Dragaera

Agyar (Agyar?/Sixth Sense Spoilers) (Was Re: Brokedown Palace)

Tue May 16 08:12:10 PDT 2006

It's not a huge deal. We discuss all of SKZB's books on this list and you
really can't discuss much about Agyar without acknowledging the fact that
it's a vampire story. I DID have the impression that it was supposed to be
non-obvious and I don't remember it being spelled out that clearly on the
cover blurb. Makes me wonder if there's been a change between printings. 

Anyway, the point is simply that even though all of us are familiar with
some of SKZB's work, it doesn't follow that we're all familiar with ALL of
his work. Every couple of months a newbie joins the list who's just
discovered one of the Jhereg books and is looking for other SKZB
recommendations to try out. Just because Agyar or Cowboy Feng's or even
Jhereg have been in print for over a decade, it doesn't remove the
responsibility we have as list members to keep the literary experience as
"pristine" as we reasonably can for our fellow list members. Emphasis on the
word "reasonably".

It doesn't mean stifle every bit of discussion. Someone just starting on
Jhereg might be utterly dismayed to find out the events of Teckla/Phoenix
beforehand, but as a list we need to discuss those things in order to hold a
discussion on Dzur. On the other hand, I think most of us respect the
spoilers in Orca, even though the book is several years old at this point
and pretty much everyone on the list has read it. The Agyar spoiler was, so
I thought, along those lines. If it's being pretty much printed on the cover
blurb these days, then that's apparently an incorrect impression. 

In any case, rather than argue semantics or degrees of "spoilerage", just
ask yourself if it would be a surprise at all to someone who hadn't yet read
the book. If so, then consider treating it as a spoiler out of deference to
those people. In the case of Agyar, if it's being pretty much spelled out on
the back cover then it's not really a spoiler any more, no matter what
SKZB's intentions might have been.

Oh, and I'd never seen _The Sixth Sense_, either. ;-)