"rends and then rebuilds"
Nov. 3rd, 2017 04:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishSteven Brust, Vallista
Vlad Taltos #15
Wiseass ex-assassin offers to help out a very strange little girl and finds himself trapped in a very strange haunted house. Certain worldbuilding questions are answered in ways that make it look suspiciously like the author had them planned all along.
As has been the case since at least Athyra, and arguably since Teckla, Vlad books are mostly recognisably Vlad books but each one is doing something a little different. Which is neat; means that new ones feel familiar but not too same-y. It also means that occasionally they go pretty far afield into territory I'm less fond of. Athyra was one of those, at least up til my most recent reread. Vallista is another.
So: this is a ghost-story, and/or a haunted-house novel. (The chapter titles are all puns on famous ghost stories or haunted house stories, in addition to being relevant to the content of chapter in question.) As a Vlad novel this doesn't really work for me, possibly for the same reason that Dragon, as an in-the-army-now memoir, doesn't. That being: it's either the genre itself, or the way it's employed in the Vlad books, and I'm not sure which.
To the extent that there's a typical Vlad-novel structure: Vlad is presented with a problem; he flails around getting more information, often while trading snark with his friends; he eventually does something that brings a sort of resolution. I like this structure. It usually works for me. Vallista follows it, but not in a way that I enjoyed.
Partly this is, and I keep harping on this, the lack of secondary characters. I think more of it has to do with the nature of the flailing. The house Vlad and Devera are trapped in is weird, in lots of ways. Doors go to different places in the house, or outside it; members of the household are less than helpful in unexpected ways. I've run RPGs like this and enjoyed them; my players seem to have also enjoyed them; I think I'd enjoy playing in one. It's ... I was going to say "it's not a fun formula for a novel, for me," but no, Issola did something very similar, and I liked Issola quite a bit. So I guess it does go back to the lack of secondary characters. Loiosh helps but he's not quite enough on his own.
So: not a favourite but I'm glad I read it, and would happily reread. If you wanted more Devera: Vallista has more Devera than any book thus far, though not as much as you want. If you wanted more metaplot: Vallista has more metaplot than any book thus far except Jhereg or Issola, and even those are arguable. If you wanted to know what happens after Hawk ... hopefully that's coming soon.
Vlad Taltos #15
Wiseass ex-assassin offers to help out a very strange little girl and finds himself trapped in a very strange haunted house. Certain worldbuilding questions are answered in ways that make it look suspiciously like the author had them planned all along.
As has been the case since at least Athyra, and arguably since Teckla, Vlad books are mostly recognisably Vlad books but each one is doing something a little different. Which is neat; means that new ones feel familiar but not too same-y. It also means that occasionally they go pretty far afield into territory I'm less fond of. Athyra was one of those, at least up til my most recent reread. Vallista is another.
So: this is a ghost-story, and/or a haunted-house novel. (The chapter titles are all puns on famous ghost stories or haunted house stories, in addition to being relevant to the content of chapter in question.) As a Vlad novel this doesn't really work for me, possibly for the same reason that Dragon, as an in-the-army-now memoir, doesn't. That being: it's either the genre itself, or the way it's employed in the Vlad books, and I'm not sure which.
To the extent that there's a typical Vlad-novel structure: Vlad is presented with a problem; he flails around getting more information, often while trading snark with his friends; he eventually does something that brings a sort of resolution. I like this structure. It usually works for me. Vallista follows it, but not in a way that I enjoyed.
Partly this is, and I keep harping on this, the lack of secondary characters. I think more of it has to do with the nature of the flailing. The house Vlad and Devera are trapped in is weird, in lots of ways. Doors go to different places in the house, or outside it; members of the household are less than helpful in unexpected ways. I've run RPGs like this and enjoyed them; my players seem to have also enjoyed them; I think I'd enjoy playing in one. It's ... I was going to say "it's not a fun formula for a novel, for me," but no, Issola did something very similar, and I liked Issola quite a bit. So I guess it does go back to the lack of secondary characters. Loiosh helps but he's not quite enough on his own.
So: not a favourite but I'm glad I read it, and would happily reread. If you wanted more Devera: Vallista has more Devera than any book thus far, though not as much as you want. If you wanted more metaplot: Vallista has more metaplot than any book thus far except Jhereg or Issola, and even those are arguable. If you wanted to know what happens after Hawk ... hopefully that's coming soon.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-04 05:18 am (UTC)(I enjoyed the book more than you seem to have.)
I was interested to learn that Vlad is a photic sneezer...and that, unless I miss my guess, Brust himself is not. He has Vlad looking towards the sun until he sneezes – but that's not how it actually works. In my experience, it's kind of a shock reaction: the light catches me in the corner of my eye, or I move from somewhere relatively dark to somewhere with a lot of glare, and I sneeze right then, or probably not at all. It's not something that builds up.
Do you know of somewhere that annotates all the chapter titles? I know most of them, but there's about half a dozen I don't get. (I have to admit I got the last chapter only after reading the first line of the epilogue.)
no subject
Date: 2017-11-20 10:31 pm (UTC)I suspect that I may have hit Dragaera saturation around the time of Tiassa. Two dozen books are a lot, even if many of them are shortish.
Interesting! It /does/ build for me, and sometimes I can use that to deliberately induce a sneeze when one is being stubborn. It's not very common, though; just common enough that I remember that it's a thing that happens to me.
I do not know of such a list. And there were several I didn't pick up on as well. A likely project for my next reread, whenever Tsalmoth or whatever comes out.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-11 08:39 pm (UTC)Why do I keep thinking Vlad has red hair, when I'm fairly sure the books are clear that he doesn't?
no subject
Date: 2017-11-14 04:43 pm (UTC)The cover of Yendi (I think) had Vlad with red hair. (The cover of Taltos / Book Of Taltos had him with curly dirty-blond hair.)