No, I'm not trying to talk like Paarfi ('few'). Just a collection
of comments without a common thread. No direct spoilers, tho a few
allusions will be made.
Overall, I enjoyed the read. On the other hand, it wasn't up to
the normal standards of books that I feel compelled to buy in
hardback. This is not to say that I won't continue buying Brust
in HB; he'd need a number of more misses to drop off of that list.
IMHO TVOA was the weakest of the three Paarfi novels (counting TPG
and FHYA as #1 and #2). One problem was that it lacked much of the
interaction between the original Gang of Four, and instead spread
the focus across many (too many, IMHO) other characters who weren't
as well-developed nor as likable. IMHO those problems were most
glaring in this last third. This might be at least partly due to
the publication in thirds, I didn't reread LOCB and POTD before
starting SL.
There was a lot more reacting than acting. The crew of TPG drove
the events around them, while Piro et al tended to be tossed around
by events. Conversely, the best points came when small groups of
characters talked and acted at the same time, cf Ibronkas conversations
with (oh shoot, brain fart -- her female bosom buddy . . .), Khaavrens
discussions with the Countess, etc. These were also the best
Paarfiisms of the book, and I enjoy a good Paarfiism.
There were some really memorable moments -- Khaavren kneeling to the
Empress and enumerating his failures while standing his grounds;
Tazendras last utterance of the novel; the Empress reassigning her
discreet, others.
There were a couple of times it seemed that semi-major plot points
had been cut from the narrative. This isn't necessarily a bad
thing; you can't have *everything* happen on-stage. But more
Paarfiisms about why he's not showing you what some other character
is telling you would have been welcome.
And on that front, either my brain has learned to undectably translate
Paarfi on the fly or the Paarfi-isms got fewer and further apart.
Perhaps it's time to put him to rest, or at least keep him to shorter
length.
In many ways, this was almost completely free of Vladish implications.
That's good news for the reader in that it makes pretty much the
whole Paarfiad (great tag, whoever coined it) spoilerless with
respect to Vlad and vice-versa. It also means that Vlad devotees
who hate Paarfi may safely avoid it -- which is probably not good
for Brust, come to think of it. :-)
I especially appreciated the human fallibility of the characters.
It's nice to see an adventure novel where the heros are as likely
to make mistakes as the villians.
On a purely personal front, I'm disappointed we didn't see more of
Sethra in this last volume. Instead she's mostly off-scene and we
learn little or nothing new about her. She was the title character,
after all. But then again, this was really volume three of 'The
Viscount', not 'The Adventures of Sethra Lavode'.
Steve
--
"Many men stumble across the truth, but most manage to pick
themselves up and continue as if nothing had happened."
- Winston Churchill