The Paths of the Dead
(Viscount of Adrilankha #1 of 3)
by Steven Brust
fantasy, fansonly, subadult
copyright 2003
read in December 2017
copyright 2003
read in December 2017
rated 6/10: read to pass the time
26apr24: I'm re-reading...
This book is a link (I believe) from Phoenix Guards to Taltos. The verbose style is a little bit annoying but entertaining.
The action is taken up (mostly) by children of characters from the Guards books. That's okay.
The style is -- childish... Oh, goody, let's go out and have an adventure, that sort of thing.
The book begins with too much mystic claptrap. Doing things because it feels right. Inspiration from the gods, perhaps. With no real logic. Then it degrades to Enid Blyton style "safe" adventuring.
It's a valiant attempt to link two book series. With the knowledge that this one book, Paths, goes nowhere -- I stop reading.
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This is an enjoyable book -- but it goes nowhere. Or, rather, it is very much "book one of three". Yes, there is a conclusion but no, it is not a book to be read by itself.
If you have books two and three ready to be read then good, this is volume one... Read two and three and you will have read a complete novel. By itself, Paths is simply setting the scene for the complete, three book novel.
Worse yet -- if you have only the one volume ready to be read -- the verbose style of Phoenix Guards is overdone. To the point of tedium.
This book follows Phoenix Guards and Five Hundred Years After. Those two are linked adventures of a small band of friends. Paths includes the same group of friends but in secondary roles. The main action is driven by children of characters from the previous books... Children who are one to two hundred years old... but they are still "children" in Brust's world.
The action (or, rather, the scene-setting) is driven by children. The book itself is written for a younger audience. Early teens, perhaps. So I have used my "subadult" category.
I have also classed Paths as "fansonly". That is, it is a book which is for fans, in this case fans of the Phoenix Guards books. And of the Vlad Taltos books. (I am assuming that the three books will link from Phoenix to Taltos.) For this book, however, "fansonly" is not an insult. The book is enjoyable by itself but its weaknesses mean that it is *not* a good entry to this fantasy world.
Even as a "fan" I find that this book is a bit boring. The dozens of characters -- each doing very little -- are hard to keep track of. And the shift from adult to subadult is a little disappointing.
Still... I'm a fan. I shall be looking for books 2 & 3. I just hope that there is more that actually happens.
Paths of the Dead is an enjoyable book. But it's not one to be read by itself. Its best audience is the reader who has enjoyed both "before" and "after" adventures... it is a link between Phoenix Guards and Vlad Taltos. But not as good as either.
Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
... Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved
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"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something." … Robert A. Heinlein
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