we interrupt this programme
Jul. 31st, 2020 09:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishWhen I did my Great Big Dragaera Reread a couple years ago, it turned out that I still adored The Phoenix Guards, was so-so on Five Hundred Years After, and maybe reading three Paarfis in a row was too much to really enjoy the Viscount of Adrilankha trilogy. I'd heard rumours that Brust's next book was going to be another Paarfi, and this did not precisely fill me with quivering anticipation.
(The Paarfi books are essentially Alexandre Dumas's Three Musketeers books, grandiose prose and all, rewritten for Brust's longstanding fantasy world. In-universe, they're written by a "historian" at roughly the same time as the main series is set, but they're recounting events from a generation or two previous. The authorial voice comes through very strongly and very pleased with itself; the dialogue follows Dumas's optimization for being paid first by the word and then by the line.)
How do you get me interested in a new Paarfi book?
Make it a retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo.
The Baron of Magister Valley: ordered.
It will certainly be a bit of a change from the more subtle smiles in JS&MN.
(The Paarfi books are essentially Alexandre Dumas's Three Musketeers books, grandiose prose and all, rewritten for Brust's longstanding fantasy world. In-universe, they're written by a "historian" at roughly the same time as the main series is set, but they're recounting events from a generation or two previous. The authorial voice comes through very strongly and very pleased with itself; the dialogue follows Dumas's optimization for being paid first by the word and then by the line.)
How do you get me interested in a new Paarfi book?
Make it a retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo.
The Baron of Magister Valley: ordered.
It will certainly be a bit of a change from the more subtle smiles in JS&MN.