Dragaera

_Yendi_ [Was Re: Re-reading]

Wed Jun 30 17:34:20 PDT 2004

I got one e-mail from Mark and a bunch of duplicates (I assume)
>from you--let's see how many of these we get.  I apologize in
advance if it gets multiplicated, since I'm definitely not
going to apologize afterwards.

--- Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
> On Mon, 28 Jun 2004, Jerry Friedman wrote:
> 
> > --- Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote:
> > >
> >
> > > Someone's definition of "novel" is "long prose work with something
> wrong
> > > with it",
> >
> > That's a good one!  And I take the liberty to agree with the author:
> > the voice is fine.
> 
> As long as I'm posting bromides: Someone once said something like, "All
> books should be titled, 'How To Be More Like Me'".  It applies to the
> earlier Vladiad (while 'How I Can Be Someone Else' might apply later.)

That's a good one too, though it has a lot more exceptions.  Many
books are "How To Be More Like What I Wish I Were".
 
> > Spoiler warning for _Yendi_, I guess.
> >
> >
> >
> > For people like me, all the death that no one cares about
> > is disturbing.  Especially the SiG's guards.  Why revive
> > her but not them?  Were their souls destroyed?
> 
> General for the Vladiad/later Paarfiad.

Not entirely.  There are more deaths in _Phoenix_, for instance,
but Vlad at least seems to care.  And as I said, I'm particularly
bothered here because the SiG, who caused all the trouble, gets
revivified while her guards, who were just doing their job, may
well have had their souls destroyed.  Well, she is a friend of
the Empress.

> > I find it annoying that Vlad interrupts Morrolan *twice* when
> > Morrolan is about to give Vlad the clue that the SiG is a Yendi.
> 
> I only recall once - during the introduction of tSiG.

Also Chapter 12.
 
> > Also, it's got plot holes.
> 
> Something I always suspected, but ...
> 
> 
> > Why didn't it occur to Laris that he was putting himself in the SiG's
> > power?
> 
> It's sort of mutual - and she dies before he does, for one thing.  And
> of
> course it may have seemed like a good bargain at the time, or have been
> made out of necessity (perhaps due to a situation engineered by tSiG.)

True, that's reasonable.
> 
> 
> > Why does the SiG give Vlad a useful clue by sounding out Norathar on
> the
> > invasion of the East?
> 
> 
> Bad luck?  Compression of events by Vlad (perhaps he found out about the
> conversation through his Castle Black network)? 

I don't think so.  Asking Norathar's opinion doesn't make sense
unless, when the SiG asks, she knows Norathar is the Heir.

> Perhaps his reasoning was
> more lucky than rational and he added bolstering elements afterwards to
> make himself look more logical?
> 
> 
> > I'd think she's be focusing on how to keep Norathar from becoming
> > Empress, since N. is sure to want revenge and will have excellent
> > resources for finding out who slandered her parents.
> 
> A problem for another day (a nice war with the East might keep N
> busy, for example)?  The slander plot was really hard to figure out
> (by Dragaeran standards anyway)?

True, non-Yendis aren't very good at this stuff (compared to the
people who authors would like to be).  However, it's not going
to be hard to figure out at the point when the SiG asks.  Norathar
knows that her scan was falsified.  She knows (or from the SiG's
point of view, she can easily find out) that StY was involved.
All she has to do is have StY asked under the Orb who was in the
conspiracy.  As simple as that.  And this doesn't have to wait
for Norathar's accession.  If Vlad hadn't figured it out, the
Empress might easily put the justiciars to work as a favor to the
Heir and maybe the whole House of the Dragon.

The SiG might be able to save herself by killing StY--but then she
has no reason that we know of for caring about invasions of the
East.  Furthermore, she still isn't safe.  All someone has to do
is wonder about the mysterious Tierella--who is a powerful sorcerer
who looks like an Athyra and could successfully pass under a
false name?  Hm.

So the SiG has to kill N.  She has no reason to care about
N.'s views.

> > One point of the SiG/Laris plot is to disgrace Morrolan and
> > Aliera.  Well, that works--they intervene in a Jhereg matter.
> 
> Not publicly.  No death, no foul.

As far as I can tell, it's just as public as it would have been
if they hadn't intervened.  And the prohibition is specifically
on getting involved in Jhereg matters, not against killing
Jhereg.

> > they even found out who the Sword is?  Have they blown their
> > chances of becoming Warlord, which seems to be important to them?
> 
> Can't really see them bothering at this point.  Esp. as in any real war
> Sethra would likely run things.

Hm.  I'm pretty sure they both want to be Warlord (and Norathar
may be faced with an interesting decision).  As far as I can tell,
there were probably lots of wars fought without Sethra as Warlord,
even during her lifetime.

> > (Speaking of which, I don't think we ever found out why StY
> > wasn't working on invading the East now instead of thinking
> > ahead to the next reign.)
> 
> Can't see Z**4 approving, given her family situation and the pressure
> from the J.

At the end of _Issola_, Vlad seems to think Z might approve.

"Family situation"--is that what you call it?

> And the East is really a sideshow at this point - no
> invasion would survive post-Interregnum sorcery.  Unless there's some
> compensating breakthrough in witchcraft.

It's important to StY for some reason and important to Vlad for
obvious reasons.  And aren't parts of the East out of range of
the Orb?

> > [complaints about cool action bits excised]
> > (And I'm hoping to see Menthar again.)
> 
> [booksearch]  That would be the Phoenix Guard who pummels Vlad,
> and presumably meets a MonteCristoian end...

Well, maybe Vlad has moved beyond that.  It would be interesting
to see.

> 
> >  > By the way, why "YENDI"?
> >
> > Because Vlad comes to terms with--indeed, wallows in--the Yendi
> > side of his character?
> 
> Sorry, I meant, why does SKZB write "YENDI", using caps to underline?
> Many posters here write "_Yendi_".  I intended a link to the overloading
> of punctuational operaters discussion.

There are lots of people who use all caps for titles (which can be
misleading with a title like, say, _VALIS_.)  I think it was more
common than underscores when I was on NABOKV-L.

Jerry Friedman


	
		
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