>SPOILER SPACE > For Thieves' World: Enemies of Fortune > short story by Steven Brust > The Man from Shemhaza > > > > > Hi, You shouldn't be reading these emails/postings until after you have read the story once and maybe twice looking for things. > > > melalvai (Rachel) wrote on Tue, 22 Feb 2005 14:06:26 -0600 >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!" But sometimes these clues are from other books in the River of Sleep. I mean Vladiad and the Paariad. I think the clues are in The Man from Shemhaza, but they still seem meaningless for now. Chris Olson wrote on Tue, 22 Feb 2005 12:23:24 -0800 >Hmm...I'll read it again and look for clues, but the lack of them >doesn't mean it's a bad story, or even that one need read other >Thieves' World stories to understand. ... >I thought it was grand, took me by surprise, and loved every second >of shock I felt. I agree. Hi, Thank you for putting the word SPOILER in the subject line. I did not even risk opening the emails. I was actually thinking about reading the whole book first too. But then I couldn't read your emails for a while. So I went ahead and read it. After the shock, the thought was Auggh, totally evil guy...don't know if I want to read stories about a totally evil guy...it does not seem like Steven to create a character that is totally evil. So then I could read your emails. So I reread the story again looking for clues. Now maybe these aren't clues and maybe they are meaningless. "'Can't help it,' I said grinning. 'That's the beauty of the cresca; it's a naturally happy instrument.'" Seemed like an odd answer to the question. The Song "The Man from Shemhaza" is a study in contradictions, impossibilities and two-sidedness (Is that a word?). Plenty of clues there...if they mean anything. "One who follows the Old Ways" "I screamed a whisper, if you can imagine such a thing. 'Put it away. Now!'" Someone stopped grinning along the way. Smiled after that. After three days, a chuckle. Okay, maybe there was not much to smile about at that point. But, I am pretty sure the grinning stopped. And look it was *three* days. "I don't remember telling you about it." "but how are you going to survive keeping it?" "after years of work" Couldn't he have just done what the other person did? See there is something else going on. "the warmth I felt from it filled my soul." Does that help, Rachel? I thought it was nice that Steven had created a character whose short name was a registered trademark...then at the end I thought it was not so nice. I wondered what it meant. I wonder if those at the registered trademark wondered too. Hopefully, Steven will write further stories about The Man from Shemhaza. Based on Liavek, there is a good chance that may happen and therefore you should really read this story sometime. Bye. Linda G.