When someone asks me for my personal favorite fantasy series, I usually hem and haw for a while and try to sneak at least two or three extra series into my answer. But if you were to force me, under threat of violence, to trim it down to just one, it would be Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos series. Vallista, the fifteenth novel in the long-running series, is due out on October 17th, making this an excellent time to try and convert some new readers to the Gospel of Taltos.
Explaining what exactly is so wonderful about this series is tricky, partly because it’s so unique and partly because it’s hard to do without including huge spoilers, but at its heart it’s the story of Vlad Taltos, a human assassin living in the Dragaeran Empire, as well as the story of the Dragaeran Empire itself.
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Vallista
At this point you may be groaning “not another assassin,” but let me assure you that Vlad is not your typical run-of-the-mill hood-wearing killer-for-hire that seemed to be on every other fantasy cover a few years back. Vlad is actually one of the most fascinating protagonists in current fantasy. At the start of the series, he’s a smart-ass, bon-vivant assassin and minor crime boss who enjoys good food and wine and has a great sarcastic sense of humor. A good part of the fun of reading this series is following the constant wise-cracks between Vlad and his reptilian familiar Loiosh. (“You’re pretty smart for a mammal, boss.”) As the series progresses, you learn more about Vlad’s past, putting his choice of occupation in an entirely new light, and you also see Vlad evolve into a surprisingly complex character. (On a personal note, as someone who’s been reading these novels for a couple of decades now, I find that my take on Vlad has evolved considerably as I’ve matured as a person and a reader.)
Dragaerans are basically tall humanoids who use sorcery and live for millennia. This may make you assume they’re like elves—and indeed some humans, like Vlad’s wonderful grandfather, refer to them as “elfs”—but the reality is far more surprising and unique. (This is where it’s very hard not to go into spoiler territory, so let’s just join Vlad’s “Noish-Pa” and think of them as elves for now.)
The Dragaeran Empire is an ancient society divided into seventeen Great Houses which all bear the name of, and some resemblance to, a real or mythical animal. So we have the Houses of the Orca and the Hawk, but also the Houses of the Dzur, Dragon, and Jhegaala. Humans aren’t part of the Dragaeran Empire, but Vlad’s father bought his son a title in the House of Jhereg, which is named after a reptilian scavenger and is basically the crime syndicate of the Empire. The Great Houses take turns running the Empire according to the Great Cycle; as the series begins, we’re just a few centuries into the reign of Empress Zerika of the House of the Phoenix.
Here’s the thing, though: I could go on for ages describing the more intricate details of this fantasy universe, but that’s only one of many reasons why these books are so much fun. Another reason is the way the series is structured, because the books weren’t written according to the internal chronology. The second novel (Yendi) takes place before the first one (Jhereg). The events described in Jhegaala, published in 2008, take place right between two books published over a decade earlier (Phoenix and Athyra), and if I understand correctly (not having read it yet), the forthcoming new novel Vallista takes place right before Hawk, which was published right before it.
If that sounds confusing, don’t worry: the details will fall into place as you progress through the series. Readers used to try to rearrange the novels and read them according to the internal chronology, but that became almost impossible when Dragon (1998) switched back and forth between separate branches of the timeline in each chapter of the novel. To preserve your sanity, I sincerely recommend just reading them in publication order.
Speaking of reading order: aside from the fifteen novels in the core series so far, there are also the “Khaavren Romances,” a trilogy (in which the third novel consists of three volumes by itself, so there are actually five of them) set several hundred years before the main series. Because Dragaerans live for millennia, several characters appear in both series, experiencing things that to Vlad (and most readers) will feel like historical events come to life. This is a very odd experience, only heightened by the narrator of the Romances, the esteemed Paarfi of Roundwood, whose incredibly verbose style (reminiscent of Alexandre Dumas, as the books’ titles suggests) takes some getting used to. There’s much more that can be written about these books—they really deserve a separate article—but just to return to the reading order: as with almost all prequels, don’t start with the Khaavren Romances. If you want to stick with publication order, the first one (The Phoenix Guards) was published between Phoenix and Athyra, or otherwise you can pretty much pick them up when you’ve read at least a few books in the main series. (For completion’s sake, there’s also The Brokedown Palace, a standalone novel set in Fenario, east of the Empire. I just now realize this may be the only novel by Brust I’ve never read, so I can’t really talk about how it fits into the series, but it’s clearly connected and I clearly need to read it.)
But back to the main series! Each novel (except, so far, Taltos) is named after one of the seventeen Dragaeran Houses, and in most cases, Vlad takes on some of the characteristics and attributes of that House throughout the novel, so e.g. in Dragon he ends up a soldier, and in Issola he becomes remarkably courteous. In Jhereg, Brust even applies this technique on the chapter level: each chapter begins with a quotation that connects back to one of the Houses, in the same order they appear in the Cycle, and Vlad does or says something that’s reminiscent of that House.
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The Book of Jhereg
Brust also likes to play around with the internal structure of each novel in utterly delightful ways. My favorite example is Teckla, which starts off with a list of instructions for Vlad’s launderer-tailor. (“1 grey knit cotton shirt: remove wine stain from rt sleeve, black tallow from lft & repair cut in rt cuff.”) Each chapter starts off with a line from this (literal) laundry list and, at some point in the chapter, you find out how that item of clothing was damaged. Other novels in the series are structured around the menu for an elaborate meal (no one describes food as mouth-wateringly as Brust does, especially in the Valabar’s scenes in Dzur) or the various steps for casting a spell.
Now here’s the oddest thing about this series for me. Even though Brust is performing the literary equivalent of flying trapeze work with all his structural tricks and his convoluted chronology, the actual novels themselves are short (most of my ratty old paperbacks are around 300 pages), tightly written, and purely entertaining. You can read most of them in a few hours. Because the books are mostly self-contained, over the years they’ve started functioning similarly to Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series for me: quick and entertaining novels that are still rewarding after multiple readings.
For a series that’s been going for over thirty years now (Jhereg was published in 1983!), it’s stayed remarkably consistent, so if all this enthusiastic rambling intrigued you, I recommend picking up The Book of Jhereg, an omnibus edition of the first three novels in the series.
Stefan Raets reads and reviews science fiction and fantasy whenever he isn’t distracted by less important things like eating and sleeping. His (sadly neglected) website is Far Beyond Reality.
Never heard of this series, but your review makes me want to give it a shot. Off to the bookstore!
@1 – The older ones are collected in omnibus editions. I think the first nine at least. 3 books per omnibus.
I’d second reading them in Publication Order. When Dragon came out, Steve actually stated that part of what he was doing was messing with the people who were reading them according to internal chronology.
And while he is SCRUPULOUS about not actually spoiling things (such as a certain massive reveal in Orca) in other novels, he is less strict about making non-spoilery statements in novels published AFTER a reveal and it would IMHO be reasonably easy to guess certain spoilers, if you read the books in more or less internal chronological order. Plus you would miss some, “Ah I see what you did there,” moments where he alludes to his spoilers in a fun, arch, manner.
Finally, if you’re going to read the Khaavren Romances at ALL (and you might bounce off the Dumas-ian style found therein if you really REALLY like Steve’s more Hemingway-esque standard style, and it’s not actually REQUIRED), then if you really want to get the most synergy between the two series, make sure you start the Phoenix Guard (Khaavren) sometime close to Phoenix (Vlad), and make sure that you finish Five Hundred Years After (Khaavren) sometime before you read Orca (Vlad), and make certain you finish the Viscount of Adrilankha Trilogy (The Paths of the Dead, The Lord of Castle Black, Sethra Lavode) in the Khaavren Romances before (best done JUST before) Tiassa, in the Vlad Series. But the two series styles are WILDLY different, and you really don’t have to read the Khaavren stuff. I’d consider them more optional, especially if the Paarfi/Dumas style “voice” is at risk of putting you off Vlad.
Also, and without getting into spoiler territory, you need to remember as you read these two series, first, Vlad lies (he can be an unreliable narrator) and, second, Paarfi is a horrible suckup (his falsehoods tend to run in consistent, politically expedient, directions).
I wonder how many readers of this post will be like me — Taltos fans come to read about how right we are to be Taltos fans.
I first picked Jhereg from the bookshelf when it had no sequels, prequels or side-quels, and am still a joyously dedicated reader all these years later — though oddly just like you I’ve never read Brokedown Palace. Keep meaning to.
Anyway, thanks for the affirmation. I enjoyed this post very much.
This article speaks truth. I have loved these books for decades, and I was thrilled to wake up today and realize that I would have my hands on Vallista before the end of it.
I actually read The Phoenix Guards first, unaware that it was a prequel. At first, I was taken aback by the tone when I switched to the Vlad novels, but I have grown to like them more. Brust can switch tones like a champ. I love that he can make you sympathize with a character in one scene, and then present that character in an entirely different light in another.
I actually dressed as an assassin from the House of Jhereg for Halloween once when I was in Jr high. That’s how much I loved Vlad. Even conned my Mother into reading the series (she loved them!), course, this was back when there were only 3 books in the series. ^^;
I’ve fallen far behind though…I should restart the adventure. Thanks for the reminder.
It occurs to me that I’m shamefully far behind in the series at this point, and of the Khaavren Romances, I’ve only read The Phoenix Guards. Must rectify that.
And I do recommend Brokedown Palace. And Brust’s non-Jhereg books, especially The Gypsy.
And back in 2006 or 2007 he wrote, and published on his own blog, a short fanfic novel (My Own Kind of Freedom) about a certain, lamented SF/western series canceled entirely too soon by Fox …
One thing I ask before launching myself in such a long series: are the book quite self-consistent?
In this days, I’ve grown quite bored with neverending series where the books never get to a point, so I’m not starting any new series unless it’s a self consistent book or the author have already closed the series (after finishing it!).
@8fizz, Brust’s books are a lot fun and self-contained. More like an on-going serial or comic; where the main story comes, mostly, to a conclusion. I am always pleased to see when a new book comes out.
They follow Vlad’s life in the Dragaeran Empire and are very episodic.
Quite fun & humorous to read as well.
Kato
Each book is a solid story on its own. It’s kind of like the Miles Vorkosigan books in that regard, rather than Wheel of Time or A Song of Ice and Fire. Every new book is a delight, but you’re not left hanging waiting for what happens next, because each book is its own story.