[Dragaera] Chreotha (the book)

[den at monger.net]

Spoilers for Jhereg and Phoenix, I suppose:





>>Jon_Lincicum at stream.com wrote:
>>
>>>Sure, there's a Jhereg *in* /Jhereg/, and a Yendi *in* /Yendi/, and
> there
>>>are superficial nods in the direction of the houses, but they don't
> really
>>>explore the character of the Houses to the extent that, say, /Dragon/
>>>looks at Dragonlords in general, or /Issola/ talks about Issola.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>Well, we do learn a fair amount about House Jhereg, not to mention
>>Dragon-Jhereg wars.  And the main action of the book is "work".  I'd say
>>it's a pretty strong association, myself.
>
> Yes... But we learn almost as much about House Jhereg in /Yendi/ and
> /Dzur/ as we do in /Jhereg/... And "work" is a focus of several of the
> books... And the scheme he uses at the end of /Jhereg/ feels convoluted
> enough to be a Yendi scheme, more than something a Jhereg would think of.

> I'm not saying there's *no* connection to House in those books, just that
> it's less important to the story in some of them than in others.

The line of the cycle poem for Jhereg is "Jhereg feeds off others' kills."

In the confrontation where he completes the contract in JHEREG, Vlad draws
on:

* Loiosh as a distraction
* Kiera's skills as a thief
* Cawti's skills as an assassin
* Daymar's psionic ability
* Aliera's connection to Pathfinder
* Rocza's aid to finally kill Mellar, and
* The sorcerous skills of Mellar's other bodyguard.

Arguably Vlad's skills are the least important part of the plan that took
down Mellar.  Yet Vlad is the only one who materially benefits (to the
tune of 65,000 gold and a larger area).  I always thought that was how
Vlad acted like a jhereg in that book.

Similarly, in Phoenix, Vlad's heart is no longer in being a crime boss. 
By the end of the book, he's rising from the ashes of his old life.  Of
all the books, I think Phoenix has the most obvious connection to the
title character.

-Dennis