Brokedown Palace / Book of Taltos / Phoenix Guards

[jazzfish]

The Great Big Dragaera Reread, part 2

Aha, the Ace collected editions do have the Cycle poem, just at the beginning before even the title page.

I miss the original covers. Next time I'm reading my mass-market paperbacks.

(I am aware that I am not really posting, and am in fact engaging in some serious escapism. I'm overcommitted and somewhat burnt out right now, but I don't think I'm depressed.)

Brokedown Palace

"A tale of the East." A young prince returns to his estranged family and collapsing family home, and has to decide what he's going to do about them.

There's not a whole lot of plot here. I'm told the book started life as a Marxist allegory, and that showed through clearly on this reading: the princes as classes, the royal sword as the State, the ambitious guard captain as the military, etc. But they're also all solid characters, with their own motivations and desires and emotions. That's what makes the book worth reading.

And it provides for a great throwaway joke in Dzur, much later.

Side note: I read this in the Orb trade paperback reprint rather than the original Ace mass-market edition. I like that the Alan Lee ( <3 ) cover art is bigger, and I think I like the gothic title font more than the purple genero-fantasy. I much preferred the cover copy on the mass-market, though. It's subtle changes but, eh. Things like "... and a brokedown palace on the banks of the river of Faerie" speak more to me than "and a crumbling palace with jhereg circling overhead." I guess that's why I'm not a marketing-type person.

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Taltos

Backstory, in a couple of ways: half the book is Vlad's history up until he got his own territory, the other half is Vlad meeting Morrolan and Sethra and taking a trip to the Paths of the Dead to revive Aliera. I love backstory, and I love the intertwined structure of this book. For a long time it was my favourite of the Vlad books, and tied with Phoenix Guards for my favourite Dragaera. (Tiassa has since edged it out.)

Maybe to make up for the braided backstory, the main storyline is the most traditional-fantasy-quest plot of any of the Dragaera books. It's a well-done example of that, just not as intricate as I'm used to. Though I will happily trade intricacy for more of the cat-centaurs.

Also, Sethra and Aliera and especially Morrolan have a tendency to talk like they're in one of Paarfi's "histories".

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Phoenix

Less-wiseass-than-formerly assassin gets entangled in Imperial and international politics while trying to sort out his marital and personal problems.

Look, I don't know how to describe Phoenix. It's never been one of my favourites, and this reread has improved my opinion of it but only a little. Which is odd, because I like Teckla a lot better this time through, and Phoenix is a direct sequel to and logical extension of Teckla.

I think it's that I feel like it's trying, and not quite managing, to do too much. Either the Greenaere war or the Vlad-rethinking-his-life would be ... okay, they'd be about three-quarters of a book, maybe, and they do kind of need each other to make any kind of sense. Maybe it's that we're getting it from Vlad's perspective and his perspective is of necessity limited and confused, and that's what I'm reacting to. I don't know.

I greatly appreciate it as an inflection point in the series, though.

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The Phoenix Guards

The first of the "Paarfi romances," or what you get when Alexandre Dumas decides to write epic fantasy. Dragaeran analogues of the four Musketeers join the Phoenix Guards and quickly find themselves neck-deep in intrigues and swashbuckling.

I've loved this to bits from the first time I read it. It's deeply funny in odd ways that work for me, and filled with "scholarly" asides like Bengloarafurd Ford or the Inn of the Painted Sign, and it's downright fascinating to see the reinterpretation of the prologue from Brokedown Palace. There's little subtlety to the characters but much artistry in their adventures, and a genuine warmth and friendship that I appreciate. Definitely one of my top Brust books.

Comments

[davidgoldfarb]

I'm not a Grateful Dead fan, but apparently Brokedown Palace is full of references if you are. The only one I really know about is near the end, when the phrase "Here lady, here's your fan" appears -- and that, only because it was told me.... And the title itself is apparently the title of a Dead song.

If you read Taltos, Yendi, and Jhereg with an eye to time references, there are inconsistencies. Taltos has to take place years before Jhereg does, just from the relationships among the characters in the latter; but in Jhereg there's a reference to Yendi taking place "last year", and in Yendi Vlad says "I've only had my own area for half a year". I talked to Brust about this at a signing one time, and he handwaved that in the latter reference, Vlad meant "had" as "held securely", as opposed to "having in his own name". That's probably about the best that can be done.

[jazzfish]

I remember reading somewhere that all the city names on the (pretty but pointless) map of Fenario are literal Hungarian translations of Grateful Dead song titles.

Heh. Yeah. It seemed like the transition from Taltos to Jhereg was kind of abrupt.

Cracks and Shards used to be my go-to Dragaera website but it seems to be offline. :(

(also, do you know what the deal is with 'candlebud' in Phoenix Guards?)

[sereg_dragon]

I keep wondering about candlebud every time I reread it and still no clue.

[jazzfish]

At least I'm not the only one.

[davidgoldfarb]

It's been some years since I last read The Phoenix Guards, and I'm afraid I have no memory of candlebud whatsoever.

[jazzfish]

It's a flower with some special meaning to the conspirators. In the carriage-ride to the city, Allistar and Illista start at the casual mention of it, and Khaavren goes into detail about it (grows on the north side of hills, lights up at night). Later, Seodra suggests to, um, someone (Garland maybe?) that Captain G'aereth should be sent out to look for candlebud.

Very mysterious.

[davidgoldfarb]

When I googled "Candlebud", there was a third reference: Allistar and Illista again; Allistar is a social climber, and Illista conspires on his behalf.
"Does she? Does she go so far as to help him bring to the Consort rare flowers of which she is fond, such as candlebud?"

So...we perhaps infer from this that Allistar is having an affair with the Imperial Consort. I don't remember enough to say how that fits into the larger plot.

[jazzfish]

Huh. Must have missed that one. That does make it a little clearer.

Could be; part of the point is that the Consort's whims are at the centre of all the intrigues. Though Paarfi goes out of his way to insist that the Consort never actually consummates any affairs. Could be that Allistar is simply trying to have such an affair.

[davidgoldfarb]

It strikes me as entirely in character for Paarfi to insist that the Consort never goes through with things; and entirely in character for Brust to expect his audience to react with derisive laughter.

By the way, when you re-read The Phoenix Guards did you notice the reference to photic sneezing?

[jazzfish]

Ha, perhaps. Although in FHYA Greycat's co-conspirators seem to believe it as well, or at least they're skeptical of his ability to seduce the Consort.

I did! And it brought to mind the very interesting/amusing discussion about it on the Dragaera list many moons ago. (I dropped off the list in, o, probably 2003-ish, when I was being Overwhelmed By Events, and never got round to resubscribing.)

[davidgoldfarb]

I was part of that discussion. I don't think the list has been active for a long time, though.