{"id":20661,"date":"2011-04-04T19:44:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-05T01:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=20661"},"modified":"2011-04-04T19:44:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-05T01:44:00","slug":"book-review-tiassa-by-steven-brust-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/04\/book-review-tiassa-by-steven-brust-2011.html","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: “Tiassa,” by Steven Brust (2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tiassa<\/a>Tiassa<\/em><\/a> by Steven Brust<\/a><\/p>\n

My rating: 4 of 5 stars<\/a><\/p>\n

For starters, I liked this book. What’s not to like? There’s some classic Vlad action (back in classic Vlad timeline). There’s some Cawti\/Norathar bits. There are gods. And Devera. There’s (a lot of) Paarfi-written elegance (including Paarfi writing Vlad, which is worth the price of admission). There’s Khaavren. There’s Vlad AND Khaavren. And Pel. There’s the Empress. There’s even a bit of Aliera. Therre’s even a big, if vague, overarching plot.<\/p>\n

Every little bit is fun to read. But … the total of the little bits somehow … less than the parts. The story felt fragmented, unfocused. It skips over time and space in ways that aren’t always clear, almost like Brust was trying to do a bit of narrative house-cleaning, and not really willing or able to focus on anything more than a short story or five, centered around a small silver figurine of a tiassa.<\/p>\n

Not that a collection of Dragaeran short stories wouldn’t be appealing, but it still just missed the mark from being amazing. Maybe because, not having reread the series for a while, I was struggling to remember all the various characters and storyline bits that Brust (re)introduced. Was she in a previous book? Do we know him (and from which series)? Oh, wait, that<\/em> sword. Etc.<\/p>\n

And let’s not get into some of the causality loops.<\/p>\n

Still, it was a fun, enjoyable book — a quick read with dedication (and I was dedicated to reading it). Indeed, the biggest problem I had was that it was over too soon.<\/p>\n

View all my reviews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tiassa by Steven Brust My rating: 4 of 5 stars For starters, I liked this book. What’s not to like? There’s some classic Vlad action (back in classic Vlad timeline). There’s some Cawti\/Norathar bits. There are gods. And Devera. There’s (a lot of) Paarfi-written elegance (including Paarfi writing Vlad, which is worth the price of … Continue reading “Book Review: “Tiassa,” by Steven Brust (2011)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10169,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/18\/keeping_a_brust.html","url_meta":{"origin":20661,"position":0},"title":"Keeping A-Brust of Book Reviews","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 18-Aug-06 6:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Finished Dzur last weekend, shortly after getting it. Margie reread Issola while waiting, and then I reread Issola, too (since I found I'd forgotten a ... uh ... key plot...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10203,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/11\/new_book_glee.html","url_meta":{"origin":20661,"position":1},"title":"New book glee","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 11-Aug-06 6:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Dzur. the latest Vlad Taltos book by Steven Brust, arrived in the mail today. I'm not even through the first chapter and I'm giddy with excitement. 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Huzzah! # Attractive (Mucha) wall calendar finally obtained and put\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5099,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/11\/01\/recent_books.html","url_meta":{"origin":20661,"position":3},"title":"Recent books","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 1-Nov-03 1:34pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I have about six books in-process at the moment, plus my weekly comics et al., so my book throughput isn't always what I wish it were. One reason I read...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12184,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/10\/29\/dragaeran_houses.html","url_meta":{"origin":20661,"position":4},"title":"Dragaeran Houses","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 29-Oct-07 6:39am","format":false,"excerpt":"For those who are fans of Steven Brust's Dragaera gooks (the Vlad Taltos and Phoenix Guard series), there is now an Official Rendition of the Cycle of Houses (complete with...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13366,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/01\/11\/book_reviews_by_the_sever.html","url_meta":{"origin":20661,"position":5},"title":"Book Reviews by the Several","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 11-Jan-09 8:07pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Too many books, too little time for decent reviews. 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