Issola by Steven Brust. I'm not having all that much success avoiding re-reading the entire Vlad Taltos series...
This is the most recent Vlad book, and it's a doozy. A few off-hand remarks made in The Lord of Castle Black called to mind things that were said in this book, so I picked it up to check a few facts, and found myself drawn into re-reading the whole thing. I hear that happens a lot.
As usual, the book is summed up reasonably well by the tagline on the cover: "In which Vlad learns more than he bargained for about Dragaera, its masters, and the makers behind them." Vlad gets drawn into a series of epic events involving powerful sorcerers, the gods, and the mysterious Jenoine, beings who once ruled Dragaera, and are so different from the current inhabitants as to be all but incomprehensible.
I am still considering the matter and trying to understand, but it seems to me that they spoke to me-- insofar as I could perceive tone-- in the tone one might use to, well, a greeterbird. They were amused that I could form any sort of coherent thought; they think we're cute."
"Cute," said Aliera e'Kieron.
"Cute," said Morrolan e'Drien.
"I am cute," said Loiosh.
I said, "And that didn't, uh, annoy you at all?"
"I thought it interesting," said Teldra. "Actually, I didn't put it together in exactly that way; I've been thinking about it since the conversation, and that is my conclusion."
"Hmmmm," I said.
"Cute," repeated Aliera.
"All right," said Morrolan. "I think we can accept that. So, what do we do?"
"Kill them," said Aliera.
Morrolan rolled his eyes. "Of course we're going to kill them," he said. "I meant, how?"
On re-reading, I was struck by just how talky this book is. There are several whole chapters consisting of little more than philosophical conversations between characters (chiefly Vlad and Teldra), discussing history, metaphysics, the nature of godhood, and etiquette. And yet, Brust manages to make this compelling reading.
There is a plot, of course, but discussing it in detail would ruin the book for anyone who hasn't read it, so I'll skip over that part, save to note that it ends up advancing the overall story arc in dramatic and unexpected ways. I can't wait to see where he takes this next.
Oh, yeah, I did find the information I originally went to this book to check. I don't know why I'm surprised that it turned out to raise more questions than it answered...
(Originally posted to The Library of Babel.)
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