A Mighty Fortress – Snippet 40
“Well, I hope Coris is as smart as I’ve always heard he is,” Hauwerd said after a moment. “That boy — and his sister — are going to need every edge they can find if they’re going to survive.”
This time, Samyl only nodded, his eyes softening briefly with affection. So like his brother, he thought, to be worrying about a little boy and a teenaged girl he’d never even met. That was the Temple Guardsman in him, the pugnacious, protective streak which had driven him to serve God first with a sword, and only later with his heart and mind. He was glad Hauwerd already knew how deeply he loved him, that neither of them had to say it at this time, in this place.
“And on that note,” Hauwerd said, glancing at the clock on the wall — the clock which, like every other clock in the Temple, always kept perfect, precisely synchronized time — and then climbing out of his chair, “I’m afraid I have to be going. I’ve got a couple of errands I need to take care of tonight.”
“Anything I can help with?” Samyl asked, and Hauwerd snorted yet again, this time much more gently.
“You may not believe this, Samyl, but I’ve been buttoning my own shirt and tying my own shoes for, oh, years now.”
“Point taken.” Samyl chuckled softly. “And I know you have. So go see to your errands. Supper tomorrow night at your place?”
“It’s a date,” Hauwerd said, then nodded to his brother and left.
* * * * * * * * * *
“Haaaaahhhhhh–chhheeewwwwww!”
The sneeze seemed to have taken the top right off of Vicar Rhobair Duchairn’s head. Not even the Temple’s sacred, always comfortable precincts seemed capable of defeating the common cold. This was the third cold Duchairn had already entertained this winter, and this one looked like being worse than either of its predecessors.
He paused long enough to get out his handkerchief and blow his nose — taking the opportunity to recover from the sneeze at the same time — then resumed his progress along the corridor. He was already late for the scheduled meeting, although timing wasn’t actually all that critical. He was the Church of God Awaiting’s Treasurer, after all.
The people waiting for him all reported to him, and it wasn’t as if they could start things without him. And it wasn’t as if he were really looking forward to the conference, for that matter. The Treasury had been hemorrhaging money ever since the Kingdom of Charis smashed the initial attack upon it, and he didn’t see that situation getting better any time soon. Especially not with the blow the Church’s cash flow had taken. Not only had the Kingdoms of Charis and Chisholm and the Princedoms of Emerald and Corisande — not to mention the Grand Duchy of Zebediah — abruptly stopped paying their tithes (which, in Charis’ case, had been very large tithes), but Charis’ relentless destruction of its enemies’ commerce had dealt severe damage to the economies of those enemies. And as their economies slowed, so did their ability to generate tithes. According to Duchairn’s latest estimates, the cash flow from the mainland kingdoms’ annual tithes had dropped by somewhere around ten percent . . . and total tithes, including those which should have been coming in from the lands now in rebellion against Mother Church, had fallen by over a third. It was fortunate the Church had so many other lucrative sources of income, but there was a limit to how much slack could be squeezed out of those other sources. For the first time in mortal memory, the Church of God Awaiting was spending money faster than it was taking money in, and that sort of thing couldn’t be sustained forever.
Which, unfortunately, certain of his colleagues seemed to find it difficult to grasp.
His expression darkened as he thought about those other colleagues. Neither Trynair nor Clyntahn had mentioned to him that they intended to “interview” the Earl of Coris this morning. He was fairly confident he had sources neither of those two suspected he possessed, but he wasn’t going to risk revealing those sources’ existence by challenging his “colleagues” on something he wasn’t supposed to know anything about. He doubted either of them would have been prepared to make an issue out of it if he’d suddenly turned up for their “interview,” yet he was quite positive they’d deliberately timed things so it just happened to fall opposite his already-scheduled Treasury meeting. Both of them, each for his own reasons, would have found Duchairn’s presence for the discussion they had in mind decidedly unwelcome.
And that, unfortunately, neatly underscored the differences between him and them . . . and the dangers yawning about him because of those differences.
He paused, looking out the windows which formed one entire side of the hallway. The snow had stopped shortly after dawn, and brilliant sunlight sparkled and bounced from the new, deeper layers of trackless white which had blanketed the Temple’s grounds. The mystic, unbreakable, perfectly insulated crystal of the windows muted the snow glare, however, and the icy vista’s pristine purity made him acutely aware of the warm air moving gently about him.
And made him think about all the people outside the Temple, especially the city of Zion’s many poor, who were anything but warm and comfortable this freezing cold morning, as well. That was yet another thought he was unprepared to share with his erstwhile colleagues in the Group of Four. Not because they didn’t already realize it would have occurred to him, but because it would have done no good and might do quite a lot of harm.
Zahmsyn Trynair would simply have looked at him with a certain impatient incomprehension. If the Church of God Awaiting’s Chancellor ever thought of Zion’s poor at all, it was undoubtedly to remember the passage from The Book of Langhorne in which the Archangel had warned that they would have the poor with them always. If that had been good enough for Langhorne, it was good enough for Trynair.
Allayn Maigwair, on the other hand, probably wouldn’t even notice that Duchairn had mentioned them. These days, especially, all of the Church’s captain general’s thoughts and efforts were fully concentrated on building up the fleet needed to crush the upstart Empire of Charis once and for all. The fact that he’d started out building the wrong fleet, and that Duchairn’s Treasury had disbursed a staggering sum to pay for hundreds of galleys which were effectively useless, lent a certain emphasis to his concentration, no doubt. Of course, Maigwair had never been overburdened with intellect in the first place. Concentrating the entire, scant sore of it he possessed shouldn’t require all that great an effort. He should have been able to spare at least a little thought for the men and women and children — especially the children — for whom every vicar was supposed to be responsible.
And then there was Clyntahn. The Grand Inquisitor. The one member of the Group of Four who would have regarded Duchairn’s concern over the poor with neither incomprehension nor indifference. Duchairn sometimes wished he himself had felt called to the Order of Bédard instead of the Order of Chihiro. He was pretty sure any Bédardist who wasn’t terrified of the Grand Inquisitor would have unhesitatingly diagnosed him as a paranoiac, and one whose paranoia was growing steadily deeper, as well. Of course, finding any Bédardist who was insane enough not to be terrified of Clyntahn would probably have been an impossible task. Still, Duchairn would have liked to have something besides his own layman’s opinion — where matters of the mind were concerned, at least — to go on.
Not that it mattered a great deal. He didn’t need a formal diagnosis to know Clyntahn would have taken any comment about the Writ’s injunction to care for the poor and the least fortunate of God’s children as a criticism of the Church’s record in that regard. As a matter of fact, he would have been perfectly correct if he’d done so, too, Duchairn admitted. But at this particular moment, when Zhaspahr Clyntahn had divided the entire world into just three categories — those who were his allies, those who had an at least fleeting value as tools, and those who must be exterminated without mercy — suggesting that any aspect of the Church’s stewardship might be found wanting was dangerous.
Duchairn had discovered there were times when he really didn’t care about that. When his anger, his outrage, the pain stemming from his re-found faith’s recognition of his own blood guilt, actually drove him to seek confrontation with Clyntahn. When he found himself almost yearning for destruction, even martyrdom, with all that would entail, as some sort of expiation for his own life. For his own acceptance of the vicarate’s corruption. His own lifelong eagerness to profit by that corruption. For the fact that he’d stood there and not simply accepted Clyntahn’s proposal to destroy the Kingdom of Charis utterly but actually acquiesced in it. Helped to arrange it.
Duchairn made himself resume his progress towards his waiting underlings, but his eyes were as bleak as the snow beyond the hallway’s windows as he once more admitted his guilt to himself. He wouldn’t pretend he wasn’t terrified of what Clyntahn would have done to him if it had come to an open confrontation. That he didn’t know precisely how savage an example Clyntahn would make of any member of the Group of Four who seemed to have turned against him. Yet it wasn’t that fear which drove him to bite his tongue, keep his furious denunciation of Clyntahn’s vileness lodged behind his clenched teeth. No, it was quite a different fear that kept him silent: the fear that if he allowed himself to be too easily destroyed he would commit the still more grievous sin of dying without at least trying to undo the terrible, terrible damage he had helped to unleash upon God’s own world.
Not that I’ve figured out how to go about undoing any of it yet, he admitted desolately. Maybe that’s part of my penance? Is it part of my punishment to be forced to watch things getting worse and worse without seeing any way to make them better again? But the Writ says God will always find a way, whether man can or not. So maybe what He really wants me to do is to stop trying so hard, stop being so arrogant as to think I can somehow fix a disaster on a worldwide scale. Maybe He wants me to finally accept that I need to let Him show me what to do, and then —
Rhobair Duchairn’s thoughts were abruptly interrupted as he walked full tilt into a wall someone had inconsiderately left in the exact center of the hallway.
That was what it felt like, at any rate, although the wall’s sudden “Oof!” suggested it might not actually have been the solid granite obstruction it appeared to be.
He staggered backward, almost falling. In fact, he would have fallen if someone’s hands hadn’t caught him by the upper arms and held him upright. He shook his head, cold-clogged ears ringing, and his eyes widened as they refocused on the face of the man he’d run into.
Duchairn was not a short man, but neither was he a giant. In fact, he’d always been on the slender side, and his had been a decidedly sedentary life for the last twenty or thirty years. The man with whom he’d just collided was half a head taller than he, broad-shouldered and powerfully built, and he’d obviously spent the last several years of his own life exercising to maintain the physical toughness he’d enjoyed as a senior officer of the Temple Guard. He must outweigh Duchairn by a good forty or fifty pounds, and very little of that weight advantage was fat.
And he also happened to be named Hauwerd Wylsynn.
Duchairn found himself temporarily paralyzed, staring into eyes of Wylsynn gray. They were hard, those eyes, with polished, quartz-like purpose. The eyes of a man who, unlike Rhobair Duchairn, had never compromised with the Temple’s corruption. Of a man who had every reason to fear Zhaspahr Clyntahn . . . and no reason at all to fear God.
“You want to be a bit more careful, Rhobair,” Wylsynn said, setting him fully back on his feet before he released his grip on Duchairn’s arms. He patted the smaller man almost gently, as if to be certain there was no breakage, and his smile was thin. “You might do yourself a mischief running into people like that. Life’s too short to take that sort of chance, don’t you think?”
Wylsynn cocked his head slightly with the question, and Duchairn felt an icicle run through his veins. There was something about Wylsynn’s tone, something about the glitter of those hard eyes.
He knows, Duchairn thought. He knows I warned his brother. And, God help me, he knows Clyntahn is going to kill both of them. And that I don’t have the courage to try to stop him.
The Church’s Treasurer felt his mouth open without having the least notion of what was going to come out of it, but then Wylsynn shook his head. It was a quick gesture, one that stopped whatever Duchairn might have been about to say cold.
“Of course it is,” the doomed man said. “Too short, I mean. There are too many things we all need to do to just throw away the time to do them in. Doesn’t the Writ say God sets the course for every man to run?”
“Yes,” Duchairn heard himself say. “Yes, it does.”
“Well, then I don’t imagine He’s through with any of us until we’ve finished running it. So be more careful.” He actually smiled faintly, wagging an index finger under Duchairn’s nose. “Watch where you’re walking, or else you won’t have time to do all the running God has in mind for you.”
It took every ounce of Duchairn’s self-control to clamp his mouth on what he wanted to say. He looked into those gray eyes, and he didn’t really trust himself to speak at all when he realized what was truly looking back at him out of them. Wylsynn only smiled at him again, gently this time, and gave him another pat, then turned and walked away.
* * * * * * * * * *
“The Earl of Coris, Your Holiness,” the upper-priest said, as he bowed Phylyp Ahzgood into the small, private meeting chamber.
It wasn’t very much of a bow, Coris reflected. Then again, the upper-priest was assigned to the Chancellor’s office. He probably saw dukes by the dozen and earls by the score, and God only knew how many bevies of mere barons he might encounter every year. Not to mention the fact that most of the dukes and earls who crossed his path weren’t dispossessed exiles living on someone else’s charity.
“So I see,” a voice replied. “Come in, My Lord.”
Coris obeyed the summons and found himself facing a tallish, lean man with an angular face, a closely trimmed beard, and deep, intelligent eyes. He wore the orange cassock of a vicar, and he matched the description of Vicar Zahmsyn Trynair quite well.
Trynair extended his hand, and Coris bent to kiss the sapphire ring, then straightened.
“Your Holiness,” he acknowledged.
“We appreciate the promptness with which you’ve responded to our summons, My Lord, especially at this time of the year,” Trynair said. His smile never touched his eyes. “Would that that all of Mother Church’s sons were so mindful of their duty to her.”
“I won’t pretend it wasn’t an arduous journey, Your Holiness.” Coris allowed himself a slight, wry smile of his own. “But as a boy, I was always taught that when Mother Church calls, her sons answer. And it was also interesting, especially the voyage across Lake Pei, while the opportunity to finally visit the Temple is an added blessing.”
“Good.”
The single, perfunctory word came not from Trynair, but from the shorter, portly, silver-haired, heavy-jowled vicar who hadn’t bothered to rise when Coris entered. There was no doubt about his identity, either, the earl thought, although he was just a bit surprised to realize Zhaspahr Clyntahn matched the descriptions he’d received so completely. Right down to the spots spilled food had left on his cassock.
“The Treasury had been hemorrhaging money” .. looks like the first mention (snippet-wise at least) of the toll taken on the Church’s (OGA) coffers has surfaced. But what could these “many other lucrative sources of income” possibly be?
Also it seems we are seeing signs that Clyntahn at least if not Trynair as well are starting to notice Duchairn’s [dangerous] (re)born faith. Surely not involving him with Coris’ “interview” is one thing, but actually scheduling it at such a particular moment so as to be actively set against Rhobair is quite another implication altogether.
One more snippet and then the book is here… finally.
Other lucrative sources of income: donations of the belivers, selling of the holy itelms, inheritance of rich people who die alone and are devoted. …
HAH!! I hope the accountant burns the records before he runs. Now that will throw the church into mayhem. Burn the books and any bureaucracy will end up paralyzed.
Wow.
A major revelation, and it slips by almost unnoticed. The Wilsons are aware that Duchairn is poised to flee, and tacitly offer aid where possible.
J
Also revenues directly generated by the temple lands.
I don’y think Duchairn will flee at all. He is to caught up in the midst of the GO4’s machinations, and wants to undo them. After the upcoming martyrdom of the Circle he may be forced into actively working against his colleauges though. But I just don’t see what good he could do if he left Zion
I didn’t get the idea that Duchairn had any idea of running away until Wilson said this to him. To me it sounded as if he didn’t know what to do. Having one member of the group of 4 run and go to Charis would be a very powerful symbol.
Israel, I imagine that those sources would be similar to the kind of activities that led to the Protestant Reformation – brothels, gambling houses, investments in trade and manufacturing, land holdings, property rents etc etc etc…
As a non American I found the comment “just three categories — those who were his allies, those who had an at least fleeting value as tools, and those who must be exterminated without mercy” reminiscent of someone’s statement after 9/11 that “you are either with us or against us”. Unfortunately in this case there is no democratic or diplomatic way to alter that mindset, so a true world war is inevitable.
@9 Disagree slightly…I find it more of the Great Game sort of power games: Call it pre-Tokugawa games in Japan, much 17th-19th Century “diplomacy” in Europe, Roman Imperial thinking, or the like.
@10 except that the with us or against us was a public statement for political purposes involving some brinkmanship, while the three categories is a private opinion of the sociopathic way Clyntahn thinks.
World War was inevitable from the moment Langhorne and Bedard set up their church. At this point all we are seeing is an unexpected acceleration of that war.
Let us not forget that it took one accountant to bring down Al Capone.
Leave us remember that most war criminals are hanged by their own written records.
I smell big doin’s for Rhobair Duchairn….
If nothing else, Duchairn would be able to authenticate those crates of documents that got handed over recently.
I’ve seen a reference to “a brooch proving he’d made his required pilgrimage to the Temple” in OAR. Selling these – aka souvenirs – to tourists-I-mean-pilgrims would be another source of income for the Church.
Not to mention selling indulgences.
People, our good friend Duchairn will be remaining in Zion for the remainder of this book.
He’s got plans, but they don’t include leaving Zion.
Oh, if his plans succeed, Clyntahn isn’t going to like them. [Evil Grin]
@1
I believe that it was explained in the first book how the church made quite alot of money by lending it out and collecting interest. I could remember wrong since it’s been quite some time since i read OAR
@18
Damnit Drak don’t dangle that sort of hint in front of me. Borders is refusing to let me have my book until tuesday.
Drak, you truly have an evil streak. I can’t get my copy until late next week – Arrgh!
Bryan and Peter, I’m not “evil”.
I’m just ‘acting in self-defense’.
Some people are *driving me crazy* with their *wrong* guesses. [Wink]
I just finished the book.
@19 Did Borders stop selling the book? Did they make a mistake selling it to me this week?
There are some interesting parallels here with the original situation on Safehold. Shan-wei set up Alexandria in opposition to Langhorne and Langhorne destroyed it. The Circle is opposed to Clyntahn’s corruption and Clyntahn is poised to destroy it. Commander Pei got revenge by blowing up Langhorne. One wonders what form vengence will take if Clyntahn succeeds and someone goes after him. Weber has just gone to great lengths to show how isolated Zion is during the winter, so a major catastrophe at the Temple should not affect too many outsiders.
Unless the books arrive in boxes marked ‘strict street date only’ or some such they’re free to put it on the shelf when they get. Every Borders in the DFW area (North Texas) has them on the shelf right now. Try a different Borders.
The situation with the Circle is getting a bit ridiculous, though. If he’s going to murder them all (and perhaps their families as well), possibly by torture first, and they all recognize that he’s not just a vicar with policies that should be opposed but an actual, EVIL person leading God’s church, why aren’t they showing up at the temple with a pistol?
I’ve no doubt Howard or Samuel could ‘arrange’ to be in the same temple corridor when Clinton is going to/from one of his many meetings, and unless there are ‘holy metal detectors’ at temple entrances I don’t see how he could stop a straight up assassination. It seems to be a common enough occurance historically, anyway, and I’d think most of those vicars assassinated in the past hadn’t pushed men to the extreme ends Clinton is pushing them today. He should be a dead man the minute he’s not surrounded by a cadre of loyal armsmen.
@24, Michael,
Considering the depths of his paranoia, he probably is (surrounded by a cadre of loyal armsmen).
Michael, Clyntahn’s minons know who are members of the Circle so assassinating Clyntahn will not stop the destruction of the Circle.
While the Wylsynn brothers could easily (as you say) met Clytahn with loaded weapons, arranging an accident would be much harder and the brothers don’t know who in the Circle is betraying the Circle.
Of course, since Clyntahn’s minons know who are members of the Circle even a real accident to Clyntahn would be laid at the feet of the Circle.
I’m afraid that David Weber has put the Wylsynn brothers in a no win situation.
just saw AMF on the shelf at BAM this afternoon
Both the local Borders and B&N tell me the 13th and Amazon gives me a shipping date of the 19th. I’m hoping Amazon is early; it sometimes is. So I’m going longer than one day without snippets!
Thank Langhorne that Oliver Wyman is back doing the audiobook narration.
@27, Good point Drak, but that just means prudence would escalate situation. As DW himself has intoned on many occasions, the prospect of a hanging tends to focus ones thoughts. Clinton is going to kill them all, and perhaps their families with them. A dozen men of the Vicarate, strolling through the temple corridors during the evening of one of the suppers the Go4 regularly has, wouldn’t seem at all out of place. That they would all arrive at the door of the prelate who was hosting that night’s dinner would certainly be out of place, but not before 4 shots (or stabs) would effect their coup d’etat. That prelates secretary and perhaps a door guard or two might be… collateral damage, and it might not work in the end if the Schulerites responded as an organized group, but confusion is the ally of the usurper.
DW has a long history in his stories of folks being pushed to the edge and throwing the dice instead of walking defeatedly to the hangman. Beatrice II being just one example. It just seems out of place to me for such brave and dedicated folk as the circle waiting patiently for death.
Michael, just remember that the Brothers are the only ones who know that they’ve been betrayed.
On the other hand, Hauwerd doesn’t ::::BUZZZZ::::
Man alive, that snerk collar hurts. [Wink]
Also, imagine that the Circle meets and one of the Wylsynn’s says, “We need to kill the Gang of Four, Clynton knows who we are.”
Then what? He needs to explain how he knows this, and that means that he needs to explain that at least one person in the room will go STRAIGHT to Clynton with any plan they come up with. So he then suggests that they SPLIT UP and find weapons and go SLOWLY and SEPARATELY to a known location where they’ll assassinate the gang of four.
Strangly, an hour later all but one of the dozen or so assassins arrive to find that the Gang is meeting somewhere else, but that the temple guard is waiting for them in force and for some reason they and the inquisitors with them ARE willing to search high church officials for weapons illegally being carried toward a meeting of the Gang of Four….
This seems like a bad plan for the Wylsynns and a fine one for Clynton!
Yep, I just read past that section myself. DW is revealing a bit more about Temple technology as well (how the doors work), so that kind of assassination wouldn’t be all that easy technically to pull off. Oh well.
@16 Terranovan, if you have ever been to a religious pilgrimage site you would know that selling stuff, all kinds of stuff, by the church or by individual entrepreneurs, is commonplace. Desperate people will do anything to get well, alleviate their misfortune, or whatever. Lottery tickets do well, too.
@35, doesn’t even have to be a religious site. (I think Graceland or Disneyland, although SOME people may even consider those places religious…)
The Wylsyns, and others of the Circle, are devout Church members. So even if they know that Clyntahn is an evil rascal, they may be reluctant to take direct action against him out of respect for the office. Then, too, there is the problem of a power vacuum and chaos. Better the devil you know…..etc.
@36 Right. Ever been to Gatlinburg?
Summertime going along with your comment, there’s the idea of ‘legitimate ways of doing things’.
While at least one Grand Vicar has been removed from office by assassination, removing rivals by assassination doesn’t seem to be ‘standard operational procedure’ within the Safehold Church.
I doubt that anybody (besides maybe Clyntahn) within the Safehold Church (corrupt or not) wants assassination to be the rule for solving disputes within the Church.
If the Circle starts assassinations, then either make themselves targets of assassinations or people within the Church who *might* have supported them will join with the corrupt clergy in fight back against the Circle.
Before somebody brings up the assassinated Grand Vicar, IMO what happened to him is the exception not the rule within the Church.
As much as I enjoy all the comments I do feel jealous as, here in England, I cant get the book until the beginning of May.
jh
Thanks for the Borders tip. Worked for me.
Is there a discussion after we’ve all read it? I’m going to miss all this extra stuff.
@41, Tootall, there’s always the bar if you can stomach the technical issues. And Weber’s homepage is now actually up and working with a forum that seems to have a decent following. I can’t really go there unfortunately because my ‘net connection just flakes out on me half of the time I’m there… :(
RH
@42 RH–For what Tootall wants, the Weber website is best. But the Forums on Weber’s website, especially the Honorverse, are worse than the Bar Newsgroups when it comes to technical issues. Or, I suppose, better, if that is what you want to go on about. But 40 or more posts on ship sizes/weights, is just obsession, not discussion.
There is really no organized discussion by book on the Bar. Since this is a Tor book, there is no Safehold “Newsgroup” so the Safehold stuff is mixed in with the Honorverse stuff in any old way.
At least when you go to the David’s Dimension Forum and pose a query, you might get Weber to answer it.
@42 and 43
Baen’s Bar has undergone huge improvement. The format is still the same, but the speed is now acceptable. Post any questions pertaining to this book in the ‘Snerkers’ forum.
Bryan, the complaint isn’t so much technical as it is one of subject matter. Snerkers is the home of Honorverse technophiles engaging in loving discussion of the techno/military aspects of those stories which have not made it to paperback yet. I enjoy them immensely but they tend to give the impression that this is simply another Honorverse forum.
I do know of several flies that are Safehold afficionados who will respond to any AMF posts made there. I am dying to discuss this story beyond the snippets.
Peter Z, this “Snerkers is the home of Honorverse technophiles engaging in loving discussion of the techno/military aspects of those stories which have not made it to paperback yet” is incorrect.
Snerkers Only is the home of discussion of any story/book that hasn’t made it to paperback.
IMO none of the people discussing Honorverse stories in Snerkers have *said* that you can’t discuss other works there.
When nobody is discussing the latest Weber novel in Snerkers Only, the conference appears to be unvisited.
I’m afraid that it appears that it isn’t the Weber fans ‘keeping people out’.
I’m currently posting snippets of four books. The two Weber novels are getting comments but the other two books are getting extremely few comments.
Have you being reading _Much Fall Of Blood_ or _Legion Of Fire_?
If so, why haven’t you commented on them?
Drak, sorry if my hyperbolae came across as anything more than that. The sheer volume of Honorverse threads makes it appear the way I suggested in the prior post. Snerkers is the place to discuss books not in paperback yet. Of course, people discuss other books and those discussions are welcome by all the posters. I simply made a poorly phrased comment.
Peter, I may have come across too strong on this, but there are people on the Bar who are coming on very strong about Snerkers Only becoming Weber Only.
And yes on the Bar it comes across as if the Weber fans are causing it.
even here there are barely any comments on non Weber/Flint/Ringo books