* I never did figure out why this last book is called. There’s a heck of a lot more than one spider involved here, so why isn’t it? If I hadn't known better, I would have thought the title was a major spoiler and we were going to find out that there was actually a spider goddess after all. Really,seems like a more fitting title since this entire book is basically about ending the war started by the dragons so many years ago.* Geder was really an awesomely-written villain. He was horrible, and did horrible things long before the priests got involved, and yet he saw himself as a victim of circumstances who was just trying to do the right thing. He reacted to things badly, based on the emotion of the moment, and then laid all the blame for his horrible choices on the things that had provoked his emotional reaction. I mean, we all know people like this, right? They just don’t usually wreak quite as much havoc because they don’t have the same amount of power that Geder was given.* I had suspected Geder would die by the end, although I didn’t know if it would happen as a result of his own choices. I wasn’t surprised, though, that Geder chose to sacrifice himself in the end. It fit with his character, because he always saw himself as a hero sacrificing the quiet life he wanted in order to be the ruler that everybody needed him to be. I liked the fact that the main characters still saw him for who he was, and didn't act like his sacrifice redeemed his earlier actions.* I never entirely made up my mind how I felt about the dragon Inys or what I wanted to happen to him. He never could see humans as anything but slaves, so none of his plans for the future seemed benevolent toward humans. He and his fellow dragons did create humanity, so maybe he had some right to determine how humanity would live when looked at from that perspective. But he was also cruel and moody and quick to react in anger. When they tried to kill him while he was destroying the priests, I felt horrible for him because I was imagining how betrayed he would feel when he was trying to undo the damage he had helped cause. And then, just when I was feeling all soft-hearted toward him, thinking maybe he would eventually grow to be a benevolent guardian of humanity, he killed the boy who had healed him and who was willing to completely devote his life to him. The sympathy was gone after that!* It really seems like we need an entire extra book to tie up the dragon-related plot threads. I kind of liked the idea of leaving off the story with Marcus and Yardem off to hunt a dragon, knowing they have more adventures ahead of them. I would also like to read that story, though, and a lot of questions about the dragons were left open. We were never really told what happened to the rest of the dragons. There were hints here and there, and small pieces of the story could be extrapolated, but there were also major gaps left in the story. There also seemed to be hints about the Drowned and other artifacts that never really went anywhere.* I also never really felt satisfied that we were told everything we should have been told about Marcus’ poison sword. Why did they never ask Inys if there was a cure for the poison, since it was created by dragons? Inys claimed he took care of his “tools”, and he seemed to have genuine affection for his tamed slaves before he went into hibernation. So it seems possible that he might not have given his tools a debilitating sword without having some counter-measure available. It wouldn’t necessarily have surprised me if Inys had never given it a moment’s thought and had no way to help Marcus, but it seems like one of the characters at least would have asked.* This is such a seriously tiny thing, but I swear for like four books I was wondering if Geder wasgoing to read or return the book he’d borrowed from Aster’s tutor. Somehow I kept thinking that this borrowed book was going to show up later on in the series, but I guess the importance was only in my own head! I thought maybe Geder would run across it on the shelf and read something important in it that would lead to his understanding of what the priests were.* The series really did have interesting themes and real-world parallels about how people handle truths and false truths. We saw the dangers of believing and acting on something as if it were absolute truth when you could in fact be wrong, as well as the catastrophes that can occur when people are essentially brainwashed to believe something that isn’t true. It was also interesting to see how the priests would slowly start to diverge in their beliefs and each form their own incompatible versions of the truth, often with only minor differences, that would eventually lead to major conflicts.* I want a sequel about Marcus and Yardem’s hunt for Inys with Yardem as a point-of-view character, and all my open dragon questions answered. :) If there’s one thing this series needed more of, it was more Yardem! He was a great character, and we were given such interesting tidbits about his past that left me wanting more details. But I do sometimes have a weird tendency to get attached to secondary characters.