Customer Reviews

Dragon (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

First off, this is another great Vlad Taltos story from Steven Brust. However, if you haven't read any yet, you should really start elsewhere; perhaps Jhereg or Taltos. As mentioned above, this is perhaps the third story chronologically; Taltos describes the earliest events of Vlad's life that Brust has written about so far, and the events in Taltos immediately precede the main narrative of Dragon, but Jhereg was the first actually published, so start with either of those depending on whether you want to follow Brust's development or Vlad's.... We've thrust this series upon several friends, all of whom ended up quite pleased by said thrusting, and they all survived regardless of which book they read first. :)

I feel like I should tell you the things I really like about Brust's writing in general, and the Taltos series in particular. But after typing and deleting many, many sentences, I find I'm failing. My career as a book-reviewer may be as short-lived as a Jhereg who turns informer for the Phoenix Guard.

While I'm here, I just have to express my slack-jawed shock at how wildly inaccurate and sloppy the Kirkus "review" is. Almost every fact about the plot they list is either flat wrong or significantly, plot-changingly inaccurate! I think whoever wrote it just flipped through the pages. I could nail each example, but I don't approve of spoilers. Hey, Amazon, how about exercising a little Q/C here and yanking that piece of ***? (Although calling Sethra the "finest general ALIVE" did make me laugh...)

In summary, if you like Vlad Taltos, this is another great story of his early career and involvement with Morrolan and various Dragonlord plots and powerplays. If you haven't read any Vlad stories, perhaps order Jhereg, Taltos, and Dragon; you may well read all three in a single weekend and then read them again the next weekend!

And to make up for my inability to describe what I like about Brust, I'll give you a guide to further reading. If you want even more Dragaeran stories, and/or you're a fan of Dumas (The Three Musketeers), you should really read "The Phoenix Guards" and "Five Hundred Years After", which are set something like a millenia before Vlad's life. They're a whole-hearted tribute to and celebration of Dumas' story; and they really demonstrate what an enthusiastic fan Brust is, and what a writer that good can do when paying homage to a favorite of his.

For non-Dragaeran stories by Brust, you should really check out The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars, which is a great retelling of a fairy tale, intertwined with a modern story about wrestling with art. Brust's own admitted "Best" book is Agyar, though he points out that's a different thing from his favorite book. I'm also a big fan of Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grill (Brust's only sci-fi book so far); Gypsy (co-written with Megan Lindholm, aka Robin Hobb--whose Assassin trilogy is, in my wife's and my opinions, the finest fantasy trilogy since Lord of the Rings); and Freedom and Necessity, co-written with Emma Bull.

If you like Brust, you may also want to check out Spider Robinson (try Deathkiller/Lifehouse or the Stardancer trilogy), Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm (either the Assassin trilogy or Cloven Hooves) or Emma Bull (how about Finder?). I'm sure Brust would also HIGHLY recommend Roger Zelazny, though I'm not sure where to start with him.

And to stray even farther from Brust, I'll throw in Jonathan Lethem's Gun with Occasional Music and Jonathan Carroll's Outside the Dog Museum.

Sorry if I'm "off-topic", but hey, this is exactly the sort of conversation you would have with Steven if you started talking about his books. He tells you about OTHER books he really loves. Come to think of it, this is the sort of conversation I have with my friends who ask me about what I'm reading. Best thing that I could hope for is that you find a book you'll enjoy that you might never have found otherwise.

In this, the most recent addition to the Taltos series, Brust takes us back to Vlad's youth to reveal the story of the battle of Baritt's Tomb, which is mentioned in many of the other books. It is set after the events of Taltos, with occasional segues into the time just after Yendi. Vlad accepts a commission from his new friend Duke Morrolan, which is ostensibly to defend the wizard Baritt's hoard of sorcerous weapons. As so often happens, he finds himself dragged into an affair that is far too big for him to handle, involving a feudal dispute (read:war) between arrogant Dragonlords and the foundations of a plan by the mysterious Serioli that may shake the foundations of Dragaera itself. The action is intense, with vividly and beautifully rendered battle scenes. Dragon's dialogue is easily the wittiest and most amusing of the entire series, especially in the interchanges between Vlad and his jhereg familiar Loiosh. In summary, this is the finest of Brust's recent entries in the Taltos saga, and should not be missed under any circumstances.

Tired of epic fantasy? Irritated by authors who imitate Tolkien over and over? Want something new and different?

Put this in your glass and drink it.

Vlad Taltos is not your typical fantasy hero. He ain't no farm boy with a destiny to fulfill nor is he an apprentice to a mighty wizard blah, blah, blah. Vlad Taltos is an assassin and mob boss and most of the Vlad Taltos novels are told from his point of view.

Dragon is the eighth Vlad Taltos novel (but the second one chronologically). In this one, Vlad joins the military, fights in a famous battle and nearly gets killed a few times -- all in the name of revenge. There is no destiny here, no prophecy that must be filled, this novel is about simple revenge, greed and not so honorable honor.

This is epic fantasy turned upside-down and spanked on it's bottom. And it is great! Steven Brust certainly puts the likes of Terry Brooks and Robert Jordan to shame because Brust presents us with new and unique fantasy. It's epic fantasy with a sarcastic wit and very fallible characters.

Hey, Dragon and all the Vlad Taltos novels are good books. Pick 'em up.

The construction of _Dragon_ reminds me of Brust's time-jumping experiments of _Taltos_ but a half step better - which made it compelling and impossible for me to put down. I ended up reading this one sitting. The plot and action in the book was much more straightforward yet catching than that of _Athyra_ or _Orca_ which are different type of books altogether. I get the feeling that Brust tried to go back to his roots with this one.

I know people feel pretty split on the issue, but I don't feel that this book is a good introduction to the Taltos series - it makes references to other Taltos novels frequently enough and in a way that loses the reader unless he knows what that story was about. Because of this, those who know nothing about other Vlad history or general Draegara vocabulary might find reading it a chore. For die-hard Brust fans, though, i think this book is a treasure.

If i were to make a few criticisms about it, i'd agree that it seems like Vlad _and_ Loiosh seem to be more mature in thoughts and action than they should in the Vlad's chronology, especially compared to Jhereg, but i think that Brust has a right to do that if he wants - that particular inconsistency seems minute when considering the quality of the book. I feel, however, that Brust tried to make the various future histories of Vlad a bit too 'neat' in this book - he tries to explain too many relationshipa and connections from seemingly all of the other books in one short volume as opposed to saving some and stretching it out as he did in other "past" Vlad books. This may tie into my feeling of "too many references to other Vlad books" that I mentioned above.

As an overall, however, I thought that the book was exciting and interesting to read. His jumping from various points in time might have been annoying if it was not well thought out, but its contribution to the atmosphere of the book helps define its mastery, in addition to the wit, humor, and genreal writing-style of Brust that, in my humble opinion, has never gone stale.

Heh. Ever catch yourself imitating speech patterns or habits of characters you read? I've done that with Vlad.

And, for the record, i say read the first four books first (Jhereg, Yendi, Techla, Taltos). Then the order of the rest isn't quite as important.

This is a very interesting work by Brust. Both interesting in that the plot is of interest and the awkward style which doesn't quite work but is also interesting nonetheless.

After Orca, we go back in time to Vlad's time in the Dragon army. Vlad originally starts out being the wisecracking crimelord that he was in the beginnning of the series, yet upon volunteering for the armed conflict he seems to be much more like the weary Vlad of Athyra/Orca reviewing his life. It seems Brust's personal growth means you can never go back home again, even if you're a fictional character. Which is all for the best, I didn't like the return to the early shallow wise-cracking Vlad after reading Athyra. I was pleased when the character started displaying a more mature view later in the book.

Making matters more complex is the fact that Brust seamlessly weaves three timelines in the book from Vlad's point of view and you are moved from one to the other without warning. We are presented with 1) The Build-up 2) The final confrontation and 3) A post confrontation encounter and we jump from one to the other as Vlad dictates his experiences to a recording device.

This struck me as trying to be too clever and artistic and wasn't pulled off well enough. I think Brust's reach didn't meet his goals here.

For the plot, we have a comfortable army story, nothing too special but well told. Those who enjoy such tales will enjoy this one.

There's quite a lot different about this book from the others in the series that I've read so far. It starts with the way the pages are formatted - not that it's a big deal, just a bit of a change. This story was good, and as always Vlad's perspective on things is great. It is a bit frustrating that Brust essentially was running at least two timeframes of the story simultaneously. I mean just when you were starting to get in to what was happening in the present, suddenly you were shifted back in time to the lead up evens. Obviously, they came together toward the end, but sometimes it was a bit difficult to know where in time you were at. As always seems to be the case, Brust gives you a twist at the end, one you really had no way of anticipating.

This highly entertaining comic fantasy novel is the eighth by publication order in the story of Vladimir Taltos. It describes his experiences in an army of Dragonlords, under the command of Morrolan and Sethra Lavode, during the war of the Wall of Barritt's Tomb. It is set much earlier than most of the recent books in the series.

Steven Brust loves juggling multiple timelines, and I had difficulty deciding whether to describe "Dragon" as the second or third in chronological sequence. Based on the timing of the main action of this book, it is the second in the series, beginning almost immediately after the chronologically first book, "Taltos." However, Vlad is narrating the story a few years later, a few weeks after the second published book, "Yendi", and before the main story of the first published book, "Jhereg." The final dénouement comes at this later stage.

When the reader first meets Lord Morrolan of Castle Black in the book "Jhereg," the hero explains that he is on retainer to Morrolan as a security consultant, and adds that Morrolan had killed a thousand people in battle during a military campaign called "The wall of Barritt's Tomb." This book, "Dragon" goes back to tell the story both of how Vlad was recruited by Morrolan and how Vlad came to join Morrolan's army for that campaign.

If you have not previously read any of Steven Brust's "Vlad Taltos" novels or "Khaavren" romances, they are all set in a world of magic, where there are several intelligent species, including two types of men and women. Humans like ourselves are usually referred to as "Easterners," the other type of men and women call themselves humans but are usually referred to in the books as "Dragaerans" or occasionally as Elves.

Dragaerans are much taller than humans, live for two or three thousand years, and then after death are taken to walk "The Paths of the Dead" from whence they may be eligible for reincarnation provided they have not annoyed a God too much or had their soul destroyed by a "Morganti" weapon or a "Great Weapon."

Morganti weapons are used between mortals when they are really angry with someone because they don't just kill you, but destroy your soul. "Great Weapons," are especially powerful Morganti weapons which can even kill Gods. Legend has it that there were exactly seventeen Great Weapons, (this is a special number to Dragaerans) and they are all extremely important - it turns out that the whole point of the action of "Dragon" is about one particular Great Weapon.

All Dragaerans belong to one of seventeen "Great Houses" named after animals of the fantasy world in which the novels are set. Nine of the ten novels to date featuring Vlad Taltos, including "Dragon," are named after one of these great houses, usually also featuring members of that house in a prominent role: if Steven Brust is planning to write a novel for each house we are about half way through the series.

Most of the great houses also have a preferred occupation. For examples: "Dragons" and "Dzurlords" are soldiers, "Tecla" are peasants, "Chreotha" are merchants, "Orcas" are sailors, pirates or bankers, and "Jhereg" are gangsters or assassins.

Most members of House Jhereg are also involved in "the organisation" which controls organised crime. The hero, Baronet Vladimir Taltos, is an assassin and minor sorcerer, who at the time of this book is still a prominent member of House Jhereg. (In books which are earlier in the series Vlad goes on the run from the Jhereg after developing an unfortunate case of principles, but this entire book is a flashback to a time before that happened.) Vlad has a companion and familiar, Loiosh, who is an actual Jhereg - that is to say, he is a small intelligent flying reptile. (In some of the books Loiosh has a mate, Rocza, but again, this book is a flashback to before Rocza comes along.)

Taltos narrates these stories with a wonderful dry wit which is one of the best aspects of the novels.

As mentioned, the books are not written in a regular chronological sequence. The fourth novel, "Taltos" is a prequel set before the main action of any of the others: during that book Vlad and Morrolan meet and walk the paths visit the paths of the dead together while still alive. While there they meet the shade of Morrolan's fellow Dragon, Barritt, who has only just died. On his return, Morrolan starts to organise Barritt's funeral and tidy up his affairs, and hires Vlad to help deal with some plots which he expects to follow. Morrolan's expectations are more than fulfilled.

Many of the Vlad Taltos novels contain either flashbacks to much earlier events, references to much later events, multiple timelines, or all three. "Dragon" actually has three timelines. Most of the chapters start with Vlad narrating scenes from a "grunt's eye" account of his experiences as a private soldier in Cropper Company during the final phases of the war of the Wall of Barritt's Tomb. Then the rest of each chapter tells the story of how Vlad came to be there.

Towards the end of the book there are also "interlude" scenes set approximately three years later, beginning when Sethra the Younger comes back from the parallel dimension where Sethra Lavode exiled her at the end of "Yendi." Having finished writing out the 83,521 lines which Sethra Lavode set her, like a naughty schoolgirl, as a punishment for plotting, what does Sethra the Younger do on her return? You guessed it ! It is on this later timeline when Vlad and Morrolan finally establish what the entire war was really about.

For the nit-pickers; Stephen Burst is incredibly good at putting these immensely complex books together so that all the fiddly little details are consistent between volumes. "Dragon" offers you a very rare chance to catch him out changing his mind about something, specifically the composition of the armies which fight it out at the wall of Barritt's Tomb.

When Brust wrote "Tecla" he inferred that one army was composed of human (Eastern) conscripts, the other of Tecla (Dragaeran peasant) conscripts, that the humans and peasants did all the dying, and that there were two dragonlords present "who were never in any real danger". In this book, which describes the campaign in much more detail, the human and Tecla conscripts are mentioned only in passing: most of the soldiers Vlad fights with or against are dragonlord or dzurlord volunteers, and they also do plenty of dying.

You will get most out of the Vlad Taltos books if you read them in something close to the "official" order. My recommendation would be to start with either the first book written, "Jhereg" or the chronologically first book, "Taltos."

Here is a list of the books in publication order, with the chronological place of the main action of each book in brackets after:

1) Jhereg (4th)
2) Yendi (3rd)
3) Tecla (5th)
4) Taltos (1st)
5) Phoenix (6th)
6) Athyra (8th)
7) Orca (9th)
8) Dragon (2nd)
9) Issola (10th)
10) Dzur (11th)
11) Jhegaala (7th).

If you enjoy the Taltos novels, you might be interested in another sequence of books which Steven Brust has set in the same country, but quite a few centuries earlier. These are something between a parody and a homage to the novels of Alexandre Dumas. He's called them the "Khaavren Romances" after the central character of the first two novels, who corresponds very closely to D'Artagnan.

Obviously none of the human characters overlap, but some of the Dragaerans do: Khaavren himself meets Vlad Taltos briefly in the book "Tecla" and has a sort of offstage cameo in the Vlad Taltos book "Orca." Two of the major characters in the Taltos novels, Sethra Lavode and Lord Morrolan of Castle Black, are also important enough in the Khaavren novels to have books named after them.

The five Khaavren romances, in sequence, are

1) "The Phoenix Guards" (equivalent to "The Three Musketeers")
2)"Five Hundred Years After" (equivalent to "Twenty years after")

Then a trilogy "The Viscount of Adrilankha" (e.g. "The Count of Monte Cristo") which comprises

3) The Paths of the Dead
4) The Lord of Castle Black
5) Sethra Lavode

Overall I found both the "Taltos" novels and the "Khaavren Romances" very entertaining: I recommend both series and this book.

Contemplating my collection of Vlad Taltos books, I have sometimes been annoyed that Brust has opted to begin re-releasing the older books bound into collections in publication order rather than grouping them by internal chronology. Then I come to DRAGON as I try to figure out the 'correct' order, and I drop the whole question.

In DRAGON, Brust has experimented with nonlinear storytelling with two alternating threads of action. In the present, we have Vlad's adventures as an intermediary between Sethra the Younger and Aliera e'Kieron (between the events of _Yendi_ and _Jhereg_). Aliera has the sword of Kieron the Conqueror, the most famous of her ancestors, one of the founders of the Empire; Sethra the Younger, of course, wants it for symbolic value, as part of one of her schemes to inspire wars of conquest against the kingdoms of the east. In the main, though, this is the tale of Vlad's own experiences with war: how a respectable crime boss and assassin got involved with the Battle of Baritt's Tomb after the events of TALTOS.

Wait a minute - Dragaerans' bodies are always sent to Deathsgate Falls as their souls enter the Paths of the Dead. How could Baritt have had a tomb? Well, 'tomb' is a misnomer. A really distinguished Dragaeran (not just someone with a title, or money) sometimes receives a monument. Vlad, to date, hasn't learned just what Baritt did to earn the honor, although he's curious.

Baritt's 'Tomb' is a mountain.

Morrolan e'Drien and Aliera attended the memorial service at the mountain, which was actually a neutral time and place at that point; the hostilities had already begun when Count Fornia arranged the theft of an obscure item from Morrolan's collection of Morganti weapons, a worthless, huge sword, apparently just to provoke Morrolan into declaring war. (Private wars of this kind are relatively common in the Empire, especially in the house of the Dragon.) Vlad, of course, was only concerned with his investigation of the theft and of Morrolan's security procedures - until Fornia sent three Phoenix guards to beat him up in his home. At that point, he volunteers his services to Morrolan - and an assassin who can double as a saboteur isn't to be scorned.

Not much of Vlad's Organization business in this story; he's put that into Kragar's hands while he collects some revenge on Fornia. Not a lot of his smart-aleck humour, either; he's in the army for the first time in his life, and we get a practical lesson in battle-magics and Dragaeran warfare. Fornia, of course, is ultimately a dead man, facing not one but two opponents with Great Weapons: Morrolan's Blackwand and Sethra's Iceflame. The trashy Morganti greatsword that started the whole mess winds up...well, check it out.

Long time Brust readers will value the missing pieces of Taltos history filled in by the story, and cry out loud at the couple of NEW references to tales yet untold. Nevertheless, the deductive and intellectual brilliance of Vlad Taltos is not here.

Other than a one-level-deep ploy by Morrolan and battle planning by Sethra (greatest general alive?? Ha, that's hilarious) not much cleverness is involved. Well, you can see that if I had to chose between great character development (not that a whole lot of Vlad's character was developed in this story either) and a great mystery I'd go with the mystery (see Jhereg, Yendi, Orca, Teckla, and Phoenix in that order for great puzzles). I suppose I just don't understand what Brust intended with this story. In my opinion, it was neither a great Taltos-the-person story nor a good Taltos-the-twisted-brilliant-assassin (or protector) story. That said Brust did his usual great work giving Vlad snappy, wise cracking, and irreverent dialog, and the occasional nuggets of information will fill in some gaps for long time fans with good memories.

Overall, I would let any Brust fan know about the existence of the book and simply assume they would have to buy it (as I did). I would NOT recommend anyone start reading the Taltos story here.

By the way, if you want to sample Roger Zelazny, I would suggest any of the Chronicles of Amber (Nine Princes in Amber is the first in the series) as a good Brust to Zelazny transition.

Brust seems to have a tendency to enjoy organizing things in "creative" fashions. Unfortunately, his idea of creative and my feelings of annoyance usually coincided, especially since my annoyance, frustration, and eventual boredom with this book resulted from his failed attempt to give Dragon's chronology a "creative" approach. In this failed attempt, what Brust actually did was to destroy any logical progression of the reading and to eliminate any feeling of enjoyment I could have obtained by the reading.

Our author also wanted us to see how Vlad could respond to being a standup and face 'em, toe the line and hold it, army boy. Of course, Vlad has to have a selfishly independent reason for joining the army or he wouldn't have been caught dead taking orders from stiffs he could stiffen (like dead wood) for any reason he couldn't provide for himself.

A warning for those who haven't read any of Brusts other Vlad Taltos novels... Brust didn't include enough information about his universe for the uninitiated to enjoy this book. Start at the beginning of the series or don't start at all.