Steven Brust is one of those authors that I’ve heard lots of good things about but never got round to reading. Apparently Vlad Taltos is one of those characters that’s worth getting to know in a series that’s worth a look if you like your fantasy a little darker and your morals a little more ambiguous than normal.
This weekend I decided to do something about this and picked up ‘Jhegaala’, the latest in the ‘Vlad Taltos’ series, as it had come through the door a few days before. The only problem was that ‘Jhegaala’ is the eleventh book in the series and I haven’t read the other ten…
Luckily for me this wasn’t as big an issue as I thought it was going to be. The aftermath of events from preceding books, along with the nature of the plot itself, meant that things were fairly self contained in ‘Jhegaala’ and I didn’t feel that I was missing out by not having read the other books first. There was the odd reference, here and there, that would make more sense to a fan but on the whole I think that this is a book that anyone can pick up and get into.
Following events only hinted at in ‘Jhegaala’, Vlad Taltos’ marriage has collapsed and he is on the run from the criminal Jhereg organisation that wants him dead. Hiding out in the far away country of Fenario seems like a good idea and it gives Vlad the opportunity to find out more about his mother’s side of the family, relatives that he knows next to nothing about.
This leads him to the industrial town of Burz, not a bad place to be despite the smell coming from the paper mill. However, the longer Vlad stays in town the stranger things get. People are anxious to get Vlad out of town and are behaving very oddly around him. No-one will tell him where to find his relatives (the very mention of their name is seen as a threat) and by the time he manages to track them down they have been murdered. Now Vlad is after answers but he’s about to find that the truth is not what he expected…
My first journey into the world of Vlad Taltos was, on the whole, an enjoyable one and I wouldn’t be surprised to find myself trying to track down some of the earlier books to get more of a feel for Vlad and the world he lives in. While the book requires hardly any background knowledge in order to enjoy it there were hints at a wider picture that had me interested. Who are the Jhereg and why do they want Vlad dead? What is a Dragaeran? I think I’ll be after finding out more…
The events of ‘Jhegaala’ are recounted from a first person perspective which is a great way for a newcomer like me to get into Vlad Taltos’ head and find out what he is all about. Vlad is an entertaining character to hang out with for just under three hundred pages; full of wise cracks and self deprecating humour but also with a dark edge that can either explode into violence or help him to make those decisions that a more virtuous hero just wouldn’t make. Does this make Vlad Taltos an anti-hero? I’m not sure… He ends up doing the right thing but it’s entirely for his own ends and it’s down to sheer chance that it benefits anyone else. I’m not sure that this qualifies him for anti-hero status, if anyone can help me out with this then please leave a comment…
The problem with the whole first person perspective thing, in ‘Jhegaala’, is that the story is dictated to us through what Vlad sees or what Vlad decides we should know. This meant that I was sometimes left trying to work my way through things that Vlad felt were important but just came across (to me) as filler. Does the reader really need to how much Vlad enjoyed his soup and how it compared to soup from other inns? I didn’t…
I’d also find myself getting close to something that I was interested in only to find that Vlad would say (literally), “you don’t need to know about all this.” This was infuriating at times and broke up an otherwise well paced plot that will appeal to fans of detective fiction. There is a lot going on, with plenty of twists and turns, and it’s a testament to Brust’s writing that he’s able to tie it all up satisfactorily by the end of the book.
‘Jhegaala’ can be an infuriating read sometimes but it certainly got me interested enough to seek out more books in this series. I reckon fans of Vlad Taltos will enjoy this latest installment and, if my experience was anything to go by, it’s a good place for newcomers to jump on board.
Eight out of Ten
5 comments:
The other books in the series are much better. this one drove me nuts because rather than continuing the story from the last book, he leapfrogs backwards to fill in a back story a book or two ago.
sigh
I haven't read this one, but definitely recommend that you pick up the first in the series, "Jhereg". I bought it pretty much at random as a teenager, right when it first came out, and loved it. The rest of the series is also worth reading, even though some of his stylistic experiments in later volumes don't always work.
By the way, Dragaerans are taller than "Easterners" (humans), and live a couple of thousand years. In an earlier book, Vlad's grandfather refers to them as "elfs". Dragaerans each belong to a "house", named after an animal, and houses are kind of like castes. The Jhereg are basically organized crime: gambling, prostitution, loansharking, assassination. I could go on, but just pick up "Jhereg"...
If you've found the earlier books since, you'll know by now that all those “you don’t need to know about all this.” comments are flagging stories covered thoroughly in earlier books. Interesting you liked it so much as I've found it by far the weakest of all the books. Recommend reading these in publication order as they're largely constructed to avoid spoilering and confusion that way.
Currently reprinted in two or three volume compendia - how I've got hold of copies recently - and another two of the series have come out.
BTW I wouldn't recommend the prequel 'Khaavren romances' ( 'The Phoenix Guards', 'Five hundred years after' etc), despite or possibly because of my love of Dumas. For me they don't reflect the strengths of the world and Brusts wry reflections. Also, the events are within the lifetimes of some Taltos series characters and I was unconvinced by their (and society's) radical shift within a generation (speech patterns change as generations change, not just by force of years alone).
On Seraphim's comment - many of the books are written/published out of Vlad's personal chronological sequence. While occasionally frustrating I've actually found this intriguing and worked well for me. On rereading I flip between chronological and publication order at will.
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