Thomas FURNITURE ARTIST wondered aloud to the group:
>Re-reading it (yes, finished already) I believe I can say that though I
>almost burn with curiousity in regards to what Vlad and Loiosh were
>thinking, I did rather enjoy it being told from the viewpoint of Savn.
I disliked it intensely. In my impression, _Athyra_ is about forty pages
of story stretched out to 200 by the expedient of a POV character who knows
less than anyone else, *including the reader*. Ignorant POV characters are
no crime in storytelling, but their most effective use is to smooth
exposition--you can tell exposition to an ignorant character to mask
telling the reader.
But Savn was ignorant of things we already knew. For me, at least, that
meant I spent most of the book going, "Yes, that's Vlad. Yes, that's
Loiosh. Yes, I know why an Easterner acts like a Jhereg and has a
jhereg. Yes, this, yes, that, yes, I know this other thing already, too,
just tell the blasted story."
Plus none of Vlad's usual supporting cast? Bah.
--
"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're
crazy."--Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist in his project to
drill for oil in 1859.
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