Bartimaeus Sequence Fan Forum

The whispering skull, Lockwood and co.

6 Sep 14 - 11:20

[+] Spoiler: And the seven months that have passed since the first book, and the three months the agency was running before Lucy joined.

Friends come and friends go, but enemies accumulate
Si sapis, sis apis - If you're wise, be a bee
If you think the grass is greener on the other side, it's because it is fertilized with bullcabbage

Roo Imp

6 Sep 14 - 20:50

10 more days . . .

evillaugh Djinni

7 Sep 14 - 10:56

Get the kindle edition now.

Friends come and friends go, but enemies accumulate
Si sapis, sis apis - If you're wise, be a bee
If you think the grass is greener on the other side, it's because it is fertilized with bullcabbage

Roo Imp

7 Sep 14 - 17:38

Well, I tried to, but it said I still couldn't get it until September 16 (which is when the printed editions come out). So, no matter what . . . there's waiting . . .

evillaugh Djinni

7 Sep 14 - 18:59

Hm. Have you tried getting it through the internet?

Friends come and friends go, but enemies accumulate
Si sapis, sis apis - If you're wise, be a bee
If you think the grass is greener on the other side, it's because it is fertilized with bullcabbage

Roo Imp

8 Sep 14 - 04:59

No success there, either. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places?

In the meantime, it's been hard not to read the spoilers!

evillaugh Djinni

8 Sep 14 - 07:21

Stay strong, Roo! You'll regret it otherwise.

Friends come and friends go, but enemies accumulate
Si sapis, sis apis - If you're wise, be a bee
If you think the grass is greener on the other side, it's because it is fertilized with bullcabbage

TrueHauntings Imp

8 Sep 14 - 15:27

I have to agree with evillaugh: Please don't read the spoilers! I speak from personal experience because I made the fault to read one of the spoilers before finishing the book. -.-

evillaugh Djinni

8 Sep 14 - 15:45

Oh, which was it?

Friends come and friends go, but enemies accumulate
Si sapis, sis apis - If you're wise, be a bee
If you think the grass is greener on the other side, it's because it is fertilized with bullcabbage

Roo Imp

8 Sep 14 - 22:58

Have you seen the new Screaming Staircase paperback covers?

A bit off topic, I know . . .

Quest Imp

9 Sep 14 - 02:32

The book excerpt was SO, SO GOOD!!!!!!

Roo Imp

9 Sep 14 - 04:40

Hello! Lovely profile picture :)

evillaugh Djinni

9 Sep 14 - 09:36

Hello Quest, what didn't you get just yet?

Friends come and friends go, but enemies accumulate
Si sapis, sis apis - If you're wise, be a bee
If you think the grass is greener on the other side, it's because it is fertilized with bullcabbage

Sentynel One with The Other Place

admin

12 Sep 14 - 23:47

GUYS
GUYS
Major spoilers and theorising afoot.

So I reread Whispering Skull today. And I realised something.

[+] Spoiler: The harp symbol isn't a harp - it's a LYRE, because it's the symbol of the Orpheus Society (which Fittes refers to by name in the library). Orpheus is of course the Greek lyre-playing hero who nearly rescued his wife from Hades. So the Orpheus Society has gotta be a conspiracy of the rich and powerful (Fairfax, Fittes, the person she gives the item to in the library, etc) who are aiming to cure death or retrieve dead people from the afterlife somehow. They're obviously conducting research into death and the Problem, etc to this end, hence manufacturing the goggles and so forth. DEPRAC appears not to be in on it, based on Barnes' interest in the armour and goggles from Screaming Staircase. I would also hazard a guess that the Orpheus Society is at the least linked to the cause of the Problem, and might even be directly causing it themselves as a side effect of their research.

Sentynel - Head Ninja, Admin, Keeper of the Ban Afrit, Official Forum Graphics Guy, and forum code debugger.
A still more glorious dawn awaits, not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise, a morning filled with 400 billion suns - the rising of the Milky Way

evillaugh Djinni

13 Sep 14 - 07:03

Holy jizz. Damn, that could be totally true. Kudos to you.

[+] Spoiler: I'm not sure about the 'retrieving people from the dead' thing,, though. What reason would they have?

Friends come and friends go, but enemies accumulate
Si sapis, sis apis - If you're wise, be a bee
If you think the grass is greener on the other side, it's because it is fertilized with bullcabbage

Sentynel One with The Other Place

admin

13 Sep 14 - 10:20

[+] Spoiler: Well, generally, because death sucks and losing people sucks. More specifically (wild speculation), both the named characters we know were involved with the Orpheus Society to some degree - Fairfax and Penelope Fittes - had lost somebody close to them when they were young (Annie and the boy from Combe Carey Hall respectively), and may also have blamed themselves for it (certainly in Fairfax' case).

Quest Imp

14 Sep 14 - 14:34

Totally makes sense!

Roo Imp

16 Sep 14 - 22:44

It's out!

evillaugh Djinni

17 Sep 14 - 16:20

[+] Spoiler: While that may be true in Penelope Fittes case, Fairfax knew perfectly well that he would be revealed as her murderer. He cartainly didn't have problems with murdering Lockwood and co when they found the locket and he was in danger of being exposed,

Friends come and friends go, but enemies accumulate
Si sapis, sis apis - If you're wise, be a bee
If you think the grass is greener on the other side, it's because it is fertilized with bullcabbage

Sentynel One with The Other Place

admin

17 Sep 14 - 16:39

[+] Spoiler: Fairfax loved her, and it's specifically noted at one point that he didn't seem to have had any other partners later in life. He may have believed she'd forgive him if he brought her back, or thought it worthwhile for the chance to see her again. His reaction to her ghost's appearance is quite interesting - it's not just ghost-lock; he stands up to greet her.

The whispering skull, Lockwood and co.

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