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Title: Yendi
Author: Steven Burst
Genre: High fantasy
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: A story from Vlad's past--what happens when a rival tries to move in on his territory, and all-too-attractive assassin is hired to take him out.
Thoughts: In the Empire, the Yendi are known for their Byzantine plotting, and the plotting here is certainly Byzantine.
When viewed with a little distance, it's remarkable how well Burst makes us care about things that we don't really see at all. We know Easterners, but at no point visit the lands they're from, or even spend much time with ones who are not fully assimilated into Dragaeran society. Our viewpoint character is a human, with a normal human lifespan. As such, we're almost completely uninvolved in Dragon house politics, because they're unrelated to Vlad and mostly unseen by him. Everything happens over a couple of months. And yet somehow, the plot turns on events from millenia ago, complex Dragon politics, planned invasions of the Easterners, and lifespans in which something that happened one or two human generations ago were practically yesterday.
This is not a criticism. Burst does actually make us care, not because he gives us any reason to care about any of these things, but because we care about how they would impact Vlad. Who continues to be irrepressible, sardonic, and entirely too clever for his own good.
Author: Steven Burst
Genre: High fantasy
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: A story from Vlad's past--what happens when a rival tries to move in on his territory, and all-too-attractive assassin is hired to take him out.
Thoughts: In the Empire, the Yendi are known for their Byzantine plotting, and the plotting here is certainly Byzantine.
When viewed with a little distance, it's remarkable how well Burst makes us care about things that we don't really see at all. We know Easterners, but at no point visit the lands they're from, or even spend much time with ones who are not fully assimilated into Dragaeran society. Our viewpoint character is a human, with a normal human lifespan. As such, we're almost completely uninvolved in Dragon house politics, because they're unrelated to Vlad and mostly unseen by him. Everything happens over a couple of months. And yet somehow, the plot turns on events from millenia ago, complex Dragon politics, planned invasions of the Easterners, and lifespans in which something that happened one or two human generations ago were practically yesterday.
This is not a criticism. Burst does actually make us care, not because he gives us any reason to care about any of these things, but because we care about how they would impact Vlad. Who continues to be irrepressible, sardonic, and entirely too clever for his own good.
