Customer Reviews

Taltos

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First chronologically speaking, that is. You will find that the Taltos series has much more dramatic impact when read in the proper order, as opposed to the publication order. Trust me on this one. In the volume in question, Vlad accepts a commission from the Dragon Heir to the Throne, Lord Morrolan e'Drien, to steal a staff containing a soul. Along the way, Vlad happens to run into the most powerful wizard living and goes to the land of the dead. Does this sound like typical fantasy fare? 'Cuz it's not. Brust's Dragaera is a carefully and convincingly realized world, with a cultural feel much closer to our 17th century than the muddled medievalism of most of what you've read. Magic is taken in stride, since it is a part of daily life, and this mercifully frees the characters up from talking about it as though they had wandered in from a B-movie. The characters are endowed with the doubts, foibles, and sheer petty-mindedness of actual people, and they never behave in the two-dimensional, moralizing way one finds so often in the heroes and villains of this genre. In short, this is thinking man's fantasy. And it's a lot of fun, too, especially for fans of wit and the one-liner. You'd be a fool to miss it.

I was amazed to discover that Taltos was only published in 1988 - I had it down as a thoroughly modern fantasy, from start to finish. I loved this book. The dual plot's great, the characters are bursting with - well - character, the conversation is almost too real and the witchcraft, sorcery and religion are refreshingly original.
This novel centres on the recollections of a hired assassin and witch with more authority on both counts than is frankly comforting. I read the closing chapters of Taltos in a coffee bar and I'm sure I was followed home.

Brust also ties in themes of racism, calculated violence and the nature/nurture debate, and provides a disarmingly cynical view of the afterlife.

What distinguishes Taltos from the run-of-the-mill urban fantasy is its unrelenting first person truthfulness, its anti-hero stance and its level of psychic awareness. Brust deals with extreme themes as if they were yesterday's dishes, but he does it with style, tons of humour and unnerving realism. If you love urban fantasy, you'll kill for Taltos.

This book appears to be the third in a series. You may wish to try Jhereg first.

This is one of my favorite Vlad Taltos books. Full of the cynical wit you'd expect from Vlad, this adventure gives you more than you bargained for. "Taltos" reveals how Vlad meets up with Morrolan, Sethra, and later Aleria. Very exciting, I couldn't put it down.

The thing I most like about Vlad Taltos (the "star" of Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series) is that he is Mr. Sarcasm. He's surrounded by all these mighty warlords and sorcerers and noblemen yet he does not fear pissing them off with his sarcastic wit and disrespectful comments. It's funny as heck!

Vlad Taltos is an assassin and a minor mob boss in this novel. There are eight Vlad Taltos novels in all and this one (Taltos) is the best one to start with (even though it was the fourth written). Good book -- it turns your typical epic fantasy on it's ear. Vlad is hired to steal (he isn't a thief, he's an assassin!) an object for an "honorable" warlord and a vampire-sorceress. Somehow, this leads to Vlad taking a trip to the realm of the dead. All in a day's work, I guess.

Good novel. I really enjoy Steven's Brust's work and I think Vlad Taltos is a most unique fantasy "hero".

The thing is, I got sick of fantasy because I got sick of Tall Beautiful Elves and Short Grumpy Dwarves and Nasty Old Ogres and Absolute Good and Evil. Get rid of it all, keep the magic, rub the entire story with ashes to get that nice grey look, and add a whole lot of very funny lines, and you get something I can really get into.

If it sounds like something you could really get into, too, than definitely pick this book up, and introduce yourself to this series.

Oh, one thing? I was lying a bit about the Elves. But only a bit.

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. 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.

This book is very enjoyable and would appeal to even a person who has never read a Vlad Taltos book. This book has incorporated plenty of action in the first thirty some ought pages and a a good lot of mysteriousness. It has the same good stuff that made all the Vlad books excellent, so you get the idea of what it's like. This book was hard to put down. I think you'll feel the same way when you read it. Beleive me.

Vlad Taltos is an assassin of the House of the Jhereg. He is also a human, in a land where humans are looked down on by the powerful Dragaerans. Luckily for him, he's a witch, complete with a witty, flying familiar named Loiosh.

In Taltos, chronologically first in this series, Vlad is rather indirectly approached by the Dragaeran Morrolan of the House of the Dragon. Morrolan needs Vlad to walk the Paths of the Dead, from whence no Dragaeran can return. But the rules don't apply to Vlad--he hopes. He isn't Dragaeran, he's an Easterner. A human. Still...is that just a technicality? Vlad is to retrieve the soul of a Dragaeran, but will the gods allow him to? The price they ask may be too great for him to pay. As he walks through the land of the dead, his task seems to grow steadily more difficult, until only his greatest magic has any chance of saving the day...maybe at the cost of his own life...

This story far surpasses any tale of assassins I've read yet, with a twist of magic and humor, and the skillfully created Dragaerans adding spice to an already fantastic book. I highly recommend reading it.

This is probably the thinnest of the Vlad novels, you finish it even faster than you do most Brust books. In this one, we get to know how Vlad first met his Dragon friends and how he started his career. The plot is basically that Vlad is recruited (in a rather unusual way) by Sethra and Morrolan to steal a staff that contains Aliera's soul. Then he must travel to the Paths of the Dead to get the soul out of the staff. I like this book because it's funny and fast-paced (and my favourite character Sethra is in it, too) but there's a lot of looking back on his childhood and such, and one gets a little tired of that after a while. It is one of the most entertaining Vlad books; Brust has such an elegant style, I admire him.

This book is a joy to read. You find plenty of one liners and low humor, while at the same time getting a beautiful and subtle understanding of the main character (Vlad). This is all done in a relatively short book which manages to pack in three timelines which dovetail perfectly at the end.