[Dragaera] Iorich NO SPOILERS

[Diana]

On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 10:41 AM,  <mtiller at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> Hi Eugene,
>
> He doesn't say to Keira that Sethra would know, it's a comment to the reader.
>
> Regards
>
> Mark
> ---- Eugene Zaretskiy <eugene.zar at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 11:25 AM,  <mtiller at ntlworld.com> wrote:
>> I agree she has to stay in character, but my point is that the comment about
>> Sethra makes NO sense in context unless you are in the know.
>
> Really? I think it makes a *different* kind of sense.
>
> Vlad asks a question.
> Kiera says she doesn't know.
> Vlad says his friend Sethra would know.
>
> That seems to make sense to me from an uninformed perspective. If you
> know that Sethra == Kiera, then you ALSO know that Vlad means
> something quite different from what the text on the page says: He's
> (mistakenly) asking her to drop her guise and just answer the damn
> question.
>
> Maybe I am misremembering or misunderstanding.
>
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Mark
>>
>>
>> ---- Kenneth Gorelick <pulmon at mac.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Jan 15, 2010, at 8:02 AM, mtiller at ntlworld.com wrote:
>>
>>> I'm about half way through the book and the thing that has struck me
>>> is that I REALLY wouldn't recommend this book as a place to start in
>>> the series, there is so much happening that relies on knowing what's
>>> happened in the past.  Classic example Vlad talkiing to Keira and
>>> she says "I don't know" Next line says Sethra would know with out
>>> any explanation.
>>>
>>> Mark
>>>
>> But that us innate to the Sethra-Keira dichotomy. As Keira, she
>> requires herself to stay in character.

It's in keeping with the rest of Vlad's interactions with Sethra and
Kiera in all of the books post-Orca in the timeline, isn't it? In
Issola, when Lady Teldra mentions that she consulted both Sethra and
Kiera about the disappearances, Vlad waits a beat to see if she gives
away anything, but she doesn't--and the comment isn't explained to the
reader. And in Dzur, he tells Sethra he needs to talk to Kiera, she
leaves, and a half-hour later Kiera comes in--again, with no
indication that Sethra was doing anything other than letting Kiera
know Vlad wanted to talk with her. (Apologies if the details on these
are incorrect.) They're winks to the reader who is in the know, but
Vlad in his narration is still keeping the secret. (And always
has--the narration in Orca was coming from Kiera, so Vlad doesn't know
that we know.)

I don't see the treatment of Sethra and Kiera in particular as more
problematic to a new reader than any of Vlad's other references to
previous adventures (whether expanded on in another book or
not)--which have been appearing since Jhereg. I'd probably not throw
this one at a new reader because of the weight of the Vlad/Cawti
relationship.