Reading, reading!

[krait]

Been busy with some other things, but I have done some reading. I'm now about halfway through The Baron of Magister Valley (Brust) and have just started Xenotech: Queen's Gambit (Schroeder).

The latter is a book I've been waiting two years for: I purchased the first book in the Xenotech Support series at a convention, pre-pandemic, to see if I'd enjoy it. I did, very much, and was excited to pick up the next one when the con came round again! Then the convention was cancelled two years in a row. This year I got both my convention and the next two books, which I'm very much looking forward to. :D

If you enjoy humourous sci-fi, pick up the first book, Xenotech Rising, and have fun!

My feelings on the Brust novel so far are somewhat more complex, mostly because of the introduction. The story itself is fun so far (the daring escape has just occurred!) though, and hopefully it will lessen the unpleasantness of Will Shetterly's existence, which has made Dragaera and the Dzur far less enjoyable than they ought to be. :/

Comments

[darklingsluck]

I seem to be out of the loop on Will Shetterly as I don't really follow Mr. Brust outside of his Dragaera novels.

[krait]

Will Shetterly is somewhat notorious in the fan community as someone who

a) was involved, deeply and with extreme bigotry, in the 2009 Racefail debacle, including doxxing someone who argued with him;

and

b) frequently Googles himself and argues with/attacks people he finds discussing him.

coffeeandink has an old post documenting some of his unpleasant behaviour during Racefail.

[hamsterwoman]

I'm looking forward to your BoMV thoughts!

The "forewords by in-universe personas of Brust's friends" thing he's got going in the Paarfi books is something I find generally cute -- it seems in keeping with the "sorting Dumas characters into Dragaera houses with your buddies" origins of the subseries... but it does work better for me when the friend in question is an author whose books I like (e.g. Neil Gaiman, Pamela Dean), and not so much when either I'm missing the inside joke entirely or it's an author I dislike.

I never actually took that farther to thinking of Will Shetterly as a representative of Dzur as a House, though actually I can see the logic there, unfortunately...

Anyway, I hope the story makes up for the intro!

(I think the quote in the icon is from farther on than you've gotten to yet, but I couldn't resist :P)

[krait]

Huh, I had not picked up that SKZB was also buddies with Gaiman. Interesting (Gaiman is also an author I'm not fond of, though in a much more neutral way). Did he write a foreward? Do you recall which one?

Alas, "Shetwil" is identified as a Dzurlord in the text, and it's a bit jarring to try to place him in the same context as Tazendra, or even Telnan. (I can only presume that Shetwil is to the House of the Dzur as Shaltre is to the House of the Lyorn.)

I haven't reached the icon text yet, but hopefully will soon! :D

[hamsterwoman]

re: Gaiman -- Brust mentions him sometimes on his blog/Twitter, but in the Paarfi context specifically, the "Ilen, a Magian" who is the author of the Afterword in Lord of Castle Black is apparently Gaiman -- I had to have this pointed out to me even though it's a pretty straightforward anagram :P

Alas, "Shetwil" is identified as a Dzurlord in the text, and it's a bit jarring to try to place him in the same context as Tazendra, or even Telnan

Oh yeah, I do remember that -- I just hadn't, like, gone as far as connecting Shetwil's House to Shetterly before -- but upon reflection, googling his name and coming into people's comments to fight while remaining entrenched in a position where it's him against the majority of fandom is kind of Dzur thing to do, wouldn't you say? Not in a good way, so I also wouldn't want to associate it with my favorite Dzurs like Tazendra, but still pretty Dzur-like.

[krait]

Well, I missed it, too! If it had been "Imen" or something, I would be more obvious. (I just don't think about Gaiman enough to catch references to him unless they're obvious! I've read... one and a half books by him, and that was enough to cement my disinterest.)

While it does, technically, fall under Dzur-ish ideals of fighting when outnumbered, it's still a letdown to realise that the Dzur are also the House of the Extremely Bigoted Opinions Reiterated Louder When Corrected. :/

Though I don't think we've ever previously encountered a Dzur who preferred arguing in text over drawing a sword? Which is what makes me think of Count Shaltre - he's pretty clearly a Lyorn who does NOT uphold Lyorn ideals of honesty and justice, which means not all members of a House give more than lip service to its allegedly inherent qualities. Let's suppose that Shetwil is likewise a disappointment and an outlier to the House of the Dzur! A Dzur who's a petty bully and prefers argument to combat might end up shilling for an author he professes to dislike, because he's unlikely to find employment in more traditionally Dzur-heavy fields.