Keeper of the Lost Cities #8.5 Unlocked and #9 Stellarlune - Thoughts from 4th Reading

This post contains MAJOR SPOILERS from late in the set.  Do not read this post unless you've read ALL of the books that have been published.  You've been warned.

My general comments about both books are combined here.  I will go more into the Forgotten Secrets in upcoming posts.

Book 8.5, Page 524  "Can you feel how serious I am when I tell you that it's absolutely essential to keep everything about Elysian fragmented?"

Kenric apparently obtained information about both stellarlune and Elysian, and whatever he learned scared him.  He mentions keeping it fragmented in order to prevent anyone from figuring it out.  He's afraid.

Sophie has a lot of anger because of what was done to Keefe.  This is very apparent near the end of Book 7.  Sophie's anger is why she burns the archetype and the storehouse.  She's getting even for what Gisela did to Keefe.

Book 9, Page 53  "I needed a powerful Empath to merge with my abilities."

Lady Gisela basically tells Lord Cassius that she married him just for his ability.  As a result of stellarlune, Keefe now has merged abilities.  

Book 8.5, page 587  Oralie's cheeks flushed.  "I'm not certain.  It just seems significant that Keefe is now a Polyglot and an Empath, and used his voice to control emotion.  That almost sounds like the two abilities merged somehow—or synchronized.  Which would make sense, given that Keefe was exposed to shadowflux and quintessence.  Elements trigger change.  They rarely create something entirely new.  But I'd need to do more research to know for sure."

Sophie also appears to have merged abilities, which is mighty interesting.

Book 8, Page 662   "Well… it at least explains why your enhancing is so much stronger on Empaths."  "True," Sophie agreed.  "Though my enhancing's also stronger on Telepaths—but that might be because of what Lord Cassius said.  He said the way I use my telepathy reminds him of an Empath," she explained when she saw Oralie's confusion.  "I pick up on emotions with my thoughts, I guess, without having to be in the emotional center."

Even though Sophie isn't an Empath, she can pick up on emotions through her telepathy.  This makes me wonder if Lady Gisela wasn't the only one experimenting with stellarlune.  Did Forkle do something to Sophie?

In Book 9, on page 56, Lady Gisela asks Lord Cassius if he's ever heard of Elysian.  She's making sure all of his memories were washed.  This confirms that Lady Gisela has known about Elysian.

Book 9, Page 97  "I know you elves are used to solving all your problems with your weird little talents or endless boring conversations..."

This is hilarious.  Ro mentions the "boring conversations."  Well, they are.  The biggest flaw in the later books is the extremely lengthy conversations.  

Book 9, Page 269  "Show me Mr. Forkle!  Show me Magnate Leto!  Show me Sir Astin!"  None of his aliases responded.  She'd expected as much, since she'd tried the same thing when she was still in Oralie's mind-map room—and her Imparter had stayed just as silent.

If this passage is the literal truth, then Oralie must know that Leto and Astin are Forkle identities.  Sophie called for all of them in Oralie's presence.

In Book 9, on page 506, Stina points out that Fintan could have added a certain secret to his cache later.  Exactly.  That's why the supposed inconsistency about Kenric's Forgotten Secrets isn't an inconsistency.  A fan had pointed out that the secret with Prentice was apparently saved last, and yet it couldn't have been.  Kenric's secrets could have been placed in his cache much later and in any order.  

All of my past Keeper posts are linked from this page:

Keeper of the Lost Cities Summaries, Reviews, and Theories