|  Author | Topic: Superior Saturday (Read 3,306 times) |
PJ
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Karma: 20 |  | Superior Saturday
« Thread Started on Mar 11, 2008, 1:55am » | |
Got the following e-mail from Allen & Unwin:
"Can Arthur stop Saturday's bid for ultimate power?
Arthur Penhaligon has wrested five of the Keys from their immortal guardians, the Trustees of the Will. But gaining the Sixth Key poses a greater challenge than any he has ever faced before. Superior Saturday is not just one of the Trustees, she is also the oldest Denizen and the most powerful and knowledgeable sorcerer within the House. She has tens of thousands of sorcerers at her command - and she has been preparing her forces all along. Everything is all just part of a greater plan she has been hatching for ten thousand years.
Arthur can't even find a way into the Upper House, and even if he does, discovering the Sixth Part of the Will and gaining the Sixth Key might not be enough to counter Saturday's sorcerous hordes or stop her bid for ultimate power. Power that means the total destruction of the House and the entire universe beyond . . ."
It comes out in June, they say. Hmm.
I wonder how Saturday plans on grabbing ultimate power by destroying the House and the entire Universe? Is she gonna pull some insane "I will create my own universe lolz" plan? In which case - lame. It would have been cooler if it had all been some elaborate suicide plot.
Oh well. Also the Trustees aren't immortal. A few of 'em have died.
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Dante
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Karma: 417 | | Re: Superior Saturday
« Reply #1 on Mar 11, 2008, 4:16am » | |
There's enough information out to conclude quite a bit about the book already, which I'll cover after the covers:
Allen & Unwin (Australia, June):
![[image]](http://www.allenandunwin.com/BookCovers/resized_9781741145908_224_297_FitSquare.jpg "[image]")
HarperCollins (U.K., July):
![[image]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51totZnL5hL._SS500_.jpg "[image]")
Scholastic (U.S., August):
![[image]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RBDCAjdzL._SS500_.jpg "[image]")
And Allen & Unwin has audio readings from Garth Nix of the Prologue and part of Chapter 1, which are huge giveaways on the nature of the Upper House, Incomparable Gardens, Saturday's sin and by extension Sunday's, and Saturday's motivations (which seem slightly better than "I will create my own universe lolz").
http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781741145908
Given that Arthur's always holding the next Key on the Australian covers, I'm going to guess that Saturday's Key is - well, it being just a feather would be slightly lame, so I'm going with a quill pen feather, meaning we're likely stepping completely out of the realm of weaponry. I guess you could put it in your hat. It works, though, for the officious nature of the Upper House. The U.K. cover I'm taking to imply (although this is by no means a certainty, as the U.K. covers aren't consistent in what they illustrate) that the sixth part of the Will will take the shape of a raven - ravens are associated with wisdom, which works well enough to oppose Saturday's sin (what foolishness it has led her to!) and vaguely complements the set-up of the Upper House. We could probably also hazard a guess that Arthur might choose to disguise himself as a clerk of the Upper House before eventually making his way into the high trees (for more on those, see the Prologue reading), but that might not be reliable.
Regarding the immortality of the Trustees - while the context certainly implies that the summary just plain got it wrong, it seems that they're immortal in the sense that they don't age, not that they can't be killed.
Edit: Hey, what's going on? That's not the Allen & Unwin Superior Saturday cover I originally linked to. Maybe the other one was a draft or experiment, but certainly the new one is completely different.
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iblock
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Karma: 0 | | Re: Superior Saturday
« Reply #2 on Mar 26, 2008, 2:48am » | |
I found this image of the Australian cover on a discount book website- it is a variation or a fake? What do you think?
Reason for Editing: picture upload
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Ernist
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Karma: 14 | | Re: Superior Saturday
« Reply #3 on May 28, 2008, 10:18am » | |
OMG I love those books even thoug I have read only the first two!!!!!!!!!!!!
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PJ
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Karma: 20 | | Re: Superior Saturday
« Reply #4 on Jun 5, 2008, 5:00am » | |
I got an e-mail saying that Saturday is out.
So, uh, I guess I'll go pick it up tomorrow.
Edit:
Eh.
It's shorter than Friday, which was the shortest in the series. Which sucks, cos Saturday was supposed to be the awesome allmightiest of it all.
It falls back to the old format of Arthur sneaking into the next bit of the House, scouting around, meeting some people, seeing the sights, some confrontation, then he finds the Will, then goes up to challenge the Trustee.
So I was pretty dissapointed. It didn't bring a lot of new stuff to the series - Saturday's motivation for trying to destroy the House was pretty weak, at best. Saturday herself hardly got any screentime, and the final confrontation really wasn't all that epic. In fact, it ends on a bloody cliffhanger. As in, the confrontation doesn't finish. Which was really, really annoying.
The Will was interesting, I guess. But yeah, I can't help but feel that there really wasn't anything new in this book - same tired old format. Nothing particularly awesome happened, nor was there any awesome new evidence. Arthur's ascent into a Denizen could have been potentially really nice, but still wasn't all that cool. In fact, most things could have been really great, but just weren't handled properly.
So yeah. Dissapointing. I hope Lord Sunday can redeem the series, but somehow, I doubt it.
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Zaid
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Karma: -6 | | Re: Superior Saturday
« Reply #5 on Jun 10, 2008, 4:30pm » | |
Jun 5, 2008, 5:00am, PJ wrote:| Arthur's ascent into a Denizen could have been potentially really nice, but still wasn't all that cool. |
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Way to spoil a plotline, jerk.
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PJ
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Karma: 20 | | Re: Superior Saturday
« Reply #6 on Jun 10, 2008, 10:40pm » | |
Pff. Remember Friday? When he was all "screw it, I'm going to be a Denizen?"
Here's another spoiler for you. Arthur goes up to the next level in the House, tries to find the Will, battles the Trustee and attempts to grab the Sixth Key for himself.
Also Suzy and Leaf are involved in some way. And...uh...Arthur meets new Denizens on his quest.
And stuff happens in the Secondary Realms.
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Zaid
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Karma: -6 | | Re: Superior Saturday
« Reply #7 on Jun 11, 2008, 12:21pm » | |
Yeah, and the four trees and stuff, I already know.
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samreen
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Karma: 38 | | Re: Superior Saturday
« Reply #8 on Jul 18, 2008, 9:43am » | |
I don't even know if I want to read it, the series is started to look less and less appealing. Friday was fairly good, but even then, it seems like the series is kinda going downhill. Eh, maybe I'll pick it up if I don't have anything else to read.
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Dante
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Karma: 417 | | Re: Superior Saturday
« Reply #9 on Aug 2, 2008, 8:29am » | |
I read this on holiday last week. Spoilers, I guess, although since the book's been out a little while you shouldn't be reading the one if you haven't read the other.
I have to agree with PJ's criticisms - Superior Saturday's been built up over several books as the ultimate enemy, with Sunday barely being relevant. Given this, perhaps it makes sense for the book to cut off short, for the fight against Saturday to go on a bit longer, but it feels weak. I can understand Nix wanting to lead right into the last book, but by now he's just got so much to tie up that he didn't do anything towards in Superior Saturday. I'm seriously concerned that Lord Sunday will disappoint, that he won't manage to fit everything in.
The way I see it, there are three options:
1. Lord Sunday is the longest book by quite a bit (no complaints here).
2. There's a surprise eighth book - The Architect, I guess - that nobody was expecting (would be a great idea if Nix had planned it all along, but a lame idea if he only came up with it because he messed up the last few books).
3. Loads of stuff, most likely the events in the Secondary Realms, is wrapped up off-screen ("oh yeah Saturday whupped the Piper while you weren't looking").
I am pleased with a few things, though - for example, I guessed the forms of the Key and the Will, although given the former was on the draft Australian cover (as the Keys always are), and the latter was on the U.K. cover (and I couldn't think where else a raven would feature), it wasn't really a guess. The Will's imprisonment in this book was a nice idea, but I wasn't convinced by it - in retrospect, it just seems like a quick way of shortening the book. Like Nix just wanted it all over with. If I'm honest, the depressed Sorcerous Supernumeraries were the best part of the book. At least Suzy didn't do too badly, although her capture, unresolved by the end, was disappointing.
Oh yeah, and what's going on with the U.S. cover? It seems kind of like a composite of aspects of the book. And I was going to complain about Arthur not having the Key on the final Australian cover, breaking the pattern of five previous books, but given that he doesn't even get the Key this book (the draft cover looks more like it would have happened in Lord Sunday), I guess I can't complain.
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Ernist
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Karma: 14 | | Re: Superior Saturday
« Reply #10 on Sept 12, 2008, 12:13pm » | |
hey every one I have now read up to sir thersday and am now reading lady friday
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