Taltos

One of the stronger early entries in this adventure series. The story is told in three parallel sequences. Each chapter begins with a paragraph of two from a scene of Taltos performing some witchcraft for reasons not given. The rest of each chapter alternates between the main story of how Vlad Taltos walked the Paths of the Dead and why several powerful Dragaerans became indebted to him, and a flashback series of reflections on Vlad's youth and entry into the assassination business. Brust skillfully juggles this potentially confusing structure to keep a nice coherent mix of snark and action.

Recommended, but it's best to have read at least Jhereg beforehand.

Thankfully a much lighter book than [b:Teckla|133466|Teckla (Vlad Taltos, #3)|Steven Brust|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1357479420s/133466.jpg|803245] in both tone and subject matter. Taking us way back to the beginnings of Vlad's career, we get to see how he met almost all of the important people in his life, as well as how he picked up a number of his habits and prejudices. So far this has been my favorite of the series.

The fourth book in Steven Brust's Jhereg series continues the saga of Vlad Taltos, the human assassin (as well as an up and coming crime boss) in the alien world of the Dragaeran empire. I say continues, but in fact the main events of Taltos take place earlier than those of the first three books, and tell the story of Vlad's first meeting with Marolan, Sethra and Aliera - key characters of the first two books - and the journey which Marolan and Vlad make to Deathgate Falls and the Paths of the Dead.

What I particularly like about this series (apart from the character of Vlad himself of course, and his familiar Loiosh) is the way the books are structured. Book one Jhereg takes place when Vlad is established as a boss and married to Cawti, show more book two tells the story of how he met Cawti in the first place, book three takes place a couple of months after book one, and book four is earliest of all. No chronological order here! But as well as the timeframe of the main events, each book has at least one (or two) other storylines running through it with a different timeline adding complexity and interest. And each book drops little snippets of information about the events of the past that are picked up in later books, or hints of events to come in the future. It all adds up to the impression that the series of books were carefully planned out as a whole before the first one was written: whether that's true or not I don't know, but they certainly gives that impression. And so the reader's reaction to any set of events is frequently modified because they know how that character's relationship with Vlad will develop later, while assumptions from earlier books are challenged when the reader discovers more of a character's history

All in all I'm finding these books a great read and I'll be moving on quickly to the next one in the series. show less

This is the story of how Vlad was tricked by Sethra and Kiera the Thief to help Morrolan get Kiera's soul and reunite it with her body - it involves Gods, Necromancers, and the paths of the dead. Alternately, this is the one where Vlad is introduced to Sethra Lavode, the Necromancer, and Morralan, Lord of Castle Black, both very scary, very powerful people.

As always, its fun, full of sparkling wit. its not IF Vlad saves the day, its HOW Vlad saves the day. If I got the order of books down correctly, this is the first novel that introduces the bigger world of Gods in this series. Highly recommended!

A Dragon A Day: While Yendi examines Vlad's life shortly following the time when he had begun to establish himself as a serious player in the Jehreg mini-Empire, Taltos reaches even further back, weaving three separate plots - the beginning of his come to power, his expedition with Morrolan, and one mysterious spellweaving heading each chapter - into the fullest picture yet of his early life.
Beginning innoculously with a delivery theft by one of Vlad's henchmen, the story quickly involves Dzur Mountain - and its infamous undead inhabitant Sethra Lavode - along with Morrolan in Castle Black. It shortly becomes apparent this was a setup to get him to Sethra's quarters, to ask him to steal a very important crystal from a high wizard. show more Insane as it sounds, he has little choice, and when things go wrong at the last second, only a serendipitous find and Morrolan's quick entrance save him. But the ordeal is far from over, when an even more important ordeal awaits Vlad: A perilous journey with Morrolan into the Paths of the Dead to wake the soul trapped in the staff he took.
This is undoubtedly Burst's most mature work in the series to this point, giving up some of the manic energy and cockiness of the first in exchange for a much deeper look into the lives and souls of his heroes. Vlad never loses his snide sarcasm, but he does start to tone it down and put more thought into his dealings with powerful Dragaerans. Most of all, he finally begins to grudginly respect a few. The transition is both bumpy and natural, never plainly stated but obvious again his otherwise cavalier attitudes.
The book is also his finest technically, for while Yendi was an editorial mess, this continues Teckla's themes of emotional confict and redevelopment, in a more subtle way, while simultaneously mixing in a complicated and potentially disastrous device of interleaving two distinct yet connected stories, and a third above them all. And the last is how he succeeds, by leaving them independant yet somehow with relevance to each other; many passages will serve to shed an otherwise unseen corner of light on the other story immediately behind or following, and sometimes farther back, leading the reader to page back or ponder some old assumptions, some deliberately encouraged by the author.
The layers are what make the book memorable after its pages have been turned, thoughtful and roundaboutly organic just as Vlad's witchcraft is. As each chapter opens, a few paragraphs are excepted from the meticulously chaotic preparation casting of one final spell, the final climax that pulls threads from throughout the book into a single whole. The portions of the backstory that handle ground already trod in another book are often skimmed to concentrate on exposing more relevant details.
The book is most certainly a worthwhile read as long as a character-driven story with smooth pacing and imaginative action appeals to you. show less

I was getting annoyed that the first 3 books weren't chronological order and whether it should be recommended to read Yendi before Jhereg.....then the 4th book is a prequel!

However, I think this prequel is best read after the first 1 or 2. Explains how Vlad's relationship between Mallorran, Aleira & Sethra came to be. Vlad's trip to The Paths of the Dead is alluded to in the first 3 books and the only real spoiler is knowing who survives - although of course anyone can be killed and later revified anyway.

I liked the way the book was set-up, swinging between the immediate story concerning the paths of the dead and Vlad's early life and how he got on his career path.

Very enjoyable, with the expected "How do they get out of this one?" show more moment. show less

This is actually a solid 3.5 stars.

What do you call a prequel of a prequel? We're heading into Vlad's personal past again, but this time only a few years after his days as a tavern owner.

The story is the most straightforward with the least digressions of any of Brust's novels I've read, except during the last third of the novel when I was forced to shift back and forth between current action and flashback regularly. Both sequences were interesting on their own, but something about reading them together seemed a little iffy. It wasn't wrong, per se, but it seemed kinda useless.

That's not to say I didn't entirely enjoy reading about his first assassinations or his first really big job, but frankly, I just wanted more of the main action show more which felt so much more important.

Not to give such plot secrets away, but my biggest enjoyment in the novel was learning how Vlad met and gained the trust and friendship of the inhabitants of Castle Black. Such recurring involvements were often dark and thoroughly interesting, like a cat playing with a dragon, and their evident trust and approval of Vlad had always appeared to be an inexplicable mystery in the first books.

Well, Now I Know The Rest Of The Story.

I'd like to say that this novel stands well on its own, and it does, for the most part, but in my mind, it falls way too neatly into the category of a flashback of a flashback.

It was okay.

The story might have had a better impact on me if it hadn't been cheapened by Vlad's past within the past.

The main action could have been made much better with a truly interesting climax that didn't merely serve as the purpose of putting the Dragon Lord in his favor. Making a new spell is fine and good, of course, but we're talking about the land of the gods here. We've got practically unlimited resources to go wild, here, and the only real conflict I got to enjoy was a mild sense of why these four characters wind up as friends.

I guess I feel a pretty large sense of wasted opportunity in the otherwise well-written continuing adventures of mr. assassin. I wanted to like it more, of course. show less