Since at least the Middle Ages, the secretive order of the Mystici helped the world's sorcerers - people sensitive to the forces known as magic, the power
lines encircling the earth that can be manipulated to perform spells and wonders - stay safe from the mundane majority, but it's only been since the early
20th century that the Foundation rose to rival them, a breakaway group that works to enforce secrecy and rein in those who risk exposing magic. Usually, they
maintain a tense standoff, but when a series of murders targets Mystici operatives across America (and risks exposing the existence of magic with very public
displays of power), one Foundation investigation team finds themselves stepping on all sorts of toes, and unearthing all sorts of trouble.
Donovan may have no magic himself, but he owes his life to the Foundation after he was shot four times by a police officer for a petty violation. With his
photographic memory and prodigious detection skills, he quickly became one of their top investigators. Along with trained muscle Susan and his newest
assistant, the sorcerer Marci on her first field assignment, he catches the first in what turns into a string of increasingly public and grisly deaths, each
involving the use of magic. Donovan finds himself of mixed mind about the affair: while the killer is no doubt dangerous and only getting moreso with each
murder, none of the people they have killed are what anyone would call good. There are also disturbing signs that the killer may have ties to his own
organization. But the Foundation is supposed to be the good side, opposing the morally gray-to-black sorcerers of the Mystici... aren't they?
Review
Good Guys uses urban fantasy to probe the oft-explored question of what happens when great power comes without great responsibilities or moral
restraints, and how easily the line between good and evil, that seems so clear in theory, blurs in the real world. Donovan in particular already has a
sizeable chip on his shoulder, not entirely unjustified, for a life made far harder than it needs to be because of racism. He, of all the investigators,
understands the frustrations that can lead an otherwise ordinary person to become consumed with the need for vengeance and the temptation to suspend personal
moral codes when the opportunity to end an injustice arises. The Foundation doesn't exactly do itself any favors, either, having become half-paralyzed by its
own bureaucracy and refusal to trust even its own agents with information they need to know; being a half-paranoid organization lends itself to hiring
half-paranoid people who keep secrets from each other as much out of habit as out of actually having anything to hide. The investigation unwinds through a
thicket of names and motivations that sometimes grows a bit dense, but eventually comes together, if rather circuitously and after a fair bit of death and
danger and action of the magical and mundane varieties.
While the story is decent enough for what it is (for the most part), what cost it the half-star in the ratings is a sense that it was trying to set up a
series that apparently never happened. Time is wasted on establishing characters who never reach their potential in this volume and plot points that never
quite tie up, and I kept feeling like there was some bigger twist or resolution just a few pages ahead that I never reached by the time the book ended. The
characters also tended to be somewhat flat and unchanging. It all left me with a vaguely unsatisfied feeling by the end, for all that it moves decently and
parts of it work rather well. Even if there were a sequel, I don't expect I'd be pursuing it.
A human Easterner in the lands of the Dragaeran Empire, Vlad Taltos had a rough upbringing. Now, he is a top assassin for the House of the Jhereg, a rare practitioner
of both sorcery and witchcraft, with more than a few tricks up his sleeve. With his companion Loiosh, a dragonlike jhereg who is his familiar and friend, and his network
of friends and allies, Vlad has never encountered a job beyond his abilities. His latest task, a hit on a former member of the council at the head of the House of Jhereg,
just might be beyond even his talents.
Review
I bought this a few years ago, but on the first run-through I bogged down at about the third chapter. Recently, I decided to give it another go. I'm very glad I did. For
what is essentially a detective story set in a fantasy universe, Brust has done a spectacular job of world-building here. Histories, rules, magic and politics are all
outlined clearly, establishing a rich and detailed setting for the clever tale to unfold in. Not that it's all about the world - the characters are well-written and the plot
finely crafted. The first in a series about Vlad Taltos, I'll have to try to track down the rest of them.
An Easterner (human) baronet in the Dragaeran (not-quite-human) House of Jhereg, Vladimir Taltos built his reputation with a cunning mix of Eastern witchcraft, Dragaeran
sorcery, and the bread and butter of the Jhereg house - gambling, brothels, and the odd assassination. Of course, his familiar Loiosh, a winged reptile with a poison bite,
had a hand (or rather, a talon) in it, too. In this glimpse into Vlad's past, he relates his first major turf war with a fellow Jhereg lord and his encounter with the
beautiful, dangerous woman who would steal his heart... after she sticks a knife in it, of course.
Review
Long ago, I found the first book in the series, but whenever I thought to look for the second the bookstores proved singularly uncooperative. Finally, I stumbled across
this book and the next one in a local used book store, and I eagerly snatched them up. Brust writes with a sly wit, able to turn a phrase and a plot on a proverbial dime.
More of the fascinatingly complex world established in the first book comes to light here, often in passing lines and hints. If the plots and names, not to mention references
to Vlad's previous exploits (most unwritten, as this takes place before Jhereg), had flown a bit less thickly, it would've climbed to the top of the ratings. Still,
even if I was sometimes thrown, I enjoyed the story and look forward to hunting down the next books.
After the excitement of his last major assassination job (related in the book Jhereg), Vlad Taltos wanted to settle back into the easier life of managing his
"business," the protection rackets and illegal gambling in his little corner of Adrilankha, the Dragaeran Empire's capital. Loiosh is helping train the female jhereg Rocza,
his new mate and Vlad's second familiar, and Vlad himself is still happily married to the retired assassin Cawti. So far, against all odds, things seem to be settling back
to normal - or as normal as they can be in his line of work - but looks can be lethally deceiving.
Matebonds and marriages are soon tested, as Cawti reveals her entanglement in a revolutionary plot among the downtrodden Easterners and peasant Teckla of South Adrilankha.
Meanwhile, Vlad finds himself going toe-to-toe with a much more powerful Jhereg lord, who seems to have a great interest in that human-dominated quarter of the city. Along
the way, Vlad must confront questions he's put off asking: What kind of life has he built for himself, a human struggling to thrive in a Dragaeran house of thieves and
assassins? Are there ideals truly worth killing and dying for? Where does his duty lie? And are all jheregs as obnoxious as Loiosh and Rocza?
Review
I think I would've given this full marks if it hadn't been so long since I read Jhereg; this book picks up not long after that left off, and makes several major
references to the events of that book. (Rereading it at the moment isn't an option, as my old paperback copy of Jhereg had an unfortunate encounter with Leo, my
paper-eating cat.) Perhaps it's because I knew I wasn't backtracking, but I found the story and the names easier to follow this time around. I hope I can get ahold of the
next books in the series; every so often, I see compilation volumes on the shelves, but I tend to be too slow or too broke to grab them when I see them.
Baronet Vladimir Taltos is one of the few Easterners (humans) to hold his own amongst the thieves, hustlers, and assassins of the Dragaeran House of Jhereg. Doing so
requires a fine balance of Dragaeran sorcery and Easterner witchcraft, Dragaeran swordplay and Easterner rapier skills... not to mention Dragaeran contempt for his species
and Easterner contempt for humans who try to pass themselves off as Dragaeran nobility. At least he can always count on the loyalty of his jhereg familiar Loiosh and the
love of his wife Cawti... or can he? Lately, Cawti's been spending more and more time among a group of Easterners and sympathetic Teckla whose goal is to topple the entire
Empire, and Rocza, Loiosh's mate, seems to be taking her side in the split. Vlad is also starting to ask himself questions he's avoided asking, questions about his line of
work and his attitude toward Dragaerans, the House of Jhereg, and his own species, not to mention his marriage and himself. It hasn't been an easy life for him, but that's
no reason it can't get even worse.
This was originally published as two volumes: Taltos - Though today Vlad may be a regular guest and close co-conspirator of the Dragaeran Dragonlord Morrolan in his great floating fortess Castle Black, their
relationship wasn't always so cozy. This is the tale of their first adventure together, an adventure that takes them from the depths of the undead Sethra Lavode's lair in
the heart of Dzur Mountain to the Paths of the Dead, where no Easterner before has walked and only one Dragaeran has ever returned alive. Just another day in the life of a
Jhereg lord and freelance assassin... Phoenix - As an assassin in the House of Jhereg, Vlad's had some unusual clients, but none more unexpected than his latest one. The Demon Goddess Verra summons
Vlad for a hit on a foreign king, ruler of a seemingly insignificant island nation off the coast of the Dragaeran Empire. With the Empire on the edge of civil war and his
marriage on the brink of destruction, the last thing he wants to do is mire himself in an international fiasco, but the gods are not to be ignored. Besides, She's paying
good money, and it looks to be an easy job. But even the gods can't foresee all consequences, and this time even Vlad's seemingly inexhaustable supply of luck may have run
out.
Review
I expect I would've given this top marks if Brust had written his stories in some semblance of chronological order. As it was, I felt jerked about, jumping back before
his marriage (for Taltos) then forward (past the events of Teckla) to the brink of its ultimate test. In these compilation volumes, he has a foreword which
explains the chronological order of his books, while still maintaining that the order shouldn't really matter. I have to wonder, as both a reader and a wannabe author,
what compelled him to backtrack so often in Vlad's life, even though hints of his prior adventures have been mentioned since Jhereg. That aside, Brust continues to build a
complex and compelling world, chock full of imaginative twists and originality, with a healthy dose of wit thrown in the mix. I look forward to seeing where Vlad Taltos
finds himself next, but I'll have to rebuild my book budget first. Dang it...
Oh, on a nipticky note, I wonder why none of the cover illustrations of Vlad Taltos show his moustache. He grew it specifically because Dragaerans can't grow facial hair
(they refer to him, contemptuously, as "Whiskers" more than once,) so it seems fairly integral to the character.
After riling the entire House of Jhereg against him and watching his marriage fall to pieces, Vlad Taltos (and his familiars, the jhereg mates Loiosh and Rocza) set out
on his own to wander the world and, hopefully, avoid an untimely death at the hands of his former Jhereg colleagues. Of course, just because he's abandoned his old life
doesn't mean he's lost his talent for finding trouble.
This was originally published as two books: Athyra - In the flax-farming town of Smallcliff, everybody knows everybody, and distrusts anyone else. Svan, a young Dragaeran (scarcely a few hundred
years old) of the peasant House Teckla, apprenticed to Master Wag the physicker, happens across a particularly unusual "anyone else" when he finds an Easterner on the
roadway... not long before a dead body rolls into town. The rest of Smallcliff, including Svan's family and friends, immediately suspect the man; there haven't been any
murders before, and he's an Easterner, little better than an animal to begin with. But the young Teckla finds himself drawn instead to help the stranger in their midst,
especially when he promises to teach the boy the peculiar Eastern skill of witchcraft. Unfortuantely, the man can't teach Svan anything if Baron Smallcliff and the other
villagers kill him first, but the only way to stop that is to find the real killer in their midst. Orca - A year ago, a Teckla boy saved Vlad's life, but paid a terrible price for his altruism. Svan was severely damaged in mind and body, living as
a mute automaton, and Vlad can't help feeling he owes the boy a better future than that. The former Jhereg assassin searches the land for a healer who can not only help him,
but who isn't well-enough connected to alert the many, many people who still want a piece of his hide. At last, outside Northport, he's found a hedge-witch who says she may
help, but of course there's a price. It seems that she's recently been told that she's being evicted from her cottage by someone claiming to own her land deed; clear that
up, and she'll look at Svan. A little old widow being thrown out on the streets by an evil banker? Sounds like a storybook cliché, but Vlad's in no position to argue, even
if he's hardly anyone's idea of a proper hero. What should be a simple trip to the Northport City Hall to find the deedholder turns into a powder keg involving fraud,
murder, and corruption that could blow the lid off the powerful House of Orca and the entire Dragaeran Empire.
Nobody ever said being a hero was easy...
Review
I always enjoyed Vlad Taltos and the surprisingly in-depth universe of the Dragaeran Empire... until this compilation. My first hint of trouble was when Vlad stopped
telling his own tale; Athyra comes from Svan's point of view, and Orca jumps between Vlad and his old friend Kiera the Thief. This made me suspect that the
main character had little more to say on his own behalf, so Brust found someone else to narrate instead. As a result, much of Athyra involves Vlad giving vague hints and
nonanswers to poor Svan, nonanswers that also frustrated me, the reader, as his universe has grown sufficiently complicated that I could've used a refresher. When the
plot-pivotal murder involves ties to that complicated universe and Vlad's equally complicated past - about which he proved highly uncommunicative - my frustration only
grew worse. (I also get sick of characters who deliberately withhold relevant information; the fact that I was supposed to know Vlad's long and twisted history off the top
of my head, and evidently wasn't supposed to care if I didn't, only made it more irksome.) Orca makes things worse by wending even deeper into the intricacies of the
Empire's House-heavy inner workings, capped by two plot twists at the end which only seem to exist to ensure future books. As for one of them... did the same man who
invented the Dragaeran Empire, its several thousand-odd year history and multiple Houses and unique creatures, really have to rely on one of the oldest tricks in the book?
I think I smell the stale, thin smoke of author burnout, or perhaps Brust simply is relying more on editors or ghost writers. Additionally, while in previous volumes I
enjoyed the many details of Brust's world, I felt more like I was being crushed under their weight rather than carried to another world as I read these two books. This may
be because I felt less story structure underneath all the fancy trimmings. Athyra especially felt like a short story forcibly stretched out to book length on the
back of tedious world-builiding details and stream-of-consciousness ramblings. On the plus side, I was glad that, for once, Brust seems to finally be writing in chronological
order (I believe - there seem to be some missing years between Athyra and the previous book, but at the moment I don't really want to bother reading the author's
foreword explaining the actual chronological order of the series to see if my hunch about a missing book or two is correct.) Unfortunately, I don't foresee myself following
Vlad Taltos any further on his seemingly endless and increasingly pointless wanderings, especially after Brust resorted to the lame chestnut at the end of Orca which
was, I suppose, intended to make me rush to the bookstore to buy the next volume. It's a shame... I really did enjoy the first books, and I'll miss visiting Loiosh and
Rocza.
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