Pam's Book Log

23 August, 2003

I am having a difficult time figuring out what to say about this book. Reason being, it's not a real novel. Rather, it is one-third of a novel, and it's hard to develop an accurate opinion of a story when it's only just begun.

I really shouldn't complain, because I knew what I was getting into when I started this book. It says, right at the beginning, "The Viscount of Adrilankha, Book One, The Paths of the Dead, In Which We Introduce the Principle Actors in Our Drama, and most of Them Set Out on Diverse Missions." That, right there, summarizes about 90% of the book's plot. Brust introduces a boat-load of characters, most of whom do nothing at all in the book apart from traveling from Point A to Point B, for various values of A and B.

That's not to say it's a bad book, not by a long shot. I doubt Brust could write a bad book if he tried. It's just that it's frustrating, because there's no sense of closure at the end of The Paths of the Dead; it just stops. Which, I suppose, might be a strong incentive for me to run out and buy the next installment, which just came out in hardcover, except I know that I'd just have the same sense of annoyance when I finished that one, and I'd also have another large book, and nowhere to store it.

I am sure I will be unable to resist reading The Lord of Castle Black as soon as the L.A. Public Library gets a copy, because I have no self-restraint when it comes to books. However, I think it would have been better for me to have not started The Viscount of Adrilankha until the entire book was available.

As Pel or Tazendra would say, "Bah."

That being said, a few random notes:

The titular Viscount is named "Piro." This caused some unfortunate cognitive dissonance, since I associate that name with one of the main characters of Megatokyo, and Piro-the-Tiassa is nothing whatsoever like Piro-the-webcomic-character. I suppose I should just be glad that Khaavren didn't name his son "Torg."
What's up with "How to Write Like Paarfi of Roundwood"? Explaining why a joke is funny never makes it funnier for people who already get it, and doesn't make it funny for people who didn't. I do like Steven Brust's "Cool Stuff Theory of Literature."
All my whinging aside, this is a really good 1/3 of a book, a worthy 1/3-of-a-successor to The Phoenix Guards and Five Hundred Years After. I'm really only complaining because it's good and I want more, and I want it now.
On the cheesy personal front, I found Chapter the Twenty-Fifth, "In Which Tevna the Pyrologist Came to Play a Small Yet Crucial Role in History," to be rather inspiring (and boy, do I need it these days). "Instead of asking what you could do, you ought to have been asking what needs to be done." Words to live by.