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Jhegaala (Vlad) | 
 enlarge | Author: Steven Brust
Publisher: Tor Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $13.89
You Save: $11.06 (44%)
New (31) Used (5) from $13.89
Avg. Customer Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 10512
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.2
ISBN: 0765301474
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780765301475
ASIN: 0765301474
Publication Date: July 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new Book. Orders are usually processed and shipped within 24 hrs. (Seller Reference: B#10N)
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Product Description
Fresh from the collapse of his marriage, and with the criminal Jhereg organization out to eliminate him, Vlad decides to hide out among his relatives in faraway Fenario. All he knows about them is that their family name is Merss and that they live in a papermaking industrial town called Burz. At first Burz isn’t such a bad place, though the paper mill reeks to high heaven. But the longer he stays there, the stranger it becomes. No one will tell him where to find his relatives. Even stranger, when he mentions the name Merss, people think he’s threatening them. The witches’ coven that every Fenarian town and city should have is nowhere in evidence. And the Guild, which should be protecting the city’s craftsmen and traders, is an oppressive, all-powerful organization, into which no tradesman would ever be admitted. Then a terrible thing happens. In its wake, far from Draegara, without his usual organization working for him, Vlad is going to have to do his sleuthing amidst an alien people: his own.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 Another piece to the Complex puzzle. August 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Anyone familiar with the Vlad series will enjoy this latest chapter. New readers will find an enjoyable introduction to the author's quick witted style and will most likely run to read the rest of the series.
One of the best writers ever! August 14, 2008
I love this series, and devoured this one so fast.... Now I cannot wait for the next installment!
Vlad Taltos book 11 - Vlad visits Fenario searching for his roots August 9, 2008
This entertaining comic fantasy thriller is the eleventh published book in the story of Vladimir Taltos. In chronological sequence, however, it is number seven: the action of the story begins a couple of months after Vlad goes on the run from the Jhereg "organisation" in which he had formerly been an assassin and major crimelord, at the end of "Phoenix."
Before leaving the Imperial capital, Adrilankha city, Vlad had appointed his grandfather as regent of a property he owned outside the city. A few weeks later he secretly visited his grandfather there, and asked about his long-vanished mother. It turns out she cames from a paper-making town called Burz in the human kingdom of Fenario, to the East of the Dragaeran Empire in which Vlad has grown up.
Knowing little about his mother other than her maiden name of Merss, Vlad goes to Fenario and starts asking after her family. This creates a strange reaction. At first everyone who he asks after his mother's family either clams up totally or takes the very question as some kind of threat. No sooner has he discovered where in the vicinity of Burz a family with that name lives than someone burns down their house before he can get their, murdering every man, woman and child inside.
There are three sinister powers that dominate Burz - the feudal count who is the nominal overlord and runs the mill, the "Guild" which dominate trade and a hidden "coven" of witches. One of them is clearly threatened by Vlad and ordered the murder of the Mers family, who had probably been his relatives. But which ?
If he had any sense, Vlad would have moved on: the longer he stays in one place the greater the chance that the Jhereg "organisation" will track him down and kill him. But whoever was responsible for the murder of the Merss family have made a fatal mistake. Vlad may have stopped working as an assassin, he may now be a hunted fugitive, but he still has all the skills which made him one of the most powerful crimelords in the empire. He doesn't need to kill anyone personally to destroy them. And the people who murdered his relatives have made him very angry ...
If you have not previously read any of Steven Brust's "Vlad Taltos" novels or "Khaavren" romances, they are all set in a world of magic, where there are several intelligent species, including two types of men and women. Humans like ourselves are usually referred to as "Easterners," the other type of men and women call themselves humans but are usually referred to in the books as "Dragaerans" or occasionally as Elves. Dragaerans are taller than humans, live 2,000 or 3,000 years or so, and then after death are eligible for reincarnation provided they have not annoyed a God too much or had their soul destroyed by a "Morganti" weapon or a "Great Weapon."
Morganti weapons are used between mortals when they are really angry with someone because they don't just kill you, but destroy your soul. "Great Weapons," are particularly deadly Morganti weapons which can even kill Gods. Tradition said that there are exactly seventeen Great Weapons, (this is a special number to Dragaerans).
All Dragaerans belong to one of seventeen "Great Houses" named after animals of the fantasy world in which the novels are set. Ten of the eleven novels featuring Vlad Taltos, including "Jhegaala," are named after one of these great houses - in fact this is the only such novel which does not feature a member of the eponymous house in a prominent role. If Steven Brust is planning to write a novel for each house we are just over half way through the series.
Most of the great houses also have a preferred occupation. For examples: "Dragons" and "Dzurlords" are soldiers, "Tecla" are peasants, "Chreotha" are merchants, "Orcas" are sailors, pirates or - wait for it - bankers, and "Jhereg" are gangsters or assassins. This book has a table at the front with a picture of the House animal of each house and a description of their principal characteristics, which for the Jhegaala are "Metamorphosis and Endurance"
The hero, Baronet Vladimir Taltos, is an assassin and minor sorcerer, who used to be a prominent member of House Jhereg, and like most members of that house was involved in "the organisation" which controls organised crime.
However, in the chronologically preceding book "Pheonix" Vlad's wife Cawti, who is also an assassin, developed an unfortunate case of principles. In the process of digging her out of the mess which resulted and saving her life, Vlad enraged the Jhereg organisation and had to go on the fun from them, with a huge price on his head.
Vlad has two companions, Loiosh and Rocza who are actual Jhereg - that is to say, they are small intelligent flying reptiles. Loiosh is Vlad's familiar and the two communicate telepathically - with an amusing line in banter. Taltos narrates these stories with a wonderful dry wit which is one of the best aspects of the novels.
Stven Brust makes some attempt to recognise that some readers might be new to this book and not have read the previous novels in the series. This does not IMHO make it a good idea to start with this book, but it is still sometimes useful in helping previous readers who don't have a memory like a computer to follow the complex plot.
The books are not written in a regular chronological sequence: for example, the fourth novel, "Taltos" is a prequel set before the main action of any of the others. Most of the books contain either flashbacks to much earlier events, references to much later events, or both.
You will get most out of these books if you read them in something close to the "official" order.
If you are interested in these books, my recommendation would be to start with either the first book written, "Jhereg" or the chronologically first book, "Taltos." If you like the first one you do read, and decide to read the rest, I recommend that you follow something like the order the books were published. Here is a list of the books in publication order, with the chronological place of the main action of each book in brackets after:
1) Jhereg (4th)
2) Yendi (3rd)
3) Tecla (5th)
4) Taltos (1st)
5) Phoenix (6th)
6) Athyra (8th)
7) Orca (9th)
8) Dragon (2nd)
9) Issola (10th)
10) Dzur (11th)
11) Jhegaala (7th).
Fenario, where the action of "Jhegaala takes place" is also the setting for a stand-alone Steven Brust novel not featuring Vlad Taltos called "Brokedown Palace."
If you enjoy the Taltos novels, you might be interested in another sequence of books which Steven Brust has set in the same country, but quite a few centuries earlier. These are something between a parody and a homage to the novels of Alexandre Dumas. He's called them the "Khaavren Romances" after the central character of the first two novels, who corresponds very closely to D'Artagnan. Obviously none of the human characters overlap, but some of the Dragaerans do: Khaavren himself meets Vlad Taltos very briefly in "Tecla" and has a brief offstage cameo in the Vlad Taltos book "Orca." Two of the major characters in the Taltos novels, Sethra Lavode and Lord Morrolan of Castle Black, are also important enough in the Khaavren series to have books named after them.
The five Khaavren romances, in sequence, are
1) "The Phoenix Guards" (equivalent to "The Three Musketeers")
2)"Five Hundred Years After" (equivalent to "Twenty years after")
Then a trilogy "The Viscount of Adrilankha" (e.g. "The Count of Monte Cristo") which comprises
3) The Paths of the Dead
4) The Lord of Castle Black
5) Sethra Lavode
Overall I found both the "Taltos" novels and the "Khaavren Romances" very entertaining: I recommend both series and this book.
Steven Brust Rules August 8, 2008
While this is not my favourite of his books, it must nonetheless be said that Steven Brust has done it again, and this book is a masterfully told story of Vlads adventures in the east. It takes place after Orca but before Issola. I only gave it four stars because I judged it against his other books, rather than books in general. Superb!
Keeps you wanting more. August 6, 2008
I was hoping that this would be a continuation to the Issola novel in which Vlad obtains one of the 17 Great Weapons. I was not expecting it to be a novel about his travels to the EAST before the making of 'Godslayer'.
As usual though Brust has kept with the tradition of surprising us all in this new adventure of Vlad's. The numerous intrigues keep you guessing as to who is behind the death of his Family and the strange workings of a human (read Easterner here) town. I kept waiting to see if any of the usual suspects would appear in this novel, and was a little disapointed when none of them showed their Elven (read Human here) little heads. As usual though you still have to read between the lines to get the whole picture of what is truely going on. The only downside to this novel is that you will curse Brust for not having the next novel ready for devouring. I know I count down the days to when the next arrives and hope that it includes the ever lovable Teldra/Godslayer, Loiosh, Rocza, Kiera/Sethra, Demon Goddess, and ETC. All in all a good read that you won't be able to put down.
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