Brust, Steven - Yendi

[oyceter]

Umm... yes, this is the first Taltos book I've read. I think I just skirted around them for a while, largely because the one Brust book I read (To Reign in Hell) drove me crazy and I never managed to finish Agyar.

But I was in the library and flipping through them, and the back of Yendi said something like, "Hi, I'm Vlad Taltos, assassin. [Something something something jhereg war something something]... and this is how I fell in love with the woman who killed me."

"Oooo!" I thought. "OOOOOO!" (I am SO predictable.)

Unfortunately, aforementioned female assassin is not as cool as I'd like, but there are so many other cool and kickass female characters in the book that I don't care.

As far as I can tell, Vlad is an Easterner (human) in a land of Draegarians. There's a whole lot of stuff about class in the book, as Draegarians can be one of seventeen different classes. Sometimes it seems as though these classes are like race; i.e. people go on about pure Dragon genes or something. But then, you also have classes like jheregs, where you can buy your way in.

Or something. I'm not really sure what's going on with the world right now, except that dragons are all noble and violent and jheregs are assassins. Or thieves? Or underworld creatures? Or something?

Anyway. Vlad the human jhereg manages to get himself in a jhereg war, which seems to be a lot like a gang war, only with assassins and sorcery involved. Along the way, he gets assassinated and falls in love with said assassin and finds that his little jhereg war is a little larger and more political than he previously thought.

I wasn't particularly interested in the plot, and there were a few too many expositiony bits in which Vlad must expound upon all his theories as to what the grander plot is. And as you all can probably tell, I have no idea what's going on with all the worldbuilding. But I like Vlad, and he's got a fun, hard-boiled detective voice, and more importantly, Aliera and Sethra Lavode and really freaking cool. I mean -- two long-lived kickass powerful women! (Have I mentioned how predictable I am?)

So is it ok if I just sort of randomly read the other books? I have figured out that there is an important chronology in place for the Khaavren books, but the other Vlad books seem to skip around the internal chronology, and I am too lazy to track down everything in order via my library.

Comments

[oyceter]

Would Taltos work better, or would Jhereg? Particularly in terms of worldbuilding -- I am still so confused with regard to all the houses!

[(Anonymous)]

The nature of the houses is slowly revealed during the series, but I think-- I'm not positive-- that you get some important information on them in Jhereg. However, Taltos is a lot better-written, and has a lot of worldbuilding in terms of the status of the minority Easterners in Dragaera.

If you think of the houses as something between races (as they have distinctive appearances) and castes (if people think they're supposed to have personalities appropriate to their caste and are raised that way, most of them will), and keep your mind open to recieve more info on them, you won't go far wrong. The Jhereg is an exception, as anyone can buy their way in, but I think you can't do that with the rest.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Gah, I think that didn't post. Short version: Taltos is better-written. They both have worldbuilding, but different sorts. The nature of the houses is (very) slowly revealed over time, but if you think of them as sort of like races and sort of like castes, you won't be far off.

[oyceter]

Hrm, I got the other one in email, so I have the info. The houses had me a little confused because they were that mix of race and caste, so I will just keep that in mind.