Dzur through Iorich
Oct. 11th, 2017 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishThe Great Big Dragaera Reread, part 5
VALLISTA HAS SHIPPED! *happydance* Guess I'll have to keep cracking on these. SUCH HARDSHIP.
It's interesting to move from "books I've reread so many times they're like old friends I've not seen in awhile" through "books I know pretty well and enjoy getting reacquainted with" and on into "books I like a lot but don't know as well as I could, or as I think I do."
"Klava with Honey"
Vlad goes into a fancy restaurant and meets a Dzur hero. An early draft of part of the prologue to Dzur. I paid money for this and regret it: there's nothing wrong with it but it's nothing new. Learn from my mistake.
Dzur
Wiseass ex-assassin returns to a city filled with people who want to kill him, and embroils himself in criminal intrigue while trying to save his ex-wife. This ends ... much less poorly than you might expect.
Dzur mostly refuses to stick in my memory. It's not bad by any means, it's just ... not quite notable? I don't know. It's interesting to see Vlad getting used to Lady Teldra, and it's neat to see him returning to his old stomping grounds, but ... eh. I don't know. I don't have much of a response to this one.
Fragments are what I recall, mostly. Verra ("How's that working out for you?" "Mixed.") and Mario. I enjoyed the tiny bits of conversation with Telnan the Dzurlord during the framing meal. I remembered there being more of those, and fewer that were just snippets of "food is awesome." (The description of the meal, and of the art of eating, fills the senses wonderfully, but is not really worth the price of admission on its own.) I certainly appreciated the return of the Demon, and Kragar and Cawti. I guess it just feels slight, and something of a letdown after the long post-Issola wait.
Jhegaala
Wiseass ex-assassin on the run takes a trip to visit his extended family. When they turn up dead, he gets involved in local intrigues. This ends poorly for everyone concerned, although perhaps least poorly for him.
Cripes this is a depressing book. Very well-written, very well-constructed, and very very grim. Most everyone is hiding something, and Vlad thinks he knows what's going on and is generally entirely wrong, and the consequences of that fall sometimes on him and sometimes on other people who may or not deserve it. (See also Athyra, which comes chronologically right after, although there's certainly room for another book or two between.)
Despite that, and despite the lack of amusing secondary characters, it may actually be one of my favourites, on this read. I am certainly impressed by it. The Vlad/Loiosh banter helps keep the tone a little less somber than it could be, which makes it a not unpleasant read.
Iorich
Wiseass ex-assassin's friend is imprisoned on semi-spurious charges, and for reasons that aren't entirely clear he decides he needs to risk his life to bail her out. Amazingly, this ends well for pretty much everyone.
(Ha, the Jhereg/Orca scheme is what Greycat et al were plotting back in FHYA. Advantages of rereading everything close together.)
I sort of feel like this is the book that Dzur wanted to be. It's even got similar meditations on the desirability of "rescuing" people, and the ability to do the same. Hm, to the extent that there's a "classic" Vlad book, this is one: Vlad flails around trying to figure out a problem and eventually comes out on top, with help from his friends. I guess others would be ... Jhereg, Yendi, Taltos (the main plot, not the backstory bits), Orca, and Dzur. Maybe Issola, though there's a lot more going on in that one.
But it's also a character-development book, like Teckla or Phoenix or Jhegaala. Vlad's changed by his experiences: with the "justice" system, with the Empress, with Cawti. I'm deeply interested to see where he goes from here.
VALLISTA HAS SHIPPED! *happydance* Guess I'll have to keep cracking on these. SUCH HARDSHIP.
It's interesting to move from "books I've reread so many times they're like old friends I've not seen in awhile" through "books I know pretty well and enjoy getting reacquainted with" and on into "books I like a lot but don't know as well as I could, or as I think I do."
"Klava with Honey"
Vlad goes into a fancy restaurant and meets a Dzur hero. An early draft of part of the prologue to Dzur. I paid money for this and regret it: there's nothing wrong with it but it's nothing new. Learn from my mistake.
Dzur
Wiseass ex-assassin returns to a city filled with people who want to kill him, and embroils himself in criminal intrigue while trying to save his ex-wife. This ends ... much less poorly than you might expect.
Dzur mostly refuses to stick in my memory. It's not bad by any means, it's just ... not quite notable? I don't know. It's interesting to see Vlad getting used to Lady Teldra, and it's neat to see him returning to his old stomping grounds, but ... eh. I don't know. I don't have much of a response to this one.
Fragments are what I recall, mostly. Verra ("How's that working out for you?" "Mixed.") and Mario. I enjoyed the tiny bits of conversation with Telnan the Dzurlord during the framing meal. I remembered there being more of those, and fewer that were just snippets of "food is awesome." (The description of the meal, and of the art of eating, fills the senses wonderfully, but is not really worth the price of admission on its own.) I certainly appreciated the return of the Demon, and Kragar and Cawti. I guess it just feels slight, and something of a letdown after the long post-Issola wait.
Jhegaala
Wiseass ex-assassin on the run takes a trip to visit his extended family. When they turn up dead, he gets involved in local intrigues. This ends poorly for everyone concerned, although perhaps least poorly for him.
Cripes this is a depressing book. Very well-written, very well-constructed, and very very grim. Most everyone is hiding something, and Vlad thinks he knows what's going on and is generally entirely wrong, and the consequences of that fall sometimes on him and sometimes on other people who may or not deserve it. (See also Athyra, which comes chronologically right after, although there's certainly room for another book or two between.)
Despite that, and despite the lack of amusing secondary characters, it may actually be one of my favourites, on this read. I am certainly impressed by it. The Vlad/Loiosh banter helps keep the tone a little less somber than it could be, which makes it a not unpleasant read.
Iorich
Wiseass ex-assassin's friend is imprisoned on semi-spurious charges, and for reasons that aren't entirely clear he decides he needs to risk his life to bail her out. Amazingly, this ends well for pretty much everyone.
(Ha, the Jhereg/Orca scheme is what Greycat et al were plotting back in FHYA. Advantages of rereading everything close together.)
I sort of feel like this is the book that Dzur wanted to be. It's even got similar meditations on the desirability of "rescuing" people, and the ability to do the same. Hm, to the extent that there's a "classic" Vlad book, this is one: Vlad flails around trying to figure out a problem and eventually comes out on top, with help from his friends. I guess others would be ... Jhereg, Yendi, Taltos (the main plot, not the backstory bits), Orca, and Dzur. Maybe Issola, though there's a lot more going on in that one.
But it's also a character-development book, like Teckla or Phoenix or Jhegaala. Vlad's changed by his experiences: with the "justice" system, with the Empress, with Cawti. I'm deeply interested to see where he goes from here.