Athyra, Orca, Dragon
Sep. 29th, 2021 04:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silverflight8CAN'T STOP WON'T STOP
I think since I read Phoenix I have read the next seven books in a row, and it's only taking this long because I couldn't get hold of these four for a bit (thanks againhamsterwoman for getting me copies!!) I'm trying to pace myself but it's hard.
*It was both interesting and disappointing to get the story through Savn. I think Savn is an interesting narrator, especially since most of the audience that we've been interacting with so far looks down on the Teckla, with the exception of Kelly's group. His perspective is also severely limited because of his life circumstances and how much he's been exposed to - he's never left his home, and despite his 90 years of age (probably triple or quadruple Vlad's) has almost certainly seen far less than Vlad has. I do really like Vlad's narration though - it's one of the big draws of the series - and this book only shows an outside view of him.
*I also liked Rocza's perspective. Loiosh's is super clear in the books. He's clearly sentient and at least as sharp as a human in communication, even from the very start. The first thing Vlad hears from Loiosh when Loiosh had just hatched was the word "mama", not a feeling but a clear word, and Loiosh is super sarcastic and perceptive. Rocza, on the other hand, has no such connection to Vlad, and obviously finds Vlad's motivations baffling. It's interesting because the connection was clear enough that Rocza was able to understand Vlad's desperate cry for help in his fight with Mellar, but I think Vlad was using witchcraft at that point.
*Both of these two perspectives made it a very different book from the previous ones. A lot of the fun of the books is the contrast between what the text says and what it means, and this is another facet of it. I do miss Vlad's perspective (how surprising!) and in some cases Savn's narration is even more obscure than Vlad's. Vlad will often omit facts or elide them, but in Savn's case, Savn's sometimes being deceived wholesale, like the time Vlad takes him to the caves to show him sorcery, but Vlad just wanted to take a look around the cave and see if it led to Loraan, so he just puts Savn to sleep.
*Fird, the fruit seller, has an accent/speech from a different part of the country, and I enjoyed how it was rendered by Savn. Instead of phonetic changes, it's scrambled word-order and verb agreements, which is at least novel. Sometimes a bit hard to understand, but that's ok, he's not a huge character.
*Savn and his village's thoughts on the jhereg are pretty interesting. I'm so used to Loiosh because of course we get to hear him talk to Vlad all the time, but they definitely are kind of scary. Everyone seems to be aware that they are poisonous - the way we know that some snakes are, I guess.
*Savn's also pretty brave, all things considered. Vlad got a long time to 'toughen up', so to speak - getting beat up for a long time, getting angry, getting trained by his grandfather, all that, plus his father and his grandfather both think that they don't deserve this kind of treatment - his grandfather because he accepts his identity as a human and an Easterner, his father because he tries to assimilate into Dragaera and buys the citizenship for himself and his son. Savn doesn't have any of that, but he's able to do surgery on his own master and Vlad too, walk up to Loraan's castle, eventually turn on Loraan...that's a lot.
*OK I have to scream about the KIERA IS SETHRA reveal first. I already went and yelled about it withsholio on discord but I have to do it again because OH MY GOD!!! I knew there was something coming because of some comments I read, but I had no idea. My mind is blown. I'm still trying to cope.
*I started thinking back to some of the information we've gotten about Kiera in the preceding books (ebooks being searchable is awesome). There's of course the time Kiera gave Vlad the blood of a goddess incident (I assume this is Verra's blood). There's that time when Vlad was fighting the turf war with Laris, and Morrolan quietly gave him a huge amount of cash to support him secretly, and Kiera also shows up with a gem she admitted she got from Sethra. Got from Sethra, more like Sethra walked into her own treasury, took out a gem, turned herself into Kiera, and then teleported to Adrilankha to give it to Vlad, oh my god. And there's also that time where Vlad is explaining the kinds of assassinations that exist (from the death as a warning, death that's not revivifiable, and the Morganti soul-killing deaths). He says that he was killed as a warning once, and Kiera found his body in the gutter in time and had Sethra revive him. AHHH
*I also kind of started shipping Kiera/Vlad but now with the reveal I don't know how to feel yet. I still think of them as two separate people.
*This explains why Kiera doesn't do psionic contact I suppose.
*I can't believe Kiera's gotten away with this. I mean, it's Sethra and everyone's scared of her abilities for good reason, so I guess it shouldn't be surprising she can cover her tracks well, plus she as Kiera usually doesn't work with anyone. But she's a Dragon. Working for the Jhereg part time. I think both councils would blow their tops if they found out.
*VLAD HAS A SON AND DOESN'T KNOW. CAWTI CAN'T GET IN CONTACT WITH HIM. Ahhhhh!!
*Loiosh got hurt :( Poor Loiosh, and poor Vlad, who didn't know what to do about it, except to bandage him and try to run back to shelter.
*I also really really enjoyed reading Kiera's perspective. She is really good at what she does and she observes things that Vlad doesn't - and/or says them, maybe. I loved hearing her break down how she does her stealing, and how she says to herself to slow down, you're the best thief in the Empire because you're careful. Her metaphorical description of the sorcery (making a spider to swallow the little watcher-sorcery hanging out in the corner) was also super interesting.
*Kiera also has no compunctions about teleporting. Vlad hates them because he's not very good with sorcery and they make him sick and at this stage he's wearing the Phoenix stones to prevent the Jhereg from finding him. But she's obviously an insane sorcerer, and a Dragaeran, so she teleports back and forth from Northport to Adrilankha to that cottage with no hesitation, crossing ground at a speed that is sort of ridiculous to think about.
*Most modern governments have a national bank as the lender of last resort, and also monetary and fiscal policy (and okay, fiat money so printing is possible), but I guess the Empire is more mercantile. I did laugh at this though:
“Maybe. But maybe not. I don’t know how banks operate, but they’re bound to generate immense amounts of paperwork, and—”
Yes, you have no idea. LOL
*I can't imagine how much paperwork Vlad had to read and sort through. My eyes hurt just thinking about it.
*Vlad has a conversation with Kiera about how during the Dragon-Jhereg war (the first one) the Jhereg went for the leaders and slaughtered them ASAP, and how Sethra Lavode declared herself the leader then sat at Dzur Mountain and took out any assassin who tried to get at her. Everything about this conversation is hilarious. Vlad asks if Kiera has ever been to Dzur Mountain and Kiera just shrugs. He's explaining to Kiera Sethra's strategies....
*I love that in the interludes, Cawti makes Kiera tell her if Loiosh is okay before going on. Aw. That's also detail I'd need immediately, chronological order be damned.
*I enjoyed Hwdf Rjaanci. She's grossed out by Vlad (the Dragaerans in general seem to find Easterners unpleasantly hairy, Kiera's surprised by his chest when she goes to look at the bandaging) but also doesn't want to hurt Vlad's feelings. Which, I mean, he is helping make sure she's not evicted...but he also came by and dumped a patient on her for that service, so I guess it's a net zero there.
Hooray it's back to the time when Vlad was in the Organization but before the whole Mellar incident!
*I had a sudden thought - grey and black are the Jhereg colours, and black is the colour of sorcery (see Castle Black and Vlad's many feelings on how Morrolan has named his castle, lol). But this book also mentions that grey is the colour of death/mourning. I can't help but think the Jhereg colours are a reference to the respective businesses - of the Right Hand and Left Hand. OK, I suppose that the Right Hand does more than just assassinations but it's a big part of the business!
*We found out how Morrolan hired Vlad to be his security consultant. I am losing it at the extremely formal note that Morrolan sent Vlad, as well as the postscript which is almost certainly not sarcastic, but without knowing Morrolan would almost certainly be read that way: "P.S.: You expressed a preference for a formal invitation over our last method of asking for your help; I hope this meets with your approval — M." It's so excellent because Vlad himself speaks in a very modern slangy way and Morrolan's note might keep decent company with a Victorian's note.
*Oh man watching Vlad go to war fully intending to, as he says, bug out before any action starts...and then go through and fight like five engagements is...Vlad, you lie to yourself so much. He does this so many times Loiosh gives up on mocking him about it! He says he hates Dragons and Dragaerans and then refuses to run for his life. At least the Dragons in his cohort genuinely have a taste for military life and are getting things out of it all; Vlad is so unsuited for all this. He's sticking it out because he doesn't want to appear afraid in front of them...but also because he has already developed fellow-feeling for his messmates and doesn't want to ditch them.
*I only realized in this novel that Castle Black isn't floating in the air on a chunk of rock like a floating island. I think his courtyard is made of some kind of hardened air, so you don't fall through, but it's also clear? This explains why (as a queasy Vlad attempts to get himself oriented again) he keeps commenting on the ground far below him. That's terrifying. I wonder if Morrolan has a garden or anything at the back?
*I couldn't remember a single idea of mine that [Kragar] hadn't thrown cold water on, nor a single one that he hadn't backed me on to the hilt—literally, in some cases.
Awwww.
*Our introduction to Daymar! He's such a space cadet. I also loved the scene where after Vlad refused to tell Daymar what his reasons were, refused to let Daymar probe his mind to figure out why Vlad found the Morganti weapons so affecting, so Daymar just up and mind-probed Kragar, and Vlad lost it on Daymar. I also love that Daymar almost followed Vlad and Kragar back to the office and Kragar apparently had to tell Daymar to not do it.
*Loiosh is such a helpful companion to Vlad. Like he knows instantly what's going on, sorcerously, but also functions as eyes (and ears) in the sky, Vlad never has to worry he's being secretly mind-probed or influenced. It makes me wonder how Ambrus interacts with Noish-pa. Ambrus wouldn't have the same "eye in the sky" ability that Loiosh can employ so well, but Noish-pa also doesn't assassinate people for a living, so probably Ambrus works great for him.
*I also love that this occurs:
"Boss! Boss! You can stand up now!"
It's always embarrassing to panic in front of Loiosh.
Vlad has been sealed up in wine barrels for hours on end and unloaded off boats in completely undignified ways, spent nights sneaking into cellars and hiding all night in the storage area, spent hours cramped in doorways, alleyways, etc, all in the regular service of his profession. How does he have embarrassment left.
*I also loved the callback at the end when he calls Loiosh Lieutenant of the First Jhereg Assassins company and by this point Loiosh (who was teasing Vlad about getting that rank way at the beginning of the assignment) is totally unimpressed and just goes, whatever.
*"Never mind," I said. "If something is missing and we don't know how, Kiera took it."
"Then what?" put in Kragar.
"That's easy. We give up and report failure, which I should have done already."
LOL
*The visit to the Serioli was also really interesting. They regard the Great Weapons as sentient beings also and I suppose Spellbreaker is - incomplete? Morrolan got critiqued on his translation from Serioli to Dragaeran. It's interesting the Serioli don't see time the way we (or the Dragaerans) do.
*Vlad at one point eats six or seven biscuits a meal, which he says just goes to show how low the human animal can be reduced, but after his first attempted drink of the army's coffee, he never tries it again. He chokes down his biscuits with water for the rest of that storyline. lol
*Kragar says he did research into Vlad before agreeing to work for him. I'm now wondering how much he found out. He knows where Vlad's family is from...I wonder if he's spied on Noish-pa?? Does he know more about Vlad's father than Vlad? (Possibly)
I think since I read Phoenix I have read the next seven books in a row, and it's only taking this long because I couldn't get hold of these four for a bit (thanks again
hamsterwoman for getting me copies!!) I'm trying to pace myself but it's hard. *It was both interesting and disappointing to get the story through Savn. I think Savn is an interesting narrator, especially since most of the audience that we've been interacting with so far looks down on the Teckla, with the exception of Kelly's group. His perspective is also severely limited because of his life circumstances and how much he's been exposed to - he's never left his home, and despite his 90 years of age (probably triple or quadruple Vlad's) has almost certainly seen far less than Vlad has. I do really like Vlad's narration though - it's one of the big draws of the series - and this book only shows an outside view of him.
*I also liked Rocza's perspective. Loiosh's is super clear in the books. He's clearly sentient and at least as sharp as a human in communication, even from the very start. The first thing Vlad hears from Loiosh when Loiosh had just hatched was the word "mama", not a feeling but a clear word, and Loiosh is super sarcastic and perceptive. Rocza, on the other hand, has no such connection to Vlad, and obviously finds Vlad's motivations baffling. It's interesting because the connection was clear enough that Rocza was able to understand Vlad's desperate cry for help in his fight with Mellar, but I think Vlad was using witchcraft at that point.
*Both of these two perspectives made it a very different book from the previous ones. A lot of the fun of the books is the contrast between what the text says and what it means, and this is another facet of it. I do miss Vlad's perspective (how surprising!) and in some cases Savn's narration is even more obscure than Vlad's. Vlad will often omit facts or elide them, but in Savn's case, Savn's sometimes being deceived wholesale, like the time Vlad takes him to the caves to show him sorcery, but Vlad just wanted to take a look around the cave and see if it led to Loraan, so he just puts Savn to sleep.
*Fird, the fruit seller, has an accent/speech from a different part of the country, and I enjoyed how it was rendered by Savn. Instead of phonetic changes, it's scrambled word-order and verb agreements, which is at least novel. Sometimes a bit hard to understand, but that's ok, he's not a huge character.
*Savn and his village's thoughts on the jhereg are pretty interesting. I'm so used to Loiosh because of course we get to hear him talk to Vlad all the time, but they definitely are kind of scary. Everyone seems to be aware that they are poisonous - the way we know that some snakes are, I guess.
*Savn's also pretty brave, all things considered. Vlad got a long time to 'toughen up', so to speak - getting beat up for a long time, getting angry, getting trained by his grandfather, all that, plus his father and his grandfather both think that they don't deserve this kind of treatment - his grandfather because he accepts his identity as a human and an Easterner, his father because he tries to assimilate into Dragaera and buys the citizenship for himself and his son. Savn doesn't have any of that, but he's able to do surgery on his own master and Vlad too, walk up to Loraan's castle, eventually turn on Loraan...that's a lot.
*OK I have to scream about the KIERA IS SETHRA reveal first. I already went and yelled about it with
sholio on discord but I have to do it again because OH MY GOD!!! I knew there was something coming because of some comments I read, but I had no idea. My mind is blown. I'm still trying to cope. *I started thinking back to some of the information we've gotten about Kiera in the preceding books (ebooks being searchable is awesome). There's of course the time Kiera gave Vlad the blood of a goddess incident (I assume this is Verra's blood). There's that time when Vlad was fighting the turf war with Laris, and Morrolan quietly gave him a huge amount of cash to support him secretly, and Kiera also shows up with a gem she admitted she got from Sethra. Got from Sethra, more like Sethra walked into her own treasury, took out a gem, turned herself into Kiera, and then teleported to Adrilankha to give it to Vlad, oh my god. And there's also that time where Vlad is explaining the kinds of assassinations that exist (from the death as a warning, death that's not revivifiable, and the Morganti soul-killing deaths). He says that he was killed as a warning once, and Kiera found his body in the gutter in time and had Sethra revive him. AHHH
*I also kind of started shipping Kiera/Vlad but now with the reveal I don't know how to feel yet. I still think of them as two separate people.
*This explains why Kiera doesn't do psionic contact I suppose.
*I can't believe Kiera's gotten away with this. I mean, it's Sethra and everyone's scared of her abilities for good reason, so I guess it shouldn't be surprising she can cover her tracks well, plus she as Kiera usually doesn't work with anyone. But she's a Dragon. Working for the Jhereg part time. I think both councils would blow their tops if they found out.
*VLAD HAS A SON AND DOESN'T KNOW. CAWTI CAN'T GET IN CONTACT WITH HIM. Ahhhhh!!
*Loiosh got hurt :( Poor Loiosh, and poor Vlad, who didn't know what to do about it, except to bandage him and try to run back to shelter.
*I also really really enjoyed reading Kiera's perspective. She is really good at what she does and she observes things that Vlad doesn't - and/or says them, maybe. I loved hearing her break down how she does her stealing, and how she says to herself to slow down, you're the best thief in the Empire because you're careful. Her metaphorical description of the sorcery (making a spider to swallow the little watcher-sorcery hanging out in the corner) was also super interesting.
*Kiera also has no compunctions about teleporting. Vlad hates them because he's not very good with sorcery and they make him sick and at this stage he's wearing the Phoenix stones to prevent the Jhereg from finding him. But she's obviously an insane sorcerer, and a Dragaeran, so she teleports back and forth from Northport to Adrilankha to that cottage with no hesitation, crossing ground at a speed that is sort of ridiculous to think about.
*Most modern governments have a national bank as the lender of last resort, and also monetary and fiscal policy (and okay, fiat money so printing is possible), but I guess the Empire is more mercantile. I did laugh at this though:
“Maybe. But maybe not. I don’t know how banks operate, but they’re bound to generate immense amounts of paperwork, and—”
Yes, you have no idea. LOL
*I can't imagine how much paperwork Vlad had to read and sort through. My eyes hurt just thinking about it.
*Vlad has a conversation with Kiera about how during the Dragon-Jhereg war (the first one) the Jhereg went for the leaders and slaughtered them ASAP, and how Sethra Lavode declared herself the leader then sat at Dzur Mountain and took out any assassin who tried to get at her. Everything about this conversation is hilarious. Vlad asks if Kiera has ever been to Dzur Mountain and Kiera just shrugs. He's explaining to Kiera Sethra's strategies....
*I love that in the interludes, Cawti makes Kiera tell her if Loiosh is okay before going on. Aw. That's also detail I'd need immediately, chronological order be damned.
*I enjoyed Hwdf Rjaanci. She's grossed out by Vlad (the Dragaerans in general seem to find Easterners unpleasantly hairy, Kiera's surprised by his chest when she goes to look at the bandaging) but also doesn't want to hurt Vlad's feelings. Which, I mean, he is helping make sure she's not evicted...but he also came by and dumped a patient on her for that service, so I guess it's a net zero there.
Hooray it's back to the time when Vlad was in the Organization but before the whole Mellar incident!
*I had a sudden thought - grey and black are the Jhereg colours, and black is the colour of sorcery (see Castle Black and Vlad's many feelings on how Morrolan has named his castle, lol). But this book also mentions that grey is the colour of death/mourning. I can't help but think the Jhereg colours are a reference to the respective businesses - of the Right Hand and Left Hand. OK, I suppose that the Right Hand does more than just assassinations but it's a big part of the business!
*We found out how Morrolan hired Vlad to be his security consultant. I am losing it at the extremely formal note that Morrolan sent Vlad, as well as the postscript which is almost certainly not sarcastic, but without knowing Morrolan would almost certainly be read that way: "P.S.: You expressed a preference for a formal invitation over our last method of asking for your help; I hope this meets with your approval — M." It's so excellent because Vlad himself speaks in a very modern slangy way and Morrolan's note might keep decent company with a Victorian's note.
*Oh man watching Vlad go to war fully intending to, as he says, bug out before any action starts...and then go through and fight like five engagements is...Vlad, you lie to yourself so much. He does this so many times Loiosh gives up on mocking him about it! He says he hates Dragons and Dragaerans and then refuses to run for his life. At least the Dragons in his cohort genuinely have a taste for military life and are getting things out of it all; Vlad is so unsuited for all this. He's sticking it out because he doesn't want to appear afraid in front of them...but also because he has already developed fellow-feeling for his messmates and doesn't want to ditch them.
*I only realized in this novel that Castle Black isn't floating in the air on a chunk of rock like a floating island. I think his courtyard is made of some kind of hardened air, so you don't fall through, but it's also clear? This explains why (as a queasy Vlad attempts to get himself oriented again) he keeps commenting on the ground far below him. That's terrifying. I wonder if Morrolan has a garden or anything at the back?
*I couldn't remember a single idea of mine that [Kragar] hadn't thrown cold water on, nor a single one that he hadn't backed me on to the hilt—literally, in some cases.
Awwww.
*Our introduction to Daymar! He's such a space cadet. I also loved the scene where after Vlad refused to tell Daymar what his reasons were, refused to let Daymar probe his mind to figure out why Vlad found the Morganti weapons so affecting, so Daymar just up and mind-probed Kragar, and Vlad lost it on Daymar. I also love that Daymar almost followed Vlad and Kragar back to the office and Kragar apparently had to tell Daymar to not do it.
*Loiosh is such a helpful companion to Vlad. Like he knows instantly what's going on, sorcerously, but also functions as eyes (and ears) in the sky, Vlad never has to worry he's being secretly mind-probed or influenced. It makes me wonder how Ambrus interacts with Noish-pa. Ambrus wouldn't have the same "eye in the sky" ability that Loiosh can employ so well, but Noish-pa also doesn't assassinate people for a living, so probably Ambrus works great for him.
*I also love that this occurs:
"Boss! Boss! You can stand up now!"
It's always embarrassing to panic in front of Loiosh.
Vlad has been sealed up in wine barrels for hours on end and unloaded off boats in completely undignified ways, spent nights sneaking into cellars and hiding all night in the storage area, spent hours cramped in doorways, alleyways, etc, all in the regular service of his profession. How does he have embarrassment left.
*I also loved the callback at the end when he calls Loiosh Lieutenant of the First Jhereg Assassins company and by this point Loiosh (who was teasing Vlad about getting that rank way at the beginning of the assignment) is totally unimpressed and just goes, whatever.
*"Never mind," I said. "If something is missing and we don't know how, Kiera took it."
"Then what?" put in Kragar.
"That's easy. We give up and report failure, which I should have done already."
LOL
*The visit to the Serioli was also really interesting. They regard the Great Weapons as sentient beings also and I suppose Spellbreaker is - incomplete? Morrolan got critiqued on his translation from Serioli to Dragaeran. It's interesting the Serioli don't see time the way we (or the Dragaerans) do.
*Vlad at one point eats six or seven biscuits a meal, which he says just goes to show how low the human animal can be reduced, but after his first attempted drink of the army's coffee, he never tries it again. He chokes down his biscuits with water for the rest of that storyline. lol
*Kragar says he did research into Vlad before agreeing to work for him. I'm now wondering how much he found out. He knows where Vlad's family is from...I wonder if he's spied on Noish-pa?? Does he know more about Vlad's father than Vlad? (Possibly)
