Book 6 in the Vlad Taltos series. For some reason, this book did not stick with me at all, which means it is one of the two or three in the middle of this series that get very philosophical, and sort of depressing, as Vlad loses his way a bit, and many of his friends, and spends a lot of time on the run away from Adrilankha. Its still a Vlad novel, but a sad, lack of action sort of Vlad. ( )

Medicine and Killing by Trial-and-Error: Fans of the somewhat self-mocking, ironic Vlad Taltos, his mental gymnastics and impossible feats of working his way out of tight corners, will, I'm afraid, be somewhat disappointed with this book. Unlike all the previous books in this series, this one is not told from Vlad's viewpoint, but rather instead is done in third person and mainly from the viewpoint of Savn, a young (70 year old) Teckla lad. Savn, apprenticed to the local physicker, gets caught up into Vlad's orbit by a chance meeting on the road, and is soon called upon to determine the cause of death of a traveling distributor that Vlad knows. This section is interesting, showing how much can be learned about such things merely by close observation and careful thinking, somewhat in the mode of Sherlock Holmes. But it also points up a major failing of Brust's imagined world - although the various denizens of this world (except for the Easteners like Vlad) live for a very long time, I found it very hard to believe that someone who has already lived for 70 years would display the level of naivete and ignorance of basic human interactions displayed by Savn. Savn later gets a chance to use his medical skills to save the life of Vlad - and once more there are some interesting points brought forward about how knowledge is accumulated in this world. Use the scientific method? That might be difficult in a world where sorcery, witchcraft, telepathy, and walking undead are real - how can you believe your results? An older method is assumed here - if a particular procedure works once, that result is passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation, although it is quite possible that the method may have extra steps that have no relevance to its actual success. Beyond these interesting side-lights, the story itself is a pretty straight-forward tale of Vlad planning and executing a revenge against the local undead sorcerer lord. But since we don't get to see inside Vlad's head, the picture of the action is fuzzy, and worse yet, lacking in the humor that suffuses the earlier books in this series, most especially the ironic back-and-forth between Vald and his jhereg familiar Loiosh. Instead we get some looks inside the thought processes of Loiosh's mate Rocza. As she is basically a wild jhereg, not familiar with the ways of man, this view of the happenings is also fuzzy. We do get to see, to a degree, just how Vlad appears to the average person of this world, but it is not a very illuminating view. Thus, other than some interesting background material about this world and its ways, I found none of the things that made the earlier books an engrossing and entertaining read. As this story is not important to later books, other than the introduction of Savn, who plays a minor role in the next book, Orca, this one can safely be skipped. --- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

I really enjoyed reading a Vlad novel narrated by someone else. Throughout the climax, I kept wondering when Savn would remember to try to make psionic contact. It's strange to me that this book was not called Teckla, as it seemed to show more about their life then that of the Athyra. I liked the balance between emotion and logic in Savn's character. It was also very interesting to see things from Rocza's perspective. Although I would have expected her to have a closer relationship to Vlad. I also enjoyed the rural outdoors setting as a nice change from Adrilankha. ( )

Not good...unfortunately, a necessary read to keep going with the story line. The use of a third-party narrator causes the book to lose a lot of the interest of its predecessors. Vlad is a total mess emotionally. I almost quit the series here.

I find myself wondering how much is due to the reported fact that Brust had intended to end the series with Phoenix but popular demand forced a Holmesian return.

Just bull through and on to Orca. ( )

Brust plays with the format of this novel as well, telling it all from the perspective of a young man named Savn. It was actually a bit of a shock to hear Vlad refer to Savn as a Teckla, the boy's a farmer learning to heal going about his life until Vlad upsets his mental equilibrium. Savn spots Vlad as the latter comes into town, and is drawn to him. The two jhereg are more mysterious in this book, the peasants don't connect them to Vlad until near the end, but we get a short bit from the female's perspective in each chapter. Liosh's name isn't used until near the end, nor is Vlad's title; one of the novel's themes is understanding, and it highlights how set in my mind I can become when I have a label or name to place on a character. With Vlad previously defining himself as an assassin, I saw all his actions through that filter, expecting him to be killing people left right and center. Seeing him as a mysterious stranger, an Easterner, a witch, someone holding strange views of the local lord, gave a new perspective on his character. ( )