[Dragaera] FW: A New SKZB Fan

[Scott Schultz]

>I would not force Brokedown Palace on her. I enjoyed it but it was a lot
harder read. 
>Not in the sense that it was difficult to read (I was bordering 30 at the
time and 
>would like to think a veteran of the Fantasy genre), but that I found it
more tedious. 
>The pacing, the speech patterns, the way the concepts like magic, reality,
perception 
>etc were explained... everything was a drag to me (I repeat: to me!). Vlad
novels 
>force me to read them as fast as I can, I just cannot help myself,
Brokedown 
>I finished only because I already liked the Taltos series. I am not sure I
would 
>have finished if I hadn't almost exhausted every other Brust novel first.

For my part, I enjoyed _Brokedown Palace_, especially because I love folk
tales and because at the time of its initial printing, there were no other
new Dragaera books. In fact, on its surface, it wasn't (at the time) obvious
that it WAS a Dragaera book, in that while it clearly was set in the same
world, it also clearly had nothing to do with the Vladiad. (Paarfi was still
merely a glimmer of Steve's imagination at that point and if I'm remembering
correctly, BP was published even earlier than _Taltos_.) I discovered it
browsing through the shelves at the bookstore, not because I was looking for
it.

I thought the whole gimmick of telling a story about the East as if it was a
Hungarian folk tale was brilliant. It really showed up the contrast between
the Empire and the mysterious, exotic land of the Easterners. I also really
liked the idea that the Easterners saw themselves as the yardstick for
"normal", and that the West was Faerie, the land of the magical Elfs and
their mysterious ways.

My greatest disappointment of _Jhegalla_ was that Vlad's point of view upon
visiting the East and Fenario in particular made it something fairly
mundane. That was completely appropriate, given Vlad's style, but also sort
of a let-down.