Setha Lavode (Steven Brust)
Aug. 6th, 2004 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aseSethra Lavode (Steven Brust): The final volume of the "Viscount of Andrilankha" sort-of trilogy. People die. People live. The novel pretty much filled expectations without overflowing them. The cover art is astonishingly bad.
The Afterword is astonishingly incomprehensible, and if someone could shed some light on it I'd appreciate it.
"...history is able to rely upon the truth, of course. A novel, in which all is created by the author's whim, must strike a more profound truth, or it is worthless." -SL p142
"Yet, if I am arrested -"
"Oh, it will be a mild sort of captivity, I assure you. Now, let us return to the Manor."
"Very well, it seems that, being arrested, I must comply.
"Precisely."
"Shall I precede you?"
"Not in the least. Arm in arm."
"Very well; but this is a peculiar sort of arrest you carry out." -Pel & Khaavren, p171
Zerika stared at him. "Let me understand you, Captain. You do yourself the honor to scold - to scold - your Empress, and you call this respect?"
Khaavren bowed his assent.
"And to my predecessor you were the soul of courtesy, because he was weak, and small, and mean?"
Khaavren bowed once more.
"Cracks and shards! If I were my illustrious ancestor, Zerika the First, who founded the Empire, why, what would you do then? Pull your ear at me?"
"I should have treated her with the same respect I show Your Majesty, and for the same reason."
"What reason is that?"
"Because Your Majesty has the potential for greatness - for real greatness. I have seen it in your managing of diplomacies, and in your conversations with subordinates, and, even now, when Your Majesty feels she has been treated in a way no person, much less an Empress, ought to be treated, Your Majesty attempts to control her temper and be just and fair, looking past the extraordinary provocation." -Zerika and Khaavren p174-175. Authorial humor to sincerity in a handful of lines. Wow.
...we can only say that stubbornness, obstinancy, and resitstance to change are no more unknown in the House of the Dragon than is a tendency toward redundancy, repetition, and reiteration among historians. -p179
... [Morrolan] had not yet seen Khaavren, for which reason he asked Sethra the Younger where the Tiasssa might have gotten to.
"He is arresting the Pretender," she said.
"Ah, is he? How large a detachment did he take?"
"He went alone."
"Did he? Well, do you think he might need some help?"
Sethra the Younger considered this for a moment, then said, "It is unlikely." -Morrolan and StY, p313
Those We Do Not Name.. Except For Verra Who Does. - p324-325
*Snickers* HP much?
...the complex tapestry that we call history, or life. -closing words, p341.
*Sigh* Could've quoted that entire closing paragraph, which was just cool.
The Afterword is astonishingly incomprehensible, and if someone could shed some light on it I'd appreciate it.
"...history is able to rely upon the truth, of course. A novel, in which all is created by the author's whim, must strike a more profound truth, or it is worthless." -SL p142
"Yet, if I am arrested -"
"Oh, it will be a mild sort of captivity, I assure you. Now, let us return to the Manor."
"Very well, it seems that, being arrested, I must comply.
"Precisely."
"Shall I precede you?"
"Not in the least. Arm in arm."
"Very well; but this is a peculiar sort of arrest you carry out." -Pel & Khaavren, p171
Zerika stared at him. "Let me understand you, Captain. You do yourself the honor to scold - to scold - your Empress, and you call this respect?"
Khaavren bowed his assent.
"And to my predecessor you were the soul of courtesy, because he was weak, and small, and mean?"
Khaavren bowed once more.
"Cracks and shards! If I were my illustrious ancestor, Zerika the First, who founded the Empire, why, what would you do then? Pull your ear at me?"
"I should have treated her with the same respect I show Your Majesty, and for the same reason."
"What reason is that?"
"Because Your Majesty has the potential for greatness - for real greatness. I have seen it in your managing of diplomacies, and in your conversations with subordinates, and, even now, when Your Majesty feels she has been treated in a way no person, much less an Empress, ought to be treated, Your Majesty attempts to control her temper and be just and fair, looking past the extraordinary provocation." -Zerika and Khaavren p174-175. Authorial humor to sincerity in a handful of lines. Wow.
...we can only say that stubbornness, obstinancy, and resitstance to change are no more unknown in the House of the Dragon than is a tendency toward redundancy, repetition, and reiteration among historians. -p179
... [Morrolan] had not yet seen Khaavren, for which reason he asked Sethra the Younger where the Tiasssa might have gotten to.
"He is arresting the Pretender," she said.
"Ah, is he? How large a detachment did he take?"
"He went alone."
"Did he? Well, do you think he might need some help?"
Sethra the Younger considered this for a moment, then said, "It is unlikely." -Morrolan and StY, p313
Those We Do Not Name.. Except For Verra Who Does. - p324-325
*Snickers* HP much?
...the complex tapestry that we call history, or life. -closing words, p341.
*Sigh* Could've quoted that entire closing paragraph, which was just cool.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-06 12:29 pm (UTC)Thanks for posting the quotes. I tend to get caught up in the story and miss out on the word-savoring [even after all these years as a Lois fan, when you would've thought I would've learned better by now].
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-06 12:44 pm (UTC)By the way, are you likely to be around tonight if I call?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-06 12:52 pm (UTC)_Phoenix Guards_ is my favorite in the whole Khaavren series. Not only is there clever wordplay and derring-do, the ending is more-or-less upbeat [no Adron's Disaster, no whole bandit band or way cool characters getting killed off, etc.]