Quote Originally Posted by Ruck View Post
Stop changing the meaning of what people say to something that is easier for you to argue against.

Just reading the description you gave here, I do not think any of those conflicts could possibly be the climax because none of them are as emotionally resonant to the characters' journeys as Durkon overcoming his vampire self was-- and also, none of those characters are the main villain of this book. (You could try to argue that Hel is the main villain rather than Vampire!Durkon, but I wouldn't buy it.)
So I took people saying "denouement" to mean "the book is almost over and nothing else is coming next". Like I've said, I disagree that that's here yet.

There are still personal things left, at least for Durkon, since he still has a son to safeguard, "death and destruction" he (as a vampire) brought to his homeland still to stop and counteract, and a goddess of death who used him and his deceased body as a pawn to try and destroy the world. Seems to me his sense of duty is not going to let him rest until he's fully thwarted Hel's plan that he unwittingly enabled, even if he wasn't personally responsible for what the vampire did using his body and his powers.

Hel is a greater scope villain and definitely far more powerful as a being than Lurkon was as her servant, even if she isn't the nominal "main" villain of the book. I highly doubt there will be any direct confrontation with her, merely ending her current threat to the world, which involves ending her agents who are still in position to further her agenda. Those might well be more numerous and more powerful still than we would assume (if that twist about Lurkon researching the fast-vampirification spell is any indication). If anyone confronts Hel directly, it'd be Loki and Thor and the other Northern Gods.

Quote Originally Posted by Peelee View Post
If you say the movie's over, I'm going to assume the credits are rolling. If you say the play is over, I'm going to assume the curtain fell. If you say the book is over, I'm going to assume you've read the last page. Kish even directly tried to give you an out, and you refused to take it.

You dug this hole yourself, dude.
That's because I do believe that we're still relatively far from being done this book. The supposed "out" of backing that down to merely "not over" is not really an "out" if it contradicts what I'm holding about what's left of the narrative arc of the book.

You've somehow flipped to saying that I believe "the play is over", "the credits are rolling", etc., which is a complete 180 from what I actually believe. I was indicating people who seemed to me to be saying that we're done with this book in any meaningful way.