Customer Reviews
I cannot beat the previous review...so I will join in - By: Book Crazy, 10 Jul 2007 
Well Marshalll Lord has said almost everything there is to say...
However I wanted to say something about this book: I waited what felt like an eon for it's publication & I was not disappointed it was everything I hoped & expected from a Steven Brust novel.
It made me laugh at times, hold my breath until I was forced to breathe or die & wish that there were more pages. Many more pages.
As with many of Brusts novels insignificant little things/descriptions in previous books (that you think are throw away lines) have ways of becoming significant & key to the story...he must have such a memory :-)
Vlad Taltos story number Ten - By: Marshall Lord, 16 Nov 2006 This highly entertaining comic fantasy novel is the tenth published book in the story of Vladimir Taltos, & currently (August 2008) last in chronological sequence of the first eleven books. The action of the story begins within two hours of the conclusion of the previous book "Issola". However, in most respects this novel continues the storylines of two earlier books in the series, "Tecla" & "Phoenix."
Despite the fact that "The Orgaisation" wants him dead, Vlad returns to the Imperial capital, Adrilankha city at the start of this book - perhaps feeling that having survived being caught up in battles between Gods, it is not worth getting too scared of mortal gangsters. This may be a mistake ...
If you have not previously read any of Steven Brust's "Vlad Taltos" novels or "Khaavren" romances, they are alll set in a world of magic, where there are several intelligent species, including two types of men & women. Humans like ourselves are usuallly referred to as "Easterners," the other type of men & women calll themselves humans but are usuallly referred to in the books as "Dragaerans" or occasionallly as Elves. Dragaerans are talller than humans, live 2,000 or 3,000 years or so, & 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 used between mortals when they are reallly angry with someone because they don't just kill you, but 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) but it is not clear whether this includes a new Great Weapon, carried by the hero, which was created at the end of "Issola."
All Dragaerans belong to one of seventeen "Great Houses" named after animals of the fantasy world in which the novels are set. Ten of the eleven novels featuring Vlad Taltos, including "Dzur," are named after one of these great houses, usuallly also featuring a member 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.
Each of the animals for which the great houses are named epitomises two characteristics, & the houses tend to have a preferred occupation to which those characteristics are relevant. For examples Dragons symbolise war & conquest, Dzur (which look a bit like tigers) represent heroism & honor, hence Dragaeran members of House Dragon & House Dzur tend to be soldiers. "Tecla" look like mice & symbolise cowardice & fertility: members of House Tecla are peasants. "Chreotha" represent Forethought & ensnarement, & members of that house are merchants. The Orca (Killer Whale) represents Brutality & Mercantilism: members of that house are sailors, pirates or - wait for it - bankers, & "Jhereg" representing Greed & Corruption are gangsters or assassins.
Most members of House Jhereg are also involved in "the organisation" which controls organised crime. "The organisation" is also callled "The right hand of the Jhereg" & there is a sinister group of female sorcerers callled "the left hand of the Jhereg" which has been mentioned in previous books but with whom the hero becomes involved for the first time in this one.
The hero, Baronet Vladimir Taltos, is an assassin & minor sorcerer, who used to be a prominent member of House Jhereg, but is now on the run from them after developing an unfortunate case of principles, which he tries very hard to hide. He has two companions, Loiosh & Rocza who are actual Jhereg - that is to say, they are smalll intelligent flying reptiles.
Taltos narrates these stories with a wonderful dry wit which is one of the best aspects of the novels.
Stven Brust makes some attempt to recognise that some readers might be new to this book & not have read the previous novels in the series. This does not IMHO make it a good idea to start with this book, but it is still sometimes useful in helping previous readers who don't have a memory like a computer to follow the complex plot. Those who have not read the previous books will still probably find "Dzur" hard going.
To give an example of the sort of detail you will completely miss if you tackle "Dzur" without reading any of the earlier books: two important characters in the series are actuallly the same person. One of Vlad's oldest friends is reallly a cover identity, complete with magicallly disguised appearance & a whole network of friends & contacts, used by one of the most powerful figures in the Empire when she wishes to go somewhere incognito. Vlad is one of the very few people who knows "both" identities & it took him years before he figured it out in the book "Orca".
In "Dzur", Vlad needs some help which the cover identity - let's calll her "B" - can provide, so he goes to the home of the real identity - let's calll her "A" - & asks if "A" can get a message to "B". Instead of agreeing to take the message, "A" replies that she is expecting "B" to drop by, leaves the room, & comes back half an hour later as "B". They discuss what Vlad is asking for, "B" leaves, & comes back shortly afterwards as "A". At no point does either party directly acknowledge that Vlad knows A & B to be the same person, & she knows that Vlad knows. If you have read "Orca" this little comedy of manners is hystericallly funny. The reader who has not read "Orca" is almost certain to completely miss it.
It is almost impossible to describe the plot of this book without spoiling the story of the earlier novels "Tecla" & "Phoenix" or the immediately preceding novel "Issola" so I won't attempt to do so.
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. Indeed, several of these books, of which "Dzur" is one, include two separate timelines in each chapter. In this case the book starts with a meal at the legendary restaurant, Valabars, at which Vlad meets the Dzurlord who gives his house name to the book, & also finallly gets to meet the equallly legendary assassin, Mario Greymist. Each chapter starts with an account of the food served during one course of this meal, but the rest of each chapter describes the continuing story of the intrugues which Vlad gets involved in as soon as the meal is over.
You will get most out of these books if you read them in something close to the "official" order.
If you are interested in these books, my recommendation would be to start with either the first book written, "Jhereg" or the chronologicallly first book, "Taltos." If you like the first one you do read, & decide to read the rest, I recommend that you follow something like 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).
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 & a homage to the novels of Alexandre Dumas. He's callled 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 very briefly in "Tecla" & has a brief offstage cameo in the Vlad Taltos book "Orca." Two of the major characters in the Taltos novels, Sethra Lavode & 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 Count of Monte Cristo") which comprises
3) The Paths of the Dead
4) The Lord of Castle Black
5) Sethra Lavode
Overalll I found both the "Taltos" novels & the "Khaavren Romances" very entertaining: I recommend both series & this book.
