Five Hundred Years After
Aug. 18th, 2019 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfbiterSteven Brust - Five Hundred Years After
(Repost from Livejournal)
After over 500 years of his reign Tortaalik has become more interested about the formalities and his daily routines and is only occasionally interested about the affairs of the state - which have become rather complex, including various Houses refusing to send their representatives or even pay their share to the Imperial Treasury. And Teckla, the commoners, are growing restless because of the rising grain prices and Tortaalik's various dictates.
And Khaavren, now the Captain of the Phoenix Guards has a duty to obey the Emperor - and follow him around when the emperor is going through his stultifying daily routines in the labyrinthine palace.
Tortaalik faces riots of Teckla commoners and the potential rebellion of Lord Adron, the Dragon Heir and potentially the next in line to the throne of the Dragaeran Empire. And Adron has been studying the ancient, forbidden sorceries in his own time. Is fact, Adron is playing Conde to Tortaalik's Louis XIV - and the Mazarin analogy is more inept than his fictional counterpart.
Add to this the arrival of Aliera Kieron, Adron's very beautiful daughter; Sethra Lavode, the Enchantress of the Dzur Mountain that just might be older than the Empire itself; Greycat the conspirator in the Underside; Noima the Royal Consort who has her own ideas (or at least she thinks she has, I'm not sure); Mario, a minor assassin and Daro, House of Tiassa lady-in-waiting.
When Khaavren and Lord Adron are the only targets of series of assassinations that survive, the court is thrown into disarray. And Khaavren ends up contacting his friends he has not seen for five centuries.
The conspirators try to kill Khaavren again and again. He must survive, solve the mystery of conspiracy and do his duty to the Emperor at the same time. And he also ends up finding the lady of his centuries-old life. And when the Teckla begun to abandon the city, the Emperor gives Khaavren new unpleasant orders he should follow…
Narrator is again Paarfi (he even ends up arguing with Brust even if his contemporaries give him good reviews). And because he is still essentially historian, he refers to historical sources and Dragaeran authorities and even apologises to his readers when he explains something, for his supposed audience should be aware of the history (the way the Japanese would be aware of the dropping of the a-bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki). At least it gives Brust an excuse to do so…
Yet again, this is not a slavish rewrite of a Dumas storyline but the story that borrows from the similar themes. There is no Dark Lord (which, in my books is a very good thing). The destruction is due to ambition, pride, greed and various human failings. It is a ruin caused by people who (mostly) think they know what they are doing… Various plans clash with each other and end up with a conflagration of massive proportions.
(Repost from Livejournal)
After over 500 years of his reign Tortaalik has become more interested about the formalities and his daily routines and is only occasionally interested about the affairs of the state - which have become rather complex, including various Houses refusing to send their representatives or even pay their share to the Imperial Treasury. And Teckla, the commoners, are growing restless because of the rising grain prices and Tortaalik's various dictates.
And Khaavren, now the Captain of the Phoenix Guards has a duty to obey the Emperor - and follow him around when the emperor is going through his stultifying daily routines in the labyrinthine palace.
Tortaalik faces riots of Teckla commoners and the potential rebellion of Lord Adron, the Dragon Heir and potentially the next in line to the throne of the Dragaeran Empire. And Adron has been studying the ancient, forbidden sorceries in his own time. Is fact, Adron is playing Conde to Tortaalik's Louis XIV - and the Mazarin analogy is more inept than his fictional counterpart.
Add to this the arrival of Aliera Kieron, Adron's very beautiful daughter; Sethra Lavode, the Enchantress of the Dzur Mountain that just might be older than the Empire itself; Greycat the conspirator in the Underside; Noima the Royal Consort who has her own ideas (or at least she thinks she has, I'm not sure); Mario, a minor assassin and Daro, House of Tiassa lady-in-waiting.
When Khaavren and Lord Adron are the only targets of series of assassinations that survive, the court is thrown into disarray. And Khaavren ends up contacting his friends he has not seen for five centuries.
The conspirators try to kill Khaavren again and again. He must survive, solve the mystery of conspiracy and do his duty to the Emperor at the same time. And he also ends up finding the lady of his centuries-old life. And when the Teckla begun to abandon the city, the Emperor gives Khaavren new unpleasant orders he should follow…
Narrator is again Paarfi (he even ends up arguing with Brust even if his contemporaries give him good reviews). And because he is still essentially historian, he refers to historical sources and Dragaeran authorities and even apologises to his readers when he explains something, for his supposed audience should be aware of the history (the way the Japanese would be aware of the dropping of the a-bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki). At least it gives Brust an excuse to do so…
Yet again, this is not a slavish rewrite of a Dumas storyline but the story that borrows from the similar themes. There is no Dark Lord (which, in my books is a very good thing). The destruction is due to ambition, pride, greed and various human failings. It is a ruin caused by people who (mostly) think they know what they are doing… Various plans clash with each other and end up with a conflagration of massive proportions.
