Dzur and Jhegaala
Nov. 9th, 2021 09:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silverflight8Two very different books set at rather different times!
I realized when I was reading Jhegaala that I have no idea what a jhegaala is like, and honestly...I'm still confused. All I'm clear on is the metamorphosis but um, I'm not even sure what the bodyplan is like. Some of the animals are just regular Earth animals, some are analogous, some are mythical creatures, and the jhegaala is just confusing.
Also, I've come to realize that the omnibuses really change my behaviour when it comes to reading. I get what I think of as book hangovers, so consumed with the just-read book that I don't want to start another book, even when I know I'll enjoy it. I also definitely have this inertia where I'll keep reading something even though I don't like it that much, but I'm making progress and every time I open my reading app, it's already open and it's not that bad. (This is how I read all the Michael Scott Rohan books. My opinion kept sliding but I was midway through the book and trilogy already...) I also sometimes feel like I need a certain emotional energy to get started on a new book - to get accustomed to and learn the characters and setting. But when it's an omnibus, I don't even have to open a new file. It doesn't feel like a new book, really. I feel the pressure of "just finish the book" push me over the threshold of energy required to start the new book.
Which is to say, I read Dzur and Jhegaala in two days because they were in one volume. I do like them a lot but I also think the omnibus structure is pushing me to read them faster!
*Thank you, Brust, for starting us right off where Issola ended, and giving such a mouth-watering series of descriptions of food.
*Vlad's not just hungry, he's genuinely a foodie.
*I wonder if Loiosh gets to hear all of Vlad's thoughts on food. No wonder Loiosh is so sarcastic. But you know, Loiosh is also living large on all the amazingly tasty things Vlad gets to eat. I also love that Loiosh will pick up food with one claw and wipe his mouth on his wing. How adorable and yes, such good table manners! It makes me think of parrots who are really dexterous and will hold food to eat.
Look at this!
Except just imagine him being all leathery and scaly instead.
*OH MY GOD MARIO APPEARS!!!!!
*How can there be so many shocks, 11 books in?
*In retrospect, his appearance throws light on Kiera's comment in Orca, which is that while she agreed with Vlad's sentiments, she didn't share his superstitious fear of Mario. She knows he is still alive and is a real Dragaeran!!!!!
*Mario and ALIERA!? I'm sorry there's only so much I can take at once. WHAT
*Even without in-text proof, I feel quite positive saying that Vlad has mentioned Mario's name to Aliera many times, he's practically a deity to invoke superstitiously, has she just been laughing about this to herself the entire time
*Aliera's stated positions on assassins was always suspect, what with the being friends with Vlad thing, but Aliera, really. She's been Dragon heir for ages! LOL
*Vlad can't handle it when Dragaerans aren't all, like, Orca punks. He's astonished by Telnan and Daymar and even Morrolan. Oh Vlad.
*Telnan's explanation for how he chose a cooler name in Dragaeran is adorable. The Serioli name sounds very technical.
“Okay, one for you. But, Kiera, the Jhereg is after me. They want it Morganti. I can’t—”
“I know.”
“—get other people involved in this.”
“What would you do if someone were threatening Morrolan with a Morganti weapon?”
“Laugh at the stupid son-of-a-bitch.”
“Vlad—”
“All right, all right. But—”
“Do you know that Kragar has sent a message to Aliera?”
I blinked. “My word. Has he indeed?”
“He wants to know how to reach you, so he can offer to help.”
“I didn’t think he had that much nerve.”
“He does.”
“I mean, the nerve to risk a snub from Aliera.”
*This exchange is gold. I'm with Vlad on the response to someone attempting to attack Morrolan, and lol @ the comment about Kragar.
*Kragar had a tunnel installed!!!! In case Vlad came back!!! Then he sassed Vlad about his witch lab.
*Also lol @ Vlad asking Kragar how he managed to give orders, and Kragar saying that he wrote a lot of notes. This tickles me. Like someone who just sits behind a desk and types a thousand emails to direct his army. I suppose Kragar can also appear invisibly occasionally and stab if necessary, which probably increases his reputation.
*Kragar's note to Vlad reads like a telegram, which I enjoy.
“Right. How have you taken to running things?”
“I like the money.”
“Yeah, that part is nice. Any problems?”
“Yeah. Finding someone so stupid that he’s willing to do for me what I always did for you.”
Kragar really did a lot for Vlad. So much legwork!
*Vlad's sense of betrayal as Kragar reveals he's a) known about Mario the entire time and b) has been working as Mario's business agent, for ninety years, is hilarious. Not to mention the fact that Kragar probably feels ninety years is "quite recent" and it's longer than Easterners mostly live. Eesh. Kragar's probably been working for/with Mario longer than Noish-pa's been alive!
*Awwww all the Kragar and Vlad exchanges make me feel all warm and fuzzy. They really care about each other! Vlad isn't worried about Kragar betraying him! Kragar is willing to help out and risk danger, and Vlad doesn't want to take up his offer of help if it's going to get Kragar killed! And I loved that they tossed around ideas together, or rather, Vlad thought of plans and then Kragar punched holes into them to see if they stood up.
*Vlad F I N A L L Y meets his son oh my GOD
*We also learn that Aliera has been helping Cawti out with the birth (but probably lots of other things - they seem to be in contact pretty regularly). Having sorcery around for childbirth seems even better than having our pharmaceutical painkillers and modern medicine, I think, since Aliera can also perform magic up to and including necromancy.
*Aww, Vlad admits that he's into having friends (unlike Dzur) and he names a whole swath of them, practically all Dragaerans.
*Aww, I'm so glad we got to see more of Noish-pa. I'm unreasonably fond of him too.
*It was cool to see the East, and I love that Vlad isn't used to the sun. He goes to sleep without closing the shutters and then is irritated that the sun wakes him up way too early with what he calls "a horrid light in my eyes" (which...not inaccurate), and then he spends a bunch of time thinking about shutters, scattered through the rest of the book. Plus he's weirded out by how dark the night is, thinks about buying a hat...it's gotta be a big adjustment.
*Vlad really is no horseman, is he? He sings paeans to the extremely placid and slow mare that he has to ride. It's a good thing he likes walking so much, though at least he has the anti-sickness amulet that Noish-pa made him, though little good it does him at the moment...
Loiosh was on my left shoulder, Rocza on my right, and they both scanned the room, fully alert for assassins, hostile citizens, or pieces of sausage that had been left on the floor.
:D
*I also tried to read this with google translate open between Hungarian <-> English and there are some - like the hostess of the Cellar Mouse calls it the "nawp" which I am pretty sure is the phonetic translation of the Hungarian word for sun ("nap") in English.
*Love the little detail that there are professional teleporting outfits where they have sorcerers that know everywhere, so they can teleport you to where you want to go even if you don't know the place or have the sorcerous ability. Swap the airline/train/bus/etc industry for the teleporting industry!
*For some reason, I'm tickled by the conversation about the names of the inns. Vlad doesn't talk to anyone about the inns so he just guesses the names from the painted pictures on the inn signs. Someone says the name of the Cellar Mouse so he knows that one. But the fact he calls the other inn the Pointy Hat mentally (amazing name) and only finds out at the end of the novel it's called Inchay's (after the owner) is for some reason so entertaining. I don't know. It's part and parcel of the general "show don't tell" aspect of the books, and it also bucks the usual trend in fantasy where all taverns are named things like the White Hart.
*So I guess this another of the occasions where Vlad is held by someone who is not the Empire. Oof. I guess this is also where he lost the finger, though honestly my impressions of the timeline are now very confused - Athyra takes place after, right? (My confusion about the the timeline I feel is solidly not my fault though re-reading hasn't really helped lol - I'll consult that timeline later). The torture parts were more detailed than the incident in Teckla, but it was really the long recovery and the fact he could barely talk after this that made it feel so alarming, again.
“I know. But, Loiosh, why hasn’t he done so already? Why am I still breathing?”
“Boss, can we please talk about this after we’re out of town? I’m too old to learn to hunt for myself.”
Awww. Loiosh attempts to convince Vlad to leave Burz like ten times throughout this book, which is unusual for him. And he's so worried when Vlad is being tortured :(
A witch will send an imp down your throat to your heart. The imp leaves red footprints on the lips.”
There were some problems with that—the first being that you can’t really get to the heart from the throat (you pick up a bit of anatomy when you kill people for a living), the second being that I don’t believe in imps.
But not that much anatomy because Vlad prefers to impale through the eye...
*I enjoyed the interlude where Vlad sees through Loiosh's eyes! Actually, since Vlad is so isolated in this book, there's lots of good Loiosh and Vlad interaction.
*This is a very Athyra like book, where it takes place in a completely different place with a new cast of characters we don't know at all, and a very twisty plot like Yendi.
I realized when I was reading Jhegaala that I have no idea what a jhegaala is like, and honestly...I'm still confused. All I'm clear on is the metamorphosis but um, I'm not even sure what the bodyplan is like. Some of the animals are just regular Earth animals, some are analogous, some are mythical creatures, and the jhegaala is just confusing.
Also, I've come to realize that the omnibuses really change my behaviour when it comes to reading. I get what I think of as book hangovers, so consumed with the just-read book that I don't want to start another book, even when I know I'll enjoy it. I also definitely have this inertia where I'll keep reading something even though I don't like it that much, but I'm making progress and every time I open my reading app, it's already open and it's not that bad. (This is how I read all the Michael Scott Rohan books. My opinion kept sliding but I was midway through the book and trilogy already...) I also sometimes feel like I need a certain emotional energy to get started on a new book - to get accustomed to and learn the characters and setting. But when it's an omnibus, I don't even have to open a new file. It doesn't feel like a new book, really. I feel the pressure of "just finish the book" push me over the threshold of energy required to start the new book.
Which is to say, I read Dzur and Jhegaala in two days because they were in one volume. I do like them a lot but I also think the omnibus structure is pushing me to read them faster!
*Thank you, Brust, for starting us right off where Issola ended, and giving such a mouth-watering series of descriptions of food.
*Vlad's not just hungry, he's genuinely a foodie.
*I wonder if Loiosh gets to hear all of Vlad's thoughts on food. No wonder Loiosh is so sarcastic. But you know, Loiosh is also living large on all the amazingly tasty things Vlad gets to eat. I also love that Loiosh will pick up food with one claw and wipe his mouth on his wing. How adorable and yes, such good table manners! It makes me think of parrots who are really dexterous and will hold food to eat.
Look at this!
Except just imagine him being all leathery and scaly instead.
*OH MY GOD MARIO APPEARS!!!!!
*How can there be so many shocks, 11 books in?
*In retrospect, his appearance throws light on Kiera's comment in Orca, which is that while she agreed with Vlad's sentiments, she didn't share his superstitious fear of Mario. She knows he is still alive and is a real Dragaeran!!!!!
*Mario and ALIERA!? I'm sorry there's only so much I can take at once. WHAT
*Even without in-text proof, I feel quite positive saying that Vlad has mentioned Mario's name to Aliera many times, he's practically a deity to invoke superstitiously, has she just been laughing about this to herself the entire time
*Aliera's stated positions on assassins was always suspect, what with the being friends with Vlad thing, but Aliera, really. She's been Dragon heir for ages! LOL
*Vlad can't handle it when Dragaerans aren't all, like, Orca punks. He's astonished by Telnan and Daymar and even Morrolan. Oh Vlad.
*Telnan's explanation for how he chose a cooler name in Dragaeran is adorable. The Serioli name sounds very technical.
“Okay, one for you. But, Kiera, the Jhereg is after me. They want it Morganti. I can’t—”
“I know.”
“—get other people involved in this.”
“What would you do if someone were threatening Morrolan with a Morganti weapon?”
“Laugh at the stupid son-of-a-bitch.”
“Vlad—”
“All right, all right. But—”
“Do you know that Kragar has sent a message to Aliera?”
I blinked. “My word. Has he indeed?”
“He wants to know how to reach you, so he can offer to help.”
“I didn’t think he had that much nerve.”
“He does.”
“I mean, the nerve to risk a snub from Aliera.”
*This exchange is gold. I'm with Vlad on the response to someone attempting to attack Morrolan, and lol @ the comment about Kragar.
*Kragar had a tunnel installed!!!! In case Vlad came back!!! Then he sassed Vlad about his witch lab.
*Also lol @ Vlad asking Kragar how he managed to give orders, and Kragar saying that he wrote a lot of notes. This tickles me. Like someone who just sits behind a desk and types a thousand emails to direct his army. I suppose Kragar can also appear invisibly occasionally and stab if necessary, which probably increases his reputation.
*Kragar's note to Vlad reads like a telegram, which I enjoy.
“Right. How have you taken to running things?”
“I like the money.”
“Yeah, that part is nice. Any problems?”
“Yeah. Finding someone so stupid that he’s willing to do for me what I always did for you.”
Kragar really did a lot for Vlad. So much legwork!
*Vlad's sense of betrayal as Kragar reveals he's a) known about Mario the entire time and b) has been working as Mario's business agent, for ninety years, is hilarious. Not to mention the fact that Kragar probably feels ninety years is "quite recent" and it's longer than Easterners mostly live. Eesh. Kragar's probably been working for/with Mario longer than Noish-pa's been alive!
*Awwww all the Kragar and Vlad exchanges make me feel all warm and fuzzy. They really care about each other! Vlad isn't worried about Kragar betraying him! Kragar is willing to help out and risk danger, and Vlad doesn't want to take up his offer of help if it's going to get Kragar killed! And I loved that they tossed around ideas together, or rather, Vlad thought of plans and then Kragar punched holes into them to see if they stood up.
*Vlad F I N A L L Y meets his son oh my GOD
*We also learn that Aliera has been helping Cawti out with the birth (but probably lots of other things - they seem to be in contact pretty regularly). Having sorcery around for childbirth seems even better than having our pharmaceutical painkillers and modern medicine, I think, since Aliera can also perform magic up to and including necromancy.
*Aww, Vlad admits that he's into having friends (unlike Dzur) and he names a whole swath of them, practically all Dragaerans.
*Aww, I'm so glad we got to see more of Noish-pa. I'm unreasonably fond of him too.
*It was cool to see the East, and I love that Vlad isn't used to the sun. He goes to sleep without closing the shutters and then is irritated that the sun wakes him up way too early with what he calls "a horrid light in my eyes" (which...not inaccurate), and then he spends a bunch of time thinking about shutters, scattered through the rest of the book. Plus he's weirded out by how dark the night is, thinks about buying a hat...it's gotta be a big adjustment.
*Vlad really is no horseman, is he? He sings paeans to the extremely placid and slow mare that he has to ride. It's a good thing he likes walking so much, though at least he has the anti-sickness amulet that Noish-pa made him, though little good it does him at the moment...
Loiosh was on my left shoulder, Rocza on my right, and they both scanned the room, fully alert for assassins, hostile citizens, or pieces of sausage that had been left on the floor.
:D
*I also tried to read this with google translate open between Hungarian <-> English and there are some - like the hostess of the Cellar Mouse calls it the "nawp" which I am pretty sure is the phonetic translation of the Hungarian word for sun ("nap") in English.
*Love the little detail that there are professional teleporting outfits where they have sorcerers that know everywhere, so they can teleport you to where you want to go even if you don't know the place or have the sorcerous ability. Swap the airline/train/bus/etc industry for the teleporting industry!
*For some reason, I'm tickled by the conversation about the names of the inns. Vlad doesn't talk to anyone about the inns so he just guesses the names from the painted pictures on the inn signs. Someone says the name of the Cellar Mouse so he knows that one. But the fact he calls the other inn the Pointy Hat mentally (amazing name) and only finds out at the end of the novel it's called Inchay's (after the owner) is for some reason so entertaining. I don't know. It's part and parcel of the general "show don't tell" aspect of the books, and it also bucks the usual trend in fantasy where all taverns are named things like the White Hart.
*So I guess this another of the occasions where Vlad is held by someone who is not the Empire. Oof. I guess this is also where he lost the finger, though honestly my impressions of the timeline are now very confused - Athyra takes place after, right? (My confusion about the the timeline I feel is solidly not my fault though re-reading hasn't really helped lol - I'll consult that timeline later). The torture parts were more detailed than the incident in Teckla, but it was really the long recovery and the fact he could barely talk after this that made it feel so alarming, again.
“I know. But, Loiosh, why hasn’t he done so already? Why am I still breathing?”
“Boss, can we please talk about this after we’re out of town? I’m too old to learn to hunt for myself.”
Awww. Loiosh attempts to convince Vlad to leave Burz like ten times throughout this book, which is unusual for him. And he's so worried when Vlad is being tortured :(
A witch will send an imp down your throat to your heart. The imp leaves red footprints on the lips.”
There were some problems with that—the first being that you can’t really get to the heart from the throat (you pick up a bit of anatomy when you kill people for a living), the second being that I don’t believe in imps.
But not that much anatomy because Vlad prefers to impale through the eye...
*I enjoyed the interlude where Vlad sees through Loiosh's eyes! Actually, since Vlad is so isolated in this book, there's lots of good Loiosh and Vlad interaction.
*This is a very Athyra like book, where it takes place in a completely different place with a new cast of characters we don't know at all, and a very twisty plot like Yendi.
no subject
Date: Nov. 10th, 2021 03:51 am (UTC)Dzur is a fun book! The meal is one of my favorite framing devices of the Vlad books (and always makes me SO hungry, haha), and I love everything we see of Kragar in it, for all the reasons you mention.
Also, haha, I hadn't really thought about this, but you're right, there are so many WHAT! moments in Dzur -- with Vlad's son, and with Mario, and Aliera/Mario, and then some Lady Teldra stuff too -- just so much!
I love the description of how Loiosh holds food -- it was unexpected and also adorable!
has she just been laughing about this to herself the entire time
I'm sure she has been! XD
*Telnan's explanation for how he chose a cooler name in Dragaeran is adorable.
Oh! That reminds me -- there's a Telnan-narrated short story on Tor.com. I find it also very cute. (I don't think it's spoilery for any of the later books, but if you want to be extra careful, looks like it was published around the same time as Tiassa.)
Jhegaala at this point is probably the book I remember least well, because I've never reread it and it's now been a while. I should probably reread it one of these days... Some stuff I wish I remembered better, like the thing you mention with the shutters/sun in general and inn names; other things I still remember way too well (the torture). I do remember the interaction with Loiosh being my favorite thing about it, though I did also miss Vlad's Adrilankha crew.
I guess this is also where he lost the finger, though honestly my impressions of the timeline are now very confused - Athyra takes place after, right?
Yeah, Athyra takes place after Jhegaala; there's no other book in between
So it goes Jhereg-Teckla-Phoenix in rapid succession, then Jhegaala starts soon after, and then there's a gap (timeline says over a year) between the end of Jhegaala and the start of Athyra.
Oh, and I also have a very vague grasp on what the hell a jhegaala looks like. Lyorn Records has this to say about it (which is not much), and there the image here and this one, so I guess something like a frog at one life stage and something like a moth in another?
no subject
Date: Nov. 10th, 2021 04:41 am (UTC)The meal framing is so GOOD. God. Yes I'm so hungry. If you, me, and sholio are ever in the same zipcode, we ought to go to the nearest Hungarian restaurant and eat tasty things :D
I didn't even get to the Lady Teldra stuff! I don't think she's fully waken up but she's already exerting an influence on Vlad! :O
Ooh thanks I'll check out that short story!!
Yeah I find the books without the characters from Adrilankha less compelling. Orca wasn't set in Adrilankha, but there was a ton of Kiera, so it was really fun to look at the relationship, but without it there's less of a spark imo. They're still enjoyable and I loved that there was so much Vlad-Loiosh chatter
I guess I was just confused because at one point in Jhegaala Vlad talks about "this one Teckla youth I knew" which I thought was a reference to Savn. But it could have been a different Teckla (maybe in the Teckla novel actually). That timeline makes a lot of sense characterization wise, so I'm happy with that. LOL.
I looked at those pictures and my brain did a record-screech because okay, frogs are amphibians and don't lay eggs like that, hard/soft shelled egg-laying animals are amniotes and are a totally different clade dangit, the amniote egg part is one of the reasons they succeeded in places the amphibians still can't!! but self, it is not earth, calm down lol. I guess the idea is just that it metamorphoses a ton.
no subject
Date: Nov. 10th, 2021 05:29 am (UTC)Haha, DEAL! :D (I don't know where Hungarian restaurants are around here, but the food in actual Hungary was really good, so I can readily believe that everything Vlad is eating in Dzur is delicious.)
Vlad talks about "this one Teckla youth I knew" which I thought was a reference to Savn. But it could have been a different Teckla (maybe in the Teckla novel actually).
Ohh, huh -- but yeah, it's probably one of the Tecklas in Teckla.
I guess the idea is just that it metamorphoses a ton.
That's my main takeaway, heh. I'm guessing he probably went through and picked life stages that intentionally do not go together in earth animals, because Brust is a troll. (Or maybe it's a coincidence, but still funny.)
no subject
Date: Nov. 10th, 2021 03:45 pm (UTC)Yeah that makes a lot of sense re: life stages. I bet it's on purpose. I wish we had amphibians that could fly though, that would be amazing. Give everything flight!! I like the blend of weirdness that Vlad's planet has. Some things are just ordinary animals here, some are completely made up, some are analogous to real animals, some are our made up mythical animals...and sometimes Vlad is like "this is ridiculous" at things that are completely ordinary earth things. :D :D
no subject
Date: Nov. 11th, 2021 07:25 am (UTC)Totally! I think that's the easiest solution really :D
(I've been to Budapest the once, vs a bunch of times to CZ and CK, and it's a gorgeous city. It was a little Eastern Bloc still in its vibe when we were there, and a lot of the pretty sights were still undergoing restoration, but I'm hoping we'll get to go back at some point and see how it's come along in that time.)
Some things are just ordinary animals here, some are completely made up, some are analogous to real animals, some are our made up mythical animals
Yeah, it's a really interesting mix. I don't remember where I saw this, but teckla are this one very specific species of mouse (salt marsh harvest mouse), and some animals are like "this earth animal with this added bit" -- like lyorn and tiassa -- and then you have completely ??? stuff like iorich and jhegaala. I'm pretty sure it's such a wild mix intentionally.
and sometimes Vlad is like "this is ridiculous" at things that are completely ordinary earth things. :D :D
Yes! I love Vlad being weirded out or earnestly explaining Earth things to the reader.
no subject
Date: Nov. 16th, 2021 02:08 am (UTC)Oooh, I did not know that! Gosh, that's a cute mouse. I mean so many mice are so cute :( Look at its little bright black eyes and furry ears and tiny pointy nose! Aww. I just picked up physical copies and omg the cover of Tiassa, a giant snarling tigery thing with wings. As if tigers weren't scary enough!
It's the best kind of not-quite-earth fantasy!!
no subject
Date: Nov. 16th, 2021 02:36 am (UTC)The teckla mice are super cute! I was particularly pleased to learn this random factoid (if it is indeed a fact) because these mice are apparently native to my area :D
Tiassa, a giant snarling tigery thing with wings. As if tigers weren't scary enough!
Tiassa are badass! Appearance-wise, they're probably my favorite after the jhereg (because shoulder dragon, how do you beat that.)
no subject
Date: Nov. 16th, 2021 08:12 pm (UTC)Awww!
Yes there are so many cool animals in these books but I really want a jhereg. A jhereg familiar. I love cats but I would absolutely go for a jhereg over a cat, even though I don't need one for my work. They're just too cool :D