Review: Tiassa by Steven Brust

Publisher: Doherty, Tom Associates, LLC

Release Date: March 2011

More Info: Amazon

Book Blurb:

  Once, Vlad Taltos knew his trade: He killed people for a lkiving. That skill got him a foothold in House Jhereg, running the rackets for a chunk of urban Adrilankha.

Later, things happened that left Vlad a changed man, on the run from the Jhereg and frequently involved in the affairs of Dragonlords, Empresses and even Jenoine. Far more involved than the average human.

Meanwhile, in the very distant past, one of the gods fashioned an artifact - a silver figurine of a tiassa, a winged pantherlike animal. To Devera the Wanderer, it's a pretty toy to play with. To Vlad, it's a handy prop for a con he's running. To the Empire, it's a tool to be used against the Jenoine. And to the Jhereg, it's a trap to kill Vlad.

As it happens, however, the silver tiassa has its own agenda.

Tiassa tells a story that threads its way through more than ten years of the remarkable lif of Vlad Talto - and, to the delight of longtime fans, brings him together with Khaavren, from the Phoenix Guards and its sequels. Khaavren may be Vlad's best friend - or his most terrible enemy.

My Thoughts: 

I love the Vlad Taltos series, as well as the the other books Brust has written in this world. I love that the style of Taltos varies so greatly from the Phoenix Guards. I admire the fact that the series can be read in any order, because it's not written in chronological order. Actually, I'm very amused by that.

This book, however, breaks that pattern. I would say that  you really need to have read the rest of the books to understand half of what happens in this one. It's not a bad thing, since the rest of the books are great reads. It was nice to have some of the loose ends start to come together.

Now that I've gotten that warning out of the way, I want to say that Tiassa gives me everything I could want in a Vlad book except Morrolan. (There's always that one character in a series that I just adore above all others. Never completely happy when he's missing from the mix.) The sarcasm, the Machiavellian plots, the Shakespearean taunts, the magic, the swordplay - it's all there.

This book was lent to the reviewer.