Page Chewing

We've reached the end of Blood Meridian . Chapter 23 brings the kid, now the man, face-to-face with Judge Holden one final time, and suddenly so many things we've been tracking throughout this read-along begin connecting. The dancing. The kid's capacity for mercy. The Judge's obsession with war. Predators and prey. Cycles of violence. And the question we've been asking almost from the beginning: W...

For twenty-two chapters, we've been asking the same question. Why is Judge Holden interested in the kid? We've noticed the smiles. The conversations. The Judge's attempts to influence him. The kid's apparent resistance. Holden hunting him through the desert. And throughout all of it, we've wondered whether the Judge sees something in the kid that we don't. Chapter 22 may finally give us the answer...

Chapter 21 is short, but it gives us one of the clearest looks yet at who the kid has become. Wounded and still being hunted by Judge Holden, the kid has multiple opportunities to abandon Tobin and save himself. Tobin even tells him to go. The kid refuses. He also gets an opportunity to fire at the Judge and doesn't take it, raising another question we've been carrying since Chapter 15: is the kid...

In Chapter 20, the remains of the gang are scattered and vulnerable. The kid is wounded, Toadvine and Tobin are trying to survive alongside him, and the hunters we've followed throughout the novel have finally become the hunted. Except for Judge Holden. The Judge emerges from the destruction of the gang seemingly transformed into an even more frightening figure. He stalks the survivors through the...

We've reached the end of The Bonehunters . In this episode of Page Burners , we dive into Chapter 22 , as Steven Erikson brings months of reading and storylines stretching across multiple Malazan novels, crashing together in an explosive finale. After four months with The Bonehunters , it's finally time to say goodbye to Book Six and figure out exactly what this ending means for the Malazan Empire...

Chapter 19 brings one of the biggest turning points in our Blood Meridian read-along: John Joel Glanton finally meets his end. After taking control of the Colorado River ferry, Glanton's gang turns another opportunity for profit into something far more horrific. Travelers who simply want to cross the river become victims of robbery, murder, assault, and abuse as the gang's violence reaches another...

Chapter 18 of Blood Meridian is extremely short, but there's much more happening here than its length initially suggests. The chapter focuses on the disabled man Glanton's gang has been carrying in a cage. When a group of women discovers him, their reaction creates a striking contrast with the way the gang has treated him: they release him, wash him, care for him, and seemingly recognize a humanit...

In this episode of Beyond the Page , Steve sits down with filmmaker, professor, TEDx director, and author Don Schechter to discuss his science fiction techno thriller Ascendants . Don shares the remarkable 20 year journey that took Ascendants from an idea for a film to a series of short films and eventually a novel. They explore the book's collision of science and belief, what happens when technol...

Chapter 17 may be the most revealing Judge Holden chapter of Blood Meridian so far. The Judge lays out his philosophy of war, games, morality, chance, agency, and the human desire to impose order on a universe that may have none. His argument that war exists independently of human judgment gives us one of the clearest glimpses yet into the worldview behind this mysterious character. But then McCar...

This week on Panel Chewing , we're talking Batman, dropping comics from our pull lists, discovering some unexpected favorites and reading a comic that feels like an actual nightmare. We kick things off with a list of the Top 10 standalone Batman stories , including The Long Halloween, Hush, The Court of Owls, The Killing Joke, Year One, and The Dark Knight Returns . Some placements make sense. Oth...

Chapter 16 returns us to Glanton's gang as they continue moving across the landscape and leaving death behind them. This isn't one of the most character-heavy chapters of Blood Meridian , but it reinforces just how completely violence has become the gang's normal way of interacting with the world. Murder barely requires justification anymore, and consequences seem almost irrelevant. In this episod...

On this episode of Beyond the Page , I’m joined by science-fiction author Dawn Ross , creator of the seven-book Starfire Dragons series. Dawn explains how the “dragons” of Starfire Dragons aren't literal creatures, but symbolic of a futuristic warrior culture. At the center of the story are characters dealing with loyalty, family, morality, and the difficult choices that arise when doing the “righ...

Chapter 15 shifts the focus back toward the kid as Glanton's gang is scattered, exhausted, starving, and on the run. In this episode, I look at the kid's encounter with the wounded Shelby and his refusal to kill him, raising a difficult question we've encountered before: is refusing to kill an act of mercy when it leaves someone behind to suffer? We also get one of the most striking scenes in the...

Chapter 14 pushes Glanton's gang even further into violence that seems increasingly disconnected from profit, survival, or any practical purpose. After wondering last chapter whether these men kill for profit or pleasure, I'm beginning to lean toward an answer. The scalp trade may finance their reign of terror, but much of what they're doing now seems to exist simply because they want to inflict v...

Our full-series reread of R. Scott Bakker’s The Warrior Prophet reaches its conclusion with Chapters 22–25 . We also look back at The Warrior Prophet as a whole and ask a question that surprised all three of us: Is this book actually better on a reread than we remembered? Both Shawn and Shobz found the battles and desert journey much less overwhelming this time, while I found myself appreciating t...

Chapter 13 continues one of the darkest stretches of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian as Glanton's gang moves from place to place leaving bodies behind them. At this point, one question is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore: are these men still killing for money, or do they simply enjoy killing? In this episode, I explore the gang's increasingly indiscriminate violence, the kid's growing bo...

In this episode of Page Burners , we enter the penultimate stretch of Steven Erikson's The Bonehunters with a full-spoiler discussion of Chapters 19–21 —and one of the strangest convergences we've encountered in Malazan so far. As always, this is a full-spoiler discussion for everything we've read so far in Malazan Book of the Fallen and the connected Ian C. Esslemont novels. Only Chapter 22 remai...

Chapter 12 is one of the most disturbing chapters of our Blood Meridian read-along so far. Next up: Chapter 13. Page Chewing Blog Page Chewing Forum Support Page Chewing on Patreon Affiliate Links that support the show: Audible Standard Free Trial: https://amzn.to/4z1iKns Audible Standard Monthly Membership: https://amzn.to/3S6vadd Kindle Unlimited Free Trial: https://amzn.to/4wqkYdD Amazon Prime...

Chapter 11 might be the most difficult and revealing chapter of our Blood Meridian read-along so far. I'm not pretending I have Chapter 11 figured out. This is one we're putting a big mark beside so we can return to it later. Next up: Chapter 12. Page Chewing Blog Page Chewing Forum Support Page Chewing on Patreon Affiliate Links that support the show: Audible Standard Free Trial: https://amzn.to/...

What happens when life suddenly reminds you that time isn't guaranteed? On this episode of Beyond the Page , I’m joined by author, musician, and storyteller Ray Hartjen for a conversation about creativity, resilience, and learning to live with greater intention. It’s a conversation about making something meaningful out of difficult experiences and remembering to actually live while we have the opp...

Chapter 10 of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian gives us our deepest look at Judge Holden yet. Next up: Chapter 11. Page Chewing Blog Page Chewing Forum Support Page Chewing on Patreon Affiliate Links that support the show: Audible Standard Free Trial: https://amzn.to/4z1iKns Audible Standard Monthly Membership: https://amzn.to/3S6vadd Kindle Unlimited Free Trial: https://amzn.to/4wqkYdD Amazon Pri...

This week on Panel Chewing , we have the opposite of a bad comics problem: there were almost too many good books to choose from. Join us for a great week of comics, some unexpected favorites, and another journey down the assassin's road. Page Chewing Blog Page Chewing Forum Support Page Chewing on Patreon Affiliate Links that support the show: Audible Standard Free Trial: https://amzn.to/4z1iKns A...

Our chapter-by-chapter journey through Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian continues with Chapter 9. This isn't a definitive guide to Blood Meridian . We're reading one chapter per day, recording immediate reactions and watching our interpretations change along the way. Next up: Chapter 10. Page Chewing Blog Page Chewing Forum Support Page Chewing on Patreon Affiliate Links that support the show: Aud...

Our chapter-by-chapter journey through Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian continues with Chapter 8. This isn't intended as a definitive explanation of Blood Meridian . We're reading one chapter at a time and keeping a running notebook of our observations as they develop. Next up: Chapter 9. Page Chewing Blog Page Chewing Forum Support Page Chewing on Patreon Affiliate Links that support the show: Au...

Our chapter-by-chapter journey through Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian continues with Chapter 7. Next up: Chapter 8. Page Chewing Blog Page Chewing Forum Support Page Chewing on Patreon Affiliate Links that support the show: Audible Standard Free Trial: https://amzn.to/4z1iKns Audible Standard Monthly Membership: https://amzn.to/3S6vadd Kindle Unlimited Free Trial: https://amzn.to/4wqkYdD Amazon...