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

[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 :)