9/10Actually, about 9.5/10. I couldn't quite give it a 10 because of the time jumps... the Vlad Taltos series' internal chronology does not follow the publication order of the books and so I always spend a bit of time deciding where in the overall story arc each book fits. And this book, unlike m...
Another in the series, great weekend escapist read! ITs very good, pulls more of a quirky humour out and would add a lot for any who reads
Characterization felt spotless and consistent. Storyline was clear and well paced. There was enough intricacy to prevent a linear flow to the story without getting in it's own way. It read like an episode of the series, but if shot would lose a lot of the flavor that Steven added with the charac...
Originally reviewed at Bookwraiths ReviewsBrokedown Palace is a fantasy fable, as told by Stephen Brust.The tale itself is set in the Dragaeran world of Vlad Taltos in the human (Easterner) kingdom of Fenario, which borders the land of Faerie (Dragaera). Legend tells that mighty Fenarr establish...
My feelings about this book was very mixed throughout, and how I felt about Jack kept wavering between amusement/neutral and disgust.Anyway. This book was very heartily recommended to me by someone whose opinion I value. You'll love it, he said. Well, "love" is a strong word. Let's just say I...
Vlad is out of his normal environment. Instead of being a powerful assassin and a member of a criminal organization. He is alone, far away from his big cities, with only his jhereg companions.Athyra: Vlad Taltos doesn't believe in coincidence so when a man that he once knew dies just as he arrive...
reviews.metaphorosis.com2 starsThe rebel Kana is challenging Zerika's nascent reign. Khaavren and friends (and his son and his friends) try to save the day.I've previously been a big fan of Brust's writing, but I found The Paths of the Dead, the first part of Brust's Viscount of Adrilankha sub-tr...
Whether you like this book or not is very dependent on how much you can deal with a rather overwhelming parody joke. The following is an example of a typical piece of dialogue:"I have an idea!""An idea?""Yes, an idea.""And is it a good idea?""I believe it is in fact a very splendid idea.""I would...
And here's where it hits me that I don't know if I missed something, to blame Verra, or to narrow my eyes at Brust. I just know that when Vlad took off from the City, he wore a black phoenix stone. Here, he has something that seems to be a black one and gold one together. Since they're not so ...
Swashbuckling adventure! Sinister plots against the Empire! Will good friends, honor and friendliness prevail?In all reviewer honesty, I've had this book for a number of years now (fine; since I bought the paperback release in 1992. Yes, Grasshopper, I'm that old) and have re-read it more than a...
The Paths of the Dead is Steven Brust's long-awaited sequel to The Phoenix Guards and Five Hundred Years After.Two hundred years after Adron's Disaster, in which Dragaera City was accidentally reduced to an ocean of chaos by an experiment in wizardry gone wrong, the Empire isn't what it used to b...
YendiI was midly disappointed by Yendi, the second book in The Vlad Taltos series. Contrary to Jhereg, where I was immediately pulled inside the story, things were much slower in Yendi. A quarter or even half the book felt like Brust (the author) was merely listing a series of action instead of t...
Granted, walking around with two jhereg on your shoulders is not the best disguise for an ex-assassin wanted all over the Empire. But a young boy saved his life and then needs help, Vlad Taltos pays his debt--even if it means uncovering a financial scandal big enough to bring down the House of th...
4.0 to 4.5 stars. The above quote just about perfectly sums up the tone and style of Steven Brust's JHEREG novels...playfully dark, coolly subdued and dangerously badasstic...in a word YUMMMMMM!! Seriously, I am pretty smitten with Brust's breezy style and this series is currently on a very shor...
"I sometimes wonder if my entire adult life has been spent in an effort to avoid dirty dishes. One could, I suppose, have worse goals" p 7. Smiles are reasons to read, not really criminal not-hero. "Ummm" p 21 blunders, "I never have understood" why grandad insists no blood sacrifice to gods p 41...
φάνταζι νουάρ, με φοβερές ιδέες. Ήρωας είναι ο Vlad Taltos, ένας Εasterner (σαν ανθρώπους τους παρουσιάζει), που από κόλλημα του πατέρα του καταλήγει να είναι Dragaeran πολίτης (αυτούς τους παρουσιάζει λίγο σαν ξωτικά). Οι Dragaerans είναι χωρισμένοι σε 17 Οίκους, με ονόματα που παραπέμπουν σε ζώ...
A group of folk musicians find themselves in a bar. The city the bar is in gets nuked, but somehow the bar jumps to another city in another time and place in the galaxy. Sometime later, the new city is nuked again. Who is doing this, and why? And what does it have to do with great cooking, tr...
This was my least favourite of the Vlad Taltos books so far, although it was still decent. That’s really how you can tell how strong this series is, because this is easily the weakest in the first six and it’s still good. Unfortunately, I feel I have to compare it to the other books in the same s...
Vlad Taltos ist ein Hexer, freiberuflicher Attentäter, lebt als Ostländer (also Mensch) unter Dragaeranern und nennt einen reptilischen Vertrauten mit beissendem Humor sein Eigen. Und er ist in Schwierigkeiten, denn er muss einen Krieg verhindern, in dem sich seine besten Freunde und daneben auch...
WAS THE MATTER UPON WHICH Khaavren was summoned trivial in fact? This is not a judgment the historian is willing to make. The reader need not, of course, be reminded of the “Tale of the Smudged Letter,” in which a drop of water causes the sinking of an island; and there can be no doubt of i...
I got out of my sadly empty bed, put the coffee on, and stepped into the shower. Usually, it would be an easy choice: The World Series of Poker was going, and the money I made playing the side-games was a truly appalling percentage of my yearly income. But, in the first place, I’d done really wel...
I found the candles, and placed them, black and white, around the brazier. Then I took the amulet off. I mean, they knew where I was anyway, right? “Loiosh, don’t monitor the spell. I need you checking for anyone about to show up and ruin my party or anything coming from outside that might, you k...
Sorry, sorry. In order, then. From the beginning? You were the one who said sarcasm was—Yes, m’lady. It was several days ago that you sent me—Barlen’s balls. All right. It was early in the morning of the third day of the month of the Phoenix in the 230th year of the Reign of Her Glorious Majesty ...
but was also where she lived. Having introduced the subject of living quarters, and, moreover, observing that the reader last had occasion to look in on Blackchapel several scores of years earlier, we consider it our duty, before continuing, to say two words about Blackchapel as it was at this ti...
said Daymar into my mind and into the silence of Fornia, his honor guard, and his sorcerers all staring at me and waiting for me to do something. Relative silence, I should say; there was still a battle moving toward me. Had Daymar actually succeeded? Pulled the information out of Fornia’s mind, ...
We can’t know how a Jhegaala will react until we know what stage he is at. Lefitt: Indeed. That is just how one generally finds out. Boraan: Inefficient, to be sure. Lefitt: Irritating. Boraan: Frustra...
It is one of the handful of counties nestled between Southmoor and Bra-Moor, south of the Collier Hills, and twenty-five or thirty leagues west and north of Aerich’s home of Brachington’s Moor. The entire region is hills and valleys, with the Adrilankha River cutting through them like an orange r...
—Dante, Purgatorio, Canto xvii:115-120 Abdiel got as close to the Southern Hold as he could. “This is probably stupid,” he told himself. “There isn’t anything I can learn here, and eventually someone will see me.” He shook his head. “What did I come here for, anyway? I should be on my way home ...