My attitude toward Steven Brust’s Tiassa is pretty mixed. On one hand, it has a great deal of cool stuff in it (Devera POV! Paarfi doing Vlad’s dialogue, which is hilarious! Answers to some long-standing questions!) On the other hand—well, actually, there are two other hands.
The first other hand is that this is another interstitial book and, as with Iorich, I still want forward movement.
The second other hand is that my initial reaction to the events of the book was that they were mildly dissatisfying in and of their own right. rushthatspeaks argued persuasively (link to day view so as to preserve spoiler cut, scroll down) that I was looking at the book in the wrong way. I’ve since re-read with that perspective in mind, and I agree with it, but I’m not sure I would have come to that conclusion on my own—which makes me think that I do not think like a Tiassa, whereas rushthatspeaks does. (I’m not sure what House I think like. You’d think it’d be Iorich, with being a lawyer and all, but I didn’t understand Iorich‘s plot either. Next time I re-read the series it will be fun to look at books with that question in mind.)
At any rate, on the re-read, this was enjoyable, but I continue to be distracted by fretting about the overall direction of the series. Which I freely admit says more about me than anything else, but hey, this is why this is a personal booklog and not a set of formally-published reviews.
And now, to figure out why The Dragaera Timeline keeps hanging Calibre when I try to add it as an e-book.
Oh, I do like that theory from RushThatSpeaks! Must re-read!
Glad you found it interesting! Their reviews are very interesting, particularly the current “read and review one new book a day for a year” project, and I recommend them.
The whole world thinks that the last section of Tiassa follows Iorich, but I say:
1. In Iorich, Vlad told Cawti that he had been dating an Issola, not that he’d like to be doing that.
2. At the end of Iorich, Vlad was kinda/sorta back with Cawti and Vlad Jr, and that seems too important to end off-screen.
Mike, I don’t remember the details now, but I got the same impression as you based on the same evidence.