Dragaera

The Man from Shemhaza (SPOILERS)

Tue Feb 22 12:06:26 PST 2005


-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Olson - SunPS [mailto:Chrisf.Olson at Sun.COM] 
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2005 6:46 PM
To: dragaera at dragaera.info; philiph at slac.stanford.edu
Subject: Re: The Man from Shemhaza 

Philip Hart wrote:
> On Mon, 7 Feb 2005, Chris Olson - SunPS wrote:
> 
> > If anyone hasn't read it, it's from the latest Thieves' World book.
> > I highly recommend it--for Steve's story, if for nothing else.
> 
> Will it make sense to those unfamiliar with the world?

>Yep.  I've only read a couple of the old
>Thieves' World books myself.  And it can
>also be read without having read the other stories
>in the book.  (I was rather proud that I didn't
>jump straight to Steve's, but read the whole thing
>through.:)

Ok, I have to disagree. I read the story and I just don't get it. I thought
maybe it was because I haven't read any other Thieves' World books ever.
Here's what I found confusing (SPOILERS AHEAD):
Mr. Brust usually does us the kindness to put in clues for the unexpected,
which are meaningless at the time but after you get surprised you suddenly
go "ah ha! That's what that meant!" When the protagonist said he was the
killer I was completely taken aback. I went back through and looked and
everything was pretty convincing that he was innocent, particularly where he
thinks he's being questioned "under the Orb" (some lie detector variant of
that world, anyway). So I have to admit, I was disappointed.

There were other things I liked, such as the cresca, although I was mad when
he broke it, and the three types of audiences. :)

Rachel