On Mon, 5 May 2003, Greg Morrow wrote: #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. Which just goes to show again that tastes vary. I enjoyed seeing Vlad through Savn's eyes and mind. We'd never seen Vlad from anyone else's point of view before (unless you count Kelly, Paresh, et al.'s reactions to him, as reported by Vlad himself), and this POV was very different >from Vlad's and those of anyone else who'd met him. -- Mark A. Mandel http://world.std.com/~mam/Cracks-and-Shards/ a Steven Brust Dragaera fan website