This is a page where I'll slowly add some thoughts on
Steven Brust's books.
Hopefully, because he is publishing large volumes of work that
are of the quality we've come to expect.
Note: There has been a new and exciting development. A
Dragaera Mailing List.
This is sweet, because Steven (aka Steve, aka Mr. Brust, aka
Don't Draw to an Inside Straight) frequents it. Now, I realize
that only a geek would be excited about this. What a shock, you
found me out.
July 10, 2002: I've created a Steven Brust
FAQ in response
to questions that seem to keep coming up.
Cover Art: Stephen Hickman
Cover Design: Carol Russo
Dragon
Well, this was the first Vlad novel for a while, and does not
forge any new distance forward from Orca but does venture
back.
I really enjoyed this novel, and the lack of transitions at the beginning
of the chapters from what is happening to what was happening, or vise-versa
or whatever, didn't bother me. In fact, it struck me as reminiscent
of Taltos how the same thing was done, only with
the components of the spell used at the end.
Interesting Things We Learned
Pathfinder and Spellbreaker are somehow linked together and involved
with Godslayer.
Vlad is willing to go through great personal discomfort when
someone pisses him off. It's one of the reasons I like him.
Most Dragaerans have no idea how useful Loiosh really is.
Psychics are a different kind of 'magic' from sorcery and
witchcraft.
Barritt used a Great Weapon
Well, that's all for now. I'll have to re-read parts of Dragon to
find out what else I recall as interesting.
Cover Art: Stephen Hickman
Cover Design: Carol Russo Design
Issola
I just finished reading Issola. As usual a damn fine book.
There are a bunch of things that I find pretty interesting.
WARNING: Spoilers Included!
The book is good for a number of reasons. it is the classical
Vlad book, in that it has quick witty conversation and interesting
plots. It also provides a lot of detail (that I suspect hadn't been
thought of before) on the universe in which it exists.
I thought the handling of Savn at the beginning of the book was
less well done than I expected from Brust. He was treated as
a plot device that was worn out, and he wanted to get away from as
soon as possible. Given some of the published reports on how Brust
felt about Athyra and that we have a second book with him
as a major component (Orca) this is probably true. Still,
when I'm reading I don't want to be thinking, "Wow, he just threw
away a plot device he was tired of."
I enjoyed what I believe to be Brust's poke at all his fans, when
Vlad asks Lady Teldra if she's Mario. It amused me.
I also think Lady Teldra as Godslayer could be amusing. (This is
in spite of the fact that her death was tragic, and not in any
way amusing). I imagine the scene something like this:
...silently behind him and slid Godslayer between his ribs.
Godslayer: Pardon me, Master Soul, but I was wondering if you
could accompany me.
Victim: Who, in the name of Verra's extra knuckle are you?!?!
Godslayer: I apologize if I startled you, but I just happened
into this body you've got, and noticed you might be more comfortable
elsewhere.
Victim: Umm...well, ok, you seem pleasant enough.
There was also a definite shift in Vlad's tone. In the previous
novels I had gotten the feeling that Vlad was sarcastic as an
attempt at humor, and I might add, damn good at it. In Issola
it really seemed like it was more sarcasm used as a method to
obliquely express frustration and doubts. It definitely seemed
far less light hearted.
Typos
I went ahead and read some of the Usenet discussions after I read the
book. One of the things that I noticed was the number of people
commenting on typos. Now, when I read a book, I'm not even really
concious that I'm reading. It's like watching a movie in my head, and
as a result, the only misprints that bother me are ones that disturb
the continuity, like a bad splice in a film. These discussions really
seemed to me to be people who were being pedantic simply so that they
could use the word pedantic in a sentence. ;)
There was only one place
that something really jumped out at me. That was the
mistake where at the top of the page (p. 156)
Loiosh says 'I am cute' . The problem
is that it's not italicized, like the rest of Loiosh's coversations. This
threw me for a moment because the characters in the rest of the book
didn't seem stunned by Loiosh's sudden vocalization. Then I realized
it was a typsetting mistake. :)
Update: Looking back at it, I realized that it might actually
be typeset correctly. The problem is that as the first sentence of
the page, you don't realize the difference in italics because you
don't have text on either side to compare to. Not much you can do about
that.
Continuity Mistakes
Sethra says it's hard to kill the holder of a Great Weapon and Vlad
says it's happened once before. Actually, Vlad knows of twice. Once
when Morollan was killed, and the second when Barrit was killed. This second
one is more oblique, but we know he was assasinated, and we know he had
a Great Weapon. Some have asserted Pathfind wasn't really a GW until
Aliera gets it, but Morollan implies Barrit had it and used it as such
when he says that he accomplished things he shouldn't have been able to.
Vlad says he's never met a demon before. I don't remember the
source, but I'm pretty sure it's at the beginning of Issola
where he is reminiscing about Morollan battling a demon for control
of his soul. So, he has encountered a demon before, even if
they didn't have tea and crumpets.
Interesting Things Learned
We now know of more Great Weapons. So far they are:
Iceflame - Sethra
Pathfinder - Aliera
Blackwand - Morollan
Godslayer - Vlad
Unnamed - Zungaron
Garlic & Onions - Valabars
We also found out that the god's decide who comes back as undead, because
they still have work to do. I found this to be really interesting, as
Loraan came back as an undead. I suspect because Vlad's knives were
getting dull. It could be that Vlad is the god's equivalent of soap
operas, and they wanted to make sure that they would get good ratings
during 'Sweeps Week'.
What's Next
One thing I found a while ago was a topic on what was going to
be in Dragon. There was one person who was right on the
money, and it amused. There were also approximately 536 other
people who weren't even close.
I'm guessing I'm going to join the latter group.
I think the next Vlad book (not to be confused with the next book
on Draegera) is going to be a step back. I think it will cover
the period of time between Phoenix and Athyra and
will include whatever the incident is that cost Vlad part of a
finger. If I were to make a guess on title (assuming we stick
with house names) I would guess Dzur. He alludes to the fact
that he lost the finger while trying to evade a wizard who was trying
to eviscerate him, and he lost it to a sword. Since it seems that
Dzur are often warrior/wizards (i.e. Tazenda and Gregsomething, the
former captain of the Lavodes) that they are the likely subjects.
Given the fact that there isn't even a rumor that Brust has even started
a new Vlad novel, so I'm guessing at even the title, you would be a fool
to think I had a clue.
Who is Mario?
Ok, this is one of the favorite topics for fangirls to discuss.
Supposedly, Steve [1] has said that we have met
him. No, he isn't Kragar. We know he isn't Teldra. That only
leaves a crap-load of other characters.
I think it's the Demon. Why?
He appears after the Interregnum (sp) out of nowhere and kills
his way to the top of the organization. [Jhereg: 23]
His name. We now know that a demon is a being that can be
controlled by another. I hypothesize that the other he considers
himself controlled by, and the reason he chose the name, is Aliera.
His true name is unknown. [Jhereg: 23]
He's young. [Jhereg: 23]
He implies he could get ahold of Mario. This is reminiscent of
some of the conversations where Vlad doesn't do work, but
has a friend that does.
*sigh* Naturally if you do a Google
search for 'mario demon brust' you'll find that Steve has said it's
not the case. Damn. Additionally, I even address this now
in my own FAQ.
Paths of the Dead
Ok, I just finished POTD (12/5/02), and as is to be expected I
enjoyed it. The following are some of my thoughts:
I have never really payed much attention to typsetting (my
complaint about the Loiosh italics not withstanding). However, in
this case I was struck by the...um...elegance of the italics
used. They seemed to be perfect for the tone of the book, and to
boot, they are gorgeous. I know often typefaces are actually designed
by people for the publisher, whoever designed that did a good job.
I enjoyed the crossover characters. We get Miska, from
Brokedown Palace and Dortmond [pg 316]
from Dragon.
We also get Sethra the Younger and the Sorceress in Green.
(It took me a few minutes to remember where we had seen Dortmond)
A lot of people seem to be using sorcery, and doing so by
directly interfacing with amphoria. However, I thought you had
to be descended from the same line Adron was to do that...or at least
your soul had to be. Aliera talk about this in Jhereg, which
I don't have access to right now. Am I mis-remembering?
I enjoy seeing witchcraft being practiced as an honored skill.
After reading in this style for a little bit, you have to fight the
tendency to write in it.
I think we now know why sorcery got more powerful. The god's
"cleaned up some of the rough edges" on the Orb. [pg 197]
This book has a lot more mysticism in it than any other book
from Dragaera, with the exception of Brokedown Palace.
Why didn't Orlaan kill Piro when she met him?
Orlaan is very close to Loraan, the wizard who ends up with
Aliera's soul in a staff. However, Lorann was male, and an Athyra,
where as Orlaan (aka Grita) was a mix-breed. Update:
Steven answered this, and I have it in the
FAQ
Ibronka was the name of Vlad's grandmother, and someone else...
from Brokedown Palace I think, Britta's (sp) mother?
