Reading roundup (gasp!)
Yeah, so, clearly reading isn't happening this year either. I don't know what the problem is, really, because I don't think it's narrative burnout like last year and 2020 -- and I'm enjoying talking ABOUT fiction, I'm just not reading hardly any. But I did finish a Vlad Taltos book, which I was planning to do in preparation for Tsalmoth (IMMINENT!!), although I meant to reread (and started) Yendi, as the book set shortly before Tsalmoth (in its entirety). Instead, I rode scytale's coattails and ended up rereading Dragon instead (which, in fairness, is also set in the same general era of Vlad's life and has bits of it even more shortly before Tsalmoth than Yendi does.)
4. Steven Brust, Dragon (reread) -- It's kind of funny (and kind of appropriate, maybe) how patchy my memory of Dragon is. I remember some bits of it very, very well -- Morrolan and Vlad going to see the Serioli, Morrolan's letter of invitation, Morrolan asking to see Vlad's office, Vlad and Morrolan and Fornia at Baritt's funeral (you may be sensing a theme here); and then there are bits that I remember happening, but I could not remember at all where in the book they happened and/or what the context was -- like, I remembered Napper's death but not how he had come to be in the position to be killed by the Morganti sword; I remembered Vlad's conversation with the Necromancer while he was standing in the river, but had completely forgotten how late in the book it actually happens, and so kept reading on and being all "now do we dip the parsely in the water?" (Passover seder family inside joke, but it really felt very similar).
Last time I reread Dragon, I was definitely focused on Morrolan and Morrolan & Vlad's relationship moving from "antagonists turned tentative friends after a life-changing experience" (Taltos) to -- well, still very tentative not-quite-friends on Vlad's part. Of course I was still all about Morrolan on this reread, but actually caught myself noticing different things about him. One thing I never coherently realized is that SPOILERS Morrolan is quite clearly waging TWO campaigns in this book: the military one against Fornia, and, starting even earlier and running concurrently, the Convince Vlad to be My Friend campaign. I've noticed the individual aspects of that campaign before, but rereading the book with a Dragonish sort of mindset this time, it's pretty clear that Morrolan's overtures of friendship are not just, like, random exhuberance -- he is going after Vlad in a premeditated way, with a keen attention to logistics, and Vlad is baffled/oblivious, but clearly it works. I'm going to collect things here in chronological order (as opposed to in the past the order of how much they amuse me):
- Morrolan sends Vlad a formal invitation -- a VERY formal invitation, addressing him by title (while signing off without his own, much higher, title, and signing off the postscriptum with a very informal "-M."). Vlad can't tell if Morrolan is trolling him or if it's really a peace offering, and I do think it's a bit of both -- this seems of a piece with times Morrolan is being playful, but mostly he seems to be poking fun at himself at those times. Also, scytale pointed out something I'd never noticed, which is that Morrolan gives Vlad A TEN HOUR WINDOW to call on him (the note says "arrive today between noon and the tenth hour, and I will take the time to see you at once") -- the Dragaeran day is 30 hours long, so noon is 15 o'clock (presumably/according to Lyorn Records) -- so this probably means there's an equivalent of "10 p.m." which would be the 25th hour of the day (it doesn't make sense to start at noon if the window he's giving vlad is 10th hour to the 15th hour = noon). And then when Vlad shows up, Morrolan does actually drop everything and see him immediately, so he wasn't kidding about that. And, as scytale pointed out, this timeframe means Morrolan is also having his guy, Baron Lokran e'Terics, sitting there waiting to teleport Vlad -- just in case -- for potentially 10 hours. Who DOES that XD (a Dragonlord on campaign, is who).
- Vlad drops by, and makes a very tasteless crack about Baritt's death (in the house of a guy flying a mourning banner for him, apparently -- see below). Morrolan's response is "Do not joke about it, Vlad" -- we don't get any descriptions of how he says it, but it seems like it's more even-keeled than snapping/getting angry, because I feel like that would've gotten a remark. Vlad also seems to be in the mood to seek to understand rather than antagonize him further, which is impressive growth from both of them, compared to Taltos. And then Lady Teldra comes in with the wine at a very well- chosen moment, forcing a gentle little pause, and after she leaves, Morrolan actually takes the time to explain why he doesn't want Vlad making cracks about it, and Vlad shows that he's listening and understandng, and they move on from there. Like grownups!
- "He turned his head to the side and looked at me quizzically. 'What is it you gave me, Vlad?' I laughed. 'Is that it? Is tht what this is all about?' 'Actually, no. I'm just curious.' 'Oh. Well, remain curious.'[...] 'As you wish.'" -- Morrolan is being remarkably easygoing considering he is asking "what is the liquid you made me inject into my veins?" and Vlad is being kind of a jerk in response. And one does get the sense that finding out what happened there is secondary to Morrolan's primary aim of making Vlad like him.
- M: "Some covet power, some are threatened by others covering power." V: "Which one are you?" M: "the former." V: "I knew that. I didn't expect you to admit it." M: "Why not?" -- that's a pretty rude question to ask! But Morrolan answers without batting an eyelash, although probably it's less rude for a Dragonlord. And it's an interesting delineation, because there are a lot of Dragonlord politcs questions that Morrolan refuses to answer for Vlad, so I think it's an effective show of transparency that he is absolutely willing to answer frankly prying personal questions from him.
- Morrolan offers Vlad the security consultant job, which as scytale pointed out, makes no sense. What does Vlad even know about security? For a floating castle, which is doubtless protected by sorcery out the wazoo, knowing Morrolan. And Vlad ends up subcontracting Daymar, whom Morrolan knows personally too. So this really seems like an excuse to have Vlad around, an offer he can't refuse. And then he makes a show of putting Vlad in charge over a Dragonlord (good thing Fentor is used to his boss being a weirdo by now XD), having a conversation with Fentor that clearly should be had in front of Vlad, as opposed to, you know, psionically, i.e. the way he got Fentor to come over in the first place. Loiosh tells Vlad, "You should tell him [Morrolan] to never use this power in the service of evil" -- and I think this was where the penny dropped for me viz Morrolan being on a campaign to win Vlad over -- he is absolutely deploying his various Dragonlord powers in service of a goal, it's just a goal that Vlad is not capable of comprehending at this point.
- V: "I hope you aren't going to ask me to kill [Fornia], because--" "Morrolan's nostrils flared and he started in on a glare which died on the vine. 'You are jesting, I presume. Please do not make such jests in the future.'" I always love this exchange, but this reread it was especially clear that this is the point at which Morrolan hits on the wonderful strategy of "assume Vlad is joking any time he says something I don't like", which serves him well throughout the rest of the book. And eventually Vlad does actually learn what not to say to him, and they all live happily ever after.
- Morrolan offers to lend Vlad books (with an exchange of jokes around it), and Vlad takes the books home, it's very sweet.
- Of course Morrolan gets the chance to rescue Vlad from Ori's goons when Loiosh calls him for help -- but I don't see how that could've possibly been planned. Vlad and Kragar both have the thought that Morrolan might've been the one to have Vlad attacked in order to get him to go after Fornia. That turns out not to be the case, of course, but did Morrolan suspect it might happen and let it play out? I tend to think no, but that could be just my own bias.
- As I've noticed before, Morrolan is very careful to make sure enlisting in his army is Vlad's own idea, and he does actually want to go through with it. Clearly he has learned from Taltos that trying to manipulate Vlad into things is not something the Vlad takes well to!
- Morrolan takes Vlad to Baritt's funeral as, like, literally his +1, and clearly enjoys people talking about it. There's the wonderful confrontation with Ori and Fornia, which is such a great scene from everyone.
- Morrolan initiates psionic contact and Vlad responds with "What the fuck do you want?" ("as soon as I realized who had invaded my mind" -- which, Vlad, what makes you think it's a good idea to greet Morrolan, supposedly your employer, that way?) Morrolan does not react to the belligerence at all, and is polite and even formal in response. (I wonder if he's decided that being formal with Vlad is a good way of appeasing him. And it does seem to work...) Also, Vlad, getting ready for their third date the unspecified non-dangerous outing Morrolan invited him to: "I didn't feel like attempting psychic contact with him in order to ask what I should wear" -- this cracks me up, because it really sounds like getting ready for a date early on in the relationship.
- Morrolan has Teldra show Vlad to his Tower/workroom/inner sanctum. This is clearly another step up from being received in the library, which was already pretty cozy/intimate, and Morrolan makes sure to point out that "There are very few permitted up here". (Also: "I wouldn't put it past Morrolan to have purposefully installed a door that would creak melodramatically" - lol, neither would I.)
- Morrolan bring Vlad along to meet his Serioli acquaintance (or friend? he greets Morrolan as "brother", which always struck me as interesting). Which, why, actually does he need Vlad along? Is it that he suspects Spellbreaker is a proto-Great Weapon and this is going to be relevant to the Fornia business? Morrolan's reaction to the Serioli asking questions about "the fifth" (clearly Spellbreaker) is to frown and look at Vlad, which I've always read as him being surprised by the Serioli's question, but I guess that isn't necessarily the case -- the frown could be thinking through the implications of something that confirmed the possibility that he'd brought Vlad along to check. He says to the Serioli that "We've brought questions, but first there's the one we didn't bring but found waiting for us when we arrived." and the Serioli says "Yes. You did not now of whom I was asking." But the conversation that takes off from discussing Spellbreaker/Godslayer clearly answers the questions Morrolan did bring, because when Vlad prompts Morrolan to ask his questions, Morrolan says, "Oh. I already have." Vlad thinks some psychic communication must've taken place, but it seems like what Morrolan was after was some information about Pathfinder and whether it could be the sword Fornia stole, and presumably got enough info from what the Serioli was explaining. But... did he bring Vlad along in case Spellbreaker would elicit exactly the conversation that took place? Or did he genuinely not expect that question from the Serioli and just brought Vlad along for fun / to impress him with necromantic window travel? I mean, he says he doesn't expect it to be dangerous but wants someone along just in case -- surely he has plenty of people he could've brought along, starting with Aliera.
- After the business with the Serioli is concluded, Morrolan invites Vlad to stay for a drink, then, when Vlad demurs on account of teleportation, brings him to Vlad's office -- clearly he's cleared his schedule for hanging out with Vlad, lol. With Morrolan looking around his office, Vlad has the realization that "he was learning about a potential ally or possible enemy, in much the same way he would investigate military positions." Which he definitely is, but also he is being very transparent about it (and willing to let Vlad's remarks about "So, you need more time to pay me back. Well, maybe we can work something out." pass him by. Also, that totally sounds like the start of a bad porno script, just so you know, Vlad XD)
- Vlad in the army: It is hilarious to me how the whole thing must look to all the Dragonlords in the army around Vlad. Vlad tells Virt that he knows they're in the van because "Morrolan told me". He keeps calling him "Morrolan" when speaking to random soldiers. Morrolan invites Vlad in when he visits the captain of the company, and lets him get away with clowning around, asking to be poured some wine, and lets him in on all their plans ("You may speak in front of Vlad"), jokes with him, and says says things like "I believe you are going to like this, Vlad." Like, there's got to be a neon sign on Vlad's forehead saying "Morrolan's special Easterner friend" -- I don't even mean it shippily necessarily, although I'm sure some people in the army must assume that, because honestly it's the simplest explanation.
- Battle of Baritt's Tomb: "I tried to make contact with Morrolan, but either I didn't know him well enough or he was concentrating on his mayhem too hard, or both. Probably both." And then he does the job that he was meant to do, tosses the sword "in Morrolan's general direction [...] careful not to throw it actually at him, because I knew he might take that wrong" and runs off. Sethra intercepts him and they have a talk, and another one later, and he spends time with Virt and Aelburr annointing Napper's body ("What's the point? There's nothing left for Deathgate?" "I think you know what the point is.") and later has a heart-to-heart with Virt, and Aliera comes by, and Vlad breaks the awkward silence. Aliera says, "Morrolan was wondering why you jumped in when you did" -- but Morrolan is curiously absent in all this for how actively he was chasing Vlad at all previous points in the book.
- As far as I can tell, they never actually talk about this in the time between the battle itself and the timeframe of the Interludes like three years later, because that's when Morrolan asks Vlad "Why didn't you tell me?" [about clashing with a Great Weapon revealing Pathfinder], and Morrolan says "You know, Vlad, I've suspected for years now that there were things you never told me about the Wall of Baritt's Tomb" (Vlad's answer is: "There were things I didn't want to think about. Some of it I still don't want to think about") and a bunch of plausibly evasive stuff, and then Vlad diffuses the situation by making a joke and Morrolan smiles and they move on. If they did talk about the battle at all, I bet it was just exchanging lightly sarcastic quips, since it clearly wasn't anything real. Which is not surprising -- it's kind of par for the course for those two (like the fact that they have not talked about Lady Teldra AT ALL, in four books). But that seems to be the MO established early on -- Vlad walks away when the situation between them gets complicated, and Morrolan gives him his space, and they never talk about it. But Vlad is clearly still pretty bitter at the end: "In the meantime, why don't you get your things, including [Sethra the Younger], and leave me alone. I'm sure she wants to go plan the invasion of the East, and Aliera wants to play with her new toy, and you, well, maybe you'll want to go start another war or something." "Vlad--" "Never mind, Morrolan. I just want to relax now." Morrolan offers to have his people clean up Vlad's place that Aliera and StY trashed and Vlad refuses and says "I'll see you... sometime" -- and "Morrolan started to say something at the door, then shrugged and walked out." It's interesting, because clearly Vlad is still not over this side of Morrolan, however much he might, at this point, like the guy who calls him for witchcraft tips and invites him to intimate soirees in his library and can be counted on when he needs help against assassins, the guy he is planning to ask to essentially be his best man (or possibly already has; the Panix timeline sets the Dragon framing narrative after Tiassa 2). And Morrolan clearly doesn't like that, and quite possibly doesn't fully understand it, but there it is again, their MO of avoiding talking about the things that divide them (which, in fairness, is Vlad's MO with everyone, including Cawti and Noish-Pa).
I don't know where the Dragonish mindset this time around came from, but I found myself paying more attention to the Dragonlord philosophy stuff, and the other Dragon characters (I mean, I've always liked Virt, but I paid more attention to the others this time), and the Dragonlord features of Kragar, which I'd kind of overlooked before, and Vlad's own Dragonlike behavior on this book.
- For example, he says about Kragar, "I couldn't remember a single idea of mine that he hadn't thrown cold water on, nor a single one that he hadn't backed me on to the hilt -- literally in some cases." And that's a great description of Kragar as we know him from past books, but also, it reminded me of the "trust the officers even though they're not trustworthy" bit of advice that Vlad gets from Noish-Pa in this book, which was not a connection I'd ever made before. But Kragar being willing to do things for Vlad that he knows are bad ideas -- up to and including taking over the territory when Vlad takes off -- is a very Dragonish thing, isn't it. Alos, he has an impressive list of sabotage ideas that he shares with Vlad -- I wonder if his invisibility has something to do with that -- either officers making use of him in this capacity given that he has this way of going unnoticed, or maybe (as I've heard someone suggest) a spell gone wrong that was meant to last just for the duration of a sabotage mission but ended up being permanent, which made it hard to stay in the army, since, as Vlad reflects later, nobody would notice Kragar doing anything heroic.
- Napper is one of the very few e'Driens we get to meet in the Vlad books -- besides Morrolan, there's just Napper and Loftis in Orca. The only thing they seem to have in common is a tendency towards obsessiveness, as far as I can tell.
- Vlad has a lot of complicated, mostly negative feelins about war and battle in this book, even though he tries to understand the Dragonlord point of view by talking to Virt and Sethra. Interesting, the thing that gets him the most -- this comes up several times in the Battle at Baritt's Tomb -- is Morrolan using Blackwand: "Morrolan was making the question [of what happens after the death of the body] moot. In spite of all I had seen, it was this that sickened me." Partly it's probably Vlad's attitude towards Morganti weapons in general -- he seems more susceptible to their psychic effects so I think he fears/dislikes them more than a Dragaeran. Partly it's probably that Morrolan is mowing down the cavalry made up of Eastern mercenaries. But here's Morrolan having spent the whole book making overtures of friendship towards Vlad in various careful ways -- and how much of that must go up in smoke after the battle? Or, looking at it another way, I guess, would Vlad have just never spoken to him again after Baritt's Tomb if Morrolan hadn't laid all that careful groundwork?
- He tries to understand (in his post-injury haze) why Morrolan "was the way he was" -- is it because of the power to command others on a whim? This is where we get the line that is referenced in Issola: "There are stories that, in his youth during the Interregnum, he had entire villages put to the sword in sacrifice to the Demon Goddess that she might grant him knowledge of the Elder Sorcery." -- of course, this is completely at odds with the account in Paarfi, and the conversation with Teldra in Issola seems to imply that Paarfi is closer to the truth than these stories, at least in terms of motivation. But it's interesting that this is how Vlad thinks of Morrolan after having experienced his war.
- I paid a lot more attention this time to Vlad starting to think like a soldier, Vlad being unable to bug out of the battle like he'd planned because people are looking at him, or in general for reasons he can't understand. B has gone through basic training, and som eof the stuff he told me about the mental effects of that sounded similar to what Vlad is describing (fortunately B never had to be in actual combat).
- Vlad, extracting the Dragonlord commonality from Morrolan, Aliera, Virt, and Napper: "Once having decided on a course, motivated by greed, or by anger, or by the highest moral outrage, they attacked with a ruthlessness that would excite envy -- or disgust -- in a hardened Jhereg operative." (This is clearly true of Fornia, as well. Tha man certainly commits to his plan, against some fairly insane odds.)
Other random obersvations:
- There's this philosophical digression about Houses in chapter 1, which starts "So you can look around as I did. See the Teckla running around like the small rodents they are named for, doing things they think are important" and goes on for several paragraphs -- and this sounds so much like the excerpt we got from Tsalmoth! Clearly, this smug philosophizing about how Jhereg is clearly the best house is just a very enduring hallmark of pre-Phoenix!Vlad, and it's cool to see the continuity.
- Vlad refers to Kragar as "the only Dragaeran I didn't hate, except maybe Kiera." First of all, maybe Kiera? Really? Second, I was wondering from which vantage point Vlad is saying this -- the timeframe of the story (which, I can see still hating Morrolan and Aliera, I guess), or the timeframe of the speaking-into-the-box, which would be even weirder, as that takes place after Yendi.
- Kragar: "The main thing is: Dragonlords don't steal. [...] One possibility is that he wanted it really, really badly." -- like, say, a certain staff with a certain soul in Taltos, to speak of another Dragonlord.
- Vlad on Teldra: "She was tall and lithe and managed to achieve beauty without sexuality -- that is, I enjoyed looking at her but felt no desire. This is unusual for me, and I wondered if it was a calculated effect." -- the interesting thing to me here is that Vlad says this is unusual for him, presumably with Dragaeran women, too, consiering that by Yendi he concludes sex with Dragaerans is kind of bestiality.
- When Kragar tells Vlad that if he kills Fornia, "you should be aware that Morrolan will be, uh, pretty unhappy", Vlad responds, "Not that I care all that much" -- but in the Battle of Baritt's Tomb, he is thinking "If I got myself killed doing this, not only would it be annoying to me but Morrolan would be irritated that I risked myself this way insteadof doing my job." It's just a funny juxtaposition to me, what Vlad claims he cares about in pissing off Morrolan and what he doesn't.
- "I took a certain pleasure in seeing Morrolan walk with his head bowed" (on the way to the Serioli, with the low ceilings) -- I'm sure you did, Vlad XD
- Vlad's progression of acceptance of army biscuits is really funny: "They weren't all that bad, really, as long as you didn't compare them to anything good."
Little details:
- Vlad rarely comes to his office before noon.
- Vlad wants to pace when he's nervous, but instead "cooked som meals in my mind, remembered past lovers, and exchanged banter with Loiosh" to calm down, because he doesn't want to look outwardly nervous to his subordinates.
- Vlad doesn't like eating alone.
- The only dish Vlad isn't able to get right: "an Eastern bread, only slightly raised, and pan-fried in a very light olive oil."
- Vlad (pre-Cawti) has "one shelf of knick knacks with sentimental value. Home is where I go when I sleep; the only room I've put much thought into is the kitchen." (You couldn't possibly have a bigger contrast with Castle Black.)
- Brust seems to think Cawti civilized Vlad, but he was apparently reading at least historical romances at this point. Maybe Munnis is just the equivalent of airport literature, though...
- Vlad arriving at Castle Black: "Over one tower floated a single banner, all of grey." -- grey is the color of death, right? Is this a mourning banner out of respect for Baritt's passing, then? Sort of like flying the flag at half-mast when an important person has died? And Vlad must recognize that sign, because he asks "who died?" as soon as he sees Morrolan.
- Sandball is a game played in teams, which can be played in a park. Vlad doesn't play it, and there's no description of it. And there's also squareball, which it sounds like just requires a ball and a field that can be drawn on the ground, so I assume this is something like soccer, because the ball is made by wrapping a bunch of rope around a rock, so it can't be anything that requires a bouncy ball, or a light one.
- A psiprint is recognizable by a "peculiar mix of sharp and fuzzy areas".
- Fornia, at 2000+ years, is considered old. He is also "A sorcerer of some repute. Battle magic, mostly." and was Imperial Sorcerer for a few hundred years before the Interregnum -- which might explain why Morrolan felt he had to beef up his sorcerers with the Necromancer -- and I guess Sethra the Younger is Court Wizard at this point, actually? (she is stripped of that title in Yendi) Also, is Imperial Sorcerer the same as Court Wizard, or are those two different positions XD And of course Morrolan also has Sethra Lavode, who is both the most powerful sorcerer and the greatest general in history. His deck is kind of stacked XD
- Captain Cropper is even older, "probably getting close to three thousand."
- Military stuff: The whole thing about the interplay of sorcery and armor. Wooden shields are still common, and wooden armor sometimes, and Lyorn warriors wear copper or bronze vambraces to show they're nuts. Also, I remember reading somewhere about the "javelin throwers" -- they have no other words for bows and arrows, which is so weird! But they do have marines.
- A Dragonlord funeral (at least at Baritt's level) takes about 10 hours and involves a bullock being sacrificed to his patron deity.
- "Close to eight feet" is "very tall" for a Dragaeran (Aelburr).
- The Necromancer's hands are very cold.
On a final an not book-specific note, I read this in iBooks, because that's where my e-copies live, and god, what a terrible program for reading books. Why does it not show the total page count? Why does it not show all of the highlights? (I don't mean the full highlight, although Kindle showing several more lines is definitely helpful), I mean when I go to Highlights, why is the first one displayed not the first one in the book? Who the fuck built this app and did any of them ever read a book in their life??
5. Nghi Vo, Into the Riverlands (Singing Hills #3) -- this was delightful! It took me a little longer to read it because I was somewhat underwhelmed by the second novella in the series, which was cute, but not anything near the polished, compact brilliance of The Empress of Salt and Fortune, the first book, and I didn't want to be underwhelmed again. But then this was on Kindle sale and I snapped it up, and then I was reminded that I had to nominate for Hugos and this is Hugo eligible and I haven't read any other 2022 novellas, and then once I started, I was just swept along by the store. The thing is, Chih is a handy observer/narrator and a pleasant person to spend time with, and Almost Brilliant, their neixin, is a neat idea and cute, but a little one-note, so the strength of each book comes down to the stories, the characters in the framing narrative, and the interplay between the two. And book 2 had the least interesting to me stories, and framing story characters who weren't that exciting, and the interplay between the two was kind of shallow. But in this one, I really enjoyed the stories -- they are about legendary heroes and bandits fighting each other, and I always seem to love those, whether they're in the form of Norse sagas or Greek myths or fantasy Asia, apparently; I loved the old couple Chih encounters/is adopted/press-ganged by, especially the bossy auntie; and I was really impressed by how the framing narrative and the stories ended up weaving together -- starting to get into spoilers I thought I had guessed a thing, and I did, inasmuch there's a single truth to stories (which this book aggressively argues that there isn't, which I also loved), but there were OTHER things it had not even occurred to me to guess about, because I assumed there was a one-to-one correspondence with the stories, and it was not that at all. So, like, I was pretty sure, from the time the old couple kick the bandits' asses when they are waylaid on the journey that they were going to turn out to be Wild Pig Yi and Gravedigger Chen, which delighted me, because I loved that story of the two of them coming together as foes and then as battle cmpanions and then as 2/3 of a poly triad apparently -- and I even wondered what had happened to the Beautiful Nie, the third part of it. But seeing the scar around Lao Bingyi throat at the end, which makes her the girl from Taiyuan was a shocking moment, even though it came after meeting Master Nie who pulled down the hall on top of the Hollow Hand wannabes. And I had been so convinced that the Beautiful Nie of the Wild Pig Yi story was a woman that I had to go back and reread the story -- and sure enough, no pronouns are used for Beautiful Nie at all, I had just completely assumed that from "famous beauty" trope and descriptions of slender pale hands and staying safely inside the palanquin. It's great! and a neat trick to pull off in a trim little novella, along with character building and worldbuilding and fun prose.
I liked the fight descriptions -- they were very vivid but not overdone -- I think having everything be from the POV of Chih the frightened layperson observer staying out of the fighting was very helpful there. I liked that even though Chih and Sang did not fight alongside the ass-kicking old couple and legend-in-the-making warrior girl, the narrative very deliberately took the time to show them doing something of value, helping the children and the wounded, Sang bandaging wounds and Chih keeping the children occupied with their stories. I liked the echo of Wild Pig Yi in the young warrior girl, who also doesn't belong in civilized places. I liked the neat way the "flower line" in the hall is also more than it seems (like the various people Chih meets) -- that at first they think that keeping the children inside it is a clever way to keep them away from the windows (and seeing the slaughter outside) -- but then it turns out that it's also the part of the hall that remains untouched when Master Nie collapses the rest of it, smashing the Hollow Hand. I really liked the echo of the initial cleanup, organized by Lao Bingyi after the fight over tea where they all meet in the clean-up after the battle at the end, which she approaches with the same attitude. The worldbuilding details are so neat in this world, the stolen silkworms, the allusions to magical/mythical things like "when foxes turn a hundred, they give the moon a skull and turn into humans" or "but on the third day the moon disappeared to tend to his other wife" (which may or may not be true; certainly there seems to be a lot of real magic afoot). And the dialogue is great, this wonderful mix of casual and mythic that feels very true to actual myths, in a way I've seen very few narratives get right -- and the blend of action is similarly down-to-earth and epic, which for me is the hallmark of this series. And just some really fun prose:
"'What impudence!' she said, with the kind of diction that could get away with saying things like impudence."
"Cleric Dung, who had a special interest in tales of governmental corruption and comeuppance, would be delighted" [by the story of the governor who was supposed to pave the road but spent the money on a dancing boy from the capital instead]
"we do find that most of the women who make it into the archives and histories are called beautiful [...] And in the stories at least, if a woman is not beautiful, then of course she must be ugly if she is there at all."
"They weren't brave, and despite the shaved head and the indigo robes, they weren't particularly virtuous, but more than anything else, they were curious, and sometimes that could stand in for the rest."
"Even the northern countries occasionally come down to bite us and make sure we're still too mean for invasion."
"when some bandit sets up as a ruler, the usual response is to call them what they want to be called and then not to cry very much when the next murderer comes in."
"Wei Jintai gave no indication that she was meant to be at a disadvantage."
"'And of course,' he said with a real vanity that was pretending to be a false vanity, 'and of course I would not mind it if you told them how handsome I was while I did it.'"
"They'll tell stories about Wei Jintai if they've not already started [...] You have one now. I imagine you even think it's the truth."
"Singing Hills knew that the truth showed up in its own time, often late and sometimes entirely unlooked for."
*
I did some very, very cursory nominations for the Hugos, just because I'm eligible and I'll forget in the next week if I don't do it now. Best novel; best novella (the one above); Lodestar, for a book I'm halfway through; Best Series; Astounding with 1-2 things nominated apiece; and I need to remember to go add in a Pro artist -- definitely the sparsest ballot I've ever submitted. I don't think I'll be getting a supporting membership this year -- partly it's that I don't think anything likely to end up on the ballot is something I'm going to care all that much about (unlike in past years when I had strong favorites I was really rooting for), but I'm also not comfortable with Lukyanenko as GOH (I've read a lot of his books, and I still like them, but I don't want to be associated with/help fund a thing that celebrates the man and his current positions).
4. Steven Brust, Dragon (reread) -- It's kind of funny (and kind of appropriate, maybe) how patchy my memory of Dragon is. I remember some bits of it very, very well -- Morrolan and Vlad going to see the Serioli, Morrolan's letter of invitation, Morrolan asking to see Vlad's office, Vlad and Morrolan and Fornia at Baritt's funeral (you may be sensing a theme here); and then there are bits that I remember happening, but I could not remember at all where in the book they happened and/or what the context was -- like, I remembered Napper's death but not how he had come to be in the position to be killed by the Morganti sword; I remembered Vlad's conversation with the Necromancer while he was standing in the river, but had completely forgotten how late in the book it actually happens, and so kept reading on and being all "now do we dip the parsely in the water?" (Passover seder family inside joke, but it really felt very similar).
Last time I reread Dragon, I was definitely focused on Morrolan and Morrolan & Vlad's relationship moving from "antagonists turned tentative friends after a life-changing experience" (Taltos) to -- well, still very tentative not-quite-friends on Vlad's part. Of course I was still all about Morrolan on this reread, but actually caught myself noticing different things about him. One thing I never coherently realized is that SPOILERS Morrolan is quite clearly waging TWO campaigns in this book: the military one against Fornia, and, starting even earlier and running concurrently, the Convince Vlad to be My Friend campaign. I've noticed the individual aspects of that campaign before, but rereading the book with a Dragonish sort of mindset this time, it's pretty clear that Morrolan's overtures of friendship are not just, like, random exhuberance -- he is going after Vlad in a premeditated way, with a keen attention to logistics, and Vlad is baffled/oblivious, but clearly it works. I'm going to collect things here in chronological order (as opposed to in the past the order of how much they amuse me):
- Morrolan sends Vlad a formal invitation -- a VERY formal invitation, addressing him by title (while signing off without his own, much higher, title, and signing off the postscriptum with a very informal "-M."). Vlad can't tell if Morrolan is trolling him or if it's really a peace offering, and I do think it's a bit of both -- this seems of a piece with times Morrolan is being playful, but mostly he seems to be poking fun at himself at those times. Also, scytale pointed out something I'd never noticed, which is that Morrolan gives Vlad A TEN HOUR WINDOW to call on him (the note says "arrive today between noon and the tenth hour, and I will take the time to see you at once") -- the Dragaeran day is 30 hours long, so noon is 15 o'clock (presumably/according to Lyorn Records) -- so this probably means there's an equivalent of "10 p.m." which would be the 25th hour of the day (it doesn't make sense to start at noon if the window he's giving vlad is 10th hour to the 15th hour = noon). And then when Vlad shows up, Morrolan does actually drop everything and see him immediately, so he wasn't kidding about that. And, as scytale pointed out, this timeframe means Morrolan is also having his guy, Baron Lokran e'Terics, sitting there waiting to teleport Vlad -- just in case -- for potentially 10 hours. Who DOES that XD (a Dragonlord on campaign, is who).
- Vlad drops by, and makes a very tasteless crack about Baritt's death (in the house of a guy flying a mourning banner for him, apparently -- see below). Morrolan's response is "Do not joke about it, Vlad" -- we don't get any descriptions of how he says it, but it seems like it's more even-keeled than snapping/getting angry, because I feel like that would've gotten a remark. Vlad also seems to be in the mood to seek to understand rather than antagonize him further, which is impressive growth from both of them, compared to Taltos. And then Lady Teldra comes in with the wine at a very well- chosen moment, forcing a gentle little pause, and after she leaves, Morrolan actually takes the time to explain why he doesn't want Vlad making cracks about it, and Vlad shows that he's listening and understandng, and they move on from there. Like grownups!
- "He turned his head to the side and looked at me quizzically. 'What is it you gave me, Vlad?' I laughed. 'Is that it? Is tht what this is all about?' 'Actually, no. I'm just curious.' 'Oh. Well, remain curious.'[...] 'As you wish.'" -- Morrolan is being remarkably easygoing considering he is asking "what is the liquid you made me inject into my veins?" and Vlad is being kind of a jerk in response. And one does get the sense that finding out what happened there is secondary to Morrolan's primary aim of making Vlad like him.
- M: "Some covet power, some are threatened by others covering power." V: "Which one are you?" M: "the former." V: "I knew that. I didn't expect you to admit it." M: "Why not?" -- that's a pretty rude question to ask! But Morrolan answers without batting an eyelash, although probably it's less rude for a Dragonlord. And it's an interesting delineation, because there are a lot of Dragonlord politcs questions that Morrolan refuses to answer for Vlad, so I think it's an effective show of transparency that he is absolutely willing to answer frankly prying personal questions from him.
- Morrolan offers Vlad the security consultant job, which as scytale pointed out, makes no sense. What does Vlad even know about security? For a floating castle, which is doubtless protected by sorcery out the wazoo, knowing Morrolan. And Vlad ends up subcontracting Daymar, whom Morrolan knows personally too. So this really seems like an excuse to have Vlad around, an offer he can't refuse. And then he makes a show of putting Vlad in charge over a Dragonlord (good thing Fentor is used to his boss being a weirdo by now XD), having a conversation with Fentor that clearly should be had in front of Vlad, as opposed to, you know, psionically, i.e. the way he got Fentor to come over in the first place. Loiosh tells Vlad, "You should tell him [Morrolan] to never use this power in the service of evil" -- and I think this was where the penny dropped for me viz Morrolan being on a campaign to win Vlad over -- he is absolutely deploying his various Dragonlord powers in service of a goal, it's just a goal that Vlad is not capable of comprehending at this point.
- V: "I hope you aren't going to ask me to kill [Fornia], because--" "Morrolan's nostrils flared and he started in on a glare which died on the vine. 'You are jesting, I presume. Please do not make such jests in the future.'" I always love this exchange, but this reread it was especially clear that this is the point at which Morrolan hits on the wonderful strategy of "assume Vlad is joking any time he says something I don't like", which serves him well throughout the rest of the book. And eventually Vlad does actually learn what not to say to him, and they all live happily ever after.
- Morrolan offers to lend Vlad books (with an exchange of jokes around it), and Vlad takes the books home, it's very sweet.
- Of course Morrolan gets the chance to rescue Vlad from Ori's goons when Loiosh calls him for help -- but I don't see how that could've possibly been planned. Vlad and Kragar both have the thought that Morrolan might've been the one to have Vlad attacked in order to get him to go after Fornia. That turns out not to be the case, of course, but did Morrolan suspect it might happen and let it play out? I tend to think no, but that could be just my own bias.
- As I've noticed before, Morrolan is very careful to make sure enlisting in his army is Vlad's own idea, and he does actually want to go through with it. Clearly he has learned from Taltos that trying to manipulate Vlad into things is not something the Vlad takes well to!
- Morrolan takes Vlad to Baritt's funeral as, like, literally his +1, and clearly enjoys people talking about it. There's the wonderful confrontation with Ori and Fornia, which is such a great scene from everyone.
- Morrolan initiates psionic contact and Vlad responds with "What the fuck do you want?" ("as soon as I realized who had invaded my mind" -- which, Vlad, what makes you think it's a good idea to greet Morrolan, supposedly your employer, that way?) Morrolan does not react to the belligerence at all, and is polite and even formal in response. (I wonder if he's decided that being formal with Vlad is a good way of appeasing him. And it does seem to work...) Also, Vlad, getting ready for their third date the unspecified non-dangerous outing Morrolan invited him to: "I didn't feel like attempting psychic contact with him in order to ask what I should wear" -- this cracks me up, because it really sounds like getting ready for a date early on in the relationship.
- Morrolan has Teldra show Vlad to his Tower/workroom/inner sanctum. This is clearly another step up from being received in the library, which was already pretty cozy/intimate, and Morrolan makes sure to point out that "There are very few permitted up here". (Also: "I wouldn't put it past Morrolan to have purposefully installed a door that would creak melodramatically" - lol, neither would I.)
- Morrolan bring Vlad along to meet his Serioli acquaintance (or friend? he greets Morrolan as "brother", which always struck me as interesting). Which, why, actually does he need Vlad along? Is it that he suspects Spellbreaker is a proto-Great Weapon and this is going to be relevant to the Fornia business? Morrolan's reaction to the Serioli asking questions about "the fifth" (clearly Spellbreaker) is to frown and look at Vlad, which I've always read as him being surprised by the Serioli's question, but I guess that isn't necessarily the case -- the frown could be thinking through the implications of something that confirmed the possibility that he'd brought Vlad along to check. He says to the Serioli that "We've brought questions, but first there's the one we didn't bring but found waiting for us when we arrived." and the Serioli says "Yes. You did not now of whom I was asking." But the conversation that takes off from discussing Spellbreaker/Godslayer clearly answers the questions Morrolan did bring, because when Vlad prompts Morrolan to ask his questions, Morrolan says, "Oh. I already have." Vlad thinks some psychic communication must've taken place, but it seems like what Morrolan was after was some information about Pathfinder and whether it could be the sword Fornia stole, and presumably got enough info from what the Serioli was explaining. But... did he bring Vlad along in case Spellbreaker would elicit exactly the conversation that took place? Or did he genuinely not expect that question from the Serioli and just brought Vlad along for fun / to impress him with necromantic window travel? I mean, he says he doesn't expect it to be dangerous but wants someone along just in case -- surely he has plenty of people he could've brought along, starting with Aliera.
- After the business with the Serioli is concluded, Morrolan invites Vlad to stay for a drink, then, when Vlad demurs on account of teleportation, brings him to Vlad's office -- clearly he's cleared his schedule for hanging out with Vlad, lol. With Morrolan looking around his office, Vlad has the realization that "he was learning about a potential ally or possible enemy, in much the same way he would investigate military positions." Which he definitely is, but also he is being very transparent about it (and willing to let Vlad's remarks about "So, you need more time to pay me back. Well, maybe we can work something out." pass him by. Also, that totally sounds like the start of a bad porno script, just so you know, Vlad XD)
- Vlad in the army: It is hilarious to me how the whole thing must look to all the Dragonlords in the army around Vlad. Vlad tells Virt that he knows they're in the van because "Morrolan told me". He keeps calling him "Morrolan" when speaking to random soldiers. Morrolan invites Vlad in when he visits the captain of the company, and lets him get away with clowning around, asking to be poured some wine, and lets him in on all their plans ("You may speak in front of Vlad"), jokes with him, and says says things like "I believe you are going to like this, Vlad." Like, there's got to be a neon sign on Vlad's forehead saying "Morrolan's special Easterner friend" -- I don't even mean it shippily necessarily, although I'm sure some people in the army must assume that, because honestly it's the simplest explanation.
- Battle of Baritt's Tomb: "I tried to make contact with Morrolan, but either I didn't know him well enough or he was concentrating on his mayhem too hard, or both. Probably both." And then he does the job that he was meant to do, tosses the sword "in Morrolan's general direction [...] careful not to throw it actually at him, because I knew he might take that wrong" and runs off. Sethra intercepts him and they have a talk, and another one later, and he spends time with Virt and Aelburr annointing Napper's body ("What's the point? There's nothing left for Deathgate?" "I think you know what the point is.") and later has a heart-to-heart with Virt, and Aliera comes by, and Vlad breaks the awkward silence. Aliera says, "Morrolan was wondering why you jumped in when you did" -- but Morrolan is curiously absent in all this for how actively he was chasing Vlad at all previous points in the book.
- As far as I can tell, they never actually talk about this in the time between the battle itself and the timeframe of the Interludes like three years later, because that's when Morrolan asks Vlad "Why didn't you tell me?" [about clashing with a Great Weapon revealing Pathfinder], and Morrolan says "You know, Vlad, I've suspected for years now that there were things you never told me about the Wall of Baritt's Tomb" (Vlad's answer is: "There were things I didn't want to think about. Some of it I still don't want to think about") and a bunch of plausibly evasive stuff, and then Vlad diffuses the situation by making a joke and Morrolan smiles and they move on. If they did talk about the battle at all, I bet it was just exchanging lightly sarcastic quips, since it clearly wasn't anything real. Which is not surprising -- it's kind of par for the course for those two (like the fact that they have not talked about Lady Teldra AT ALL, in four books). But that seems to be the MO established early on -- Vlad walks away when the situation between them gets complicated, and Morrolan gives him his space, and they never talk about it. But Vlad is clearly still pretty bitter at the end: "In the meantime, why don't you get your things, including [Sethra the Younger], and leave me alone. I'm sure she wants to go plan the invasion of the East, and Aliera wants to play with her new toy, and you, well, maybe you'll want to go start another war or something." "Vlad--" "Never mind, Morrolan. I just want to relax now." Morrolan offers to have his people clean up Vlad's place that Aliera and StY trashed and Vlad refuses and says "I'll see you... sometime" -- and "Morrolan started to say something at the door, then shrugged and walked out." It's interesting, because clearly Vlad is still not over this side of Morrolan, however much he might, at this point, like the guy who calls him for witchcraft tips and invites him to intimate soirees in his library and can be counted on when he needs help against assassins, the guy he is planning to ask to essentially be his best man (or possibly already has; the Panix timeline sets the Dragon framing narrative after Tiassa 2). And Morrolan clearly doesn't like that, and quite possibly doesn't fully understand it, but there it is again, their MO of avoiding talking about the things that divide them (which, in fairness, is Vlad's MO with everyone, including Cawti and Noish-Pa).
I don't know where the Dragonish mindset this time around came from, but I found myself paying more attention to the Dragonlord philosophy stuff, and the other Dragon characters (I mean, I've always liked Virt, but I paid more attention to the others this time), and the Dragonlord features of Kragar, which I'd kind of overlooked before, and Vlad's own Dragonlike behavior on this book.
- For example, he says about Kragar, "I couldn't remember a single idea of mine that he hadn't thrown cold water on, nor a single one that he hadn't backed me on to the hilt -- literally in some cases." And that's a great description of Kragar as we know him from past books, but also, it reminded me of the "trust the officers even though they're not trustworthy" bit of advice that Vlad gets from Noish-Pa in this book, which was not a connection I'd ever made before. But Kragar being willing to do things for Vlad that he knows are bad ideas -- up to and including taking over the territory when Vlad takes off -- is a very Dragonish thing, isn't it. Alos, he has an impressive list of sabotage ideas that he shares with Vlad -- I wonder if his invisibility has something to do with that -- either officers making use of him in this capacity given that he has this way of going unnoticed, or maybe (as I've heard someone suggest) a spell gone wrong that was meant to last just for the duration of a sabotage mission but ended up being permanent, which made it hard to stay in the army, since, as Vlad reflects later, nobody would notice Kragar doing anything heroic.
- Napper is one of the very few e'Driens we get to meet in the Vlad books -- besides Morrolan, there's just Napper and Loftis in Orca. The only thing they seem to have in common is a tendency towards obsessiveness, as far as I can tell.
- Vlad has a lot of complicated, mostly negative feelins about war and battle in this book, even though he tries to understand the Dragonlord point of view by talking to Virt and Sethra. Interesting, the thing that gets him the most -- this comes up several times in the Battle at Baritt's Tomb -- is Morrolan using Blackwand: "Morrolan was making the question [of what happens after the death of the body] moot. In spite of all I had seen, it was this that sickened me." Partly it's probably Vlad's attitude towards Morganti weapons in general -- he seems more susceptible to their psychic effects so I think he fears/dislikes them more than a Dragaeran. Partly it's probably that Morrolan is mowing down the cavalry made up of Eastern mercenaries. But here's Morrolan having spent the whole book making overtures of friendship towards Vlad in various careful ways -- and how much of that must go up in smoke after the battle? Or, looking at it another way, I guess, would Vlad have just never spoken to him again after Baritt's Tomb if Morrolan hadn't laid all that careful groundwork?
- He tries to understand (in his post-injury haze) why Morrolan "was the way he was" -- is it because of the power to command others on a whim? This is where we get the line that is referenced in Issola: "There are stories that, in his youth during the Interregnum, he had entire villages put to the sword in sacrifice to the Demon Goddess that she might grant him knowledge of the Elder Sorcery." -- of course, this is completely at odds with the account in Paarfi, and the conversation with Teldra in Issola seems to imply that Paarfi is closer to the truth than these stories, at least in terms of motivation. But it's interesting that this is how Vlad thinks of Morrolan after having experienced his war.
- I paid a lot more attention this time to Vlad starting to think like a soldier, Vlad being unable to bug out of the battle like he'd planned because people are looking at him, or in general for reasons he can't understand. B has gone through basic training, and som eof the stuff he told me about the mental effects of that sounded similar to what Vlad is describing (fortunately B never had to be in actual combat).
- Vlad, extracting the Dragonlord commonality from Morrolan, Aliera, Virt, and Napper: "Once having decided on a course, motivated by greed, or by anger, or by the highest moral outrage, they attacked with a ruthlessness that would excite envy -- or disgust -- in a hardened Jhereg operative." (This is clearly true of Fornia, as well. Tha man certainly commits to his plan, against some fairly insane odds.)
Other random obersvations:
- There's this philosophical digression about Houses in chapter 1, which starts "So you can look around as I did. See the Teckla running around like the small rodents they are named for, doing things they think are important" and goes on for several paragraphs -- and this sounds so much like the excerpt we got from Tsalmoth! Clearly, this smug philosophizing about how Jhereg is clearly the best house is just a very enduring hallmark of pre-Phoenix!Vlad, and it's cool to see the continuity.
- Vlad refers to Kragar as "the only Dragaeran I didn't hate, except maybe Kiera." First of all, maybe Kiera? Really? Second, I was wondering from which vantage point Vlad is saying this -- the timeframe of the story (which, I can see still hating Morrolan and Aliera, I guess), or the timeframe of the speaking-into-the-box, which would be even weirder, as that takes place after Yendi.
- Kragar: "The main thing is: Dragonlords don't steal. [...] One possibility is that he wanted it really, really badly." -- like, say, a certain staff with a certain soul in Taltos, to speak of another Dragonlord.
- Vlad on Teldra: "She was tall and lithe and managed to achieve beauty without sexuality -- that is, I enjoyed looking at her but felt no desire. This is unusual for me, and I wondered if it was a calculated effect." -- the interesting thing to me here is that Vlad says this is unusual for him, presumably with Dragaeran women, too, consiering that by Yendi he concludes sex with Dragaerans is kind of bestiality.
- When Kragar tells Vlad that if he kills Fornia, "you should be aware that Morrolan will be, uh, pretty unhappy", Vlad responds, "Not that I care all that much" -- but in the Battle of Baritt's Tomb, he is thinking "If I got myself killed doing this, not only would it be annoying to me but Morrolan would be irritated that I risked myself this way insteadof doing my job." It's just a funny juxtaposition to me, what Vlad claims he cares about in pissing off Morrolan and what he doesn't.
- "I took a certain pleasure in seeing Morrolan walk with his head bowed" (on the way to the Serioli, with the low ceilings) -- I'm sure you did, Vlad XD
- Vlad's progression of acceptance of army biscuits is really funny: "They weren't all that bad, really, as long as you didn't compare them to anything good."
Little details:
- Vlad rarely comes to his office before noon.
- Vlad wants to pace when he's nervous, but instead "cooked som meals in my mind, remembered past lovers, and exchanged banter with Loiosh" to calm down, because he doesn't want to look outwardly nervous to his subordinates.
- Vlad doesn't like eating alone.
- The only dish Vlad isn't able to get right: "an Eastern bread, only slightly raised, and pan-fried in a very light olive oil."
- Vlad (pre-Cawti) has "one shelf of knick knacks with sentimental value. Home is where I go when I sleep; the only room I've put much thought into is the kitchen." (You couldn't possibly have a bigger contrast with Castle Black.)
- Brust seems to think Cawti civilized Vlad, but he was apparently reading at least historical romances at this point. Maybe Munnis is just the equivalent of airport literature, though...
- Vlad arriving at Castle Black: "Over one tower floated a single banner, all of grey." -- grey is the color of death, right? Is this a mourning banner out of respect for Baritt's passing, then? Sort of like flying the flag at half-mast when an important person has died? And Vlad must recognize that sign, because he asks "who died?" as soon as he sees Morrolan.
- Sandball is a game played in teams, which can be played in a park. Vlad doesn't play it, and there's no description of it. And there's also squareball, which it sounds like just requires a ball and a field that can be drawn on the ground, so I assume this is something like soccer, because the ball is made by wrapping a bunch of rope around a rock, so it can't be anything that requires a bouncy ball, or a light one.
- A psiprint is recognizable by a "peculiar mix of sharp and fuzzy areas".
- Fornia, at 2000+ years, is considered old. He is also "A sorcerer of some repute. Battle magic, mostly." and was Imperial Sorcerer for a few hundred years before the Interregnum -- which might explain why Morrolan felt he had to beef up his sorcerers with the Necromancer -- and I guess Sethra the Younger is Court Wizard at this point, actually? (she is stripped of that title in Yendi) Also, is Imperial Sorcerer the same as Court Wizard, or are those two different positions XD And of course Morrolan also has Sethra Lavode, who is both the most powerful sorcerer and the greatest general in history. His deck is kind of stacked XD
- Captain Cropper is even older, "probably getting close to three thousand."
- Military stuff: The whole thing about the interplay of sorcery and armor. Wooden shields are still common, and wooden armor sometimes, and Lyorn warriors wear copper or bronze vambraces to show they're nuts. Also, I remember reading somewhere about the "javelin throwers" -- they have no other words for bows and arrows, which is so weird! But they do have marines.
- A Dragonlord funeral (at least at Baritt's level) takes about 10 hours and involves a bullock being sacrificed to his patron deity.
- "Close to eight feet" is "very tall" for a Dragaeran (Aelburr).
- The Necromancer's hands are very cold.
On a final an not book-specific note, I read this in iBooks, because that's where my e-copies live, and god, what a terrible program for reading books. Why does it not show the total page count? Why does it not show all of the highlights? (I don't mean the full highlight, although Kindle showing several more lines is definitely helpful), I mean when I go to Highlights, why is the first one displayed not the first one in the book? Who the fuck built this app and did any of them ever read a book in their life??
5. Nghi Vo, Into the Riverlands (Singing Hills #3) -- this was delightful! It took me a little longer to read it because I was somewhat underwhelmed by the second novella in the series, which was cute, but not anything near the polished, compact brilliance of The Empress of Salt and Fortune, the first book, and I didn't want to be underwhelmed again. But then this was on Kindle sale and I snapped it up, and then I was reminded that I had to nominate for Hugos and this is Hugo eligible and I haven't read any other 2022 novellas, and then once I started, I was just swept along by the store. The thing is, Chih is a handy observer/narrator and a pleasant person to spend time with, and Almost Brilliant, their neixin, is a neat idea and cute, but a little one-note, so the strength of each book comes down to the stories, the characters in the framing narrative, and the interplay between the two. And book 2 had the least interesting to me stories, and framing story characters who weren't that exciting, and the interplay between the two was kind of shallow. But in this one, I really enjoyed the stories -- they are about legendary heroes and bandits fighting each other, and I always seem to love those, whether they're in the form of Norse sagas or Greek myths or fantasy Asia, apparently; I loved the old couple Chih encounters/is adopted/press-ganged by, especially the bossy auntie; and I was really impressed by how the framing narrative and the stories ended up weaving together -- starting to get into spoilers I thought I had guessed a thing, and I did, inasmuch there's a single truth to stories (which this book aggressively argues that there isn't, which I also loved), but there were OTHER things it had not even occurred to me to guess about, because I assumed there was a one-to-one correspondence with the stories, and it was not that at all. So, like, I was pretty sure, from the time the old couple kick the bandits' asses when they are waylaid on the journey that they were going to turn out to be Wild Pig Yi and Gravedigger Chen, which delighted me, because I loved that story of the two of them coming together as foes and then as battle cmpanions and then as 2/3 of a poly triad apparently -- and I even wondered what had happened to the Beautiful Nie, the third part of it. But seeing the scar around Lao Bingyi throat at the end, which makes her the girl from Taiyuan was a shocking moment, even though it came after meeting Master Nie who pulled down the hall on top of the Hollow Hand wannabes. And I had been so convinced that the Beautiful Nie of the Wild Pig Yi story was a woman that I had to go back and reread the story -- and sure enough, no pronouns are used for Beautiful Nie at all, I had just completely assumed that from "famous beauty" trope and descriptions of slender pale hands and staying safely inside the palanquin. It's great! and a neat trick to pull off in a trim little novella, along with character building and worldbuilding and fun prose.
I liked the fight descriptions -- they were very vivid but not overdone -- I think having everything be from the POV of Chih the frightened layperson observer staying out of the fighting was very helpful there. I liked that even though Chih and Sang did not fight alongside the ass-kicking old couple and legend-in-the-making warrior girl, the narrative very deliberately took the time to show them doing something of value, helping the children and the wounded, Sang bandaging wounds and Chih keeping the children occupied with their stories. I liked the echo of Wild Pig Yi in the young warrior girl, who also doesn't belong in civilized places. I liked the neat way the "flower line" in the hall is also more than it seems (like the various people Chih meets) -- that at first they think that keeping the children inside it is a clever way to keep them away from the windows (and seeing the slaughter outside) -- but then it turns out that it's also the part of the hall that remains untouched when Master Nie collapses the rest of it, smashing the Hollow Hand. I really liked the echo of the initial cleanup, organized by Lao Bingyi after the fight over tea where they all meet in the clean-up after the battle at the end, which she approaches with the same attitude. The worldbuilding details are so neat in this world, the stolen silkworms, the allusions to magical/mythical things like "when foxes turn a hundred, they give the moon a skull and turn into humans" or "but on the third day the moon disappeared to tend to his other wife" (which may or may not be true; certainly there seems to be a lot of real magic afoot). And the dialogue is great, this wonderful mix of casual and mythic that feels very true to actual myths, in a way I've seen very few narratives get right -- and the blend of action is similarly down-to-earth and epic, which for me is the hallmark of this series. And just some really fun prose:
"'What impudence!' she said, with the kind of diction that could get away with saying things like impudence."
"Cleric Dung, who had a special interest in tales of governmental corruption and comeuppance, would be delighted" [by the story of the governor who was supposed to pave the road but spent the money on a dancing boy from the capital instead]
"we do find that most of the women who make it into the archives and histories are called beautiful [...] And in the stories at least, if a woman is not beautiful, then of course she must be ugly if she is there at all."
"They weren't brave, and despite the shaved head and the indigo robes, they weren't particularly virtuous, but more than anything else, they were curious, and sometimes that could stand in for the rest."
"Even the northern countries occasionally come down to bite us and make sure we're still too mean for invasion."
"when some bandit sets up as a ruler, the usual response is to call them what they want to be called and then not to cry very much when the next murderer comes in."
"Wei Jintai gave no indication that she was meant to be at a disadvantage."
"'And of course,' he said with a real vanity that was pretending to be a false vanity, 'and of course I would not mind it if you told them how handsome I was while I did it.'"
"They'll tell stories about Wei Jintai if they've not already started [...] You have one now. I imagine you even think it's the truth."
"Singing Hills knew that the truth showed up in its own time, often late and sometimes entirely unlooked for."
*
I did some very, very cursory nominations for the Hugos, just because I'm eligible and I'll forget in the next week if I don't do it now. Best novel; best novella (the one above); Lodestar, for a book I'm halfway through; Best Series; Astounding with 1-2 things nominated apiece; and I need to remember to go add in a Pro artist -- definitely the sparsest ballot I've ever submitted. I don't think I'll be getting a supporting membership this year -- partly it's that I don't think anything likely to end up on the ballot is something I'm going to care all that much about (unlike in past years when I had strong favorites I was really rooting for), but I'm also not comfortable with Lukyanenko as GOH (I've read a lot of his books, and I still like them, but I don't want to be associated with/help fund a thing that celebrates the man and his current positions).