Dragon

Rating:
Summary: You're in the army now...
Review: A certain Dragon, Fornia, steals a sword. Morrolan wants the sword, so he starts a campaign against Fornia. Vlad has taken a dislike to Fornia, so he enlists in Morrolan's army to get the sword back. And during the course of the book, he discovers how unpleasant life can be in the army...The longer you read, the more interesting it gets. (I really don't like it when Vlad is being introspective, though, but there isn't much of that in this one.)It isn't the best book ever, but it's a Vlad book and thus a must-read. Especially since Vlad's Dragon friends are in top form, Morrolan being haughty and nonchalant, Sethra knowledgeable and mysterious, and Aliera fiery and ruthless as ever.

Rating:
Summary: A good yard well told
Review: A fascinating book. The author tells the story from the middle to the end and from the beginning to the middle, simultaneously. And seamlessly.

Rating:
Summary: Brust! Find yourself!
Review: Brust seems to have a tendency to enjoy organizing things in "creative" fashions. Unfortunately, his idea of creative and my feelings of annoyance usually coincided, especially since my annoyance, frustration, and eventual boredom with this book resulted from his failed attempt to give Dragon's chronology a "creative" approach. In this failed attempt, what Brust actually did was to destroy any logical progression of the reading and to eliminate any feeling of enjoyment I could have obtained by the reading.

Our author also wanted us to see how Vlad could respond to being a standup and face 'em, toe the line and hold it, army boy. Of course, Vlad has to have a selfishly independent reason for joining the army or he wouldn't have been caught dead taking orders from stiffs he could stiffen (like dead wood) for any reason he couldn't provide for himself.

A warning for those who haven't read any of Brusts other Vlad Taltos novels... Brust didn't include enough information about his universe for the uninitiated to enjoy this book. Start at the beginning of the series or don't start at all.


Rating:
Summary: An assassin goes to war
Review: Contemplating my collection of Vlad Taltos books, I have sometimes been annoyed that Brust has opted to begin re-releasing the older books bound into collections in publication order rather than grouping them by internal chronology. Then I come to _Dragon_ as I try to figure out the 'correct' order, and I drop the whole question.

In _Dragon_, Brust has experimented with nonlinear storytelling with two alternating threads of action. In the present, we have Vlad's adventures as an intermediary between Sethra the Younger and Aliera e'Kieron (between the events of _Yendi_ and _Jhereg_). Aliera has the sword of Kieron the Conqueror, the most famous of her ancestors, one of the founders of the Empire; Sethra the Younger, of course, wants it for symbolic value, as part of one of her schemes to inspire wars of conquest against the kingdoms of the east. In the main, though, this is the tale of Vlad's own experiences with war: how a respectable crime boss and assassin got involved with the Battle of Baritt's Tomb after the events of _Taltos_,

Wait a minute - Dragaerans' bodies are always sent to Deathsgate Falls as their souls enter the Paths of the Dead. How could Baritt have had a tomb? Well, 'tomb' is a misnomer. A really distinguished Dragaeran (not just someone with a title, or money) sometimes receives a monument. Vlad, to date, hasn't learned just what Baritt did to earn the honor, although he's curious.

Baritt's 'Tomb' is a mountain.

Morrolan e'Drien and Aliera attended the memorial service at the mountain, which was actually a neutral time and place at that point; the hostilities had already begun when Count Fornia arranged the theft of an obscure item from Morrolan's collection of Morganti weapons, a worthless, huge sword, apparently just to provoke Morrolan into declaring war. (Private wars of this kind are relatively common in the Empire, especially in the house of the Dragon.) Vlad, of course, was only concerned with his investigation of the theft and of Morrolan's security procedures - until Fornia sent three Phoenix guards to beat him up in his home. At that point, he volunteers his services to Morrolan - and an assassin who can double as a saboteur isn't to be scorned.

Not much of Vlad's Organization business in this story; he's put that into Kragar's hands while he collects some revenge on Fornia. Not a lot of his smart-aleck humour, either; he's in the army for the first time in his life, and we get a practical lesson in battle-magics and Dragaeran warfare. Fornia, of course, is ultimately a dead man, facing not one but two opponents with Great Weapons: Morrolan's Blackwand and Sethra's Iceflame. The trashy Morganti greatsword that started the whole mess winds up...well, check it out.

Rating:
Summary: A welcome entry in the series
Review: First and foremost: I enjoyed Dragon. Athyra and Orca were necessary but difficult entries in the series and I was VERY pleased to see a return to something closer to the original style, as well as some more pieces in the overall puzzle that is the Vlad Taltos series of books.

As others have mentioned here, Dragon is perhaps not the best place to start this series. It does stand alone, but you'll appreciate it a lot more if you've read some of the earlier - say, the first four? - books in the series. There's lots of references to other storylines that, while not precisely required for understanding this book, are much more enjoyable if you know them.

My only 'complaint' about the book is also mentioned in at least one other review: Vlad and Loiosh are a bit more 'mature' and introspective than they 'should' be at this point 'historically,' based on the timelines in the other novels. Brust is certainly maturing as an author, so some of this is to be expected as Vlad gains more depth, but he's also a good enough writer to adapt the character to 'earlier' conditions than he really does here.

Bottom line? A solid and enjoyable addition to the series, one that only whets my appetite to see the (please, please!) next one. A possible new storyline regarding the Great Weapons is hinted at, while the future built in Teckla through Orca still waits for conclusion. I can't wait. :)

Rating:
Summary: A guide to where to start with Vlad and other books....
Review: First off, this is another great Vlad Taltos story from Steven Brust. However, if you haven't read any yet, you should really start elsewhere; perhaps Jhereg or Taltos. As mentioned above, this is perhaps the third story chronologically; Taltos describes the earliest events of Vlad's life that Brust has written about so far, and the events in Taltos immediately precede the main narrative of Dragon, but Jhereg was the first actually published, so start with either of those depending on whether you want to follow Brust's development or Vlad's.... We've thrust this series upon several friends, all of whom ended up quite pleased by said thrusting, and they all survived regardless of which book they read first. :)

I feel like I should tell you the things I really like about Brust's writing in general, and the Taltos series in particular. But after typing and deleting many, many sentences, I find I'm failing. My career as a book-reviewer may be as short-lived as a Jhereg who turns informer for the Phoenix Guard.

While I'm here, I just have to express my slack-jawed shock at how wildly inaccurate and sloppy the Kirkus "review" is. Almost every fact about the plot they list is either flat wrong or significantly, plot-changingly inaccurate! I think whoever wrote it just flipped through the pages. I could nail each example, but I don't approve of spoilers. Hey, Amazon, how about exercising a little Q/C here and yanking that piece of ***? (Although calling Sethra the "finest general ALIVE" did make me laugh...)

In summary, if you like Vlad Taltos, this is another great story of his early career and involvement with Morrolan and various Dragonlord plots and powerplays. If you haven't read any Vlad stories, perhaps order Jhereg, Taltos, and Dragon; you may well read all three in a single weekend and then read them again the next weekend!

And to make up for my inability to describe what I like about Brust, I'll give you a guide to further reading. If you want even more Dragaeran stories, and/or you're a fan of Dumas (The Three Musketeers), you should really read "The Phoenix Guards" and "Five Hundred Years After", which are set something like a millenia before Vlad's life. They're a whole-hearted tribute to and celebration of Dumas' story; and they really demonstrate what an enthusiastic fan Brust is, and what a writer that good can do when paying homage to a favorite of his.

For non-Dragaeran stories by Brust, you should really check out The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars, which is a great retelling of a fairy tale, intertwined with a modern story about wrestling with art. Brust's own admitted "Best" book is Agyar, though he points out that's a different thing from his favorite book. I'm also a big fan of Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grill (Brust's only sci-fi book so far); Gypsy (co-written with Megan Lindholm, aka Robin Hobb--whose Assassin trilogy is, in my wife's and my opinions, the finest fantasy trilogy since Lord of the Rings); and Freedom and Necessity, co-written with Emma Bull.

If you like Brust, you may also want to check out Spider Robinson (try Deathkiller/Lifehouse or the Stardancer trilogy), Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm (either the Assassin trilogy or Cloven Hooves) or Emma Bull (how about Finder?). I'm sure Brust would also HIGHLY recommend Roger Zelazny, though I'm not sure where to start with him.

And to stray even farther from Brust, I'll throw in Jonathan Lethem's Gun with Occasional Music and Jonathan Carroll's Outside the Dog Museum.

Sorry if I'm "off-topic", but hey, this is exactly the sort of conversation you would have with Steven if you started talking about his books. He tells you about OTHER books he really loves. Come to think of it, this is the sort of conversation I have with my friends who ask me about what I'm reading. Best thing that I could hope for is that you find a book you'll enjoy that you might never have found otherwise.

Rating:
Summary: So good as FIRST book I went and bought all the rest
Review: I actually read this at my public library, and it was so intriguingly well crafted and such a relief from your ho-hum regular fantasy books that I ran out and promptly bought all the rest of the books in the Vlad series. Gives you glimpses into a world wider than is explained that you'll want to run out and get the rest too just to hear all the other stories behind it all. The other books in the series are widely different however, so beware. I happen to find it refreshing that there's different styles among them all, but others may want to check the reviews on the other books before doing what I did =)

Rating:
Summary: Lots of plot twists and little surprises!
Review: I have only read "Yendi" in the Vlad Taltos series, and I enjoyed it immensely. "Dragon" veered all over the place and sometimes I got a little lost, but most of the time I was quite enthralled with the story. Taltos is going through his memories and he tells the reader of his battle at Baritt's Tomb, of how he got into the situation in the first place, and years later (sometime after "Yendi" when Sethra the Younger comes back from her desert exile by her elder Sethra). Oh, Vlad's soldier friends were funny, and Napper was quite a personality. The concept of war, according to Morrolan, a Dragonlord, was funny as well, and as Vlad put it, "Dragonlords can't help it." I hope you'll enjoy this book as much as I have!

Rating:
Summary: Lots of plot twists and little surprises!
Review: I have only read "Yendi" in the Vlad Taltos series, and I enjoyed it immensely. "Dragon" veered all over the place and sometimes I got a little lost, but most of the time I was quite enthralled with the story. Taltos is going through his memories and he tells the reader of his battle at Baritt's Tomb, of how he got into the situation in the first place, and years later (sometime after "Yendi" when Sethra the Younger comes back from her desert exile by her elder Sethra). Oh, Vlad's soldier friends were funny, and Napper was quite a personality. The concept of war, according to Morrolan, a Dragonlord, was funny as well, and as Vlad put it, "Dragonlords can't help it." I hope you'll enjoy this book as much as I have!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I have read all the other books in this series before comming to this one, and it was much less strenuous and more enjoyable to return to the 1st person. The plot is more staightforward, which is refreshing after Jhereg and Yendi. Like the other Taltos novels, it looks at the peculiar racial structure of Dragaera, and it only gets better with a wise-crack jhereg companion. My only complaints about the series as a whole would be that you have to guess which order the books came in-but if your willing to do a little mental hopscotch, it's definetly worth the effort.