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Customer Reviews
This book seems far more personal than its immediate predecessors, particularly Phoenix - the political viewpoint in that book has been ratcheted down, and instead the themes are more immediate, while perhaps similar: deception, integrity, the morality of death, and so on. There are moments when the dialogue resembles a philosophical debate on these issues, but it tends to be directed in interesting enough ways that one doesn't really notice.
However, if you've picked it up just for the vaguely Bond-esque action, a aution; this is far more of a 'talky' book than some of its predecessors. That said, the ending is intense, and I haven't really put it down since I picked it up; the characters continue to have Brusts great talent played across them, each reacting with at least some semblance of believable motive and personality. Personally I found the final villains slightly caricatured, but your mileage may vary) Athyra then is a book of thought and philosophy, intrigue and magic - much like the Athyra themselves in fact. And it was certainly well worth the wait.
Orca is a similar tale in that it deals far more with intrigue than the art of assassination - but then, this is well within the scope of the development of Vlad's character. Orca returns to the first person narrative of the other books, though it does alternate between our usual associate and Kiera the Thief - as with Athyra, the different perspective is nicely entailed in the structure of the prose itself. Unfortunately, Orca does suffer from some drawbacks; its plotting, if interesting, seems overly convoluted, being concerned mainly with Orca and finance; it can on occasion become a stutter of the semi-arcane, and even lapses into sheer incomprehensibility at times. The reliance on an end of book exposition to explain the myriad threads is both necessary, and by its necessity, a weakness. However the most worrying thing here is that Orca is certainly not a stand alone book, as most of the others have been - it is difficult to imagine it being comprehensible without at least some knowledge of the Dragaeran world.
Allowing for these flaws however, it remains an accomplished text, containing more of the old dry wit than was evidenced by Athyra, linked with the usual tight (if over-complex) plot and splendid characters, including a few old friends. Certainly worth a read if you enjoyed the rest of the series; otherwise I'd recommend starting with Jhereg.
On balance then, the collection is perhaps the weakest of the three so far in that it is overreliant on past tales and is thus less accessible. However it does also contain some of the more intriguing plot, and the chance to finally read Athyra makes up for much. In balance, much like the advice given above for Orca, if you're new to Brust, buy the Book of Jhereg. If you want to go deeper into the world, this is an extremely interesting and involving place to look into.
Steve Brust is a very entertaining writer and these books are almost as light hearted as they seem to be. He manages to slip some pretty interesting ideas into them without beating you over the head with them. Read them for entertainment and appreciate the interesting questions the derry doing hero raises.
Taltos 4.5* -- Brust's funniest of the series, loaded with deadpan humor. This is a simple tale that establishes the beginnings of Taltos' relationships with many of the recurring characters of the other books. In regular paperback form it's 180 pages and you can read it in a few hours. Well-paced, good resolution of the three plotlines
Yendi 4* -- complex and satisfying for a short book, humorous
Jhereg 5* -- the first-published and best of the bunch, gives useful background and is the real starting point of the series
Teckla 2* -- maudlin and introspective without much context or reason for the tone
Phoenix 4* -- picks up the pace after Teckla and re-establishes some of Taltos' business arrangements (he's an assassin and a small-time mob capo), has a complex and twisting plotline and has more of the humor of the first three books. Nonetheless, it still has some of the pall from the Teckla woven throughout the story.
Dragon 4* -- published 8th, returns to form of witty banter, smart introspection and twisty plotting of earlier books
ATHYRA 1* -- meandering and depressing; only book not told from Vlad Taltos' first-person point of view, actionless and largely themeless
ORCA 4* -- better plotting and pacing for this Athyra follow-up, plus intricate mob-financing issues explored by Taltos in unmasking Orca-house mob syndicate
Issola 4* -- Newest entry is a philosophical stemwinder about the history of Vlad-world and the purposes of the g*ds. Therefore, Issola is not the place to start but it is a solid addition to the series if you've read some of the others.
All said, two of the weaker entries (Orca ranks seventh of the nine books) in the Vlad Taltos series are compiled in the Book of Athyra. Athyra itself is dour, boring, and unquestionably the worst of the lot (most of which, in contrast, are good to near excellent). Athyra is the only one not told from Vlad Taltos' first-person perspective, is one of the longer books in the series, and has neither the humor nor adventure that characterize the other eight. Brust is an experimenter as a writer -- a praiseworthy concept -- but Athyra essentially goes awry.
Orca is not overly memorable, but at least it is within the expectations of the rest of the books -- some swashbuckling, wise-acre humor, twisted plot and solid resolution. Buy it separately and skip Athyra altogether and you really don't miss anything.
Athyra-4 stars, a nice book from an innocent's viewpoint about Vlad.
Orca-2 stars, a dull book about financial swindles.
In full:
Athyra-I have not enjoyed a Vlad book as much as this once since the first three. Switching the narrative away from Vlad was a refreshing, and necessary move to invigorate the story.
Savn, an innocent Dragaeran youth is a wonderfully sympathetic character studying to be a physicker when Vlad arrives at his town. He befriends Vlad and begins to find himself ostracized from his friends for hanging around the Easterner. Once he helps Vlad with his injuries there is no turning back.
Through Savn's eyes we get to see a vulnerable Vlad, a hurting Vlad without the cockiness, one who is rethinking virtually everything about his life, life in general and the universe. We see Savn grow through meeting the challenges of befriending Vlad, his sister also and we see Vlad changed and changing from the flippant assassin.
The pace is relaxed, without being slow, and builds to a climactic ending with consequences for everyone. A very well done effort from Brust, it was almost like reading about Vlad for the first time due to the change of viewpoint.
Orca-In this plodding tale of Vlad, much talking is done about a banking financial swindle happening. Like Vlad investigates Enron, but not that much fun. In order to help Savn, who saved Vlad previously Vlad must help out an old lady with the power to possibly heal Savn. This leads to the investigation of the financial swindle.
Vlad and Kiera play Joe Hardy and Nancy Drew, except again, it really isn't that fun. The book is dialog heavy and as exciting as my accounting textbook, maybe less so.
As others have said, the revelation in the last 10 pages is the only payoff for reading the book. Not worth it in my opinion.
By all means, if you have gotten this far into the series, do read these. I just personally found the narrative from multiple viewpoints less appealing than the single-point narrative in the earlier volumes.
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