The Paths of the Dead: Book One of the Viscount of Adrilankha

It's all about the writing style. I mean, how can I resist a book that contains such exchanges as: "Well, there is a question I would wish to ask you, if it is no trouble. Do you know a place where a traveler such as myself might secure lodgings in this charming village?" "How, lodgings?" "Yes,. That is, a place where I might spend the night, enjoying more or less of comfort." "Ah, yes, I see. Well, I must consider this question." "Yes, I understand that. You, then, consider the question, and I will wait while you do so." "And you are right to wait," said Erik promptly, "for I have even now begun considering." "And I," said the young warlock, "have begun waiting." !! The whole book is like this. Just wonderful. Obviously, if that gets on your nerves, you're going to hate the book, and I'd recommend skipping it and saving yourself the pain. It's definitely not something everyone enjoys. I've got to add Steven Brust's First Theory here: "All literature consists of whatever the writer thinks is cool. The reader will like the book to the degree that he agrees with the writer about what's cool." And I agree very much with what Steven Brust thinks is cool in this book.

This is my first online review for any book and I chose to do a review for this book specifically because I could not fathom the poor reviews others have posted. Are they reading the same book? Well... perhaps the poor reviews are understandable given that POTD is not meant to stand on its own and depends very much on the "greater myth" being developed between this series and the Vlad Taltos series. These points have been touched on in other reviews but I will emphasize them again here: First, POTD does NOT stand on its own. One reviewer said reading POTD alone would be like reading "The Fellowship of the Ring" and expecting a complete self-contained story. I disagree - POTD is more like "The Two Towers", it's neither at the beginning nor at the end. Either way, POTD should not be your first choice as either an introduction to Brust, nor a reacquaintence after a lengthy abstinence. You just miss too much. Secondly, both the Khaavren Romances (of which POTD is the third) and the Vlad Taltos series are both set in the same world and together tell a much larger epic story. I would add that POTD is the first book in the Khaavren series that really makes this apparent. If you've read the Vlad Taltos books then you will recognize names and events mentioned in "The Phoenix Guards" and "500 Years After" and go "a-ha", but in POTD you are just plain missing out if you haven't read the other series. For instance, the whole conversation between the "gods" makes almost no meaningful sense unless if you've read the Taltos books. I'd seriously recommend reading all the way up to Issola before starting POTD. As far as the writing style goes, some may not like it but I happen to love it. Brust never ceases to leave me breathless with his writing "agility". He is quite simply the best writer of "conversation" I've yet encountered and the Paarfi style is a lot of fun. Wordy, yes, but not verbose. You have to read it to understand what I mean. So to summarize, don't read POTD unless and until you've read both "The Phoenix Guards" and "500 Hundred Years After" AND you've also read the Taltos series. You will seriously kill the enjoyment of the book if you do otherwise plus you will miss out on too many of the "inside" jokes. For instance, the whole "elf" thing is not new as the subtitle to chapter 7 should have made clear. If that chapter's revelation tickled you then you'll be even more delighted to know that the Easterners are referred to as "dwarfs" in one of the Taltos books. So there you go, elfs and dwarfs and they all think they're human. Make of it what you will. Excellent books.

First off, I would strongly advise reading the two earlier books - even though this is advertised as Book 1 of "The Viscount of Adrilankha," it is not, in fact, the first book in the series. You should read "The Phoenix Guards" and "Five Hundred Years After" first. I'll wait while you click to buy those... OK, you're back. (I should mention that there are fan websites for this series, which I have not viewed; it is possible that there are people who give you far more in the way of hints and spoilers than this reviewer will. I myself prefer to avoid spoilers so that I can have the joy of looking for all the inside jokes and solving all the puzzles without help, and only looking for other people's interpretations after I have gone as far as possible on my own.) Now a little bit about the series. The first book made me talk funny for several days, and my spousal unit is STILL talking funny on occasion, even though it's been a year since we discovered "The Phoenix Guards." "Five Hundred Years Later" was not quite as funny - but it contains a great deal of plot you won't want to miss. This book gets back to being hysterically funny, and it leaves the reader thinking in long paragraphs which contain sentences which have several nested clauses within them. So, sort of like some other famous series, the first and third book (where this is the third) are better than the 2nd; you read the 2nd as a bridge between the two. Now, this book in particular. In this book, Brust acknowledges the deep debt he has to Tolkein. What, you say? You pretend that there is some connection between Tolkein's fantasy and Brust's, beyond that of the general category of fantasy? Well, yes, I do myself the honor of making that claim. There has been a great deal of imitation of Tolkein over the past 40 years, featuring elves and whatnot that have funny names and go on quests for magical objects, and most of it, in my opinion, stinks. Brust's books, however, take the same basic elements but make something creatively new while acknowledging "the mother of all modern fantasy." For example, in this book, we finally learn what the Easterners - you know, those short-lived people like us - call the Dragaerans: elfs. We find this out through a very funny scene in which Morrolan discovers that he is an elf, and wanders through several pages doing the Dragaeran equivalent of smacking his head: I'm an *elf*?!? *I'm* an elf?!? And we, of course, also smack our heads, because while we knew that Dragaerans were different, we didn't think of applying this term to them, but now that we hear it, we go, of course! Long-lived, tall and slender, trying to be kind to short and short-lived people, even though they don't mix much? Of course they're elves! Next, we have a blatant tribute to LOTR, in which our mixed party of elfs and humans enters an enchanted mountain by way of an invisible door into that mountain... By the way, it is absolutely necessary that you read all of the acknowledgments, i

Great fun, IF you enjoy the immensely verbose 'voice' of Paarfi of Roundwood.Apparently, its a rather big if, though personally I'm a Paarfi fan: to me, he less 'Dumas' than 'Python', and the manner in which he discourses at great-- even irritating-- length in order to prolong one's anticipation of events is just part of the spice that makes this dish very satisfying indeed.

This book is great, and is such a change of pace from other fantasy books. If you like Alexander Dumas, or Stephen Brust's other two romances, you will love this book. If you do not like thought provoking conversation and very little fighting with a plot revolved around multiple levels of intrigue, this book may not be for you.The main source of enjoyment to be found in this book by me is the narrator of this story, a historian named Parfi. Some of my favorites of his in this novel are the chapter heading, "How the author, Forced Against His Will to Write of the Viscount's Travels, Attempts, for the Sake of the Reader, To Make Travel Interesting," and the sentance, "... a small, stuffy basement, which would have been damp, smelly, close, and dark, were it not, in fact, well-lit, which prevented it from being dark."So to sum up, if you hate run on sentances and prefer characters to get to the point, do NOT buy this book. But if you are looking for a change of pace that just puts a smile on your face and keeps it there, this book is what you have been looking for, although I would suggest reading "The Phoenix Guards," and "500 Years After," first, as they are gems in their own right, and the information held within them will help one to understand some of the subtleties held within this book, although this book stands on its own. See, i have been reading this book for hours straight, and i am now beginning to write in run on sentances. I love this book!!