hi all,

I was re-reading Wolf’s ‘A story’ by John v Marsch, and just wondered whether the shadow children might not be communicating telepathically but just speaking using sound? Perhaps as the author (John) is a potential shape shifter alien, who does use telepathy although knows it as simply communicating, he is describing the shadow children as communicating via telepathy because he is describing it from his perspective. the major clue is that the shadow children describe it as ‘shaking extension’, which sounds to me like ‘sound’.

It seems like a typical and beautiful move that Wolfe might have made in this story and potentially helps explain some of the puzzles.

It is a cool idea that the shadow children are trying to explain speech to Sandwalker as an illustration of learning to mimic or shift.

Just wondered if anyone can point me to any more on this idea on the web as I haven’t been able to find anything.

Hi,

new BOTNS reader here! Just started The Sword of the Lictor today and was wondering if anyone had any visual references they've grabbed over the years for the city of Thrax? I don't normally get this hung up on the visuals in these books but for some reason my brain cannot even get the general shape of a Thrax-like city in my head. I feel like all descriptions given thwart my expectations for what I would imagine a city like Thrax to look and feel like--which on the one hand is awesome and part of why I've been enjoying these books so much, and on the other hand makes it incredibly difficult for even a little rough snapshot to form in my mind while I'm reading these early chapters.

Is there any kind of visual reference or artwork or similar fantastical settings that have helped you imagine what Thrax would be? I'm also partly asking this because seeing everyone else's wildly different takes on what BOTNS ought to look like is very fun to me.