Customer Reviews

Sethra Lavode (Viscount of Adrilankha)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

With "Sethra Lavode," Brust brings the "Viscount of Adrilankha" series to a conclusion. And, perhaps, the larger Khaavren stories begun with "The Phoenix Guards" as well. But before turning to "Sethra" some background is probably appropriate.

The entire Khaavren trilogy, of course, was written by Paarfi, who redefines the word "prolix" with each page he writes. Brust is merely something like a translator. There were times when his translations were stretched in "Viscount" and especially "Castle Black," the two earlier books, but in "Sethra" there is a return to the wonderful style of "Phoenix Guards" and "500 Years." This book moves along, without ever giving up the narrative conceit and tone.

As for the plot, in "Viscount," the Empress Zerika recovered the Imperial Orb; in "500 Years" she fought to claim the throne; in "Sethra" she must fight to keep it against a Pretender and the deadly machinations of his fellow plotters. Our heros have managed to accumulate considerable number of enemies across the four earlier books. And those enemies have all allied together in a final effort to defeat Empress Zerika, Khaavren, Aerich, Pel and Tazendra.

I'm unsure whether to call these books a pastiche or homage to Alexander Dumas; perhaps they are something of both. Brust . . . er, Paarfi, pokes immense fun at himself. Brust has written elsewhere that writing as Paarfi is great fun, and Brust's enjoyment and delight is apparent. Where Dumas verbosity was a consequence being paid by the word, Brust. . . er, Paarfi writes for his own pleasure and the pleasure of an attentive reader. And for the sly knife in the ribs. For example, in "500 Years" Paarfi notes that the decadent Phoenix Emperor, Tortaalik, changes his clothes 8-10 times a day, but that since there were already several books written on the Emperor's dress, he wouldn't write another. So much for Robert Jordan.

As others have noted, the narrative is delightfully infuriating. Paarfi thinks nothing of interrupting the story at a critical pound to expound - at length - on whatever has crossed his mind or his path. I caution that if you think "irony" describes rusty water, much of these tales will be lost on you.

One other nice touch: many of the events of the "Viscount" trilogy have been foreshadowed in the "Taltos" series, which is itself some ten books long now. Brust manages to keep these stories consistent with those books, which are slightly later in time, without ever sacrificing excitement or consistency.

Kudos to Brust. . . er. Paarfi, on a story well told and well concluded. Kudos to Tor on having the courage to publish these tales, which in several senses are well outside the normal fantasy/science fiction genre. Strongly recommended.

While this is sold as the third book in a trilogy, it is really the third part of a single novel. Past Kaavhren Romances have started slowly, introducing a lot of characters and plot threads, then picked up in the middle, and finally come together in a definitive ending. This story (The Viscount Of Adrilankha) is exactly the same, except those three portions of the novel are split between three books. The first (Paths Of The Dead) therefore suffered greatly, because it was slow and had no payoff. The second (Lord Of Castle Black) was more entertaining, but also had no payoff. That was because the payoff comes in the third book.

Much is learned regarding the relationship between Love, Duty, Honor, and Friendship. A father learns that he can love his son without necessarily understanding or approving of everything he does. An empress learns the value of subjects who respect her enough to fail to show her respect. And a dragonlord learns much about his sword, as well as interior decorating and the science of throwing a party.

The reader, however, learns very little about Sethra Lavode, even though she is the lynchpin around which the rest of the plot revolves.

These three books would probably rate five stars if they were published together as a single volume, but individually none of them quite reaches that level. Neither Lord Of Castle Black nor Sethra Lavode can really be read on their own, and Paths Of The Dead really isn't worth reading on its own.

One of the few problems a reader might perceive with this epic of the re-establishment of the Dragaeran Empire is that Brust's alter-ego, Sir Paarfi of Roundwood, writes in a most circumlocutory style. For people who like their prose swift and to the point, this may be an irritant. For me, addicted to work that stretches the frame of grammer and language the result is often infectious. No surprise that, after reading a few chapters at lunch, the memos I write at work become three times longer and never quite get to the point. Of course, this is one of the most likeable things about the series as well, if you like playing with language, and I do.

This volume brings to a head the various threads that began in Paths of the Dead, when Zerika, as the last Phoenix received the Orb back from the Gods and went about rebuilding the empire that had collapse as the result of Adron's disaster. The first complication was that someone else (Kava) was also intent on becoming emperor, and a grand conflict was the inevitable result. Now Zerika, with the aid of a host of intriguing and quirky characters, must prepare for the last confrontation with Kava before the walls of Adrilankha.

Sethra Lavode, warlord, vampire, and enchantress is the brains behind Zerika's hopes, but others, such as Khaavran, the captain of the guard, and his son Piro (who has chosen to make his living as a highwayman), sparkle throughout the narrative. Brust has the knack of creating characters who have the charm of creativity, even when they are doing their best to be despicable.

Everyone who has been a fan of Brust knows how this book will turn out, since it is the prequel to many of his novels, thus the voyage is more important than the conclusion. Unlike many writers, Burst focuses on the interaction of the players, rather than ad infinitum detail or excesses of action. Most of this takes place in a wry style of dialogue that is difficult to describe.

However, don't be misled into thinking that there is a lack if activity here. After all, we have highwaymen, court politics, marching armies, gods, various magicks, and a whopping big battle at the end. Even a bit of romance when the characters think no one else is looking. Be warned that this is not a volume to start out with. You are best off starting with The Phoenix Guards and working forward.

Does this guy ever fail?
This is easily the best of the three Viscount books, and really brings back the pacing and flair of the Pheonix Guard books. I know that saying "Its so good, I couldn't put it down" is cliche, but its the truth in this case. I bought the book last night around 10:30, and I had it finished by 5 today.

My one complaint is that seeing the title of this book months ago, I was hoping to learn a little bit more about Sethra herself, but unfortunately there's not too much revealed. Long time Brust fans will definitely notice some occurences related to the Vlad series which I thought were entertaining

If you're a Brust fan at all, you need this book.

The book is good. Oh I could nitpick here and there wanting a little more of the Lyorn Ariec's journey, a little more of Verra's judgment reward, a little more danger in the city battle (get past one fort or make a second attempt on the empress). I also don't understand why Morolean did not finish the 4th village, why a few more people were not honnored at the end, or (and this could be the biggest item) the book is titled the way it is when there is no more about Sethra in this book than in many others. The book is the 3rd in a series about a number of characters we like. I almost do think it would be best read immediately after the other two. Nits aside, I laughed out loud several times delighting in the dragerean approach to time and turns of phrases.

The good news is that Steven Brust's witty, elegant, writing is still a delight to read.

Structurally, though, _Sethra Lavode_ shares some flaws with the earlier books in this trilogy (flaws which do *not* mar Brust's marvelous _The Phoenix Guard_ and _Five Hundred Years After_). For instance:

* There are a great many characters. We are exposed to Khaavren, Tazenda, Pel, Aerich, his wife Daro, his son Piro, Piro's companions, Morrolan, Zerika, and Sethra herself in about equal measure. As a result, no one character gets much face time, and no one plot thread is fully developed.

* There are too many villains as well, and their plot threads are hardly developed at all. We barely see any of them, and at least one of them (returning from the very first Khaavren book) has no evident function other than to be mean. The enemy action that provokes the climactic struggle of the novel doesn't even enter the book until about half-way through.

* The climax is divided into several narrative streams. One of these is a battle, in which (unlike the battle at the end of _500YA_) out heroes are largely on the sidelines. Sethra and Zerika, the primary protagonists in this section, spend most of their time worrying about their lack of ability to do certain things.

* The action takes place over a period of several years, which makes the book a little disjointed.

On the plus side, the meandering plots of the trilogy are perforce resolved; it's neat to get some backstory on Morrolan; and there's the aforementioned gorgeous language.

I suspect that relatively few people will come to this volume without having read the first two. _Sethra Lavode_ is the best of the three, and if you've followed the story this far it's definitely worth finishing. Steven Brust is a writer of genius (no exaggeration) ... but this isn't his best work, all the same.

This concludes the Viscount of Adrilankha trilogy, but Sethra Lavode is an extremely minor character in the book. After reading the Vlad books, Sethra Lavode's story remains an intriguing enigma, and I was hoping for specific details. The Lord of Castle Black (The Viscount of Adrilankha, Book 2), the predecessor to this volume, has the basic life story of Lord Morollan, including how he came to possess Castle Black and Blackwand, and I was hoping for a similar treatment for Sethra. None of her mysteries are revealed, instead it's the final battle of Zerika's side against Kana the usurper. Morollan clashes with a god, and Piro 'The Blue Fox' continues his rebellion alongside Ibronka.

I enjoyed portions of the book, including the final confrontation, Khaarven coming to terms with Piro, and mention of the Jenoine. I also thought the first three or so chapters were mindcrushingly slow, but the book gets better after them. Brust has an annoying habit of constant cliffhangers in the mid-volume, and they really kept me 'in' this volume.

Overall I was satisfied with the reading experience, but the title mislead me regarding my expectations. Sethra holds one war council and plays a small direct role near the end. The character with the most page count was Piro and his band, and a more appropriate title would have simply been "The Blue Fox." If you want the rest of the story regarding how the Phoenix Empress Zerika began her reign, then great book. (The most relevant sub-theme was love between members of different factions.) But I wanted Sethra Lavode's origin story, which was nowhere inside the volume. Meh.

_Sethra Lavode_ is a very nice ending to the Viscount of Adrilankha trilogy. The writing style is fun to read, the dialogue between characters and comments to the reader from Paarfi are often hilarious and the story is well told.

I enjoyed getting more background information on Morrolan, Empress Zerika, and the reestablishment of the Empire after the Interregnum. It is also nice to see Piro and Khaavren finally reconciled. While in many ways the ending was known (of course Zerika won if she is Empress in the Vlad Taltos novels), the journey was well worth it.

If you have already read _The Paths of the Dead_ and _The Lord of Castle Black_, be assured that this book continues the same style and story and does a very nice job of wrapping up the whole plotline. If you have NOT read the first two books of the Viscount of Adrilankha, then you really really need to because most of what happens in this book won't make much sense otherwise.

One quibble I DO have with this book, and the reason I give it fours stars and not five, is the poor editing job done in the last third of the book. There is a scene where the Sorceress in Green starts a conversation with Sethra Lavode and Sethra the Younger, but the text says that "Morrolan and Sethra" answer, which makes no sense at all since at that point Morrolan is hundreds of leagues away. There is a paragraph where there is an errant hard return so one line stops after one word before the rest of the paragraph starts on the next line and another where an extra "of" appears in a sentence. I know this is nitpicky, but at the same time I am pretty sure that Tor has someone whose job it is to catch plotline errors and run a simple grammar checker on the book.

Also, I was not terribly impressed by the cover art.

All in all though, a very good book, a very fitting and satisfying end to the Viscount of Adrilankha and a good prequel for the Vlad Taltos series.

The Viscount of Ardilanka series stood in stark contrast to the previous Khaavren Romances, Phoenix Guards and 500 Years After; yet it's style was that of one continous novel- as it was meant to be. The last addition, Sethra Lavode was no exception to Brust's usual brilliance. Thus, this emotionally charged epic moves us to a realization that the four's friendship is a timeless relationship that is unmatched by any other story. I give this book five stars because it moved me, the conclusion of Khaavren's story is a complete and fulfilling end.

For those of us who have devoured every word written by Brust his latest installment does not disappoint. This story although a bit predictable is told in that light hearted manner that I have found common from Brust and rare from others. The main characters once again engage in light banter during moments of high adventure! If you have never read Brust this might not be the book to start with. (I would say start with the Phoenix Guards?) If you have, then you will not be disappointed with this latest entry in Dragaerean History. My only regret is that we really don?t get to spend as much time with the title character as I had hoped. But on the bright side that just means there is that much more left to write in future volumes!