The Phoenix Guards
by Steven Brust
copyright 1991
read in May 2013
rated 9/10: really, really good
28mar24: I have finally read The Three Musketeers.
Brust copies, as he says, that style. He also steals characters and plot. Reading Dumas, I could better understand the main characters because I almost knew them -- from Phoenix Guards.
Brust refers to the style of Dickens and Dumas and prefers Dumas. Brust himself... adds fun and humour. And makes his characters far more likeable.
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Brust tells the reader that this book -- and its sequel -- are written as an homage to Dumas' Three Musketeers. With that in mind I rushed off and began to read the musketeers sequel, Twenty Years After.
What a mistake.
Brust has characters who are loyal, intelligent (or, at least, skilled) and very, very likeable. D'Artagnan is a cunning schemer. He uses trickery to get his "friends" to join him. But enough of Dumas !
Phoenix Guards is a lot of fun !
It is also long-winded, rambling, totally over-the-top... Exactly as Brust intended.
So yes, it can be a little difficult to read. Until you get into the flow of the style. Yet the effort is most worthwhile.
There are complex plots and clever plans and deadly duels. Action and adventure, wrongs righted and justice summarily dispensed. This is the world of Vlad Taltos in a less serious era.
Take a deep breath, clear your mind -- and enjoy the read :-)
early 2023: read it again, enjoyed it again, want to re-read the sequel
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Problems ? Solved
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