(no subject)

[bjornwilde]

 Finished Dzur and OMG what a cute ending!!!

Also started Jhegaala and holy shit, Vlad is finding out about his mom?!?!?!?

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

This is making me want to reread Jhegaala (which I haven't done since it first came out), but my friend still has my book, drat!

[bjornwilde]

I'm just a few chapters in but it is interesting seeing him when he's surrounded by humans and not Dragaerians. It's also interesting to see things outside of the Empire.

[hamsterwoman]

Yeah, that was the most interesting part of the book to me -- Vlad having to deal with humans rather than Dragaerans as the, well, for lack of a better word, as the establishment.

[bjornwilde]

I’m about in chapter 5 now and I have to ask, he’s doing a Weatern this time isn’t he?

[hamsterwoman]

Oh wow, I never thought of it that way, but I think you’re right! Stranger comes to town and all that. And of course it’s actually an EASTERN, which seems like the kind of implied joke Brust would enjoy making XD

[bjornwilde]

(face palm) I didn't even think of that pun!

It could also be thought of as an old Kurasawa flick, like Yojimbo or such like.

I realized a danger to the idea of my playing him in the online game I am involved in. He'd be around humans a bunch, and so the weirdness in this book wouldn't be as pronounced. Not a huge thing, and I could likely work around it, but it makes me want to really look at how the game might influence other aspects of his canon. The basic idea of the game is a bar anyone, for any work of fiction can wander in and rube shoulders with characters, and they are able to pass back to home if they wish.

[hamsterwoman]

Not familiar with the Kurosawa movie, but sounds like it inspired a bunch of westerns, so that probably still fits...

And hmm! I knew about the bar setting but didn’t realize characters went back and forth between bar and canon. I guess you could start him off post Jhegaala, but as you say, I’m sure there would be other effects, too (And Vlad is one of those protagonists who changes quite a lot over the course of the canon)

[bjornwilde]

People do bring characters in from different periods of their life/age all the time, so it would be easy enough to play with the sliding times of Vlad's books. I was thinking of just having him follow where ever he was in whatever book, starting with the first when he gets Loiosh. After I reflect on how the bar might break or warp canon and how to adjust for that. I know some players are loose with effects on canon but I try my best to respect it as best I can.

At the least I can have Vlad just feel weird about being around his humans vs those other humans. He does seem very good at compartmentalization.

[bjornwilde]

I’m near the end now, after his capture, and I think I’d say this book is more like the cult/witch horror movies if the 70s now.

[hamsterwoman]

Also not a genre I know :P

But anyway, I'm hoping you are enjoying/have enjoyed the book despite the darker turn!

[bjornwilde]

I am very much loving it! And it reminded me that Vlad has been tortured before, which I forgot. I do like how Brust writes how the torture effects Vlad and pretty much hand waves the gory details.

[hamsterwoman]

Yeah, I also really like that approach -- the actions themselves are elided, but the severity of it comes through very clearly in the effects on Vlad and the aftermath.