John Colton's blog

I've been busy reading more books, but haven't taken the time to review any for a while. So here's a review of a trilogy I read about a month ago: The Viscount of Adrilankha series, by Steven Brust.

This trilogy is comprised of: The Paths of the Dead, The Lord of Castle Black, and Sethra Lavode. They are sequels of The Phoenix Guards, and Five Hundred Years After, which I reviewed previously--see here:
http://johncolton.blogspot.com/2006/09/book-reviews-brust.html

They are written in the same "love it or hate it" style of the Dragaeran historian, Paarfi, that was used in Phoenix Guards and Five Hundred Years. Frankly, it cracked Pauline and me up, but I can see how it would be annoying to some. To quote one review I read on amazon.com:

...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.

Anyway, here are reviews of the individual books:

The Paths of the Dead - 7.5/10. A little too much of a travelogue for my liking, but still well done. At the end of Five Hundred Years After (pardon the spoiler), the Emperor is assassinated, and the Imperial Orb--symbol and source of Dragaeran magic--is teleported out to the Paths of the Dead. That's basically the place where the Dragaeran gods and deceased individuals reside. So this book tackles the heroic task of retrieving the Orb. This task is assigned to Piro, son of Khaavren (star of the previous two books), and a few others, including Piro's friend Zerika--who is to become the new Empress. Many adventures occur along the way, of course.

The Lord of Castle Black - 9/10. One weird thing about this book is that it seemed like although the book is named for Morrolan, the Lord of Castle Black--and a major figure in the Vlad Taltos books--Morrolan actually doesn't play a huge role. I suppose that matches the overall title of the series, since Piro, who is the Viscount of Adrilankha, actually plays a fairly minor role after The Paths of the Dead. Anyway, this book was highly entertaining. There are a plethora of characters, and a lot of things happen--including some entertaining battle scenes (unless I'm misremember and those were in the next book). The plot revolves are Zerika returning from the Paths of the Dead with the Orb, and her struggle to be recognized as Empress. Piro and his friends are back, as well as Khaavren and his "famous friends" Tazendra, Pel and Aerich--mostly fighting for Zerika's side.

Sethra Lavode - 9/10. Again, the book is strangely titled since Sethra is not necessarily the major character. Actually, Khaaven probably is--although again, characters abound and the book is constantly hopping back and forth to and from various people's viewpoints. This continues the quest to re-establish Zerika on the throne as Empress. And not only do battles have to be fought among the various parties contending for the throne, with both swords and sorcery, but the gods themselves take an interest in the proceedings. There is a particularly memorable scene where Morrolan gets ticked off and decides to go hunt down one particularly irritating god. And, to quote another amazon.com review:

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.

Overall the books were extremely entertaining. It would help to have read the previous two Khaavren books first, but I think he provides enough backstory that these three can stand on their own. But they are certainly one continuous narrative--you can't really read book 3 without having read book 2, in my opinion.