Kindle Price:	$3.99
Sold by:	Penguin Group (USA) LLC Price set by seller.

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

The Book of Jhereg (Vlad Taltos Collections 1) by [Steven Brust]

Follow the Author

Steven Brust

The Book of Jhereg (Vlad Taltos Collections 1) Kindle Edition

by Steven Brust (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 1,196 ratings

Collects books from: Vlad Taltos

See all formats and editions

The first three fantastical adventures of assassin Vlad Taltos—now in one volume.

A welcome addition to any fantasy fan's library, The Book of Jhereg follows the antics of the wise-cracking Vlad Taltos and his dragon-like companion through their first three adventures—Jhereg, Yendi, and Teckla.

There are many ways for a young man with quick wits and a quick sword to advance in the world. Vlad Taltos chose the route of assassin. From his rookie days to his selfless feats of heroism, the dauntless Vlad will hold readers spellbound—and The Book of Jhereg will take its place among the classic compilations in fantasy.

Print length

478 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Ace
Publication date

August 1, 1999
Reading age

18 years and up
File size

3113 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
See all details

More like The Book of Jhereg (Vlad Taltos Collections 1)

Page 1 of 1Start overPage 1 of 1

The Book of Jhereg (Vlad Taltos Collections 1)
1,196
Kindle Edition
$3.99
The Book of Taltos (Vlad Taltos Collections 2)
669
Kindle Edition
$5.99
The Book of Athyra (Vlad Taltos Collections 3)
515
Kindle Edition
$12.99
The Book of Dragon: Dragon and Issola (Vlad Taltos Collections 4)
539
Kindle Edition
$11.99
The Book of Dzur: Comprising the Novels Dzur and Jhegaala (Vlad Taltos Collections 5)
224
Kindle Edition
$12.99
A Vlad Taltos Collection: Dragon, Issola, Dzur, Jhegaala, Iorich, Tiassa, Hawk, Vallista
54
Kindle Edition
$83.14
Vlad Taltos6 book series

Loading...

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Steven Brust and the Vlad Taltos Novels

“This whole series is entertaining and worth reading!”—Locus

“Steven Brust isn't afraid to stretch the boundaries of contemporary commercial fantasy.”—Newsday

“Hard to put down...fun to read!”—OtherRealms

“Engaging...written with a light touch...good stuff!”—Publishers Weekly

“Imagine James Bond in a world of magic...exciting!”—VOYA

From Library Journal

Quick with both sword and wit, Vlad Taltos makes his way through the world of Dragaera as an assassin, aided by a small talent for magic and a lizard-like jhereg companion. Collecting the first three novels in Brust's Vlad Taltos series (e.g., Jhereg), this volume serves as a good introduction to the adventures of the author's archly sophisticated, wryly humorous hero. Recommended for libraries that do not already own the individual titles included.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B018WXBHRG
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ace; Ace trade ed edition (August 1, 1999)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 1, 1999
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3113 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 478 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #99,868 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #247 in Fantasy Anthologies
- #683 in Fantasy Adventure Fiction
- #926 in Short Stories Anthologies

Customer Reviews:
4.5 1,196 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Steven Brust

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and raised in a family of Hungarian labor organizers, Steven Brust worked as a musician and a computer programmer before coming to prominence as a writer in 1983 with Jhereg, the first of his novels about Vlad Taltos, a human professional assassin in a world dominated by long-lived, magically-empowered human-like "Dragaerans." Over the next several years, several more "Taltos" novels followed, interspersed with other work, including To Reign in Hell, a fantasy re-working of Milton's war in Heaven; The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, a contemporary fantasy based on Hungarian folktales; and a science fiction novel, Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille. The most recent "Taltos" novels are Dragon and Issola. In 1991, with The Phoenix Guards, Brust began another series, set a thousand years earlier than the Taltos books; its sequels are Five Hundred Years After and the three volumes of "The Viscount of Adrilankha": The Paths of the Dead, The Lord of Castle Black, and Sethra Lavode.While writing, Brust has continued to work as a musician, playing drums for the legendary band Cats Laughing and recording an album of his own work, A Rose for Iconoclastes. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada where he pursues an ongoing interest in stochastics.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

1,196 global ratings

5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all customer images

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

KUReviewDude

The first two stories were good but

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2023

Verified Purchase

The first two stories were good but the last gets political and the MC turns into a major simp and I figure the rest of the series will be more of the same and I would be rooting for the elves the whole time so I probably won't read the other books.

Helpful

M. H.

One of my favorite fantasy series.

Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2023

Verified Purchase

I have loved this since I was a teenager and now I am rereading it. Some things are not the same when experienced when you are older, but this series is still one of my favorites now as I re-experience them.

Helpful

Brittany Lum

Got this for a book club

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2023

Verified Purchase

A few friends wanted to start a book club but all have pretty different tastes and busy schedules. This book, based on reviews and the first few chapters, seems great for us! We just started but so far this is an easy enough read that I don’t think we’ll be stressed trying to keep up and the story is interesting but not so fast paced that we’ll have a hard time with our irregular meetings

One person found this helpful

Helpful

A. Karamazov

Clever plots, good quality writing, but an unlikable hero

Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2018

Verified Purchase

The wizard/sorcerer hero and narrator of this story is a guy named Vlad. He’s the fantasy equivalent of a small-time Godfather. He engages in stereotypical Godfather behavior: being a witty and engaging conversationalist at parties, cleverly circumventing plots on his own life, and daringly assassinating others, all while living the high life at the cost of the misery of thousands: among them, for example, hundreds of young women, bought or kidnapped and forced to work in his brothels. One of his good friends, a certain Lord Morrolan, who lives in a floating castle in which is conducted a never-ending and luxurious party, is a despotic (yet oh so elegant and debonair) overlord who openly admits that he had one of his villages slaughtered wholesale because it was convenient for increasing his magical power. When a young woman in Vlad’s own territory is overheard mentioning (true) rumors that the governing council may be having financial problems, though Vlad’s never heard of her before, he gives orders to have her killed. Not warned, not taken somewhere until the trouble blows over, but killed. His orders are carried out that evening. I could go on with examples, but there’s no need. The bottom line is that, the “hero” of this story is not a good person with flaws, but an outright scum-of-the-earth.
So, I found it difficult to like him. If I’d read only the first two stories in this three-story pack I would have given a rating of one star and never read further. But, in the third book Vlad is forced by circumstances to consider the possibility that he’s a nasty piece of work and that life changes might be in order. He doesn't fully become a good enough person that it’s comfortable rooting for him, but it’s a change in an encouraging direction. Aside from my complaints above, the writing and plotting of these stories is high quality, good enough that I’m still considering reading some additional books in the series. If they continue the arc hinted at by the third volume in this collection, I’ll probably be giving higher ratings.

22 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kindle Customer in VB

I'd give it 3.5 stars rounded down.

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2022

Verified Purchase

Book 3 in the Vlad Taltos series. Another re-read.

This story has a very different tone than the first two. I believe that I had read somewhere that this is the one that was written when the author was in the middle of a divorce, and the storyline reflects that upheaval.

This is not my favorite of the series. It is just as well-written, and worth the time, but the content was a bit of a bummer. Reading about (view spoiler) was kind of depressing, and it's effect on Loiosh and Rocza was unpleasant. Other than that, Vlad was up to his tricksy ears in plans, plots and revenge. He's good at all three of those. There's also a revolution brewing, so he is experiencing quite an identity crisis while trying to figure out where he himself stands.

I'm planning to continue my re-read of the series after a brief detour to another series in a different genre.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

The Very Model of a Modern Major General

As described, reasonably priced, on time

Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2022

Verified Purchase

This review is of the item, not the title. (The title is great, which is why I upgraded my much loved ancient mass market paperback to this hardcover edition.) The item is as described, reasonably priced, came on time, was adequately packaged for shipping, and shipping cost was reasonable as well. No one could ask more from a used book seller. Would buy again, no hesitation.

Helpful

Michael Lynn McGuire

Book number one of a five book fantasy series

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2020

Verified Purchase

Book number one of a five book fantasy series. I read the well printed and bound trade paperback published by Ace in 1999. I do not know if I am going to read any more book in the series as pure fantasy is not my favorite.

This is a collection of three books. The story is quite good but is just not my cup of tea. Still, I managed to finish the book. I thought that I would like it due to the telepathic familiar(s) but they did not do much for me. Maybe the main anti-hero just pissed me off with his cavalier view on life and continuously murdering people.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars (I managed to finish it !)

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Doomsauce

Great book, worth the read.

Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2019

Verified Purchase

Average Joe's review

This book(technically 3 books) is about a man named Vlad, A man in various stages of his life depending on the book from the leader and assassin of a criminal gang to his uprising in the world. It is fantastically written with:

-Action
-Adventure
-Magic
-Depth and complex plots
-Talking shoulder dragon

The primary reasons that keep it from being five starts are as follows:

-The entire book can grind to a halt for an entire chapter of people going over events that have taken place and what they could mean. While it is critical to the story I can't help but feel it could have been done in a more efficient way.
-Descriptions, they are fantastic but they can span half a page describing a guy who dies the next page or someone who is never seen again.

Fantastic book, would recommend.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

C. Weidl

unglaublich gut

Reviewed in Germany on September 2, 2013

Verified Purchase

Mal was ganz was anderes. Witzig, spannend, schlüssig. Gute Fechtszenen. Alle Bücher dieser Serie sind sehr gut. Man kann mit jedem Buch anfangen, Taltos und Jhereg eignen sich aber besonders.

One person found this helpful

Translate review to English

PictoPirate

Fun Fantasy Nonsense

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 23, 2018

Verified Purchase

The Book of Jhereg contains three fantastic fantasy stories featuring as mob boss come assassin named Vlad and his wise-cracking dragon familiar Loiosh. The world is rich with a complex caste system and racial tension between the Easterners and the dragon folk. The characters are where the book really comes to life though, from the stoic Morrolan to the anti-hero Vlad there is plenty of variety and depth to keep you interested.

It's not all action and wise-cracking, Teckla has a fantastically written plot around a strained relationship that is something I've never seen tackled in fantasy novels before.

One thing to be aware of contains the first three books Burst wrote in the Vald Taltos series (Jhereg, Yendi, and Teckla) however, they are presented in the order they were written not in chronological order which can take some of the suspense out of it when you already know from reading Jhereg how something turns out in Yendi...

I really enjoyed my time with The Book of Jhereg. The characters are complex and fun and the world is interesting and with twelve more books in the series I know there are plenty of adventures left to come.

Hobbitish

A Man and his Dragon

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 3, 2014

Verified Purchase

I found this book a fun, easy read. The character of Vlad is not particularly heroic, he is an assassin and crime boss with his own little section of the city to run. I particularly liked his dragon familiar, small enough to sit on his shoulder, and the telepathic link they had with Loiosh pointing out all the flaws in Vlad's plans or other little snide remarks. Vlad is an entertaining character and you can't help but like him! The first two stories in this omnibus are a good introduction but the third one does let it down a little. All in all, a fun, entertaining read for those wanting something a little lighter than the usual epic fantasy!

2 people found this helpful

Dove Atherton

Vlad series is wonderful; later ones, not!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 9, 2013

Verified Purchase

This is a fabulous book and so are the next ones that are all labelled as the house names (Taltos, Tiassa, Dzur, Orca, Athyra Jhegaala, for instance). There are lots of them. The characters are enthralling and the action light and huge fun. HOWEVER, trying to read his later books such as The Paths of the Dead is IMPOSSIBLE. His style is so full of self-conscious interjections and smart-alec conversation that I will never know what happens to two of his most promising characters that I have come to care about. They are Sethra and Morollan and I have really tried and tried but I just can not bear to suffer through the books. What a tragic loss.

Shuggie

Excellent.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 14, 2017

Verified Purchase

Love these books. I know people who won't read them as they are written in the first person, I say, persevere, it is worth it.

Buy for others

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Follow the Author

The Book of Jhereg (Vlad Taltos Collections 1) Kindle Edition

Editorial Reviews

Review

From Library Journal

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the author

Steven Brust

Customer reviews

Reviews with images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries