I was sort of figuring that the CRYSTALS!tech and aether mechanics and such were either from technological development between us and the apocalypse . . . or side effects of the apocalypse itself.

Brings up the whole "chicken or the egg" sort of thing. Is Iron-Rot a consequence of whatever drove the Builders off the surface or part of the cause? In addition the animals that exist on the surface seem like exaggerated versions of current species. But spiders dont hunt humans in packs, and as far as we know, cats dont have a spoken language or intricate societies.

One thing to remember is that the amount information that Cavendish was looking for was large.  It's not merely about a few names (that could easily be copied down).  She essentially memorized the entire book.

I think this implies that the importance of the information comes from the set of names as a whole (e.g. for statistical information?), than about a few important individuals.  Either that, or Cavendish still doesn't know which names are important.

It might be about bloodlines if the "names" refer to actual people, but I'm not convinced we can make that assertion yet.

Maybe they are Names in the Name of the Wind sense.

LOL, I am not saying everybody will feel the same. I just "connected" with that book in a strong way.

Not saying you were  but I didnt connect with it at all, and seeing that someone obviously loves it (a fan of the same author since we are on the forums lol) makes me consider that the fault was with me for rushing through it and being prejudiced against the genre.

You know, I am very surprised by that criticism, which is repeated. I think the characters are much better than the Dresden Files ones (which I loved!). I can see how Grimm and Folly are archetypical, but the others feel like real people to me. They are, hands down, my favorite part of the book.

You really feel that way? Outside of Grimm and Folly I honestly cant remember a single characters name. The girl who rebels against her mom has a few interesting thoughts/scenes and then behaves the exact same way in every scene afterwards. It was difficult to even tell the difference between the two female cadets at times. The only meaningful difference in their scenes was the Cat.

I feel JB is at his best driving action oriented characters. Not necessarily violent action, but when his books get bogged down in world building and pointless dialogue is when they are weakest. Codex Alera is a great example of this, book one is... not the best, but once he discovered how to constantly keep the characters in motion while still developing the world, the series improved dramatically.

I think Cinder spires can and most likely will improve. JB is a good writer and the series has enough interesting concepts to build upon. The first book just happened to be dreadfully boring in my opinion.

I happen to agree with you. I mean Jim does play with us a bit but I got the impression he'd considered a crossover from his slightly teasing answer in a Q&A a while back. It was a question about whether DF would cross over with CA. I would definitely love to see CS as part of the DFU. Consider the surface creatures and the Enemy. Especially with that recent WoJ about Outsiders looking different in each universe.

I also rather enjoy your take Burger_Prince. Reminds me a lot of Zelzanzy's Lord of Light. Super advanced techno-gods and what not. I don't think he'll go there at this point however.

Is it possible that the Cinder Spires world IS the DF Earth after the events of the BAT? There seems to be some evidence that the planet is a version of Earth after an apocalypse.