Various Dragaera books (Brust)

[cahn]

Issola, Dzur, Iorich (rereads), Hawk (DNF), Vallista 3+/5. This is rachelmanija's fault, as so many things are, for posting about these books and how there was a ton of worldbuilding going on!

Well, originally it is D's fault, in the sense that when I was a wee grad student and he was a grad student of somewhat more seniority (I think this was around the time we started dating, actually), he fed me all the Brust books at that time (and tangentially all the Bujold, and some Iain Banks which I never did particularly like all that much).

Not coincidentally, the first Dragaera book that came out after I binge-read all of D's books (and then probably reread) was Issola. All the ones from that point on I have never reread and therefore have correspondingly fewer memories of.

Meanwhile, as I mentioned, rachelmanija said there was cool worldbuilding stuff in Vallista, which it turns out I hadn't read yet (I still had not read Hawk), so I figured I'd start a reread back at Issola. D is a completist and so we have copies of all the books, except as it turns out we somehow missed Tiassa, so that's the only one I haven't reread yet.

Halfway through Dzur I remembered why I'd stopped reading them. They're great caper books, but lately there hasn't been enough -- I now need to append this as "not enough things I understand" -- to hold me besides the capers. (Well, that and Loiosh, who remains my absolute favorite character in every single book. He is cute! (That is still probably my favorite line in any book.))

Vallista changed that, and I didn't even really get that it did until I went looking for the spoiler posts afterwards. So, yeah, there's some worldbuilding going on!


First, you should read this post by sholio and this post by rachel.

-Man, I'm glad sholio and rachel pointed out Dragaerans couldn't innovate and Vallista-magic-house-as-innovation was the sign that Adron's disaster had messed this up, because I so did not figure this out from the text but now that it's been said of course that's what's going on!

-Verra references the silver tiassa. Why is this important? (Now I'm wishing we had Tiassa!)

Also, I didn't finish Hawk (I don't think I finished it the first time either) at first because I thought Vlad was running a big con, and I just didn't want to hear about it if he was. (It seems to trip something similar to my embarrassment squick, for him to be running a con on people who are giving him a chance despite their better instincts.) I skipped to the end to find out he wasn't but of course a caper book is much less worth reading once you know the caper. Well, in any case, here's a note to myself for next time: it's okay, self, you can read it.


(I only read Vallista in June, the others in May, but I was always going to post about them as a group if I posted about them at all.)

Comments

[rachelmanija]

There's a lot of really great character stuff in Hawk, especially between Vlad and Kragar.

[cahn]

Ah! That's good to know; now I might actually go read it now instead of waiting until my memory of it has faded. (Which admittedly these days takes almost no time.)

[sholio]

rachelmanija pointed me over here! The worldbuilding in this series is so neat. I'm glad my and Rachel's posts were helpful!

I haven't read Tiassa yet, either.

[cahn]

They were very helpful! I saw a lot of that go past but managed to miss the key relation of the house to what Verra said :)

[rushthatspeaks]

Tiassa is kind of important for both overall plot and worldbuilding.

[cahn]

Definitely going to buy it, now that the gaping hole in our completist shelf has been pointed out :) and will reread it then. Will I understand it this time around? I don't remember any of the plot (see also: brain, especially long-term memory, has turned into mush) except that Devera was involved (I think?) but I think I must have been somewhat confused as to what was actually going on. Also I remember there was this silver tiassa that was important in that book and that Verra references in Vallista... wait... is it one of those things like we see in Vallista that points their way in the Paths of the Dead? Argh. I will just have to stop talking until I actually read it :)

[hamsterwoman]

So I came over to your DW from forestglory's post to see if you post about books, and the first thing I see is a post on Dragaera, aka that fandom I've been obsessed with for like the last 8 years XP

Hawk was my favorite of the recent Brust books, but I do love the Vlad capers/heists best. It did have a lot of great Kragar character stuff, as Rachel mentioned above, and some lovely Aliera and Morrolan moments, also.

I hope you don't mind if I friend you to keep up with your read/reread of Tiassa, and whatever else may follow :) (Also, we have a bunch of other interests -- Vorkosigan Saga, Tolkien, Gerard Manley Hopkins -- and multiple friends in common.)

[cahn]

:D Hi there!

Okay!... clearly I need to read Hawk. Fortunately my memory these days is super bad, so probably if I just wait a little while it'll reset and I'll be able to read it properly :)

Yes, would love to be DW friends! :D I mostly post about books, especially around Hugo season, although last year I fell head-first into opera, and although that's slowed down lately I have been posting a lot about that too :)

[hamsterwoman]

Hi! :D

I post a fair bit about books, too (and am working my way through the Hugo ballot), although I post also/more about day to day stuff with family -- but flisters are absolutely invited to skip over the RL and/or the book babble posts :)