Tiassa and Hawk
Oct. 25th, 2017 02:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishThe Great Big Dragaera Reread, part 6
If I were really serious about this, I'd do an appendix that included the canonically non-canonical "A Dream of Passion" (see part 1), the hilariously terrible Jhereg graphic novel, the non-excerpt "Klava with Honey" (see part 5), and the not-by-Brust choose-your-own-adventure-book Dzurlord which is mostly interesting because Brust's introduction explicitly states Dragaera is modeled on Europe. However, my comic books and paperbacks are all in boxes, so you get what you get.
"The Desecrator" (online)
In which a bloodthirsty warrior meets a curious character and acquires an appropriate weapon.
Always nice to see non-Vlad viewpoints. (Marissa Lingen referred to the Vlad viewpoint as "First Person Asshole," which is ... not incorrect.) And it's always nice to get a bit of insight into minor characters, in this case Daymar the quintessentially irritatingly oblivious Hawklord. ("Oh. Then I guess what I do doesn't work, then.") Interesting how differently Telnan comes off as a narrator than he does when he's talking to Vlad in Dzur, too.
Tiassa
"Any point in a process looks like the process was leading up to it if that's as far as you’ve gotten."
One of the taglines for Pulp Fiction was "Three stories ... about one story." In Tiassa the "one story" is that of a small silver tiassa, sculpted by one of the gods, that seems to ... spark creativity? It's hard to say. "Tiassa dreams, and plots are born."
"Prologue"
In which Vlad gives the silver tiassa to Sethra. Cute, fun to read, light, good setup for the rest of the book. Strong implication of auctorial self-insert, which has I suppose been hinted at for several books now, and which I am eyeing warily in the hope that it doesn't go anywhere beyond an interesting/amusing conceit.
"The Silver Tiassa"
In which Devera explains how she got the silver tiassa, and why she's giving it to Vlad to hide. I appreciate getting a sense of how Devera interacts with time, and "He wanted his sword back" has to be one of the most satisfying reveals I've seen in ages.
"Tag"
Wiseass assassin lets himself get drawn into a scheme to defraud the Empire by the son of one of the Empire's high officials. Things are not as they seem, but it ends surprisingly non-poorly all around.
Pre-Phoenix Vlad bits have felt like throwbacks as long ago as Dragon. That's not really a criticism, and in any event this story's a lot more fun than Dragon. Vlad and Cawti being adorable will always be welcome, and Piro manages to be as irritating from Vlad's perspective as he promised to be from his own. Enjoyable.
"Whitecrest"
Beings of worldshattering power are attempting to break through into this world, and an object last seen in the possession of our favourite wiseass ex-assassin may be the best way to stop them. Things are not as they seem, as an ex-assassin, her ex-partner, and the current Countess of Whitecrest all discover.
Cawti the revolutionary interacting with nobility was easily worth the price of admission. This story was ... quiet, I think is the best way to describe it, despite being as action-packed and plot-heavy as any Vlad story. Maybe it's the third-person perspective. I appreciated the breather, in any event.
"Conception (An Interlude)"
Verra the Demon Goddess wants a grandchild, and decides that said grandchild should help her achieve her desire. This, as various characters say, is bound to be good. (It is. It sheds light on a number of minor mysteries while raising new ones, which is how such things ought to work out.)
"Special Tasks"
Our old friend Khaavren encounters a dying Easterner with an Imperial title. Khaavren tends to the Easterner's wounds, the Easterner vanishes, and Khaavren attempts to track him down. Things are not as they seem, but in this case they may well be less than they seem.
Three Paarfi books in a row were definitely too many. I was more annoyed than amused by this one, despite the joy of getting to see Vlad from Paarfi's viewpoint. Apart from that, this may be my favourite of the three main storylines, partly because Vlad and Sara are adorably hilarious.
"Epilogue"
Wiseass ex-assassin attempts to make right a failure from some time ago (see Athyra), and is successfully tracked down by our old friend Khaavren. They reflect.
Overall: I like Tiassa a lot. I like the braided storyline, with the silver tiassa statue woven throughout; I like how it's a mostly positive-attitude book; I like how things may be turning out alright for Savn the peasant. I like getting perspectives from so many different characters, Daro and Verra and contemporary-Khaavren and even Devera.
It does draw threads together from pretty much every previous book, though: on a scale of standalone to read-the-rest, this one is solidly in read-the-rest territory. That, again, isn't really a criticism, more a caution.
Hawk
Wiseass ex-assassin grows tired of being a constant target for assassination, and comes up with a complicated scheme to clear his name. It works, more or less.
Hawk and Sethra Lavode are the only books for which this is "first reread." I was underwhelmed my first time through Hawk; I like it a little better this time, and more importantly I can put my finger on what I didn't like about it. It's entirely about Vlad being clever. There's an extent to which the cleverness is the same as in "Tag," which disappointed me just a bit. Really, though, this is 'competence porn' in book form. Which shouldn't surprise me given the explicit nods to Leverage and Burn Notice. Thing is ... competence porn works best for me when I get to see multiple people being awesome. (Hm, Jhereg was like this, at least in the final act.) This is just Vlad, being smug about how awesome he's being.
That, I suspect, is a personal gripe. The book's well-constructed, moves along well and moves the metaplot along too... it's just stylistically not entirely my thing.
Aha, also Vlad doesn't really change much over the course of the book. Hence, the circling back around of the chapter titles. His situation's different, he's made a decision to stop running... now I really want to see the next book. Too bad for me Vallista takes place immediately /before/ Hawk.
If I were really serious about this, I'd do an appendix that included the canonically non-canonical "A Dream of Passion" (see part 1), the hilariously terrible Jhereg graphic novel, the non-excerpt "Klava with Honey" (see part 5), and the not-by-Brust choose-your-own-adventure-book Dzurlord which is mostly interesting because Brust's introduction explicitly states Dragaera is modeled on Europe. However, my comic books and paperbacks are all in boxes, so you get what you get.
"The Desecrator" (online)
In which a bloodthirsty warrior meets a curious character and acquires an appropriate weapon.
Always nice to see non-Vlad viewpoints. (Marissa Lingen referred to the Vlad viewpoint as "First Person Asshole," which is ... not incorrect.) And it's always nice to get a bit of insight into minor characters, in this case Daymar the quintessentially irritatingly oblivious Hawklord. ("Oh. Then I guess what I do doesn't work, then.") Interesting how differently Telnan comes off as a narrator than he does when he's talking to Vlad in Dzur, too.
Tiassa
"Any point in a process looks like the process was leading up to it if that's as far as you’ve gotten."
One of the taglines for Pulp Fiction was "Three stories ... about one story." In Tiassa the "one story" is that of a small silver tiassa, sculpted by one of the gods, that seems to ... spark creativity? It's hard to say. "Tiassa dreams, and plots are born."
"Prologue"
In which Vlad gives the silver tiassa to Sethra. Cute, fun to read, light, good setup for the rest of the book. Strong implication of auctorial self-insert, which has I suppose been hinted at for several books now, and which I am eyeing warily in the hope that it doesn't go anywhere beyond an interesting/amusing conceit.
"The Silver Tiassa"
In which Devera explains how she got the silver tiassa, and why she's giving it to Vlad to hide. I appreciate getting a sense of how Devera interacts with time, and "He wanted his sword back" has to be one of the most satisfying reveals I've seen in ages.
"Tag"
Wiseass assassin lets himself get drawn into a scheme to defraud the Empire by the son of one of the Empire's high officials. Things are not as they seem, but it ends surprisingly non-poorly all around.
Pre-Phoenix Vlad bits have felt like throwbacks as long ago as Dragon. That's not really a criticism, and in any event this story's a lot more fun than Dragon. Vlad and Cawti being adorable will always be welcome, and Piro manages to be as irritating from Vlad's perspective as he promised to be from his own. Enjoyable.
"Whitecrest"
Beings of worldshattering power are attempting to break through into this world, and an object last seen in the possession of our favourite wiseass ex-assassin may be the best way to stop them. Things are not as they seem, as an ex-assassin, her ex-partner, and the current Countess of Whitecrest all discover.
Cawti the revolutionary interacting with nobility was easily worth the price of admission. This story was ... quiet, I think is the best way to describe it, despite being as action-packed and plot-heavy as any Vlad story. Maybe it's the third-person perspective. I appreciated the breather, in any event.
"Conception (An Interlude)"
Verra the Demon Goddess wants a grandchild, and decides that said grandchild should help her achieve her desire. This, as various characters say, is bound to be good. (It is. It sheds light on a number of minor mysteries while raising new ones, which is how such things ought to work out.)
"Special Tasks"
Our old friend Khaavren encounters a dying Easterner with an Imperial title. Khaavren tends to the Easterner's wounds, the Easterner vanishes, and Khaavren attempts to track him down. Things are not as they seem, but in this case they may well be less than they seem.
Three Paarfi books in a row were definitely too many. I was more annoyed than amused by this one, despite the joy of getting to see Vlad from Paarfi's viewpoint. Apart from that, this may be my favourite of the three main storylines, partly because Vlad and Sara are adorably hilarious.
"Epilogue"
Wiseass ex-assassin attempts to make right a failure from some time ago (see Athyra), and is successfully tracked down by our old friend Khaavren. They reflect.
Overall: I like Tiassa a lot. I like the braided storyline, with the silver tiassa statue woven throughout; I like how it's a mostly positive-attitude book; I like how things may be turning out alright for Savn the peasant. I like getting perspectives from so many different characters, Daro and Verra and contemporary-Khaavren and even Devera.
It does draw threads together from pretty much every previous book, though: on a scale of standalone to read-the-rest, this one is solidly in read-the-rest territory. That, again, isn't really a criticism, more a caution.
Hawk
Wiseass ex-assassin grows tired of being a constant target for assassination, and comes up with a complicated scheme to clear his name. It works, more or less.
Hawk and Sethra Lavode are the only books for which this is "first reread." I was underwhelmed my first time through Hawk; I like it a little better this time, and more importantly I can put my finger on what I didn't like about it. It's entirely about Vlad being clever. There's an extent to which the cleverness is the same as in "Tag," which disappointed me just a bit. Really, though, this is 'competence porn' in book form. Which shouldn't surprise me given the explicit nods to Leverage and Burn Notice. Thing is ... competence porn works best for me when I get to see multiple people being awesome. (Hm, Jhereg was like this, at least in the final act.) This is just Vlad, being smug about how awesome he's being.
That, I suspect, is a personal gripe. The book's well-constructed, moves along well and moves the metaplot along too... it's just stylistically not entirely my thing.
Aha, also Vlad doesn't really change much over the course of the book. Hence, the circling back around of the chapter titles. His situation's different, he's made a decision to stop running... now I really want to see the next book. Too bad for me Vallista takes place immediately /before/ Hawk.