Jhereg: Vlad Taltos, Book 1

Stephen Brust has an imagination like no other author that I have read, paired with a fresh writing style. I have his entire writing works and highly recommend his books to people who appreciate talent and wit.

First, before I offend some Steven Brust fans, I did find this novel reasonably entertaining. But geez, I wanted to like it a whole lot more than I did. I loved the concept - a series of books about Vlad Taltos, an assassin on the world of Dragaera. Vlad is an "easterner", or human, who is a member of one of the Dragaeran "Houses" - the Jhereg. Each of the succeeding books is titled with one of the other "Houses" and presumably is a more in depth look at that "House".Sounds great (and it wasn't bad as I said), but I find Brust's style lacking in some of the elements I enjoy most. So far I've read two Brust novels (this one and To Reign in Hell) and I find that he puts all his energies into two things - an elaborate plot resolution and, most importantly, snappy dialogue repartee; LOTS of snappy repartee. I found myself begging for a description of almost anything - his wife, his assistant, his office, his apartment, Castle Black - anything. Most of his descriptions are reserved for his knives and daggers. He also creates some very intriguing characters, but leaves them largely with little descriptive meat on their bones. So, while I'll probably read more novels in this series, I'm in no rush to do so.

love this book, never managed to read the whole series, and i am re-starting now. didn't realize it was taken from my collection happy to find this cheap replacement.

Great series...loved it

Great book absolutely love it. This author is excellent read it if you can.

Sometimes a novel comes out and you rush to buy it and devour it right away. Other times, you hear about how great one is and don't get around to it for a while. Jhereg is one where I heard for literal decades that I needed to read it, that it was exactly the kind of novel I like and I kept putting it off, putting it off. Cue to Gencon this year, where I'm sitting in writing workshop listening to Scott Lynch (another person who I kept putting off reading for who knows why), and he mentions Brust at least three times in an hour long session. So I was already regretting not reading Lynch, so I figure I should really get started on Brust. Bought a copy, put him in the mega stack of reads I had written down after the con and started reading him a few days back.Now when you find an author who you connect with, you really hate to not single read the book. But life sometimes gets in the way, and I had family visiting the next day, so I had to stop about halfway through. Day after family left, I had to spend most of day doing webwork. Finally finished that at midnight and should have gone to sleep. But Jhereg was calling to me, all of the threads left unpulled wanting to be pulled. So I spent the next couple hours finishing it up, and it was worth it. I'm not going to go into too much detail, because even though I know it's been out longer than most of you reading this have been alive, I think it's the kind of book where too much discussion will ruin the enjoyment of reading it the first time. So I'm going to discuss it as circumspect as I can.I really like Brust's writing style. The main character's personality comes across well, and you know he is not a person to kiss rings or otherwise toe the line on social graces and mores. He had led a rough life, and is now in a position where he chooses how he will act. That said, you never feel he is completely safe. He is competent, powerful, and connected, but he also knows he is not the shark in the water, he is a good size fish who knows how to navigate the waters. Brust keeps the novel going at a steady pace, provides enough description to make me want more information on parts of the world, and in my opinion does a great job in not letting world specific words throw bumps into the flow. The setting has a lot of unusual words, but by their use you gain insight into the world setting, without feeling like you clicked on a wikipedia link before going back into the narrative. Additionally, Brust knows he is writing a fantasy adventure, so his tone keeps to that. It almost reminded me of some of the Asprin Myth adventures, but a little rougher and darker. The banter between the main character and his employees was lighthearted, but not forced, with an undercurrent of grim purpose as befits their professions.Based on what I read, I'm definitely going to read more of the series, and my procrastination has gifted me in having an author I enjoy with a large number of volumes to consume. If you like protagonists who walk that razor edged line between the shadows and society, then I can't recommend it highly enough. And don't be like me and take 3+ decades to get around to reading it.

Originally posted at FanLit (find links there)Audio readers, rejoice! Finally, Steven Brust's VLAD TALTOS novels have been produced in audio by Audible Frontiers. For years I've been planning to read this long series and have only been waiting for this moment.The VLAD TALTOS novels follow Vlad Taltos, a well-known and highly successful human assassin living on the planet Dragaera. The native species, the Dragaerans, are a tall long-lived race created by sorcerers who cross-bred humans and certain animals. The characteristics of the animals give each clan, or "House," its name, physical features, and personality traits. The exception is the house of Jhereg (named after a small dragon-like creature) which is a low-class conglomerate of outcasts from other clans and also any true humans who can buy their way in, which is what Vlad Taltos' father did. Each of Brusts' novels in this series is named after one of the Dragaeran houses.In this first installment, Jhereg, we meet Vlad Taltos and his familiar, Loiosh, the jhereg who can communicate with him through mind-speech. Vlad has been hired to kill a councilman named Mellar who has embezzled a huge sum of money from the Jhereg council. When Vlad catches up with Mellar, he discovers him hiding out in Castle Black, the floating mansion of Vlad's friend, the Dragonlord Morrolan. Castle Black's rule of hospitality is that anyone who has been invited to stay at the castle cannot be touched and nobody wants to violate this law because it would ignite another Dragon-Jhereg war. The last war devastated both houses. Vlad and Loiosh must flush out Mellar without offending a Dragonlord or starting a war. This is not an easy task and Vlad will need to solve a mystery and get a little help from his friends.Jhereg is appealing for several reasons. Vlad Taltos is a great character -- the sort of honorable criminal that you can't help but like. It helps that in Brust's world, an assassination isn't necessarily permanent. People can be revivified if their body is still mostly intact and they haven't had their soul destroyed by a Morganti weapon (somewhat like Elric's sword). Vlad is clever and must use his brain, not just his weapons or witchcraft, to solve his dilemma (though I thought he solved the convoluted mystery a little too easily). Vlad's friends are also likeable, especially Loiosh the familiar, Vlad's wife (who he met when she tried to kill him), and a female Dragonlord. Brust's female characters are strong, smart, and competent.Steven Brust's writing style, sense of humor, and dialogue are also pleasant, and the story moves quickly. There's a lot to learn in the first novel of a huge epic, but Brust does this so well. We learn a little about Vlad's childhood, the planet of Dragaera, the origin and structure of the houses (this was fascinating), and anything else we need to know. Brust gives us just enough extra to make us curious about his world, but not enough to make the plot slow down while we learn the entire history of Dragaera and its residents. (Yet, Brust's world is so complex and detailed that some readers may wish for an online resource such as this helpful Wikipedia entry, and several fan-made Dragaera sites that you can easily find with a Google search.)Audible Frontiers' version was narrated by Bernard Setaro Clark. He was terrific, speaking with a lively manner and giving each character a pleasant and distinct voice. As usual, I had to speed up the narration a bit (I'm beginning to suspect that Audible has purposely slowed down their narrators). I'm pleased to see that Bernard Setaro Clark has also narrated the sequels and I'll be picking up book 2, Yendi, which is actually a prequel to Jhereg, very soon. I look forward to spending more time with Vlad Taltos.

boring, not enough depth and gets lost in the mafia / fantasy mash-up. Sub Harry Harrison. HH did the criminal world anti-hero much better in a sci-fi setting with the stainless steel rat series.