After Phoenix, I thought I’d take a break from Vlad for a while, but I kept getting this image of Vlad, wearing a poncho and smoking a cheroot, walking into a bar. The image wouldn’t go away so I wrote this one to exorcise it.
After Phoenix, I thought I’d take a break from Vlad for a while, but I kept getting this image of Vlad, wearing a poncho and smoking a cheroot, walking into a bar. The image wouldn’t go away so I wrote this one to exorcise it.
So, in Athyra, was Vlad really telling the truth when he said that he didn’t do anything to Savn’s parents except take responsibility for Savn being late? If not, what did he do?
That was a long time ago, sorry. I have a half memory that he’s lying; that he put a spell on them. But I won’t swear it.
Okay, I was just curious. Thanks for the response!
I’m really enjoying listening to the Taltos books on audio. I read the first 6 or so when they first came out, but then I lost track of the series and it has been great to go back through it in a format that I can listen to while I do other things.
Thanks so much for making them available this way!
For what it’s worth, the story later makes the answer to my question clear. I should have been more patient… :)
I’m reading Athyra now. Enjoying it.
Found a typo… I once wrote you (around 2.5-3 years ago) with some errors I found in a book. You told me I could contact some editor/publisher with them. Who/where/what would be that contact now?
I found a typo that caused me to do a triple-take on page 75 of Athyra. It’s in Chapter 6. The typo: “…said Savn, who was surprised to bear himself ask the question.”
So clearly that should be “hear” and not “bear.”
Sorry, I’m no longer sure where those should go. My best guess would be: editor@tor.com
I have yet to read a book, of any appreciable length, which does not contain some gramatical, punctuation, or spelling errors of some sort.
To Chris: Absolutely true, although I feel that these errors need not appear in newer editions if readers simply write in and mention them.
To Steven: My husband didn’t care for this one, but I rather liked it. It was frustrating at times, wondering what Vlad was up to, but at the same time I enjoyed the change of pace. I’m dying to know what happens to Savn now.
Just listened to this audiobook (am in hospital…) Noticed a couple of things about the ending:
Is it possible that (a small) part of why Savn went non-verbal was the fact that, just prior to the worst trauma, he had been trying very hard to ‘mind-meld’ with the fundamentally non-verbal Rocza? This might also provide an in-story reason for why Savn’s book is the only one to feature scenes from her POV.
Were you ever considering doing a Vlad book that was a Lone Wolf & Cub homage? Savn certainly has the “killer’s eyes” so often ascribed to Daigoro.
Hope you get better soon. Very interesting theory about Savn and Rocza…
I always thought it was just the trauma. Now I am not so sure.
I’m sorry to admit I’m not familiar with Lone Wolfe & Cub.
Long-running and critically acclaimed Japanese comic about the adventures of an assassin on the run, who is traveling with his six-year-old son. Savn is obviously physically older, but similar “memtal age” post-trauma. (Many people are calling The Mandalorian “Lone Wolf and Cub In Spaaaace”.)
Ah. Yeah, I don’t do comics.
Manga series set in feudal Japan, considered one of the most accurate fictional representations of the period. It was also made into a series of movies (often known as the Baby Cart series). Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance is the first. Well worth watching if you are at all interested in over the top samurai movies. The opening scene of the first movie has the hero, the good guy, chopping the head off of a very cute little boy because it is his duty as the Shogun’s official “second”. Now that is a gutsy way of introducing your hero to the audience!
Just read Athyra again and really enjoyed it. Vlad was channeling his inner Noishpa as he taught Savn witchcraft. Very cool to see the story written from the perspective of a peasant boy and Rocza. Did Vlad initially narrate it into the metal box, then the author played around with point of view to tell the tale from a different perspective?
“Not sure why they were fighting, as none of the combatants seemed to have any interest in eating each other.”