Books, part deux

[petronia]

The nice thing about Steven Brust's novels is that they're endlessly re-readable, because the plots vapourize from my mind as soon as the last page is turned - I only remember the character development that carries over into the next installment. XD; In this they're very much like my experience of Bujold (though I've been re-reading Barrayar much less since I lent out my copy and it was promptly lost =_=). Too, both series are about the same thing: the life of a person who's both marginalized by and a privileged insider to the society in which they were born, who has a massive chip on his shoulder due to the former but can't/won't turn his back on said society because he's internalized its values and is obsessed with proving himself on the game's terms (which he accepts for his own). And how that messes him up (and his relationships), and how it eventually becomes imperative to come to terms with his own identity. Of course Vlad and Miles have different D&D alignments, and Vlad's background is basically an immigrant narrative whereas Miles is victim of a different brand of discrimination, but similar tropes crop up a lot - they both have moral centres in the persons of older relatives, for instance. And by the standards of their respective societies, they're both short. I was going to draw up a side-by-side comparison chart. XD

I refused to read Diplomatic Immunity for the longest time, because A Civil Campaign seemed like such a logical place to stop, and by then I'd been thoroughly traumatized by Bujold's propensity for setting off mines beneath her characters' feet just as they find themselves on solid ground. So, of course, I went ahead and read A Deeper Season and What Passing Bells. orz||| TALK ABOUT SHOOTING YOURSELF IN THE FOOT, LAWLZ. Meanwhile Diplomatic Immunity turned out to be entirely non-traumatic.

A Deeper Season is one of those Great Fannish Endeavours one is amazed anyone had the balls to take on, let alone carry off successfully. My context was that I'd started reading the series with The Vor Game, in fact, so from the first Miles/Gregor embedded itself as a vaporous possibility in my mind. There's intrinsic possibility there, like Ekaterin was basically designed to be the perfect long-term relationship foil for Miles (whatever your opinion of that type of authorial fiat), and Gregor and Ekaterin are very similar people at core. The problem is you'd have to have the time and energy to write SEVERAL NOVELS to deal with the socio-political fallout (these are not characters who could say to hell with it and stay IC), in a distant corner of the uncountable multiverse where Miles wasn't so hopelessly straight. XD; Incredibly, lightgetsin and sahiya did, with such stellar results that the outcome reads not like AU fanfiction, but like canon from an AU of this reality. I kept wandering around the house distractedly looking for the physical copy of "the Vorkosigan novel I was reading," not finding it, then realizing there was no physical copy. It was a complete mindfuck and a half.

...Okay, so this was actually more about Bujold than Brust. XD I don't know what to say about Brust, other than the obvious fact that I'd never seen a realistic portrayal of a marriage on the rocks in purported genre fantasy (or a proletarian revolution...). I feel like I don't have enough information! Maybe you guys should ask me what I think about specific characters or plot points.

Comments

[dipping_sauce]

though I've been re-reading Barrayar much less since I lent out my copy and it was promptly lost =_ =

Oh for the... He *still* hasn't managed to get you a new one?

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Hm... While writing Tekla, actually, Brust's own marriage was breaking up. Guh, it's been too long since I've read the books. But ahaha, if you want to see a proletariat revolution in fantasy, try read China Mieville's Iron Council.

As for asking questions about Dragaera: Uh... so who's your favorite character? What House would you be a member of? XD

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I gave up on it ages ago. XD I'll replace it myself and dude can buy me a drink. The problem is I haven't seen it in bookstores either.

[dipping_sauce]

It's at Amazon. Chapters/Indigo have never really had a decent selection of non-recent SF&F in stores.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I have a single favorite character, though there are ones I prefer (Vlad and Loiosh obv, Kragar, the main gang from The Phoenix Guards). You'd think it'd be Sethra Lavode but it isn't, for some reason.

I'd be a Hawk, who the hell are we kidding. XD Interestingly enough the people I find most immediately sympathetic in real life are recognizably Tiassa (preceding house), Dzur (ensuing house), or fellow Hawk - and the houses next to those are problematic. And thus it goes, alternating sympathetic-problematic all around the wheel. Has the Brust fandom ever tested the Cycle as a personality classification system? This is such a Hawk question.

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

See! This is what I meant when I was saying that this was so much better than the HP House system as a personality system ahaha. I think I asked on my journal awhile ago what House people thought I should be in. I think someone said Yendi.

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

Was just poking about the Bujold ML archives the other day and lulzed to find a post from earlier this summer in which herself was inquiring to the effect of "Who is this Stephenie Meyer person and what is UP with that? o_O" LMB totally exploits her ML like...like we all exploit our flists, I suppose. It's cute.

Have you read her other stuff, or just the Vor?

I tried to read Dragaera a looooong time ago--like, in junior high--but couldn't get into it or Vlad (due to the D&D alignments, maybe?) Wonder if I should give it another go.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Just the Vor - figured I wouldn't like the other as I don't really like it when Bujold does romance (I swear we've had this convo!). XD; I read her for politics and familial dynamics.

I can see you not getting into Vlad (though also suspect he's one of those guys you'd like better from the outside rather than the inside). You might like the Khaavren books, though?

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

We probably have and I've forgotten. *fails* But if you're basing dislike of romance in Bujold exclusively on dislike of romance in the Vor series, well, I don't think much of the romance in the Vor series, either, honestly. Uhh, Aral/Cordelia moe excepted. I...don't remember Curse of Chalion being romance-centric so much as just...really good? But that plot has evaporated from my brain along with all the Vor plots. Amazing how that happens.

Sharing Knife is as much about family dynamics and politics as anything! although if you hated the romance it would spoil the pudding, yeah, because the romance happens first and is the catalyst for everything else. The series structure goes like this:
Book 1: hook up OTP, deal with her crazy family
Book 2: deal with his crazy family
Book 3: together they fight crime!!
Presumably 4 will be more of 3. And the worldbuilding just gets better and better! I'll stop now. Why am I pitching this to you when I could be pitching Earthsea or something, idk.

Khaavren books are which?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

The Phoenix Guards, Five Hundred Years Later, etc. They're kind of like Dumas' Musketeer novels except Dumas' Musketeers are dicks if you think about it and Brust's characters aren't. Possibly they also end better, but I wouldn't know. XD;

[meril.livejournal.com]

I read Cetaganda first. This of course means that if I dared to read in that fandom, it would probably be Miles/Ivan. ;)

Have you read Brokedown Palace, by any chance?

[naanima.livejournal.com]

I read Memory first so in many ways I was introduced to Miles and the Vor when everything was calm(ish). The bits that was shown of Gregor had me intrigued but it wasn't until reading The Vor Game that my brain started springing up possibilities, except there was a bit of a problem trying to fill that gap of Gregor in Memory to Gregor in love with Miles.

Then I read ADS and the sequel, and it was as if some Authorial God decided to bless me with a Bujold that decided she wanted to give Miles another opportunity at the relationship thing. And omg I know exactly what you mean about searching for a paper copy of the fic because it is so deftly done that it could only be written by Bujold.

It is all so very confusing.

I have not had the opportunity to read Brust. It may be time.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Haven't read Brokedown Palace yet - thinking of saving it to the end as it's standalone iirc.

I can see Miles/Ivan, can't remember reading any fic for it though. You'd think the hilarity value would make it more popular. XD

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Ahaha I think reading Memory first saves a lot of WTF in the long run, you pretty much get it out of the way first. XD

Brust is recommended!