Vlad feelings, continued

[sholio]

I slept and read a lot this weekend, and apparently I really needed it. I've now reread Jhereg and Issola, and I'm working on Dragon. (I love that the series can be read in any order. Very handy when you want to read certain books and not others.)

Reading Taltos and then Jhereg, in that order, was really interesting because I did actually find that Taltos is a more sympathetic initial introduction to Vlad than you get in Jhereg, nominally the first book of the series. Jhereg is excellent and does eventually get into the aspect that really sold me on Vlad and his world, which is how much of the book revolves around loyalty and friendship. (I remember having gotten the impression, from what little I had osmosed about the series, that Vlad was a lone-wolf hero type, and he is literally the opposite of that.) But you also spend the first few chapters watching him plan a murder, which admittedly could be a bit offputting if that's the first time you meet the character.

Meanwhile ... my edition of Issola might be missing some lines. It's the omnibus edition with Issola and Dragon, which I hadn't actually read before - I originally got the books from the library and then bought the omnibuses (omnibi?) because I wanted to own them. Can someone who has the non-omnibus version of Issola tell me if there is something missing here?


Click for bigger if this is too small. I'm including the whole page for context, but the place where it appears to skip from one thought to another is after the line that goes "If I told you, you'd just laugh."



Is Vlad's comment about Adron and question about Morrolan really the next thing he says there? Thank you! I'm just curious if there's any useful missing info there.

.... anyway, moving along to stray thoughts ... One thing that is interesting to me on rereading is how many times Brust didn't go for the low-hanging narrative fruit where you'd expect him to. Devera is one example - the obvious thing is that she'd be Vlad's daughter, but she's not. Another is that the friends-reincarnated-across-history aspect of the book is actually really off-trope with Morrolan not being part of the original Dollivar-Kieron-Aliera set when he's so integral to it now. (Or was he? I don't remember what we learn about his reincarnation history, if any ...)

Reading these in the extremely random order that I am, it seems to me that Vlad in Issola is more abrasive toward his friends and more -- obtuse, I guess, or self-deluding, about how he feels about them than he was before he left. Intentional, I wonder - a consequence of being alone so long? Or just the author pushing Vlad's natural sarcasm and unreliable-narrator-ness a little too hard? Anyway, the aspect with Vlad being an unreliable narrator of his own feelings (the discrepancy between what he says about what he feels, and what he is very clearly feeling + what's happening around him) is very blatant in this book. No, Vlad, you're totally not friends with these people for whom you went to fight the people the gods are afraid of, who then performed an impossible feat of magic finding a way to get YOU back. (Which he knew they'd do! It's not "how am I going to get out of this inescapable prison run by evil demigods," it's "I have to rescue myself because it's going to be so embarrassing WHEN Aliera and Morrolan show up to rescue me.")

Though I have to say that perhaps my favorite bit of Vlad's self-deluding inner narration in this book is his "Morrolan was blocking my view of the fight" when it is clear to an outside observer, the reader, and undoubtedly Vlad himself that Morrolan is FIGHTING A GOD to protect him. Vlad, you dope. (I mean, he knows. He's just got to be Like That. Vlad needs no one! Dragaerans are the Enemy! And so forth.)

He's always been like this, but I feel like he's gotten a bit more self-deluding and defensively loner-ish through several years of wandering around in the wilderness, though. He was a little less Like That back in Adrilahnkha, it seems like.

And I still really love Teldra. ;___; You know that feeling when you know the terrible thing is coming because you've already read the book, so you're just bracing yourself, knowing it's going to hurt when you get there? Yeah. That.

Comments

[sovay]

Is Vlad's comment about Adron and question about Morrolan really the next thing he says there?

No; your edition is missing about four pages of text, according to the standalone edition of Issola available on Google Books.

[sholio]

EGAD. I figured it was missing a few paragraphs tops! That's kind of a LOT, especially since they're discussing important backstory things there, or at least so I gather.

[sovay]

With apologies for any scribal errors I may have introduced, here's your missing text—

"What's the plan this time, Boss?"

"If I told you, you'd just laugh."

"Probably."

"You could learn a lot from Teldra."

"The ocean says the river is wet. The snow says the ice is cold."

"Is that like, the jhereg says the yendi is a reptile?"

"Shut up, Boss."

I studied the big, empty room on the big empty world, considered my predicament, thought over my idea, and tried to be optimistic. I glanced over to where the shackles still hung on the wall. The Jenoine could put us back in them easier than I'd gotten out of them. But why should they? After all, the whole reason—

"Teldra, do you think I'm paranoid?"

She blinked. "Lord Taltos?"

"I keep seeing devious plots everywhere, and thinking that everyone must have two or three layers of subterfuge behind every action."

"I recall, my lord, your affair with the Sorceress in Green. It seems to me you were correct on that occasion."

"She's a Yendi."

"And these are Jenoine. Much more worrisome. With a Yendi, one at least knows everything is subterfuge and misdirection. With the Jenoine, we don't understand them, and we don't know if they understand us."

I nodded. "Okay, a point."

She continued, "I think it reasonable to wonder if we are doing what they want us to—if they have everything planned, and each step we have taken is in accordance with their wishes. Didn't Sethra say as much? Yet it is uncertain, because we behave unpredictably, and we don't yet know to what extent they can anticipate and understand us. I'm working on that," she added.

"You're working on that?"

"Yes."

I wanted to ask her in exactly what way was she working on it, but if she had wanted me to know, she'd have told me. All right, then. I'd go ahead and assume I was right in my surmises until I found out I was wrong—by which time it would probably be too late, and I wouldn't have to worry about it. There are advantages to fatalism.

"Hungry, Teldra?"

"No, thank you."

I grunted and shared a bit of jerky with Loiosh. Teldra went over to the wall and sat down, her knees up, arms around her knees—she managed to make the position look dignified and graceful.

I said, "Teldra, what, exactly, is the soul?"

"I hope you're asking rhetorically, Vlad. I've never studied magical philosophy. I only know the mundane answer—that which is left after the death of the physical body—the life essence—the personality, separated from matter."

I nodded. "Yeah. I've never studied magical philosophy either. I guess I should have, at some point."

"Is it important?"

"Yes."

She looked a question.

I touched the Morganti dagger at my belt and said, "These things destroy souls. It would be very useful right now to know exactly what they destroyed, and how they did it, and what it all means. I'm trying to avoid being embarrassed at a critical moment."

"I see. I'm afraid I can't help you."

She had already helped. I leaned against the wall next to her and pondered the soul.

"Boss, why is it you always get philosophical just when—"

"Shut up, Loiosh."

He snickered into my mind; I ignored him.

To think of the soul as a field of sorcerous energy usually anchored to a living body might be incomplete, but also might be close enough to be useful; at least, to the best of my knowledge, that was how a Morganti dagger treated it. It said nothing about how such a nebulous thing as a personality could be contained in a field of sorcerous energy, but Morganti weapons are notoriously unconcerned with personalities.

If it was good enough for a Morganti dagger, it was good enough for me.

Heh.

Teldra was looking at me.

I cleared my throat. "I assume you want to be let in on what my plan is."

"That's up to you, Vlad. If you think I should know, tell me. Otherwise, not."

I stared at her. "You really do trust me, don't you?"

"Yes," she said.

"By the Halls of Judgment, why?"

"Because you keep surviving, Vlad."

She said it so matter-of-factly that I was almost convinced. "Heh," I said. "I'm just being saved for some spectacularly awful death."

"If so," she said, "I'm sure you'll comport yourself with dignity."

"Dignity? Me? Not bloody likely. If I go down swinging, it'll be because I think swinging is more likely to get me out of it than running. If I go down running, I won't be surprised."

She gave me a smile as if she didn't believe me and said, "I hadn't meant to turn the conversation morbid."

"Oh, don't worry about that, Teldra. Most of my thoughts are morbid. I think it comes of having spent so long killing people for a living. Strange way to live, when you think about it, so I try not to, but I can't help it. On the other hand, you work for a guy known for sacrificing whole villages, so I guess I'm a bit of a piker by comparison."

"More like hamlets than villages, Vlad. And he was at war against them at the time, you know."

"Oh. Actually, I hadn't known that. I just chalked it up to another example of how charming my dear Goddess can be."

"It was while he was consolidating his power and retaking his ancestral homelands. They worshiped Tri'nagore, a God you don't hear from much anymore, and had overrun Blackchapel, killing everyone in it. Morrolan returned the favor, and sent their souls to his Patron Goddess."

"I see. They don't tell that part of the story."

"The Lord Morrolan refuses to be put in the position of defending his actions. He considers it undignified."

"So he'd rather everyone thought him a bloodthirsty butcher?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, I guess he would at that."

To the left, I reflected, he could be bloodthirsty enough, however much Teldra downplayed it. I recalled an incident at Castle Black. I wasn't paying much attention, being involved in some rather nasty squabble with another Jhereg at the time, but I remember him challenging another Dragonlord to a duel, and then doing everything to the guy except making him unrevivifiable—I mean he dismembered the poor bastard, and seemed to take great joy making the fellow's death as slow and painful as he could. This was a memory I didn't care to dwell on; I don't enjoy such scenes. But it was certainly impossible to deny that that side of Morrolan existed. I wondered—

"Teldra," I said suddenly. "Do you recall a certain Lord Vrudric e'Lanya whom Morrolan fought a few years ago?"

She looked at me quizzically and nodded.

"Can you tell me what that was about?"

"You don't know, Vlad? Vrudric was casting aspersion on Adron's character."

"Adron? Adron e'Kieron?"

"Yes."

"That's it? Morrolan did that to him because he was casting aspersions on the character of the guy who was either so greedy, or so incompetent, or, at best, so misguided that he destroyed the whole Verra-be-damned Empire and dissolved Dragaera City into amorphia? That guy?"

"Adron is one of Morrolan's heroes. I thought you knew that."

"No," I said. "I hadn't known that. But Adron . . . okay. It's strange, but I guess I can get used to it. Hmmm. Morrolan e'Drien. Who was Drien, anyway?"

[sholio]

Thank you so much! (I actually do vaguely remember some parts of this conversation now; I just had forgotten it was in this book.) That is a lot to leave out, and I'm really grateful to you for supplying it to me! Thank you! ♥

[sovay]

That is a lot to leave out, and I'm really grateful to you for supplying it to me! Thank you!

You are very welcome! I am now rather suspicious of that omnibus edition.

[sholio]

I am now rather suspicious of that omnibus edition.

INDEED. I would never have known anything was missing if there hadn't been an obvious discontinuity! Hopefully it's a one-off error - I didn't notice anything jarring in the other books I've read from this set, but it does make one a bit cautious of it.

[hamsterwoman]

really off-trope with Morrolan not being part of the original Dollivar-Kieron-Aliera set when he's so integral to it now. (Or was he? I don't remember what we learn about his reincarnation history, if any ...)

I don't think he's part of the reincarnation batch, no... and I don't we know anything about his reincarnation history, either. Maybe there's something we don't yet know, tied up with the prophecy about him in the Paarfi books, but I don't think there's anyone from the Kieron-Dolivar-sister generation left for him to be (unless it's, like, Drien, but that doesn't seem like the sort of thing Brust would go for -- too easy).

Reading these in the extremely random order that I am

This reminded me that when someone asked Brust about recommended reading order a couple of years ago, he said that in addition to the publication and internal chronological, he is hoping it would be fun to read the books in Cycle order once he's done with the series -- which, man, I can't wait to have all the books to be able to try that!

it seems to me that Vlad in Issola is more abrasive toward his friends and more -- obtuse, I guess, or self-deluding, about how he feels about them than he was before he left

It does seem like that to me as well, especially compared to the personal epiphanies in Phoenix, which would've been the last time he saw them. And I guess with everything that's happened, being on the run and also the not-fun stuff he goes through in Jhegaala, it makes sense for him to be a bit more feral?

"Morrolan was blocking my view of the fight"

Hehe (though he does at least acknowledge the possibility that Morrolan may have been "blocking more than my view". So magnanimous of Vlad XD

[sholio]

It's so interesting to me that Morrolan isn't one of the reincarnated group. Between that and the god blood, there has got to be a specific reason why Morrolan is different from the others and not part of the original gang. I'm just hoping the ultimate reason isn't too apocalyptic. :P

This reminded me that when someone asked Brust about recommended reading order a couple of years ago, he said that in addition to the publication and internal chronological, he is hoping it would be fun to read the books in Cycle order once he's done with the series.

Oooh! That sounds incredibly fun.

And I guess with everything that's happened, being on the run and also the not-fun stuff he goes through in Jhegaala, it makes sense for him to be a bit more feral?

Yeah, I think so too! It's a very nice character touch if it is intentional (and that does seem like the kind of thing Brust might have done on purpose). Especially combined with how much of a point the early books make that Vlad doesn't like being alone, and given his general tendency to bond with people at the drop of a hat (even if he doesn't recognize what he's doing) - being alone for years at a time has got to be taking an incredible toll on him. I don't remember the later books well enough off the top of my head to remember the details, but going back through my posts from when I read them the first time, one thing I commented on was how in the last couple of books, once Vlad is back in Adrilahnkha, a recurring theme with his friends is that everyone seems to think he looks absolutely terrible. He has not been having a good few years here, and being a little more closed-off and, as you say, feral makes perfect sense for him at this point in his life.

though he does at least acknowledge the possibility that Morrolan may have been "blocking more than my view".

Haha, yes, I loved that. XD