14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very nice change of pace, November 20, 2000
This review is from: The Phoenix Guards (Khaavren Romances) (Mass Market Paperback)
The brief review: I had a slight smile on my face the entire time I read this book. It is, as a reviewer of the Three Muskateers might have once said, "charming."
To elaborate: Brust is very well (some might say "over") educated and knows how to turn a phrase. The plot moves along briskly; the characters, while not fleshed out too thoroughly, do have distinct and effective personalities. I was, at first, a bit lost about the world's/realm's infrastructure of Houses and about the characteristics of each (and what animals the fantasy names correlate to). However, I've not read the Vlad Taltos series, which apparently sheds some light on those matters.
This is not a book to be read at breakneck speed, as the dialogue must be savored and as there are plot details that could otherwise be missed. That said, even if one does commit to reading each excruciatingly polite phrase that the characters utter, there are still times when one wants to throttle them for not getting to the point. Brust plays this game nicely, but he perhaps goes to the well one too many times. Nevertheless, in two words, as the wonderfully pompous narrator might say, this is an amiable sabre-and-sorcery frolick, and I plan to check out Five Hundred Years After, the next book, very soon. (Closer to 3-1/2 or 3-3/4 stars, but 4 is certainly not a stretch.)
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brust as Paarfi; Paarfi as Dumas, March 17, 2005
This review is from: The Phoenix Guards (Khaavren Romances) (Mass Market Paperback)
As others have noted, the Khaavren Romances, the series of five Brust novels that begins with "The Phoenix Guards," is in some senses an homage to Alexander Dumas and his series that began with "The Three Musketeers." It is also an homage to the late Roger Zelazny, an author Brust admired very much. But it mostly Brust having fun. He wrote on his website, "I wrote it for the sheer joy of writing it--I giggled all the way through. No one was more surprised than me that, not only was it published, but a lot of other people seem to like it. Cool." Cool, indeed.
One of the conceits of the Khaavren Romances is that they are written by a contemporary of Khaavren, the protagonist, one Paarfi of Roundwood. Paarfi redefines "prolix" with each page he writes. Like Dumas, Paarfi is paid by the word. Like Dumas, Paarfi writes with hyperformality, wild circumlocutions, and a willingness to break from the narrative thread at any time to chase down almost any distraction. As just one example, at one important juncture Paarfi spends a few pages establishing that a long place name, de-constructed through half a dozen languages, translates as "wood wood wood wood." It's a sly send-up of Dumas; Paarfi out does Dumas, to wonderful effect.
At a time when fantasy literature has deteriorated to clichés and worse, when authors like Diane Wynne Jones can write a "Tough Guide to Fantasyland" and skewer nine-tenths of the genre, it is a sheer delight to find a fantasy writer who can write, who loves to write and who can communicate that delight to his readers.
Like Dumas' Musketeers, this story follows the careers of four young minor nobles, who come to the capital to enlist in the king's special regiment. Except that the setting is not France but rather Brust's Dragaera, the complex world of the Vlad Taltos series, set a millennium before Vlad Taltos. Remember, Draegarans live a very long time. Brust and Paarfi's world is more complex even than 17th century France. Brust as Paarfi revels in the complexities. Khaavren, the main protagonist, is very much d'Artagnan. But in other ways, including the heros' delightful rescue from execution near the end of the book, are Brust's own invention.
This is not "sword and fur jockstrap," slash and sizzle fantasy. There are no heaps of bodies. This is a recasting of a classic by a very fine author. If you know Dumas, it adds to the fun. But if you love language and literature, I think you will like this book very much. I certainly did.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dumas with Dragaerans, April 2, 1998
This review is from: The Phoenix Guards (Khaavren Romances) (Mass Market Paperback)
There are those who are disturbed by Brust's practice of twisting classic works through several alternate dimensions; I am always amazed at how well he does it. The rhythms of the dialogue, the descriptions, the characters -- they are similar but not the same, as though viewed through a glass that distorts and reveals simultaneously. It is a walk along a very cunning tightrope -- not alienating those who love the classic while satisfying those who love the fantasy. As one who has adored the unabridged Dumas since childhood, I confess myself well satisfied. As a reader of fantasy for several decades, I find myself, again, amazed.
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