u/maolette

Y’all…we are 80% of the way through this book and I cannot describe to you how TENSE I was reading this last week’s section! I can’t delay a minute more…let’s get to it!

In case you need them, here are links to this book’s Schedule and our series Marginalia. If you’re lost in space and looking for previous books in this series, you can find links to those in the Schedule as well.

SUMMARY

Part 12 The First Age - Senescence

12.1 Kott is the only one who mourns Pil and takes care of his cabin and body. She learns how he was using the bugs to engineer what he wanted in the world, and how he used light polarization to distribute commands. She doesn’t share this with the group, but she does realise they have to work together if they’ll do this. The four became the story, and lived ever after before it all came crashing down.

12.2 Although Dorcheson has made it so they don’t sleep, Kott still dreams, awake. She dreams of the incoming ships that followed Hartmand. She dreams of their demise, either while incoming or in space. She believes the torment is deserved, because no matter what they’ve done nothing will last (depressive state much?!).

12.3 Time has passed, and the ship can’t tell it anymore. The plants have taken over the ship and will mean their demise eventually, but it also provides the group with necessary oxygen. Dorcheson loses it at some point with a flamethrower, and she and Hartmand finally get into it. Kott and Milner restore everything and life moves on. Milner approaches Kott one day saying something wonderful has happened.

12.4 Milner shows her that the outside of the ship, the hard vacuum of space, also shows the growth of the plants, including flowers. She is surprised, as it doesn’t make sense why they’d be there. She suggests they evolve the plants to protect them somehow, in lieu of the ship itself.

12.5 All four meet at once (a rare thing in these godlike times) and discuss next steps after testing the space plants. Each has different ideas, although Kott has no idea herself and feels their reign is simply at its natural end.

12.6 Hartmand and Kott have agreed to co-run as gods for now and mostly things stay peaceful. They take out Milner and Dorcheson’s creations and continue to make their own. Then there’s still the bugs. Kott goes in to observe what kind of sickness or virus needs to be made to infect them when suddenly a large mass of them come together and form a human shape, which is of course none other than Pil.

Part 13 The Second Age - The Revenge of Tiamat

13.1 Hieron is learning about the plants and tries to convince Cosimir her research outweighs their preparation efforts for getting onto the planet. Cosimir disagrees, but then Ilshir shows how the Beanstalk (™) has already penetrated their ship. The growth speed makes no sense. As Ilshir tries to cut it out, hull breach alarms sound in other parts of the ship, including Hieron’s lab.

13.2 The plant is described as an invasive species, particularly primed for eating away at the mechanical and electrical pieces of the ship - assured destruction. There’s another threat though, and it’s not just a plant doing plant things.

13.3 The battle lasts only 48 hours and it is brutal. The plant fights dirty. At the end, Cosimir sends out anyone onto the shuttles, headed for the ground of the planet. She asks for two seats to be saved on the last one out.

13.4 Ilshir moves through the ship trying to rescue others. He helps Kieraven get out. Next, Bartilow tells Cosimir it’s time to go. Suddenly her true feelings and strengths show; she’s been tracking the loss the entire time. Bartilow and Cosimir leave on a shuttle. Hieron and Science and Ilshir are left. The stalk invades the labs and forms a human face before Hieron dies.  

13.5 On the ground it’s chaotic and they are losing some people to ‘misadventure’. Kieraven tries to keep it all going, and is bolstered when he hears Cosimir is on her way down. He then sees a literal chimera come out of the trees around him, with a man’s face. It turns away and retreats just as the final shuttle comes in.

13.6 The biblical 40 days and nights go by and only then have things somewhat calmed for the cargo - the settlers - and their prospective settlement. Next up is expansion. Bartilow enlists Enelisse Jesper, formerly of the Nergal, to Cosimir to form a team and find out how to improve conditions. Jesper ominously muses that the wild here looks back.

Part 14 The Third Age - Enemy’s Enemy’s Enemy

14.1 The ship is downed, and Alis is feeling useless, not only because of her current circumstances. Cato senses a visual anomaly. Portifabian reports Kern, or the instance of Kern on their ship, is dead. They connect with Kern again. She advises finding Mira. Cato suddenly shoots some nearby trees, shattering them and sending splinters into the ship and Alis. There are humans with guns in the trees, remnants of the ark ships. The group intends to follow them.

14.2 The Four Dragon Ford community is up in arms at their scouts’ sights. They have shared some info but suddenly the visitors are at their doorstep. They question whether it’s the Life having made new things now, or if these really are visitors. Alis answers by saying they came from the sky, from Earth. They ask after Mira. The group tells her Mira is elsewhere, and the visitor group heads away, scouts following.

14.3 The group knows it’s being followed, and Alis confirms and vocalises this to the nearby scouts. One creature she talks to seems to talk back to her, which is odd. Cato feels threatened but with enough muttered couplets he is calm. They go to see Mira and the forest is split where she is located and inside everything glistens and is covered in slime. Alis and Mira talk for a bit but Mira insists Alice must enter her “office” for some reference material to be reviewed. Alis refuses, but then Mira wraps around her and pulls her in. 

14.4 Cato and Portifabian immediately retreat, headed right back to where the human scouts wait. They are able to communicate with Kern’s help, and although Cato asks for some threats to be translated, Kern refuses and instead just translates information. Kern speculates Mira is interacting differently with her environment here, hence the sudden intense violence. Suddenly she’s coming and the entire group goes back to their walls.

14.5 The group returns to the walled settlement and there’s debate about whether the newcomers should be let in. There are some arguments about who is at fault here, the newcomers, or the humans’ ancestors. Neco appears, and she has been taken by Mira and is smiling unnervingly. She tells them she is winning the war, and suddenly one of the man-faced monsters appears and tears her to shreds, warning the group to kill the intruder. The face is recognised as being that of Gerey Hartmand.

Part 15 The First Age - Exit / No Exit

15.1 Kott continually hunts Pil, who is always found in some odd bug mass. She finds a species to hunt and kill and destroy all of him, but he simply returns again each time she goes back in. Confronting him does no good; he is “fresh” each time and doesn’t remember her talking to him or hunting him. She tells no one else of these encounters.

15.2 Kott finally understands what Pil has done (unintentionally?), which is leaving himself in the world, at his end. She decides she also wants to live forever, and starts planning. But what about the others?

15.3 She brings the issue to the others in a formal meeting, but it only results in bickering and no action and no ideas. Kott hides away on the planet and feels others come and go, but stays in always. Eventually the bodies of all of them die, but Kott’s mind lives on in the engineered planet.

15.4 When she feels her physical body die, Kott goes out into the world. But she quickly is thwarted and realises soon that she’s not the only one still there. They all are. They all betrayed one another. Pil showed all of them himself and they all must have stayed. And now none of them can leave. 

15.5 A long period of time passes where the creatures each has made just kill and eat one another, occasionally breaking the awareness of their past humanity (except Pil). However, Pil is still aware enough to be able to warn things will soon get interesting, and they hear the Marduk ships coming.

15.6 As the ships arrive the god group meets and decides to let them live, but these creators, these gods, will be known to them and feared by them. Kott is just like the rest of them, after all.

Part 16 The Third Age - Old Acquaintance, Brought to Mind

16.1 Mira (and Neco, re-formed) explain to Alis, having been captured, that the world is against Mira and that’s why she’s lashing out. She can’t remain calm and herself, so she’s breaking down. They need Alis’s help; she needs to convince the group to kill the planet’s Life so Mira can live, not as a monster. NBD guys, just kill some gods!

Join us next week as u/tomesandtea wraps up this book for us, the last in the series (again…for now??)

Come one come all to our first 2026 Bookclub Bingo check-in! I know it’s been a crazy start to the year, so I hope you’re ready to share your bingo deets!

• How is your Bingo journey going?🏁
• How close are you to reaching your goal?🚩
• What is your Bingo strategy?♟️
• Have you changed your mind about your card spread choice/strategy since the beginning of the year?🤔
• Are there any Bingo squares you’re finding it tough to complete?😠
• Are there any Bingo squares you're especially excited to have completed, or anxious to finish yet?😃

Here are some useful links to aid you as you continue your Bingo journey!

• You can find this year’s Bingo card here and here
• Track your overall progress in the Megathread here
• For more info on the r/bookclub Bingo, head to the Book Bingo FAQ in the wiki
• If you still have any questions, please ask them in the Bingo Q&A post here
• The link to the 2026 Bingo Helper spreadsheet is here, and if you have questions on specific book categories, please post them to the Bingo Helper Spreadsheet Q&A here

📚Happy reading!📚

Cheers, the Ministry of Merriment

A hearty and seasonal welcome to everyone on this Bealtaine, or officially the beginning of summer in Ireland! We’ve had a mixed week of weather, but today I’m seeing some blue sky so sure, we’ll take it! Monday is also a bank holiday here so LONG WEEKEND for us!

For anyone brand new here, hello and welcome! For all those regulars, welcome back! We're happy to have all of you. This is a space for us to get to know one another better and chat about whatever fits your fancy.

RULES:

• No unmarked spoilers
• No self-promo
• No piracy
• Thoughtful personal conduct

Because apparently this year has absolutely flown by, we’re now on the month-long countdown to school ending for my kiddo. As the parents council rep for the class, this means getting final teacher gifts organised, thank you cards made…all the things!

We had some visitors to our house this past weekend and got to spend quite a bit of time outside enjoying the gorgeous (and actually hot) weather. I’m hopeful the rain keeps itself scarce going into this weekend, as we welcome a few more guests to Cork, checking out the city and hopefully grabbing a bit of dinner together.

Recently I’ve gotten back into my television/movie-watching habit (yes, it is affecting my reading time!), and it’s been so fun! I saw Project Hail Mary last week and am going to see Hokum on Monday night, I’m very excited! I’m also almost done with the first season of Pluribus on Apple TV+ and I’m not sure yet how I feel. It’s given me some interesting things to think about, however.

What did you get up to this week? What do you plan on doing this weekend? Hope you get to spend your time however you’d like and happy reading!