Fandom Snowflake: Day Four

[brigdh]

Fandom Snowflake! I'm doing the thing!

Day 4: Comment to someone you haven't ever interacted with before or introduce yourself to someone you've interacted with and friend/follow them.

I've friended several new people recently (through the Yuletide friending meme) and have also been good and left comments on stories by new people. But, to make this a post, I suppose I could write up some introductory thing, but I am lazy. Instead, I thought- for both new people and old- go ahead and ask me any questions you might have!

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

I was randomly scrolling back through egelantier LJ today and saw that you mentioned you had read The Phoenix Guards. Dragaera is a bit of a non-existent-fandom obsession for me, so I wanted to ask you about that! I saw you hadn't read the Paarfi sequels yet (I think they just improve from there, but that's just IMO :), but was curious if you'd read the Vlad Taltos books, and just curious to talk to you about TPG (suggested sub-topics: how awesome is Tazendra?! :D)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I've read the first three Vlad Taltos books (in publication order rather than internal chronology) fairly recently- early last year. I quite liked them! I stopped there just because I got distracted by something else to read (my to-be-read list is epic in length) and intend to get back to the series eventually. I actually read The Phoenix Guards first, and then went back later to read the Vlad Taltos books. I would have gotten to both them and Five Hundred Years After much sooner, but I had a terrible time trying to find copies of it and Jhereg. Ebooks have made this much easier!

Tazendra is AMAZING. I love the voice TPG is written in- it's so fantastic even when nothing in particular is happening. The Vlad Taltos novels are also great, but are written in a much more standard sort of way, and I miss Paarfi's way of writing.

[hamsterwoman]

Yay, another person who knows Vlad! :DD

Book #4, Taltos, is my personal favorite, but Jhereg is a lot of fun, too! Teckla it took me a reread or two to actually come to respect if not exactly enjoy, and I think that's one case where reading in chronological rather than publication order highlights the strengths of it more.

I actually read The Phoenix Guards first, and then went back later to read the Vlad Taltos books

That must require quite an adjustment! I actually started reading TPG ages ago, in high school, without remembering who it was by or getting very far (this was one of those things where I just read the first chapter or two while browsing in a bookstore), and then read the Vlad books completely independently before finally taking the plunge on Paarfi years later and noticing that the beginning was oddly familiar.

I admit it took me a while to get used to Paarfi's narration, but by 500YA I was finding it fun rather than tedious, and it's rather contagious as a mode of expression, I find!

I was so not expecting the Porthos-analogue to be my favorite of the Phoenix Guards, but Tazendra is just so great! She and Pel are my favorites among the four, with a couple other characters joining them at the top of my list in the Paarfi sequels.

And the interplay between the Vlad and Paarfi books is really neat, too, I find. It's not omnipresent or anything, but the resulting "Easter eggs" are really great!

(The books *are* kind of a pain to find, although the omnibuses make it easier to at least get ahold of chunks at a time rather than one by one. And looks like from Dragon onward they're out in eBook. I was pretty surprised to find that the Paarfi books are all out in eBook, at least for Kindle, because I had a hell of a time tracking them down in hard copy when I finally read them a couple of years ago.)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ooo, if Taltos is your favorite, I'll look forward to that!

I feel like reading them out of order as I've done, I'm still trying to catch up to all the world-building, particularly in terms of what exactly Dragaerans are, or what each house means. I could look it up on Wikipedia, of course, but there's so many of them to remember! I think Loiosh might be my favorite character in the Vlad Taltos novels so far.

[hamsterwoman]

Taltos is the earliest in terms of internal chronology, and I definitely feel like it gives one a more solid feel for Vlad as a character (and his relationship with Loiosh! :), but I don't know that any of the books alone serves as a really good primer on the world-building/houses -- it's a stylistic thing, I think, where Brust really likes in media res worldbuilding, and you kind of have to flounder for a while before it starts making sense, but the more books you read the more sense it all makes.

There is a Dragaera wiki (Lyorn Records), and I do find their information on houses and places and stuff helpful (but there are unmarked spoilers here and there, including some major ones, so if you care about spoilers, I would suggest not clicking on things like character pages).

I think only a couple of houses are really present throughout the Vlad books, and with others they only become really important in the books they're named after. So, in diminishing order of importance (IMO), I would say the ones you need to keep straight are:

primary and secondary characters or important to understanding thereof:
Jhereg = mafia :)
Dragon = nobility, militaristic and proud
Issola = tactful diplomats
Hawk = (genius) space cadets
Phoenix = just the Empress, nobody else left
Orca = thugs, Vlad hates them
Dzur = TAZENDRA!! (and heroic types in general)

one-off characters and background color:
Teckla = peasants
Athyra = mad scientist types
Lyorn = librarians
Yendi = schemers, and nobody knows who they are
Chreotha = service sector, merchants and stuff
Tiassa = artists, mostly, but really Khaavren is the most significant one

even more one-off, or we haven't really met any:
Iorich = lawyers, only really important in the eponymous novel
Vallista = engineers and architects, but Vlad doesn't care about them, so they hardly ever come up
Tsalmoth = no idea, really
Jhegaala = ???

Loiosh is wonderful, and I love his relationship with Vlad. Morrolan is my obsession favorite, but I really like most of Vlad's recurring entourage, Loiosh, of course, and Kragar and Noish-Pa and Aliera.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you! This is all very helpful. I'm normally a big fan of in media res worldbuilding, but Brust seems to take it to an extreme.

[hamsterwoman]

He totally does take it to an extreme. The first time I was reading the books, I enjoyed them (because I'm a big fan of in media res worldbuilding too), but it was pretty hard to orient myself, so I just kind of let go and floated along, without trying to make sense of things overmuch. And I found myself enjoying them more on reread, when I understood more of what was going on (and I'm a person who typically doesn't reread books).

(If there's any sort of Dragaera clarification or anything that I could help with if/when you read further, just whistle! I'm more than happy to natter about these books, as you can see :)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I appreciate that, since I probably will have more questions. :D