Quillifer’s A Guest

by wjw on October 5, 2017

The ever-charming John Scalzi is very kindly allowing me to fill up his blog today with a very long essay about Quillifer. By all means check it out.

d October 8, 2017 at 9:27 pm: Quillifer is really, really good. I like it as well as any of your other work, and I’ve read most it I’m pretty sure.
wjw October 8, 2017 at 11:00 pm: Thanks very much! I worked hard on it, so I’m glad it’s paying off.
IronOre October 9, 2017 at 10:28 am: Finished it yesterday instead of watching football. I look forward to the continuing adventures of Quillifer who reminds us all to never get involved with nymphs.
Jess June 2, 2021 at 11:36 pm: Greatly enjoyed reading Quillifer all the way through in 2 days. There were many entertaining and fun events that transpired throughout the whole thing.

I have some questions and critique ahead, stop at the spolier warning those who do not wish to read details of the book.

I do wonder however if Quillifers home was his ancestral home then why did his predecessors not build an escape route under or within the house if raids were more common in the past so that his whole family wouldn’t have perished? Also how would his family have no way of escaping or try to escape if the end result would most assuredly be death, like how they did die…. and why in all the wonders of book reading would *spoiler ahead* (read no further if you haven’t read the book) have to die at the end of battle? I greatly enjoyed his character, actions, speech, the dynamic between the main character and him and all around when he would appear. It was, in my eyes most assuredly, unnecessary and felt cheap. After all that had transpired all the wonderful and terrible things to the hero and one gets to the end of the book and gets a punch in the solar plexus as a congratulatory finish instead of ease, thoughtfulness, and satisfaction of reading a good book, I was robbed of my serenity and left with the bitter taste of a terrible decision. Instead of his death he should have been heralded and uplifted, while haven become closer to Quillifer in friendship and camaraderie than ever before with the second book alotting some time for him to help the lord on a multitude of differnt possibilities in adventures.

All around a very good book worth reading, I will obtain and read the second book at my earliest convenience.

Tata
~Jess
wjw June 4, 2021 at 3:25 pm: Jess, thanks for your interest!

There are no escape tunnels under Ethlebight because of the high water table. The tunnels would flood.

I’m somewhat gratified that you mourn the death of [redacted]. The character was a redshirt from the beginning. His death assured that his father and Quillifer would become mortal enemies, which is important later on.