The Phoenix Guards

This is absolutely not a book for everyone. Are you bored by unnecessary detail? Are you confused by long words or sentences? Do you require a fast pace or a complex plot? If so, you should probably look elsewhere. Do you enjoy reading for the simple act of reading? Do you feel you could appreciate sentence structure as an art form? Does your heart leap at daring adventures and understated humor? (Alternately, have you read Brust's Vlad Taltos series and developed an interest in the setting?) If you answered yes, welcome aboard! This and its sequels are in homage to the Three Musketeers series, of course, but knowledge of those books is in no way a requirement. The Phoenix Guards is "written" by Paarfi of Roundwood, a historian who is not being paid by the word, but could probably fool most publishers. He spends paragraphs describing clothes, he interrupts the story for tangentially related trivia, he frequently explains at length what he's not going to explain and why, and he generally takes twice as long as necessary to say anything. The dialogue, too, is padded with circuitously polite phrasings. If it weren't for Paarfi, this novel would be a mere chapter in a history book. Well, some of us eat that stuff up. The sentences may be long, but they are never ungrammatical, and seldom is information repeated. The tangents may be unnecessary, but they flesh out the world beautifully. The dialogue may be padded, but it establishes a set of immensely likeable characters nonetheless. Indeed, Paarfi himself becomes a distinct character over time. Best of all, the whole unwieldy mess is delivered with constant wit and humor, often at its own expense. Brust wrote like this, after all, because he found it entertaining -- his books outside this series bear no resemblance to it (and also tend to be quite good, by the way). If you can get into the mindset of this book, there's nary a flaw to be found. If not? Scroll back up to the top of this page and do a search for Jhereg.

Its nice to sometimes escape the ponderous moralising and black-and-white, world-at-stake plotlines of standard fantasy as presented by writers such as Robert Jordan or Terry Goodkind and enjoy a fantasy that is light, witty, elaborately plotted, with delightful dialogue. This book is a sterling example of such fantasy. There is worldbuilding and tension aplenty, but it is Stephen K. Brust's marvelous adaptation of the Dumas/Sabatini style - and his lovely comedic touch that make this book - so much so that it is one of my top 3 fantasy books, and I am a convinced fan of the epic variety. If you crave a change from the heavy-handed, check out this wonderful book!

As others have noted, the Khaavren Romances, the series of five Brust novels that begins with "The Phoenix Guards," is in some senses an homage to Alexander Dumas and his series that began with "The Three Musketeers." It is also an homage to the late Roger Zelazny, an author Brust admired very much. But it mostly Brust having fun. He wrote on his website, "I wrote it for the sheer joy of writing it--I giggled all the way through. No one was more surprised than me that, not only was it published, but a lot of other people seem to like it. Cool." Cool, indeed. One of the conceits of the Khaavren Romances is that they are written by a contemporary of Khaavren, the protagonist, one Paarfi of Roundwood. Paarfi redefines "prolix" with each page he writes. Like Dumas, Paarfi is paid by the word. Like Dumas, Paarfi writes with hyperformality, wild circumlocutions, and a willingness to break from the narrative thread at any time to chase down almost any distraction. As just one example, at one important juncture Paarfi spends a few pages establishing that a long place name, de-constructed through half a dozen languages, translates as "wood wood wood wood." It's a sly send-up of Dumas; Paarfi out does Dumas, to wonderful effect. At a time when fantasy literature has deteriorated to clichés and worse, when authors like Diane Wynne Jones can write a "Tough Guide to Fantasyland" and skewer nine-tenths of the genre, it is a sheer delight to find a fantasy writer who can write, who loves to write and who can communicate that delight to his readers. Like Dumas' Musketeers, this story follows the careers of four young minor nobles, who come to the capital to enlist in the king's special regiment. Except that the setting is not France but rather Brust's Dragaera, the complex world of the Vlad Taltos series, set a millennium before Vlad Taltos. Remember, Draegarans live a very long time. Brust and Paarfi's world is more complex even than 17th century France. Brust as Paarfi revels in the complexities. Khaavren, the main protagonist, is very much d'Artagnan. But in other ways, including the heros' delightful rescue from execution near the end of the book, are Brust's own invention. This is not "sword and fur jockstrap," slash and sizzle fantasy. There are no heaps of bodies. This is a recasting of a classic by a very fine author. If you know Dumas, it adds to the fun. But if you love language and literature, I think you will like this book very much. I certainly did.

There are those who are disturbed by Brust's practice of twisting classic works through several alternate dimensions; I am always amazed at how well he does it. The rhythms of the dialogue, the descriptions, the characters -- they are similar but not the same, as though viewed through a glass that distorts and reveals simultaneously. It is a walk along a very cunning tightrope -- not alienating those who love the classic while satisfying those who love the fantasy. As one who has adored the unabridged Dumas since childhood, I confess myself well satisfied. As a reader of fantasy for several decades, I find myself, again, amazed.

If you want entertainment that is intelligent, engrossing, well-written and very hard to find in the land of ever-shortening attention spans, AND at the same time, touches the lasting appeal of literature, read Brust. As an literary cynic, who has also read from most of the major writers in the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre, I continue to be pleasantly surprised by the ingenuity and range of Steven Brust. He is a truly gifted writer and his books, from the Taltos series to the Khaavren romances, continue to provide me with rich satisfying entertainment, well through the third, and fourth readings. Even after experiencing the wonderful characterizations and original plot twistings in the Taltos series, the first of the Khaavren trilogy again showed new levels of imagination and range. If he is not Dumas, forgive us for loving him in any case, because the relish and joy in his writing is apparent to even the most disapproving of readers... and it continues to delight the rest of us.