Reading roundup: Tiassa (and some Vlad rereads)
Bunch of stuff at work, bunch of stuff at home (nothing terrible, but... stuff that occuppies mental real estate, if you know what I mean), so I really needed to take a break and think about something other than RL for a bit. Thus:
26. Steven Brust, Dzur (reread) -- still makes me hungry. Still not my favorite book plot-wise, though I was able to ( Read more... )
26. Steven Brust, Dzur (reread) -- still makes me hungry. Still not my favorite book plot-wise, though I was able to ( Read more... )
I couldn't piece that together or figure how Vlad figured it out either.
I do think Vlad's gotten a bit too lucky in who he 'happened' to know. Kiera makes sense, and we know how Morrolan and Aliera met him, but his Lt just happening to be Mario's contact...? Ehhh, kinda feels like a rare misstep by Brust.
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After Kiera told Vlad how she found him, via Loiosh, which "requires a skill in witchcraft":
Vlad: "Speaking of witchcraft, how is Morrolan?"
Kiera: "I don't know him that awll."-
I'm moderately surprised she doesn't know him better- after all, in Yendi, when he got help in terms of funding, Kiera-on-Sethra's-behalf helped him out after finding out from Morrolan, so Sethra definitely knows Kiera, and they were both in the Jhereg plan together too. At the least, it's not unreasonable for Vlad to assume they know each other.
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Speaking of Great Weapons: "I had been in the room when Blackwand was unsheathed, and I had always thought of that as being some sort of limit -- that nothing could strike the mind as more vicious, more powerful. But this [Nightslayer] was something new."-
Not too odd, Blackwand being the sorcery one, Nightslayer being perhaps more down and dirty.
I wonder how Godslayer compares. Vlad wouldn't get any such hostile sense from Lady Teldra, after all.
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"Aliera had been killed by a simple, old-fashioned dagger to the heart, while Pathfinder was with her." (When's this?)
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I assume that's talking about Jhereg. Technically a morganti dagger, but still just a simple stab.
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I wish there had been more interaction between Morrolan and Noish-Pa, but what there was of it was pretty great. - I wonder if that means Morrolan drops by Lake Szurke to visit Noish-Pa and talk about witchcraft with him. *wants fic*-
Ditto :)
Tiassa -- so, I really enjoyed it! Although I think I can safely say that I enjoyed part 1 > part 2 >> part 3, confirming previously held beliefs about Vlad's narration and young Vlad vs late Vlad. -
Funny thing is, I felt the same way you do on reading through at first, but on re-reading bits (Yes, I've already done a partial re-read ^^), it's probably part 3, 2, 1 in that order. Though next time it might be 2, 3, 1...
-So, to get back to my original point, where did this Kosadr guy come from? Was the Court Wizard before Sethra the Younger, and Zerika tapped him again when Morrolan stepped down and Sethra the Younger no longer could hold an imperial post? -
That or the redundant court wizards thing. Either sounds like they'd work.
-(But I did notice that Loiosh wasn't present/snarking as much as usual in Part 1, because there were so many other people for Vlad to play off of-
Hm, yea, a very minor book for Loiosh. Not that I minded, he can take the odd break if there's enough other stuff going on.
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*Now, this is before Issola, so before Vlad realized (or remembered?) that Morrolan grew up in the East.-
I think he knew Morrolan had spent time there (remember he had thought Morrolan had torched a village of Easterners for Verra for awhile), just not that he once thought he was an Easterner and how much time.
-The Whitecrests are so weirdly formal with one another... I wonder if it's a pre- vs post- Interregnum thing... (And it's not just Paarfi's narration, since Daro remarks on how informally Vlad Norathar addresses Cawti.)-
A large part of that was probably due to Piro's temporary estrangement for marrying a Dzur. And Khaavren, well, is sort of a formal sort.
-I'm glad to see the Savn loose end wrapped up, or at least taken to the next level. Not thrilled with the development with Sara, mostly because I don't have a feel for her at all as a character,-
I personally liked her in this one :)
-I'm also confused as to whether the epilogue means that Tiassa part 3 takes place before Iorich, so that Sara is the Dragaeran lover Vlad tells Cawti about, or after Iorich-
I believe before.
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It's definitely very odd... It's probably that Kragar's Dragon background is somehow significant (I forget which book it's in, but he and Morrolan and Aliera had met before Vlad introduced them, and there's a whole posturing "You'll forgive me if I won't bow" from Morrolan), and we don't know anything about that. I hope him knowing Mario is explained (or at least retconned) somehow, and maybe fits into someone's (Sethra's? Verra's?) overall plan for Vlad. But for now, it does seem awfully convenient and underexplained.
I think Kiera's conceit is that she knows Morrolan, but not well enough to ask/gauge how he's dealing with something traumatic. Of course, this is all post-Orca, so it's one of those weird things where Sethra/Kiera is maintaining the integrity of her roleplaying even though Vlad is aware of her true identity. Which I always thought was kind of weird, but I guess she needs to compartamentalize it pretty strictly to keep up something like that long term.
Yeah, it doesn't surprise me (especially after "The Desecrator") that Nightslayer is more vicious and, maybe, blunt, although from Issola, Blackwand sounds a lot more direct than Pathfinder, say. I do really wonder about what Godslayer feels like to other people. Seems like Lady Teldra would have a gentler touch, even bystanders (probably even more so than Pathfinder), but should be very powerful...?
I assume that's talking about Jhereg. Technically a morganti dagger, but still just a simple stab.
That's how I read it at first, but it seems hardly fair to include in the list of people who got killed while wielding Great Weapons since she was actually *trying* to get stabbed, you know? :P
Funny thing is, I felt the same way you do on reading through at first, but on re-reading bits (Yes, I've already done a partial re-read ^^), it's probably part 3, 2, 1 in that order. Though next time it might be 2, 3, 1...
Very interesting! I do expect to like the Paarfi section more on reread, when the excess verbiage is not getting in the way of finding out what happens next, and I'm already aware of several significant things I missed in that section, which should also make me like it more on reread. I guess part 1 is the simplest, and therefore most accessible/fun on first read but least likely to improve on reread.
Do you have a feel for what, on rereading, drove the switch in order on the favorites? General style, or specific things you noticed, or...?
I think he knew Morrolan had spent time there (remember he had thought Morrolan had torched a village of Easterners for Verra for awhile), just not that he once thought he was an Easterner and how much time.
You're probably right.
re: whether part 3 is before or after Iorich. Let's see, I think there are about 2 years between Yendi and Jhereg/Teckla/Phoenix, and about 4 years between that bunch and Issola/Dzur, and about 4 years between that set and Iorich... So, Tiassa 3 is either pretty shortly before or pretty shortly after the events in Iorich. It feels like "before" to me -- because of Sara, and because I feel like there would've been some acknowledgement of events in Iorich between Khaavren and Aliera (he must've been the one to place her under arrest), and because it seems like Morrolan has rejoined public life more in Iorich, and because it does seem like Vlad is planning on staying around post-Iorich -- but I'm still somewhat hung up on the "several years" that pass between Tiassa 2 and Tiassa 3, and how they fit into what's at most a 3 year period if Tiassa 3 is before Iorich. Gah, complicated timeline is complicated! XP
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It much lowers the chance of Vlad making a slip when it matters, I figure. Also, she *likes* being Kiera with Vlad.
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Seems like Lady Teldra would have a gentler touch, even bystanders (probably even more so than Pathfinder), but should be very powerful...?
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I would think so. Maybe a more relaxed stance like Pathfinder, but a larger amount of power brought on foes who do make it... I guess we'll see if someone else describes her.
Her awakening or not may play a role too.
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Do you have a feel for what, on rereading, drove the switch in order on the favorites? General style, or specific things you noticed, or...?-
A combination of style, and story. Part 1, like early Vlad books, often relies on the hook- the fun is trying to figure out what's going on with Vlad, the solution is the payoff. Part 3, the mystery becomes more interesting once you know how it ends, I find. It makes Sara's appearance at the doctor's more significant, and such. Rather than working through Paarfi's style to get to the meat, I was enjoying each individual scene more.
-It feels like "before" to me -- because of Sara, and because I feel like there would've been some acknowledgement of events in Iorich between Khaavren and Aliera (he must've been the one to place her under arrest),-
Yes; Part 2 was very helpful in placing itself with respect to Issola's Jenoine invasion, I would expect Part 3 would've done the same.
Though it wasn't him who arrested her- it was Norathar.
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Ah, good points on both counts!
Part 3, the mystery becomes more interesting once you know how it ends, I find.
I could see that, yeah. And the thing about Paarfi's style also.
Though it wasn't him who arrested her- it was Norathar.
Ah, I'd forgotten that! I bet it's because Khaarven resigned out of protest again, since it seems pretty clear from 500YA that arresting important people is Khaavren's job XP
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Ah, I'd forgotten that! I bet it's because Khaarven resigned out of protest again, since it seems pretty clear from 500YA that arresting important people is Khaavren's job XP-
Though there is logic in using Norathar specifically against Aliera.
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I think you're probably right about that, although now that Vlad knows, she probably mind less when she has to be Sethra with him
I haven't reread Iorich, so I'm probably spacing on something obvious, but what do you mean about the logic in using Norathar specifically against Aliera?
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Hm... I wonder if it's just that the Warlord is always arrested by his replacement (which I can see would make sense) or any person of sufficient political power... Tortaalik sent Khaavren to arrest the Dragon Heir in 500YA, but I guess that's not a good indication of the done thing anyway, since Tortaalik was in full decadent Phoenix mode, and also the Warlord at the time was Adron's brother-in-law, so there might have been a conflict of interest.
I suspect I'll be rereading Iorich after I finish up Dragon; Tiassa 2 and 3 made me really want to do that.
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And yea, conflict of interest the previous time.
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