Yendi

Vlad Taltos #2

by Steven Brust

Vlad Taltos tells the story of his early days in the House Jhereg, how he found himself in a Jhereg war, and how he fell in love with the wonderful woman, Cawti, who killed him.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Audiobook, High Fantasy, Science Fiction, Mystery

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Steven Karl Zoltán Brust (born November 23, 1955) is an American fantasy and science fiction author of Hungarian descent. He was a member of the writers' group The Scribblies, which included Emma Bull, Pamela Dean, Will Shetterly, Nate Bucklin, Kara Dalkey, and Patricia Wrede, and also belongs to the Pre-Joycean Fellowship.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/steven...

(Photo by David Dyer-Bennet)

Reviews

[Niki Hawkes - The Obsessive Bookseller]

If I had to sum up the Vlad Taltos series in one word, it would be: unconventional. The writing voice is all over the place, flitting between past and present, from in-the-moment to addressing the reader directly. It’s as if Steven Brust took one look at the rules of writing and said, “eff those, I’m going to write however I please.” In my opinion, that’s playing with fire, but some of the most poignant writers take those risks all the time (I’m a firm believer that you must know them well first to break them well). There are places where I thought he took it a little too far, and the heavy voice definitely takes a bit to get used to, but his odd writing style is part of what makes the story so interesting.

Brust also throws you in the deep end of this world to either sink or swim, explaining precisely nothing about the dozens of references he makes throughout the story. He will throw in an occasional anecdote here and there, but for the most part you’re on your own. The first 25% of Yendi required a lot more concentration than normal and I didn’t start enjoying the story until I got (mostly) acclimated.

My favorite thing about the series so far is what feels to me like a merging of genres. It’s definitely a fantasy world but it’s presented with a mystery-driven plot and overlay of humor that reads more like an urban fantasy. I will definitely be continuing on. I plan to use this series as a palate-cleanser every time I get sick of the same old stuff.

Recommendations: Venture into this series with a “just go with it” mentality and be prepared for the atypical. I’d hand this to anyone who might appreciate a fantasy/urban fantasy/mystery tale all bundled into one. I would avoid handing it to someone with risk-adverse reading tastes (or people trying to get their feet wet in the genre).

Via The Obsessive Bookseller at www.NikiHawkes.com

Other books you might like:

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 2 out of 5]

🐗 A Guinea Pig is Me Again Snooze Fest Buddy Read (AGPiMASFBR™) with the MacHalos and stuff 🐗

Well this was a bloody shrimping waste of time. The first book in the series wasn't too bad. Okay, so it was kind of meh and sort of ridiculously outdated, and also not very exciting at all but it wasn't bad BAD. Now this installment right here...well, I can't say it was bad BAD either. It's just that it wasn't good GOOD. At all. But you know what the funny thing about this book is? It is somewhat reminiscent of one of my favorite Sherlock adventures ever. I kid you not.



Yep, that's the one!

Now let's quickly break this latest disaster in my reading year down, shall we?

① Info dump galore and pointless scenes aplenty.
Need I say more? Didn't think so. Moving on and stuff.

② Turf war-based plot = meh, blah, yawn, etc.
Don't get me wrong, turf war thingies can be super extra delicious when done right 👋 waves at her boyfriend Daniel Faust and his New Commission buddies 👋. One of the main issues here is that the author tries really hard to come up with super complex Machiavellian shenanigans but they always fall Super Extra Flat (SEF™) for some reason. Also, 💤💤💤💤. Also also, 💤💤💤💤. Quite the cure for insomnia this book indeed is.

③ The revivification business.
Why the fish would you make it possible for your characters to be brought back to life after they die. I mean, WHY? It takes all the bloody tension out of the book! Your MC is killed slightly dead? No biggie, he'll be alive again in less time it takes to say "unleash the crustaceans!" 🙄🙄🙄. Okay, revivification doesn't work 100% of the time (only about 99.8956899% according to my very own computations), but the fact remains: It takes all the bloody tension out of the book. (I really can't wait to get back to my Black Company rereread, and see ALL the characters drop like flies some characters ruthlessly disposed of by Glen Cook. Now that's what I call tension! Yum and stuff.)

④ The one thing I did not see coming.



No. Bloody. Fishing. Comment.

⑤ All of this...for that?



Funny, I had a feeling you would say that 🙄🙄🙄.

➽ Nefarious Last Words (NLW™): my dear Margaux and Mark MacHalos, the next time you leave me all by my little nefarious self to road test a crappy story for you, I'm making you pay for my Guinea Pigging Services (GPS™). Payments can be made either in hard cash or newborn babies. You're welcome.

· Book 1: Jhereg ★★★
· Book 3: Teckla • Pre-emptive DNF. Because reasons and stuff.



[Pre-review nonsense]Well this was Fabulously Fabulous.



➽ Full review to come and stuff.

[Sebastien Castell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read Jhereg by Steven Brust when I was a kid and fell in love with the voice and style of the books. Yendi is the second book in that series, though chronologically takes place before Jhereg. For those obsessed with reading in chronological order, technically the first book of the series would be Taltos, which I think was published fourth. If it all sounds like Brust was basically just making stuff up as he went along, following whatever story interested him at the time with little regard for the kinds of regimented series design we tend to live with these days, I suspect you're right. Maybe that's why the books hold up so well today.

Vlad Taltos is an assassin, but not the cool, nothing-scares-me, awesomely enigmatic variety that graces the cover of so many modern fantasy novels. He's just a guy trying to survive in a world hostile to Easterners (a.k.a. humans – the dominant species in this world are basically a kind of tall, long-lived, psychic, pedantic elves called Dragaerans who are exactly as big arseholes as they sound.) Vlad's pretty clever, good with a rapier, and hates the world he lives in just enough to make him good at surviving in it. Oh, and he's got a cool mini-dragon sidekick who calls him "boss" all the time.

The Taltos books are at once whimsical (though not in a Terry Pratchett way) and emotional (though not in the melodramatic self-righteous way of modern fantasy). They're stories that never seem over-written or even over-thought-out, but simply the artistic output of an author following his instincts and never worrying whether he's put in the required elements or checked off all the ideological boxes of the times. They're stories in the purest sense, which doesn't make them trite or lacking in message, only that the message is whatever Brust wanted to impart, never hitting you over the head, never worrying about whether you'll agree.

Usually when I try to re-read books from decades ago I find they don't hold up all that well. Either the language feels archaic or the tropes feel out-of-date. I didn't find that with Yendi. It reads, well, pretty much as it did when I was a teenager. I liked Vlad, liked the twists and turns, and never felt all that concerned with whether every plot device was entirely logical or not. Vlad feels real, so everything around him feels real.

Your mileage may vary, of course. We all have different tastes, but for me – especially in today's fantasy landscape – a book that isn't trying to follow conventions is a welcome respite. Yendi made me want to go back to all the others in the series, and start picking up the ones I missed in more recent years.

[Spencer Orey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t much like book 1. Why did I go back? I don’t know. I think because Jo Walton keeps writing about how great these books are.

I think the magical gangster assassin world is still pretty fresh overall. And to be fair to it, it’s aged much better than could be expected. The actual story moves in an unexpected way, not following the usual patterns we’re used to. However, there’s a lot of macho simplistic stuff dressed up as complicated politics zzz. Anyway not really my thing, but I can appreciate the really well done aspects. I’ll probably get drawn into book 3 sometime.

[Mimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine The Godfather, but told from the perspective of a young snarky Vito Corleone who's all alone and setting out on his own. He's fighting to make a name for himself as an assassin and mob boss in the Dragarean underworld. He's got a small network of semi-legitimate businesses and a corner of the city to himself. He's trying to establish his territory while fighting off stronger, wealthier, more experienced neighbors who are moving in on his turf. He's fighting on multiple fronts, all the while trying to stay on top of Dragarean politics.

This book has a lot of things going on and the action never stops. Just when you think it can't get anymore twisty, it gets one more twist in. Turn the page and something new is happening to Vlad. In the midst of all this mess though, Vlad is still an engaging, funny storyteller, and I can listen to him talk all day long.

Like Jhereg, this book is out of order, but unlike Jhereg, it's near the beginning of Vlad's tale. So it's a good place to start the series. You get to know Vlad on his way up the social ladder, but you also get to a glimpse of the things he's been through that have made him who he is today. He's still got that optimistic (but also realistic) outlook on life and his place in the world about him that I like. The tone is light and funny and a stark contrast to the story he's telling, which has a variety of people out to kill him including his future wife... which makes it a little bit funnier because he's so matter-of-fact about it.

Notes for future reference: when Vlad first met Cawti and she was paid to kill him

Cross-posted at https://covers2covers.wordpress.com/2...

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yendi comprises the second Vald book, but it takes place a few years before Jhereg. Brust considered the best way to read this series-- chronologically or in order of publication--and suggested order of publication, so I am doing that. While Jhereg burst on the scene with Vald already an established 'player', Yendi centers on his rise to a power player, and not incidentally, the meeting of his wife Cawti.

Becoming formulaic kills series for me, but I do not think I have to worry about that with Brust. This starts with Vald in charge of part of the city, well, the underground part of it at least, with several brothels, 'gaming' establishments, 'cleaners' (eg., fences) and such. They earn a tidy sum, but not enough to make him wealthy. Further, he still takes up some 'work' on occasion. Still, Vald is a small player in a big game. When the 'boss' next door, a rather big boss, sets up a gaming house in Vald's territory, things quickly get ugly.

If the previous installment reminded me of the Stainless Steel Rat, this reminded me of The Godfather when mafia clans clash-- going to the mattresses was the colorful slang employed there. Vald has to fight back to get respect, but his opponent controls a lot more territory, has deeper pockets and a lot more people (enforcers) working for him.

If the mob was comprises the main plot, the political intrigue among the Dragaera fleshes it out. Like in Jhereg, some deep, dark plot/secret lurks among the Dragaera players and poor Vald gets stuck in the middle; if he does not sort it out, well, that's life (literally). Brust's pacing once again excels and this quickly becomes a fine mixture of political intrigue mixed with war on the streets. We also get a bit more background on some of the key secondary characters, especially the Dragaera ones. Lovely world building done almost effortlessly, with few wasted words. Remember the day when fantasy novels were seldom massive doorstops? I do! The economy of prose, and the elegance of the prose really sets this apart from the pack. The dark humor ices the cake. 4.5 stars!!

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damn. I'd written this nice little meta-review about being a geek, and then some errant keystrokes backed me out of the review I was writing and everything disappeared. I don't have it in me to rewrite at the moment, so here are some quick thoughts.

•Vlad Taltos' little gangster turf war is the best part of Yendi, and I hope that we get a little more of that as the series goes on, although I sense that he may be getting closer and closer to going legit-ish, or at least becoming all political.

•the Sorceress in Green twist was convoluted (on purpose), but it was a little too convoluted for my tastes. Still, it didn't take away any of the fun, so don't let it stop you from reading the story.

•the prequelness of Yendi was handled well, and I actually thought the Cawti-Vlad relationship was believable, even after the assassination attempt on the latter by the former.

•two books in, and Yendi confirms that this is a series worth reading -- even if it is fantasy gangster lite. I am definitely in for the long haul.

[Ruxandra Grrr · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yeah, not sure if I want to keep going in this series, though my friend has said this is the weakest of the 15 (?!?) he's read. We'll see and also more review later. (probably)

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I freely admit that I don't know whether this second book was written before or after the first's publication date, but it certainly falls five years before the main action of the previous novel.

Why does this matter? I don't mind having that tantalizing clue of having died years ago in the first novel being expanded into it's own interesting tale, but something has been itching under my skin as I read Yendi.

It didn't feel as polished as the previous novel. I kept picking up on clues that felt like this was the first tale, not the second. It was straightforward, following action after action, reversal after reversal. The previous novel jumped through time with important scenes and barrelling through ten years giving us the weight of great things and interesting stories untold, letting our imaginations do most of the work and driving us into some seriously important Work without stalling. This second novel compressed the time involved to just a few months, keeping things simple if not uncomplicated.

So why do I feel like this one could have really been the first novel of Mr. Brust? Because he didn't use all of the excellent tools of his writing that were at his disposal.

Don't get me wrong. This was a great mob-boss turf-war novel set among half-dragons and an unfortunate Easterner (read human) interloper in a big city. It also catapulted his love-interest to the forefront, and despite being such a whirlwind romance, I was charmed. Cawti was fully in the driver's seat, whether she was literally killing or loving Vlad. I rooted for both of them. What can I say? It was hopelessly romantic. Thank goodness for revivication. It's what turns any would be tragedy into high comedy.

One thing Steven Brust does fantastic in both novels is the near breakneck speed he can turn any desperate situation into a natural tragedy following from unintended consequences of character's actions.

In the first book, neither Vlad nor us knew what his casting of the second dragon invitation would do. My heart was in my throat when I, like Vlad, believed that he had just severed the connection with his best friend in order to save his life. The situation was a bit twisted in this novel after I was invited to see Cawti's world through Vlad's eyes after Vlad's assassination had been accomplished. Love at first sight for both of them at the moments of both their deaths... so fucked up, and so damn beautiful. So yes, I say again, thank god for revivication and the kindness of fucking powerful dragon hosts at Castle Black.

I really liked the novel's twisty plot turns, the love story, and the quick battles for supremacy. It might not have been as good as the first, but I still really enjoyed it.

I'm still curious to see all the places this series will go. Thank god I've got twelve more to go!

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Fantasía cocinada con todos los ingredientes de la novela negra más clásica.-

Género. Narrativa Fantástica.

Lo que nos cuenta. Vlad Taltos, dedicado a los negocios ilegales en la ciudad de Adrilankha, capital del imperio dragaerano, se ha hecho recientemente con el control de un pequeño territorio, pero parece que su dominio sobre el mismo está siendo puesto a prueba. Segundo libro de la serie de Vlad Taltos pero anterior al primero en la línea de tiempo de la vida del protagonista.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Brad · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm rereading my Taltos books these days, and my reread of Yendi didn't do it any kindness. It was an okay way to spend a few sleepless nights, but I very nearly set it down. I suppose I kept going out of nostalgia, but it made me sad.

Now I knew, I know, going into these books that they are readable and fun, but they are also fairly light weight. Yendi is too light weight, however. Sure we get to see the coming together of Cawti and Vlad, but it didn't come anywhere near satisfying me this time, and it felt way too rushed. Sure there was plenty of Loiosh and Vlad wit in their psionic conversations, but the banter has already entered the precious (which is particularly annoying considering this is a prequel to Jhereg). Sure there was lots of intrigue, but the intrigue was way too forced, and if I had been faced with just one more Vlad-speaking-his-thoughts-aloud-while-his-friends-listen-attentively figuring it out scenes I would have screamed my house awake.

Some things are better left alone. So do I stop now? Or do I press on in my plan to reread with the belief that most of the books really are better than this one?

I am going to regret my decision, I think.

[Fantasy boy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 to 5.0 stars. The Jhereg series is one of those series that I love to come back too whenever I am in the mood for a good, fun read. This is the second installment and I think it was as good as the first one. I love the world that Brust has created and the main character (Vlad Taltos) is great. I highly recommend this series to everyone who has not tried it yet.

[Dylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vlad, Loiosh and Cawti are second only to Murderbot and ART for my favorite SFF characters now, I reckon. Yendi was such a delight to read and even more engaging than Jhereg. Perfect pacing, great intrigue and such fantastic side characters, especially Sticks. “There’s no future in it.” Can’t wait to start book 3.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

The early days of Vlad Taltos origins as a mobster and assassin in the House of Jhereg with turf wars, gang violence, empire destroying conspiracies.

This was a struggle to read.

Somehow the author tied in a turf war between petty gang rivals Vladamir and Laris into this huge centuries-old grand conspiracy to to kill off the emperor's heir and warlord so that the conspirators can invade another country and only clever Vlad figures it out.

The only real revelations not discussed in the previous book were Vlad's real hatred towards the Dragaerans, why he decided to become an assassin, and the horrible treatment of the Easterners, the humans. by the Dragaerans, the demon sorcerers. Besides that, the 2nd book was pretty much a reiteration of the first book, with Vlad solving his mobster problems with leaps in logic and more pointless plotting and scheming.

Cawti and Vlad's relationship was just lazy writing by the author. They kill each other, they are revived, they do the deed, they fall in love and get married in like a day. Nothing else.

I will not be reading another book by this author.

[Melissa McShane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The thing I had forgotten about Yendi, in this most recent read via audio book, is how fundamentally straightforward it is. Vlad, still new to controlling his territory, is challenged by someone who wants to destroy him--that's the basic story. It isn't until you get most of the way in that the depth of the plotting is revealed, and it becomes clear that only a Yendi, master of subtlety and complex machinations, could be behind it.

I loved this book when I was young primarily for the romance between Vlad and Cawti. Having read Jhereg about a million times the year I was thirteen, I adored their relationship as a married couple, which at the time (I had only just discovered adult fantasy literature) was so rare in stories. So reading the story of how they met was exciting. This time, I was more conscious of how unusual it was that they came together at all. It makes sense for Cawti to have fallen in love with Vlad, having studied him so closely, but Vlad's attraction to Cawti as anything more than physical lust is less obvious. Is it that she's in the same line of work? That he's wanted more than the casual relationships he's had up to this point? I don't know. I think if I really were reading this chronologically for the first time, and didn't have a million readings of Jhereg influencing me, I'd be skeptical. One more reason not to read in internal chronological order if it's your first time with the series.

I do like the development of Vlad's relationship with Morrolan, Sethra, and Aliera. What Vlad says to Cawti about his loathing for Dragaerans is a stark contrast to what to me seems like a clear friendship. Morrolan and Aliera would not have come barreling to the rescue on Kragar's say-so alone. I'd like to see the scene where Vlad is assassinated from their perspective. The one thing I think a new reader to the series might benefit from by starting with Dragon is seeing Vlad's relationship with those three develop. I have no idea how Brust was able to keep track not only of what Vlad knows and when he knows it, but what kind of interactions he has with, say, Morrolan over the course of jumping around in time. It's just brilliant.

Moving on to Jhereg, which even now I can quote large chunks of from memory.

[M Hamed · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Chloe Frizzle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It does Mafia turf war very well. It also does political intrigue wizards very well.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yendi is book 2 in the Vlad Taltos series. Another re-read.

This story, the sequel to Jhereg, is more of a prequel to the first book. This is another of those nonlinear series, in the way of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga and some others.

Vlad is running a small area of the city for the organization. Things appear to be going well with his very lucrative "business" until an adjacent boss decides to muscle his way into Vlad's domain. Then things get ugly between the two rival gangs within their respective territories.

There is a mystery to be solved at the core of the story, similar to the style of the first book. Vlad and the gang are trying to figure out who the antagonists are, what the motivation is, and what the ultimate plan and repercussions will be. That doesn't sound exactly enthralling to spell things out this way, but the author has an excellent way of keeping things interesting. And lively!

[Maggie K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yendi is the 2nd installment in the Vlad Taltos series, and is actually a prequel to the first book. It establishes some background; how Vlad met Cawti (she tried to kill him) and how he built up his Jhereg territory. There is also the obligatory political problem, which in this case was extremely convoluted.

I do enjoy these books...they are fast paced, and have action. They aren't too long or convoluted.They are a great relaxing read.
For some reason, it took me a little bit to realize we had gone into the past at first read, and it was a bit jarring. The territory war/plotline was interesting. The love story didn't really seem very genuine...It came off more like Vlad is just a horndog...

and the political scheming? Kind of well, contrived. The power-scheming was so convoluted, that it had to be a Yendi, because they are into being convoluted, and here is a Yendi...so it must be her! Let's work it backwards...it is!

I still enjoyed it, just wasn't buying it.

[Mjhancock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Call it a 3.5. It's the second book in Brust's Vlad Taltos series, which I'm going to take a stab at describing as Sherlock Holmes-esque stories featuring gangsters and set in a fantasy world with magic and fantasy races and such. In particular, in an atypical move for a fantasy series, Yendi takes place at an earlier point in Taltos' history than the first book in the series, at an earlier point in his career as a minor crime boss. The Taltos series is odd--well, it's odd for a lot of reasons, but for the moment, I'd like to talk about Taltos himself. Vlad's an assassin and a criminal, but Brust manages to make him sympathetic. Part of that is, in this story at least, he's clearly the one reacting to someone else's aggression; it also takes some of the sting out of being an assassin figure when Brust sets up that this is a world where resurrection magic is generally common. That makes death more of a strongly worded complaint than the end of a situation. Finally, we don't actually see him shaking up people for protection money or so forth very often; generally, he's just trying to unravel why and how people are trying to kill him.

In this particular case, there's a man named Laris who's attempting to usurp Vlad's territory in their mutual crime syndicate, and preferably do so over Vlad's dead body. The means to accomplish the latter becomes clear when Vlad is attacked by a string of assassins, the first of which being a pair that includes the human Cawti--which readers of the first book will remember as Vlad's eventual wife. Some revelations emerge about Cawti's partner, and Vlad begins to suspect Laris' backer may have a different goal than he originally imagined. The confrontation with Laris is actually quite anticlimactic when it happens; for Brust, the point of the book is more Vlad's pursuit of the solution to the strange array of facts he's been presented with. There are also a number of the usual nice Brust touches that elevate the book beyond just a whodunnit with dragons. Vlad is noticeably shaken at several points by the attempts on his life, which is nice; too often, death becomes something blaze in fantasy, and to take a moment to step back humanizes Vlad quite a bit. He also gets a nice speech in on racism in the Empire, on what it means to grow up among people who think you're a mindless savage--nothing particularly new, but worth reminding the reader, since Vlad spends so much time with friends who treat him as an exception. And the relationship with Cawti is very interesting. It's almost comically speedy, but Brust makes it believable, within the confines of the storyworld he's set up. There's nothing quite as memorable as the description of what it's like to have a knife at your throat that opened the first book, but it's a good read, all the same.

[Mogsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank goodness I knew beforehand that the Vlad Taltos books aren't written in order of the timeline, or else I would have been really confused. This is the second book in the series to be published, but actually takes place before the first book, to the time when Vlad first meets his wife Cawti.

I really liked Cawti's character in Jhereg, and I was excited to find out she was going to have a much bigger role in this novel, based on its synopsis. So I was slightly let down when a third of the book breezed by and she still hadn't shown up; I think I was waiting with bated breath the whole time for that to happen. Eventually, amidst the Jhereg war that Vlad has started with rival Laris, she does make her appearance along with her partner-in-crime Norathar.

It was the high point for me, even though from the previous book we were told Vlad met Cawti while the latter was trying to assassinate him, so I knew what to expect. Despite that, it didn't diminish the scene in any way. A quote Vlad made from Jhereg still resonates with me, about how couples typically fall in love first then get married and spend the rest of their lives trying to kill each other, while with the two of them had it the other way around. I still chuckle when I think of it.

Still, the process of the two of them falling in love was really awkward, but somehow due to the book's style I suspect it was meant to be. It happened so quickly, with hardly any build up at all -- it seemed to me Vlad and Cawti literally jumped into bed after "Hello". Readers looking for elements of romance would be sorely disappointed, but then again Vlad doesn't seem like the type to be sentimental!

The story of the Jhereg war that started all this was very entertaining, at least, though there's a lot more the mystery angle in this book than the last. The breakneck pace of these novels means that sometimes the clues and the conclusions they lead to are sometimes hard to follow, especially since there are so much history and so many names thrown around. I think Yendi would have been more suspenseful if it hadn't been a "prequel" and we didn't already know how certain events played out, but this was another good read all in all, fast and fun.

[Geoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've certainly become a fan of Brust's Taltos series through the first two books - Jhereg and Yendi. They are fun & light reads. The plot seems straightforward and the characters are a bit one-dimensional but it all just comes off as fun, rather than boring or lazy.

This is a prequel to the first book in the series. I'm usually weary of prequels since there can be a loss of some of the suspense in a novel when you know part of its future. But its not a big deal here because, for the most part, its a narrowed scope plot that never threatens to get too into the way of what is established in the first book.

I had issues with two slightly major things in this book: the love story and the villains plot. The romance between Vlad & Cawti is turned up to 11. It goes from 0 to 100 in about one chapter. And given the circumstances of their introduction to each other, a little bit of healthy restraint would have been completely reasonable. The ultimate villain's plot in this novel is ridiculously convoluted. There is a built-in reason but its not properly developed throughout the novel. When its revealed at the end, its presented as a known fact of the world but then the story moves on. Neither of these things detracted from my enjoyment of the book though. I'm not worried about the romantic side in future books but, hopefully, major plot revelations are more developed in the future.

I'll be looking to this series in the future whenever I need a shorter fantasy fix.

[[Name Redacted] · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oddly, the second book in the series is set before the first, which becomes a tradition for Brust's "Vlad Taltos" novels. Every other book, starting with the first, is set in the "present", while the rest are all set in the past... So the order should be: 4, 8, 2, 8, 13, 1, 3...

Also, Brust's writing is rather like Sanderson's in that there is very little description to it. You never really know what anyone or anything looks, feels, smells, tastes, etc. like; the action is bare bones, and even the dialogue tends to be extremely simple. The difference is that Brust can pull it off because his novels are usually 200 pages or less (I haven't read the other three he wrote), so you don't really FEEL how empty they are -- they're fun pulp set in a sci-fantasy world, and that's all they need to be.

[Jamie Collins · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like this (very short) second book as well as Jhereg. I enjoyed watching Vlad establish and defend his territory - he's a nice sort of underworld boss - but I wasn't terribly interested in the greater political plot explored in the second half of the book.

The scheming and action scenes are well-written and believable. The romantic scenes, not so much. I was not impressed by the instant attraction between Vlad and the woman who tried to kill him.

Still, there was enough good stuff here for me to continue with the series.

[W.R. Gingell · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was DELIGHTFUL

Steven Brust and Vlad Taltos are always a very nice treat for me, but i feel like the growth in writing from the first book to this (the second) is really huge. i haven't read any of these books in order (i kept finding them out and about, fortuitously) so i've been mostly gathering bits and pieces of info and history like a happy little pack rat as i go along, and this served a whole bunch of nostalgia in reverse.

love to read americans writing american-toned fantasy, complete with shoulder dragon Loiosh calling Vlad "boss"

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't grab me like the first book did. I still like Brust's style quite a bit, he's building up an interesting world and some extremely fun characters. But I have to admit I was lost reading this one. I don't think I can even explain what a Yendi is, and I just read a book entitled "Yendi." The plot seemed to be mostly a sequence of confusing skirmishes plus a love story that kinda didn't make sense. Maybe it'll clear up whenever I get around to book 3.

[meeners · Rating 3 out of 5]

these books are weird. just when my frustration with certain fantasy cliches - especially the "all races = one race = white" equation - threatens to reach its boiling point, brust will bust out with a completely unexpected, completely awesome twist or comment or insight. i hope he starts building more on these unexpected turns in later books...

[Jennifer Wheeler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m still rather underwhelmed by this series so far. There’s entirely too much intrigue & dialogue, not enough action. Since I’m reading the first 3 books in omnibus form, the next book is what will determine whether I continue with the series after that, or abandon it and give away all of the books.

[Oyceter · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://oyceter.livejournal.com/571335...