Rating: ![3 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-3-0.gif) Summary: Quick but Poorly Planned Review: "The Book of Jhereg" contains three novels of which I've read only the first two, "Jhereg" and "Yendi". To start with, these are short novels, at roughly 150 pages each. But don't be fooled by the length; there's lots going on here, and little of it predictable. Certainly no one could honestly claim that they knew how these stories would end right from the start. With a new twist every ten pages or so, these novels should satisfy fans of authors such as Martha Wells and Patricia McKillip. This one will keep you on your toes.
In a way that's the problem. If anything, the Vlad Taltos novels have too much going on. More specifically it doesn't always add up to a coherent story. For instance, consider Vlad's miniature dragon sidekick, Loiosh. The opening chapter tells us how these two first hooked up. After that, Loiosh doesn't really do much. Apparently he's intended for comic relief, though I for one didn't find him too relieving. So why is Loiosh in the book at all? Likewise with a passage halfway through where Vlad learns that he's actually some sort of ancient emperor reincarnated. He stews over this info for a few pages and then it's just forgotten and barely mentioned for the rest of the book. So what was the deal there? That stuff just doesn't fit with the main plot.
So "Jhereg" and "Yendi" are small and speedy novels, but somewhat unorganized. All things considered I don't recommend this one when so much better fantasy is on the shelf. Protagonist Vlad himself is decently tough and smart, but Brust never really gives us a reason to cheer for him. In the end a ruthless assassin defeats another ruthless assassin and humiliates several other ruthless assassins with assistance from a bunch of other ruthless assassins. And we care ... why?
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: Fans of Leiber and Pratchett Take Note Review: A collection of three of the first four books Brust wrote (Taltos is unfortunately missing), this a delightful, entertaining trilogy of stories inventive both in terms of its world and its use of magic. Written with a wry sense of humor that should appeal to fans of Fritz Leiber and Terry Pratchett, this is the ongoing saga of Vlad Taltos, an assassin working the often tawdry streets of Andrilankha, the city and the character in many ways resembling both the Grey Mouser and Lankhmar of Leiber's realm, but with enough distinctive differences to distinguish it from the former author's work. Though Brust at times belabors certain episodes and issues, he nonetheless presents a world and cast of characters that rarely tires, straying beyond the usual sword and sorcery fare. Highly recommended.
Rating: ![3 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-3-0.gif) Summary: Could have been better... Review: A few things kept me from truly enjoying this compendium, which comprises the first three books in Seven Brust's series featuring the assassin Vladimir Taltos. The 3 books included in this compilation are "Jhereg", "Yendi", and "Teckla". Vlad is not your typical assassin. He's more like a modern-day mafia boss, but gets his hands dirty more often than his comtemporary counterparts. Throw in a bit of private investigator work, and you have a nice summation of Taltos the character. The problem with him is he's a bit of a wuss at times and relies too much on the help of the seemingly godlike abilities of the Dragonlords in the first two books. The third book thankfully digresses from this reliance on deus ex machina to pull Vlad from the fire. Also, the reasons the Dragonlords are helping him at all are not very well expressed.The second thing I didn't like about the book was Vlad's familiar, Loiosh. He appears to be included in the book soley for comic relief, although he does keep an eye out for Vlad and occasionally mixes it up in some of the fight scenes. Unfortunately, Loiosh's constant smart-aleck remarks reminded me of how I felt about Jar Jar Binks in Episode 1. The third thing that bothered me is the supoporting cast. All the Dragonlords and hired thugs are completely one dimensional. Vlad's wife is more complex, but what the heck is an assassin doing with a wife? His assistant, Kragar, is completely subservient for some unspecified reason. My last complaint deals with the stories themselves. These are more mystery novels than Fantasy. The plots are sometimes overly complicated - to the point where some of the connections and discoveries made seem contrived. This is especially true in the second book. So what did I like about the book? Mainly the world Brust has built. It's an intermingling of races where humans are not the dominant force. There's a cyclical caste system at work that, while not very well explained, is at least original and interesting. One gets a sense of a vast history that will hopefully be explored in greater depth in the other books. Overall, it's an entertaining read, but lacks the depth necessary to acheive the status of greatness.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: Fantasy both unusual and unusually good. Review: A lot of fantasy books have interesting plot. Some have compelling characters, some have intriguing and original worlds, peoples, and magics. A very few have good, fresh writing. However, these elements, that make a fantasy book great, sometimes seem to be mutually exclusive. The fantasy novel sometimes seems to be a pound cake, but instead of being constructed according to the traditional method (a pound of each ingredient), all cake ingredients together can only total a pound. You finally find someone whose cultures and creatures are original and exciting, as opposed to redecorated elves and dwarves, and you find that the characters are wooden, the plot drags, and, to make a long story short, the baker didn't add any sugar whatsoever.
Steven Brust, however, omits very little from his cake. The Book of Jhereg, a three-book collection pressed into my hands by my Brustaholic boyfriend, contains believable (almost oddly so) characters, a fascinating world and culture revolving around two different races (neither of whom has been stated to have pointy ears or a propensity for warhammers, in a startling lack of clichés.) To add a wrinkle, the books are intended to be individually sufficient -- he designed them to be clear and interesting read in any order and in any number.
The main character is Vladimir Taltos (tall-toesh), a Eastern (homo sapiens sapiens) assassin and minor crime boss with pretentious taste in wine, a sardonic wit, and a talent for getting himself into trouble. The main supporting actor is his familiar, a wisecracking flying lizard by the name of Loiosh. Vlad is startlingly real, and by that I mean not only that he speaks as you'd expect a person to speak, not a swashbuckling fantasy character, but that he seems like just a guy. He's an assassin but he's still easy to empathize with -- it's something he's good at, which people pay him for, but he doesn't really like it particularly.
I don't want to ruin much of the background of the books, which is seeded all over like Easter eggs, but Easterners (what you and I call human beings) are kind of an oppressed minority in this world -- they live in the Dragaeran Empire, which consists of 17 Houses of Dragaerans, which correspond to different animal totems, personalities, purposes, and proclivities. They're a bit like castes, since they aren't meant to interbreed. Dragaerans are taller than humans, and longer-lived, but no pointy ears have as yet been mentioned. Vlad only assassinates Dragaerans, with whom he has issues (bein' an oppressed minority and all) but he also has risen to a surprising rank within Dragaeran society, allowing us to meet characters in the "magical castle" walk of life as well as the "beaten up for gambling debts" one.
I didn't make a very close study of the language of the books, but I would put them at "well-written". No clichés to make you wince, and occasional very apt and evocative turns of phrase.
I would recommend these books to readers of Roger Zelazny (who, incidentally, liked them). The same mixture of the gritty and the sublime, the real and the fantastic, permeates these books as does his Amber series. If your time is limited, I would say the first book (Jhereg) in the volume is tied with the second (Yendi) for quality. The third book (Teckla) is, while interesting and compelling, rather frustrating and blue-making. Worth the read, but not quite as satisfying as the other two.
Bottom line: Fantasy both unusual and unusually good. Explores moral issues, nature of humanity, strategy, and wisecracks. Made me laugh like a ninny in airports. Occasionally depressing, but what isn't?
Rating: ![3 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-3-0.gif) Summary: Entertaining, but not so great Review: An interesting concept lies behind this book. A detective like assassin figures out whodunit type mysteries and then kills people. But all of this is done in a world with enough magic to make Robert Jordan blush. I enjoyed reading these novels, but just could not get into the long chain of thought that the lead character would get into to solve the crime. In addition, the ridiculously large availability of magic was at times too much for me. In conclusion, a good read, but don't analyze it too much. Also, the socio-political uprisings were a little too preachy and overt for this particular reviewer.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: An assassin with ambition Review: Brust has a fast paced writing style, and there is a catch to each of the novels in the series. The characters are a little one dimensional, but are nevertheless pretty entertaining.
The plots are clever, and all focus on the main character and narrator, Vlad Taltos, an assassin and mob boss, who also works as a witch and a security specialist. The narrative in the first book, Taltos, jumps back and forth between a couple different time periods, which keeps the story fresh, not always easy in a first person narrative.
Rating: ![3 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-3-0.gif) Summary: Ah, the cliches! Review: First off, let me say that I did enjoy the stories somewhat, before I get into the details of what's wrong with these books.
This series sets up a potentially unique setting and protagonist: he's an assassin, a real murderer-for-hire, and a human in a world dominated by other races, so we're set up to believe that this story will have an "edge" and confront the reader with some real ambiguity in terms of its moral focus.
But never fear, for that lasts about all of ten pages or so. Turns out Vlad Taltos is a good guy after all; his "victims" are for the most part deserving (I use quotes because people can be brought back to life in this setting), and on those few occasions when he has to do something nasty, he gets physically ill as his poor tormented little soul is overwhelmed by the contradictions of his chosen career.
Second, the story is infused with a set of over-the-top deus ex machina characters in the form of Vlad's Dragon friends. These include a pair of ultra-tough (but a little thick; Vlad gets to do all the hard thinking here) lords who each are fairly invincible, with super-weapons that can take out pretty much anything or anyone with hardly a blink. These characters are not uninteresting (although Aliera is pretty one-dimensional IMHO), but because Vlad can contact either of them via telepathy in a heartbeat, and because neither ever seems to be doing anything but sit around waiting for his "call", a great deal of the uncertainty for the protagonist is obviated for the reader. Much of the three books tries to establish Vlad as a small-time crime boss, but this is belied by the fact that he can mingle with some of the most important and powerful people in the world any time he wants. And the justification for why these relationships exist (provided in the first book, and to avoid spoiling I'll just say it involves past lives) just struck me as lame.
Finally, the plots themselves. For a book about assassins, most of the plots seem to focus on intricate political situations rather than violence (although there are a number of fights, they mostly just seem like minor devices designed to advance the bigger plot). These plots aren't bad and were interesting in places, but Brust has a habit of sinking into detailed exposition of the political history and contemporary alliances in his world, as if he's paused his narrative to make some background notes for himself. Usually this narrative is provided via one of his powerful noble characters to Vlad, who is given the insight needed to make one of his characteristic leaps of intuition to solve the caper. Why none of these all-knowing lords could figure out the solutions, even when most of them were personally alive when all of the lead-in events were set in motion (these guys live for 1000+ years), does strain credibility at some places.
So basically if you're willing to not just suspend disbelief, but go lock it in a closet for a few weeks, you might enjoy these books. As I noted above, they were entertaining, although the above flaws do prevent me from giving a stronger recommendation.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Damn good stories! Review: I got this book for free from work and gave it a shot because of the neat picture on the cover. I'm not a big fantasy reader but this book sucked me into the world of Dragerea so quickly that I blasted through this three book volume in about a week. I have since bought and read all the other books in the series and have not been dissapointed in the least. Most fantasy turns me off because too much time is spent trying to build an imaginary word where everybody has big, weird, stupid names that you have trouble pronouncing. This series has a little of that but not to the irritating degree of other authors. The writing is very snappy and the characters are very unique and entertaining. It's kind of like a "Get Shorty" for fantasy readers. It's got humourous interactions between the characters and has a real "page turning" quality to it that sets it apart. This collection of the first three books is great because I think it properly introduces you into the Dragerean realm. After these three in succession, you can read the rest of the series in any order and it won't matter. These books are great!
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Brust is a must-read for fantasy enthusiasts Review: I hate to sound like all the mindless followers of a particular writer (you know, the kind that give five stars without reading the book), but Brust is without a doubt one of the best fantasy author's currently writing. Bold characters, interesting situations, and novel settings are key elements in all great fantasy, and Brust's Taltos series excels in all categories. The protagonist is a three-dimensional character with real personality quirks and human foibles. Like Richard Starks' "Parker" character, he makes his livelihood on the wrong side of the law. His talent for quick thinking exceeds his talent for quick fighting, making these stories stand out from the usual hack-and-slash yarns that are common to this genre. This is not to say that the stories are slow - in fact, the pacing is excellent, and the fighting descriptions tends toward the graphic. But it is Vlad Taltos' comentary and perspecitve that really makes the stories click. Using his jehreg familiar and the reader as his confidants/psychiatrists, Vlad Taltos tells his tale and is likable in the same way that Tony Soprano does (Sopranos on HBO - great television). Drawing from classical tales, Brust creates a world that is rich in detail, magical systems that are logical (they have limits!) and stories that are simple and yet involving. If the Maltese Falcon is great film noir, then this series is great fantasy noir. Absolutely worth the read.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Great blend of fantasy and mystery in the style of Dumas Review: I have been reading fantasy novels all of my life and this author is in my top three. Brust's non-formulaic writing style is extremely intelligent and witty with a unique panache and flair. His novels have a much greater share of dialogue than usual - and what great dialog it is! He is not afraid to spend many pages on a lengthy debate or an inconsequential funny moment. Once you have graduated by reading the Taltos series, take on the Phoenix Guard series which is a pleasant interlude from standard fantasy fare. It takes flowery speech to a wonderfully hysterical level but still has his usual underlying mystery/investigative theme. :)
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