Customer Reviews

Jhegaala (Vlad Taltos Novels)

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1 star:		(5)

 

 

A few SPOILERS, and three and a half stars.

Steven Brust sure takes forever to write a book, yet the man is worth the wait. He's one of my favorite authors, and I'm always like a pig in odious slop whenever he's writing about Vlad Taltos. JHEGAALA is the eleventh novel in the Taltos series, featuring that wise-cracking assassin and lowly Easterner living in the world of Dragaerans.

Some background stuff: Note that in the world of Dragaera, seven-foot-tall elves (called Dragaerans) are the ruling species, with the Easterners (or humans) predominantly treated as second class citizens. Vlad Taltos had eked out a living as an assassin for the House of the Jhereg and had, for a while, become a minor crime lord. Life was good, and he'd even gotten married. But then certain of his actions (and a peasants' revolt) drew the ire of the Jhereg House and he'd been forced to skedaddle, with assassins fierce on his heels. Several books (Athyra, Orca, Issola (Vlad), Dzur (Vlad)) have chronicled his adventures during his fugitive years. As things stand presently, Vlad is still on the run and seemingly without direction. So I do wish Brust would get on with current events...

...Because JHEGAALA doesn't catch us up to what Vlad's been up to recently. This eleventh book, instead, tells of a time in Vlad's past, filling in the gap between the life-changing events in Phoenix and his re-appearance years later in ATHYRA. So, chronologically, DZUR is still the most current novel. In this one, it's only been weeks since Vlad's marriage had soured and since the criminal Jhereg organization had put a contract on him. Vlad decides to leave the Dragaeran Empire and head East, to get even further away from the Jhereg and also to sate his curiousity regarding his mother's murky family roots. A lead takes him to the pungent village of Burz in the human kingdom of Fenario, possibly the home of his mother.

Vlad finds himself in unfamiliar territory, a human having to deal with his own kind. Immediately he's looked on with suspicion and his questions draw uneasy reactions from the villagers, especially when he throws out his old family name of Merss. Then, a tragedy unfolds, this possibly stemming from Vlad's nosiness. Soon Vlad and his winged lizardly familiars, Loiosh and Rocza, are full deep in shady goings-on. Vlad, really out of his element, remains clueless even as the body count piles up and mysterious entities such as the Guild and the Coven make their mark. And where does the elderly Count and his machinations fit in? Vlad has never been good at sleuthing. He'd rather stab something, any day. But, as it turns out, if he wants to get thru this predicament, he'll have to do it while bed-ridden...

Is JHEGAALA worth the wait? I happen to think so, but I can see why other readers might feel cheated. JHEGAALA is one of the slower entries in the Taltos series. New readers are advised to start with something more newbie-friendly, such as TALTOS (The Book of Taltos) or JHEREG (The Book of Jhereg (Vlad Taltos)). JHEGAALA, not as action-packed or colorful or boisterous as other Taltos novels, better serves Vlad's longtime fans. If you're up on Vlad's history, then this one goes a ways into filling in the timeline between PHOENIX and ATHYRA. JHEGAALA tends to be more introspective. Vlad really is an alien amongst his own people, having to constantly ferret out the townspeople's customs, beliefs, and frame of mind. Also, I don't think I've ever seen Vlad rendered more distraught or vulnerable. A significant portion of the book has him in helpless convalescence, from which state he's forced to orchestrate his survival. In the Dragaeran Cycle, the House of the Jhegaala reflects metamorphosis and endurance. This certainly applies to what happens to Vlad here.

Steven Brust's writing kept me flipping pages in spite of the languid pace and the lack of enough exciting stuff happening. As always, the entertaining banter between Vlad and Loiosh continues to be a strength. And, as always, it's fun having the story told from Vlad's wry point of view. And here's a thing: Somewhere during the reading, the book becomes a whodunit, and Loiosh and Vlad's wisecracks fit in that genre seamlessly. This is kind of a come-full-circle thing as Brust has admitted that there's a bit of Dashiell Hammett thrown in the writing style of this series. Personally, though, I didn't care all that much for the mystery part (too convoluted); rather, I just sat back and relished Vlad Taltos doing his Vlad Taltos stuff. He's never better than when he's being arrogant and smirky and sarcastic. But if you're new to this series, I can see why this book might not do anything for you.

JHEGAALA isn't at the top of my favorite Vlad Taltos stories, but I'll take what I can get. But I hope the next book in the series catches us up with what Vlad is up to right now. And, hopefully, we get to see more of Vlad's Dragaeran friends and more of Cawti and Noish-pa.

Having read Jhegaala a few weeks ago, and having had time to think about it, I feel that I would recommend it only to people already fans of the series. It seeks to be like Orca, in that it is concerned with solving a mystery rather than executing a plan (or person). It has the slower pace of that novel, as opposed to some in the series that are more action-packed. But I don't think that the resolution of Jhegaala was anywhere near as satisfying. While it's tough to avoid spoilers, I thought that the sequence of events in the resolution was highly unlikely, in terms of an opponent of Vlad's suddenly becoming helpful.

I am glad I read and purchased it; I'm a fan of the series! I very much like that Brust experiments with different narrative and plot styles. It also helps fill the gaps in Vlad's life story.

Finally, I did enjoy it on its own merits, but if this had been my first exposure to the Jhereg series I doubt I'd go looking for the rest.

The way Brust hops around his Vlad Taltos series chronologically, it can be difficult to figure out when an individual novel has been set. Jhegaala is no exception. While there is a pattern to Brust's literary madness, it isn't something you should have to think about as you're reading. Since I hadn't re-read the series recently, I found myself wondering exactly when this novel took place midway through the book. What used to be cool and clever has become somewhat problematic.

The rest of the book, however, is a good, solid read. It isn't as fun or exciting as the first few books in the series, nor is it quite as introspective or revealing as books like Taltos or Five Hundred Years after. But it is enjoyable. I do wish Brust would set up a larger story, though ... Jhegaala is essentially a murder mystery, and not a tremendously compelling one. I felt all the way through the novel that I wanted Vlad to get somewhere and he never really did.

It really is amazing that this the eleventh novel; in the Vlad Taltos serirs is as captivating as the first. Steven Brust attempts to write each novel so that it can stand on it's own, and again in this one he has done so. When I recommend people read them books, it varies on my approach. Always start with Jhereg but to some friends I recommend reading in order of publication and some in order of chronology. This book steps back from the last few and tells of an earlier tale. A tale of a man in search of his past and his family. It is also a tale of murder, intrigue, confusion and misunderstanding that all leads to a high body count.

In each of the Vlad Taltos novels Brust approaches them differently. He has created such a believable world that side stories and books mentioned become something the read would like to possess. In this book each chapter begins with quotes from a play Six Parts Water by a playwright named Miersen. These snippets leave you wanting to read or see the play. It is hard not to like the witty and humorous Vlad Taltos, even if he is an assassin by profession, even if he betrayed his 'crime family' to save his estranged wife. Even is he got most of his distant family murdered because he did not understand a situation he blundered into. This is Vlad Taltos, the man we would like to meet and know and count among our friends. He has impeccable taste in food and drink and live by a motto akin to 'Life is to short for bad food or drink.'

In this book we see a very different side of Vlad, he is not an Easterner trying to fit in without fitting in; in the Dragaera Empire, he has returned to the land of his ancestors in the east. He is a human among humans and yet he fits in even less than we are used to. In part because he has live his whole life in the west. Because of that in this book we see for the first time Vlad take a major misstep and pay a personal price, he is injured worse that we have seen yet in any of the books.

This book will be a great summer read for any fan of the fantasy genre, or for people who are already fan's of Brust works. It fills in some of the story between early books, and answers some of the reader's ongoing questions about Vlad, unfortunately it also raised many new questions. But those must be answered in another tale. Hopefully soon.

(First Published in Imprint 2008-06-27.)

Jhegaala (2008) is the eleventh fantasy novel of the Vlad Taltos series, following Dzur. Still, the internal chronology puts this novel before the last book. This work fills in some of Vlad's backstory.

In the previous volume, Vlad had problems with women. The Left Hand of the Jhereg was moving into South Adrilankha and Vlad put a stop to it. But Cawti was not pleased.

In this novel, Vlad crosses over the eastern mountains into Fenario fleeing from the Jhereg and searching for his mother's people. His grandfather has taught him many things to smooth his way: customs, politics and culture. And particularly about Guilds and Covens.

As he comes down from the mountain into the forest and finds a road, Vlad goes away from the mountains. He finds it strange to have clear sky and the Furnace overhead. After he walks a while, everything suddenly becomes dark. Only pinpoints of light remain in the sky and they don't shed any light on the terrain.

Vlad is night blind, so he goes off the road, spreads his blanket and sleeps. The next morning, he encounters a young man driving a hay wagon and asks the way to Burz. When the man points along the same way he is walking, Vlad gives him a few coppers and continues down the road.

In this story, Vlad arrives in Burz and asks about his mother's family. Many claim to have no knowledge of the family, but he finally finds a man who tells him where to find their home. He follows the directions and discovers only a recently burned house and bodies.

Vlad has problems with the guildsmen from his first day in Burz. He also cannot find anyone who will direct him to the local coven. The town seems to be filled with very ignorant people.

But Vlad is resourceful and has a Jhereg familiar, who is capable of scouting and following people without being seen. Besides, Vlad can see through the eyes of his familiar and view these people and their actions. Loiosh and his mate Rocza help Vlad ferret out the people who can provide him with the information that he lacks.

Yet, the presence of Loiosh and Rocza on his shoulders proclaims to the townspeople that he is a witch. Some people won't talk to him because of his witchery. And others won't talk to him because his sword shows that he is a noble. These Fenarians are very strange people.

This tale puts Vlad squarely in the middle of a longstanding conflict between the Guild, the Coven and the Count. His own ignorance brings him pain and sorrow. Several somebodies are going to pay for all the harm that they have done.

The story relates misunderstandings and violence from the beginning of Vlad's visit to his maternal homeland. Everybody fears that he is working for their enemy and takes measures against him. Then there are the Jhereg assassins who are stalking him. Enjoy!

Highly recommended for Brust fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of unfamiliar cultures, conflicting interests, and a highly ignorant stranger. Anyone who has not read prior books in this series should start with Jhereg.

-Arthur W. Jordin

This fantasy thriller is the eleventh published book in the story of Vladimir Taltos. In chronological sequence, however, it is number seven: the action of the story begins a couple of months after Vlad goes on the run from the Jhereg "organisation" in which he had formerly been an assassin and crimelord, at the end of "Phoenix."

Before leaving the Imperial capital, Vlad had appointed his grandfather as regent of a property he owned outside the city. A few weeks later he secretly visited his grandfather there, and asked about his long-vanished mother. It turns out she came from a paper-making town called Burz in the human kingdom of Fenario, to the East of the Dragaeran Empire in which Vlad has grown up.

Knowing little about his mother other than her maiden name of Merss, Vlad goes to Fenario and starts asking after her family. This creates a strange reaction. At first everyone who he asks after his mother's family either clams up totally or takes the very question as some kind of threat. No sooner has he discovered where in the vicinity of Burz a family with that name lives than someone burns down their house before he can get there, murdering every man, woman and child inside.

There are three sinister powers that dominate Burz - the feudal count who is the nominal overlord and runs the mill, the "Guild" which dominate trade and a hidden "coven" of witches. One of them is clearly threatened by Vlad and ordered the murder of the Merss family, who had probably been his relatives. But which ?

If he had any sense, Vlad would have moved on: the longer he stays in one place the greater the chance that the Jhereg "organisation" will track him down and kill him. But whoever was responsible for the murder of the Merss family has made a fatal mistake. Vlad may have stopped working as an assassin, he may now be a hunted fugitive, but he still has all the skills which made him one of the most powerful crimelords in the empire. He doesn't need to kill anyone personally to destroy them. And the people who murdered his relatives have made him very angry ...

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" while 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 taller than humans, live 2,000 or 3,000 years or so, and then after death are 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 only used between mortals when someone is really angry because they don't just kill you, they also destroy your soul. "Great Weapons," are particularly deadly Morganti weapons which can even kill Gods. Tradition said that there are exactly seventeen Great Weapons, (this is a special number to Dragaerans).

All Dragaerans belong to one of seventeen "Great Houses" named after animals of the fantasy world in which the novels are set. Eleven of the twelve novels featuring Vlad Taltos, including "Jhegaala," are named after one of these great houses, and this is the only such novel which does not feature a member of the eponymous house in a prominent role. If Steven Brust is planning to write a novel for each house he is a little over half way through the series.

Each of the great houses also has one or more preferred occupation and two house characteristics. For example, "Dragons" and "Dzurlords" are soldiers, "Tecla" are peasants, "Chreotha" are merchants, "Orcas" are sailors, pirates or - wait for it - bankers, and "Jhereg" are gangsters or assassins. This book has a table at the front with a picture of the House animal of each house and a description of their principal characteristics, which for the Jhegaala are "Metamorphosis and Endurance"

The hero, Baronet Vladimir Taltos, is an assassin and minor sorcerer, who used to be a prominent member of House Jhereg, and like most members of that house was involved in "the organisation" which controls organised crime.

However, in the chronologically preceding book "Phoenix" Vlad's wife Cawti, who is also an assassin, developed an unfortunate case of principles. In the process of digging her out of the mess which resulted and saving her life, Vlad enraged the Jhereg organisation and had to go on the fun from them, with a huge price on his head.

Cawti was also extremely annoyed with Vlad for interfering, in spite of the fact that he saved her life. As a result, at the time of this book their marriage appears to be over, which Vlad is rather upset about, and which contributes to a rather sadder tone to this book than most of the rest of the series.

Vlad has two companions, Loiosh and Rocza who are actual Jhereg - that is to say, they are small intelligent flying reptiles. Loiosh is Vlad's familiar and the two communicate telepathically - with an amusing line in banter. Taltos narrates these stories with a wonderful dry wit which is one of the best aspects of the novels.

The books are not written in a regular chronological sequence: for example, the fourth novel, "Taltos" is a prequel set before the main action of any of the others. Most of the books contain either flashbacks to much earlier events, references to much later events, or both.

This book is organised into five parts and into a prologue and seventeen chapters, each with their own unique introduction. Each of the five parts is prefaced by an extract from a Dragaeran biology text describing part of the Jhegaala; each of the seventeen chapters is preceded by a few lines from a Dragaeran play, apparently a comic murder mystery.

You will get most out of these books if you read them in something close to the "official" order.

If you are new to the Vlad Taltos series, my recommendation would be to start with either the first book written, "Jhereg" or the chronologically first book, "Taltos (Vlad Taltos)." If you like the first one you do read, and decide to tackle the rest, I recommend that you follow the order the books were published. 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)
12) Iorich (12th).

Fenario, where the action of "Jhegaala" takes place, is also the setting for a stand-alone Steven Brust novel not featuring Vlad Taltos called "Brokedown Palace."

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 a parody of and 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 Dragaerans do: Khaavren himself meets Vlad Taltos briefly in "Tecla" and has an 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 series 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 Viscount of Bragelonne") 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 "Khaavren Romances" very entertaining: I recommend both series and this book.

While somewhat entertaining, this books is rather unremarkable. There is no revelations really, nothing to flesh out Vlad's history or to make us excited for future novels. Which is surprising considering it takes place back in the East, and Vlad's relatives are a plot element. I kept waiting for some revelation as to why certain "events" pertaining to them would actually become interesting, but that never happened. Even the antagonists were never explained, they were just "there", you never felt any fear, or hate, or anything really for them (well except confusion).

Hell I don't even think Vlad drew his blade except to smack someone with his hilt while interrogating. I would of really liked to have read about Vlad squaring off against another Easterner, Vlad always gets off so easy when fighting Draegerans with their Hack-Block-Hack style of fighting.

All in all the story is OK. The dialogue is fun, and feels much closer to the Vlad in the Pre-Teckla books, which makes sense considering chronologically this books would take place between Teckla and Athyra (I think).

But considering how long it takes Brust to put these things out, I would hope that each one would at least contain "something" noteworthy, something that makes the story standout. This book could easily be skipped and you would be perfectly fine and miss nothing in regards to Vlad's overall back story, which to me is a let-down.

Again, it was OK, but I doubt I will read it again, and I have read most of the Vlad books multiple times.

Though not without its merits, Jhegaala is for least enjoyable Vlad book. Sometimes Brust's experiments pay off (Athyra). Sometimes they make for interesting challenges (Freedom 7 Necessity). In this case, they just don't get anywhere terribly interesting. Luckily, Iorich rocks by comparison.

I love Brust's Vlad Taltos novels, and I'll buy just as many as he sees fit to write. But this one isn't up to the standards set in the earlier books. Yes, Vlad's wonderful cocksure, cynical, wisecracking self is on every page. But there's very little magic and very little action. It feels like all setup with no payoff. I think what bothered me most is that through 95% of the book Vlad is just bumbling around; events are happening and he doesn't understand why. They're not even particularly exciting events. It feels like half the book features Vlad sitting at an inn wondering about what's going on. Late in the book Vlad tells the reader that he's finally starting to figure things out, but Brust delays sharing Vlad's thoughts with the reader. It got damned annoying to have Loiosh repeatedly express the reader's curiosity about what Vlad had figured out, only to have Vlad go "Not now, Loiosh, I have to noodle on what this all means." It just didn't feel right within the context of the story; it felt like Brust was intentionally trying to draw things out. If events were moving at a breakneck pace, a deferred dialog would be understandable. As it was, it was simply aggravating.

Eventually when the central problem is resolved, it is both too neat and less than satisfying because while Vlad sets the finale in motion, he has no direct hand in these pivotal events.

Don't get me wrong; despite my carping this is not a bad book at all; it just suffers in comparison with the better books in the series, which are among my favorite fantasy books.

This entry in the Vlad Taltos series was some solid writing by Brust with no significant stylistic "experiments" that are occasionally distracting in a few of his other books. My only real complaint is that he leaves the reader (and Loiosh) in the dark for too long as to what is going on, creating a false sense of suspense through lack of information. Also I would like to have seen a bit more development on some of the antagonists as they were mainly pretty shallow characterizations. All in all a good addition to the series, a must-read for his fans and should be enjoyed by most readers of the genre.