science fiction

The Phoenix Guards - Steven Brust Book Review

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Review Summary
The Phoenix Guards is Dumas' The Three Musketeers set on Dragaera, the same setting as Brust's Vlad Taltos series, but in an earlier time. Khaavren goes off to become a Phoenix Guard, one of the elite palace guards, and falls in with three others also seeking fame, fortune, or something else - and the plot is off and running. A decent imitation of The Three Musketeers, complete with a narrator you want to smack; funny, light, swashbuckling reading.
Ivy, Resident Scholar


Detailed literary breakdown of The Phoenix Guards
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book - very upbeat
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - fantasy world/fantasy past
Spying & Investigations Yes
What is main char. doing? - spying/espionage in enemy territorry - finding an assassin (political)
Political power play Yes
Political plotlets - factions fight within govt for control
Training/Apprent. Yes
Working up the ranks of... - armed forces
War or Invasion Yes
Major kinds of combat: - hand to hand
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - infantry soldier
Age: - long lived adults
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - very athletic

Main Adversary
Identity: - none

Setting
A substantial portion of this book takes place on a non-Earth planetary body: - humans in a primitive/fantasy society
Planet outside solar system? Yes

Style
Accounts of torture and death? - explicit references to deaths
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Most similar books to The Phoenix Guards
The Paladin by C.J. Cherryh
Five Hundred Years After by Steven Brust
God Of The Golden Fleece by Fred Saberhagen
Through Wolf's Eyes by Jane Lindskold
World Fall by Douglas Niles




Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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