[Dragaera] First reading comments (Dzur Spoilers)

[Philip Hart]

Spoilers for Dzur
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Tense, exciting read.  I'll have to reread and think about the character
development issues and the plot implications forward and backward.
I had some quibbles/cavils/criticisms though:


Rather randomly - Melestav had made the office klava, and his death meant
Kragar had had to send out for it.  But that was at the end of
Teckla/Phoenix, and Vlad left immediately after.

The Zungaron dialogue failed to convince me he would be interesting
to Vlad (not to mention the reader).  The happy-go-lucky "golly this
grub's good" stuff got tiresome.  (Esp. compared to the Teldra dialogue
from _Issola_, which formed a better thematic balance/narrative whatever.)
Cawti seemed a little overmatched by Vlad in their conversations
("How'd you like being saved?" etc seemed a little unsubtle.)
Ditto Kragar - he didn't have enough of a Kragar presence to me.
I guess Mario was ok, nothing special though (ok, perhaps the point),
and oddly old.  I think the Demon's dialogue was also a bit flat.

In general, several parts of the book seemed to dump Vlad somewhere

(or have someone show up and tell him he should finally go talk to
someone) and dump someone else there and then someone's talk was
underwhelming. Maybe this last was just a function of reading the Text
in one sitting interrupted only by my wife's insistence I get some sleep.
Or maybe it was a way of hiding info from the reader, or avoiding too
much from happening between the characters.  Maybe in part there were
just fewer physical descriptions of people than I expected or needed.

(The Daymar segment was I thought an exception to the above, mostly -
the joking stuff on his part seemed a little strained, but it's Daymar.
Ditto some of the Kiera interactions.)

The Verra-related stuff sizzled.  But I'm a bit concerned we will
have even more trouble deciding what has actually happened as Vlad's
reliability is attrited.

I rather wondered about Vlad being able to show up at Verra's
and pose a credible threat for a while (at least), but not being
able to drop in on the Left Hand without good odds of taking them
all and walking out.

I was annoyed at several points by Vlad having a plan and not telling
Kragar or even Loiosh what he was thinking.

_Orca_ gave a better sense of "something complex or complicated is going
on and Vlad finds his way through it" - the "got a piece of it" stuff
brought up the contrast for me.

Somehow having access to Mario should have proved useful back in the day.

Also:

Still missing Teldra.

I liked, or appreciated, the sense of isolation Vlad feels - it seemed
a little odd to me that he shows up and feels compelled to throw himself
immediately and totally into the Left Hand stuff, but ok.  Ditto the
fear and stress he continues to feel.  I liked the sense of people on
the streets - I kept (as surely Vlad did) expecting one of them to
come at him with a knife.  Sort of a French film noir vibe - or maybe
that was just the early-morning reading.

I was concerned after _I_ that he'd end up with too much power, but I
guess he's hamstrung enough by the Phoenix stones that that's not so
much of an issue.