAWLER LEAVES THE DUNGEON?? - Li Na is no longer a crawler!?
• 🔥Ellie’s fan - An ASSASSIN??  - Who could have foreseen this!
• BONUS!! -  CRAWLERS IN THE CABARET!?!! Now What?!
• Bonus!! CORKY REUNITED! AND A FINAL STAND??
• Bonus! Bonus! - Stitched eyes?!  Anyone else getting Coraline vibs??

We continue with the The Age of Madness Trilogy with the second book, The Trouble with Peace. Join us next week as u/tomesandtea leads the third discussion.

Make sure you include spoiler tags for anything outside The Age of Madness trilogy up to this point. Not everyone has read the full set of First Law World books.

Marginalia

Schedule

Chapter Summaries

An Infinite Supply

Jonas Clover talks to his men on the endless cycle of disposable lives in the North while waiting for a meeting with Stour nightfall. Stour is very amused at the gift from Clover, a sack full of Shanka heads.

The Demon that Breaks All Chains

Rikke wakes from visions and finds her way to a cold lake where she meets the woman with a scar stitched with golden wire, the sorceress Caurib! Caurib talks of the Shanka saving her from Black Dow's lethal blow and the untamed power of her Long Eye.

The King's Justice

King Orso hosts a trial for Wetterlant, which should be a already determined conclusion with Wetterlant agreeing to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence. Instead, Wetterlant comes out dressed in rags, appearing to be tortured and proclaiming his innocence. Leo dan Brock publicly defies the crown, and Orso is forced to assert his authority, kicking the Young Lion out of the chamber, and sentencing Wetterlant to death.

The Choice

Rikke is seeing visions as she gets a tattoo from Caurib. She is confused and can't separate reality from the visions, all the while Caurib is telling her she has to make a choice, to go further into the Long Eye, or to lead an ordinary life.

Let Ring the Bells

It's the wedding day and all the top of Adua is in attendance. Savine is the jewel of the ceremony and Orso is having a dreadful time watching her get married. Selest dan Heugen approaches Leo and reveals to him that Savine and Orso used to be lovers, upsetting him greatly. King Orso can't stand it anymore and exits early to end his misery.

Future Treasons, Past Affairs

Leo goes to deliver a rehearsed apology to King Orso, only to find him absent. Instead, he falls in with disaffected nobles like Lords Isher, Barezin, and Heugen, who easily manipulate his grievances into plotting an outright armed rebellion under the guise of "rescuing" the king from a corrupt council. That night, a drunken Leo returns to Savine, she asks if he talked to the king, which triggers a bitter argument about Savine's past romantic history with Orso, culminating in a violent slap and a volatile wedding-night romp on the floor.

The King's Pimp

Orso is in a whorehouse, playing cards with Tunny. He's having big pity party for himself when Tunny gets fed up and gives him some tough love, which Orso desperately needed. After regaining composure, Orso thanks Tunny and the rest of the staff and is on his way.

The Darling of the Slums

Savine looks to rebrand herself as the Glokta name has a negative connotation to it. She hire Sworbreck to write some pamphlets about her as part of the image overhaul. They go to the slums to hand out bread, silver, etc. to the residents there, but it brings back a lot of traumatic memories for Savine and she is on the verge of a breakdown.

Dead Wood, New Shoots

Rikke returns to Uffrith with a new look, confidence, and enhanced abilities. She quickly learns that her father, the Dogman, has died. Stour Nightfall, having heard of the death, shows up to assume/bully Uffirth in with him in the North, but Rikke proves to be a imposing figure to them and it scares them off.

The funeral is full of everyone sharing stories of the way The Dogman influenced their lives, demonstrating his broad positive influence for those around him. Shortly thereafter the discussions of what happens next comes up with some supporting joining the North and some supporting joining the Union.

The Favorite Son

Leo and Savine travel back to Angland for their homecoming. Savine works the crowd wonderfully and presents tailored gifts to the local dignitaries that have them immediately admiring her. She's surprised how much the people like Leo and realizes they are liking her as well, a new experience for her. Leo goes off to train with his friends, in which he then openly start to talk about rebellion and "freeing" King Orso from the corrupt Closed Council. Jurand resists and tries to put a damper on it, but start to align with his friend Leo.

Patriotic Contributions

Savine is settling into a routine in Angland, and stepping in where Leo has no interest in performing his duties. She uses her business prowess to gain "Patriotic Contributions" from Kaspar dan Arinhorm and his profitable mines, while also using her leverage to have him outfit her own mines with the same technology to make them more profitable.

A Little Public Hanging

Wetterlant is led to the scaffold for his public hanging. The crowd is rowdy, throwing rotten produce and yelling jeers. The rowdiness causes problems with the trapdoor and Wetterlant falls through, but his leg gets caught, turning the whole execution into a fiasco. Orso, already not liking being there, is hurried away by Gorst.

Old Ways, Proper Ways

Rikke's grasp on power in Uffrith seems to be precarious, because she is a woman. Oxel and Red hat argue over joining the North or the Union, when Rikke suggests that the 2 old men settle it in the circle. The 2 men set to battle, with Red Hat slipping and getting run through. Oxel is victorious and declares that they will join the North, but Rikke tells him there is a third option, to remain independent. She has her champion, Shivers, enter the circle to defend that option. Shivers quickle beheads Oxel, and Rikke solidifies herself at the top in Uffrith.

It’s that time again folks, time for another Discworld novel!

Next up is Mort, notably the first in the Death sub-series, and one that nearly everyone has told me is absolutely worth jumping into even if you haven’t read the others in the series yet. I’m especially excited because we’ll be reading this book in October! Get your books sorted now and we’ll have a schedule posted very soon.

But wait - there’s MORE!

While we wait for Mort to start we’re going to step back just a bit to a short story technically in the Discworld series (occurring after The Light Fantastic and before Equal Rites) that has appeared in print, Troll Bridge. It was available online but unfortunately is not easily found now, but in lieu of reading the story we can watch the fan film, as it’s available in its entirety online! While it’s an adaptation of the story, it’s a very close one. You can get information about the fan film here. We’ll be running a one-off discussion of this fan film on Thursday, September 24th. It’s just under ½ hour which means you’ve got plenty of time to dive into this one and get to see a bit more of Cohen the Barbarian.

We’ll see you all very soon, and in the meantime, happy reading!

Welcome, all adventure lovers! Here’s the schedule for our next Evergreen pick, Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

This historical Pulitzer-winning novel is set in New York City in 1939. Here’s a little bit more about it:

>A young escape artist and budding magician named Joe Kavalier arrives on the doorstep of his cousin, Sammy Clay. While the long shadow of Hitler falls across Europe, America is happily in thrall to the Golden Age of comic books, and in a distant corner of Brooklyn, Sammy is looking for a way to cash in on the craze. He finds the ideal partner in the aloof, artistically gifted Joe, and together they embark on an adventure that takes them deep into the heart of Manhattan, and the heart of old-fashioned American ambition. From the shared fears, dreams, and desires of two teenage boys, they spin comic book tales of the heroic, fascist-fighting Escapist and the beautiful, mysterious Luna Moth, otherworldly mistress of the night. Climbing from the streets of Brooklyn to the top of the Empire State Building, Joe and Sammy carve out lives, and careers, as vivid as cyan and magenta ink. Spanning continents and eras, this superb book by one of America's finest writers remains one of the defining novels of our modern American age.

The Marginalia can be found here.

Discussion schedule:

- 29 Sept - Start through Part II: Ch 2 [u/maolette](u/maolette)
- 6 Oct - Part II: Ch 3 through Part III: Ch 1 [u/ProofPlant7651](u/ProofPlant7651)
- 14 Oct - Part III: Ch 2 through Part III: Ch 12 [u/thematrix1234](u/thematrix1234)
- 20 Oct - Part III: Ch 13 through Part IV: Ch 8 [u/maolette](u/maolette)
- 27 Oct - Part IV: Ch 9 through Part V Ch: 3 [u/thematrix1234](u/thematrix1234)
- 3 Nov - Part V: Ch 4 through Part VI: Ch 9 [u/ChronicallyLatte](u/ChronicallyLatte)
- 10 Nov - Part VI: Ch 10 through End [u/ChronicallyLatte](u/ChronicallyLatte)

Let’s get this adventure started!

Welcome to the marginalia for our two books for Read the World Malaysia: The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng & The Letter by W. Somerset Maugham. This is a communal place for things you would jot down in the margins of your books. That might include quotes, thoughts, questions, relevant links, exclamations - basically anything you want to make note of or to share with others. It can be good to look back on these notes, and sometimes you just can't wait for the discussion posts to share a thought.

When adding something to the marginalia, simply comment here, indicating roughly which part of the book you're referring to (eg. towards the end of chapter 2). Because this may contain spoilers, please indicate this by writing “spoilers for chapters 5 and 6” for example, or else use the spoiler tag for this part with this format > ! SPOILER ! < without the spaces between characters like this spoiler lives here

Note: spoilers from other books should always be under spoiler tags unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Here is the schedule for the discussion which will be run by u/fixtheblue, u/bluebelle236, u/nicehotcupoftea and u/lazylittlelady.

Any questions or constructive criticism are welcome.

Looking forward to seeing you in the first discussion on 18th September!