Re: Heart of Obsidian book discussion thread. SPOILER HEAVY!!

[Jane]

We all love Vasic, Nalini wouldn't kill him, right? Right?! And his heroine... maybe it will be Alice.

[TheFLuff]

Yeah, that´s kind of my line too

Vasic's HEA is Alice, his last name is Adelaja and he is the Ghost.

ANd I totally wanna know, how much of that is correct

[CassB]

Neat interview. Very happy to hear the next hero will not be a secret. I do understand the mystery of this book in part, but it has been difficult. Liked the answers about Kit. From all appearances this book is heavily Psy focused, so I think it is a solid bet that the next hero will be Psy (as Nalini states she think it will be fairly clearly in HoO who the next book will be about).

[tabitha]

The twitter ruled Vasic out as being the Ghost.

It did reveal a lot of details which I've summerised in another thread, I'm convinced it's Kaleb and that this will be very relevant in HoO:

I've been re-reading CBI and came across this section regarding Kaleb's history which may be relevant.

He was placed in a training facility age 3. there was a three month gap in his training log age 7 years and 4 months the gaps repeated themselves and each one was one week after a training session with Enrique.

He had a 'decline' aged 16 which started 24 hours after he returned from a training sessions with Enrique and lasted for a month before he stabilised, Nikita notes a swan changeling had disappeared 7 days before Kalebs decline and summerised that he had been Enriques accomplise.

[CassB]

I posted this also in the thread speculating on the heroine, but thought I would post here as well. So, someone posted this link on the Spoiler comment thread on Nalini's blog:
https://i.servimg.com/u/f78/15/84/42/96/lovele11.jpg
It is a photo from what appears to be a book catalog with a book blurb of HoO in German. Don't go to the page if you don't want to actually know the heroine's name. Even you don't read German, you can see the character's name. I hid the name in the spoiler if you want to know.

Spoiler:

Even though this is a spoiler thread, I was not sure if it was okay to state the name openly. I will let more established members of the forum decide what to do with the name, if anything.

I did a rough translate, otherwise there doesn't seem to be anything earthshattering and there does not appear to be anything on the Ghost. To our German friends, are there any surprises?

[Jane]

Has anyone seen this review? Here is the link:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/398602468

[anja-shirin-shari]

I did a rough translate, otherwise there doesn't seem to be anything earthshattering and there does not appear to be anything on the Ghost. To our German friends, are there any surprises?[/quote]


No surprises there ...
The woman's name also appears openly on the backcover of "Geheimnisvolle Berührung" (german title, I don't have any idea why they do not simply translate the english title but create a different one ...).
AND ............. I just visited amazon.de and clicked "Blick ins Buch". The first two chapters could be read AND after a Log-In I could also read parts of other chapters (11, 41 and some more) after clicking "Ich möchte überrascht werden". Never expected that!
Well, now I know, who the Ghost is

[Yurice]

Well put me out of my misery and tell me who the Ghost is! Please! *__*

[U.J]

Ohh could you post a link to the German amazon where you found it? Can't fine the 'click in book' button anywhere ! Thanks!

[CassB]

Despite my complete lack of German skills, I found myself on amazon.de trying to found more information. Thanks to the similarity to US amazon and Google translate, I found my way around. There is a back cover blurb with the heroine's name and I was able to log-in (apparently Amazon is Amazon whatever the language), but the "I want to be surprised" feature only allowed me to jump around the pages available in the excerpt (same as Nalini's website as far as I could tell) with no extra information. The blurb is very similar to the one seen in photo of the book catalog. I did go visit the German publisher page and its excerpt includes the prologue, so that is neat, but it is vague without any new information that I could find. Goodness, the obsession I have for this book is ridiculous!

[anja-shirin-shari]

Ohh could you post a link to the German amazon where you found it? Can't fine the 'click in book' button anywhere ! Thanks!

Sorry, tried, but was told that "New members are not allowed to post external links or emails for 7 days."
Perhaps try again? amazon.de, Title "Geheimnisvolle Berührung", click on the book cover. Good luck!!!

I tried the same with the english version of the book on amazon.de, but it did not work. And I noticed, that today the parts I could access were different from what I could read yesterday. So much fun, would love to read on and on, but have to go to work now

[tlgopal969]

In response to Jane's post of the Goodreads review: I think maybe her strong suit is backsight not foresight. That could be what Kaleb wants her for other than to protect her.

[CassB]

In response to Jane's post of the Goodreads review: I think maybe her strong suit is backsight not foresight. That could be what Kaleb wants her for other than to protect her.

Do you have a link to the post you are talking about? I thought I could find it, but I am not sure what post you are talking about. I am, however, really interested in the backsight comment. Farmwifetwo's review on Goodreads mentioned something about the story being told in backsight sequences. I mostly took that to mean Nalini would write about how Kaleb and Sahara met. I don't remember Nalini doing much of that in the past, so I was excited about it although the reviewer mentions it as a negative. But it could mean also or instead that Sahara is gifted in backsight. That didn't not even occur to me.

[tlgopal969]

It was the Farmwifetwo review that gave me the idea of Sahara having stronger backsight. I also think that because of her less than cardinal gradient F psy powers. Kaleb could've found a way to a higher gradient F psy in a number of ways. A good reason to cage someone is if they knew your secrets. It's also a good reason for someone else to free her. One thing I don't get is why she wasn't killed but it could be possible she's an anchor.

[CassB]

I understand what you are saying, but cardinals are rare. Even though there are many in the books, in the population as a whole they are rare. So, just because someone is not a cardinal does not make less valuable if they are still powerful. While I am sure Sahara's powers will be a factor, as a Psy they are a large part of who she is, I don't think Kaleb was motivated to find her because of her foresight or backsight abilities. He wants the person (I hope). Also, while Sahara may have been caged because she knew secrets, I think whoever caged her kept her to make use of her powers. I doubt there needs to be more reason than that.

[syaffolee]

I think it's pretty certain that Kaleb wants her as a person and not just for her abilities. Because why would he kill Gerard Bonner (when technically he didn't need to) and say, "For you" in Bonds of Justice? And why would he go through the trouble of securing a deal with the BlackEdge pack in Tangle of Need just to make his target more comfortable if she didn't accept his hospitality? He specifically states, "a psychic leash was not a viable option."

Also, I agree with CassB that she was probably caged to make use of her powers. If it was just for secrets, well, wouldn't it be more efficient to just kill her instead?

[anja-shirin-shari]

I think, she could be an E-Psy. Getting emotions into someone cold like Kaleb will be quite an effort.
Does Anthony ever show any surprise considering Sascha's designation? I don't remember. If not, he must be aware of "E's".
Back sight sequences might just mean, that she recalls things that have happened to her and Kaleb in the past. Didn't Nalini do something similar about Clay and Talin?

[Yurice]

Egads! Not E Psy please! T_T
I find it wrong for someone to 'manipulate' emotions of another, like when Sascha neutralized Dorian's anger and replaced it with joy? or was it peace? But yeah, those emotions aren't his. They were placed there by someone else. That sounds soo wrong in mine ears!

I agree they'd captured her for her abilities, because they didn't rehabilitate her, or just kill her off. But I'm hoping for something more than back sight or fore sight.^^

[anja-shirin-shari]

Dorian said: "It felt like warmth spreading inside me shoving out the rage. I can think again."
She took some of the pain away from him - before the pack would have done the same ...
I think, Sascha just enabled him to begin healing himself, finding peace without being blinded by the rage. She didn't force it on him.

I would like to watch Kaleb being showered with rainbowsparks. Guess, it would annoy him very much :-)

[Elaine]

Does Anthony ever show any surprise considering Sascha's designation? I don't remember. If not, he must be aware of "E's".

Anthony is not just aware of the E designation, he even knows that the Duncan family regularly produces Es. He indicated so to Nikita.

[Jane]

This reviewer says that the book is pretty similar to Blaze of memory.

link: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/591392808

[CassB]

Oh, that actually does not excite me. I like all the books, but BoM is a little too emotionally turblent. It is the only one I think that I have not reread entirely, I have reread parts, but I can't handle the whole thing. But I guess the similarity is not a surprise either.

[Jane]

Yeah, me too. I didn't really enjoy BoM. But, we'll see... I mean, it is Kaleb's story so... It has to be great

[CassB]

Yeah, the characters make a lot of difference. I liked both Dev and Katya, but they were relatively new characters when they got a book. Kaleb has been with us for a long time. The only thing I am really worried about is a scene that Nalini said she had a difficult time writing in the GR Q&A in March 2013. I appreciate that Nalini's book seem to fit her characters, ie the books vary in tone and emotional impact depending on the leads, but I tend to avoid authors that tend to get too dark. Nalini in general is not, but some of books go in that direction and while I am super excited for this book, I am also a bit leary about the emotional impact of this book!

[syaffolee]

I don't know. I wouldn't put too much into that review since it was just a one liner. My first reaction is just: how is it similar? And sometimes, reviewers say book A is similar to book B and when I actually read the two books, I see no similarity whatsoever.

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