The Adventures of Vlad Taltos

First published:Jhereg (1983), Yendi (1984), Teckla (1987), Taltos (1988), Phoenix (1990), and Athyra (1993)

Type of work: Novels

Type of plot: Fantasy—magical world

Time of work: Undefined

Locale: Primarily the city of Adrilankha, of the Dragaeran Empire

The Plot

The Vlad Taltos series centers on a wisecracking professional assassin, who is an Easterner—or human—living among a race of beings called Dragaerans. The Dragaerans are humanoid creatures who stand seven to eight feet tall and have a life span of between two thousand and three thousand years. Their empire is built on a class system: Every member belongs to one of seventeen houses, each named for a native creature of that world. Easterners are a much-despised minority. In an effort to assimilate, Vlad’s father squandered his life savings on a baronetcy in one of the lower-status houses.

Vlad, who early on became accustomed to the dangers of urban street life, has risen through the ranks of House Jhereg, a criminal organization, to control the gambling and other illegal activities of a small section of the city of Adrilankha. Reflecting the danger of his chosen career, he never leaves home without an arsenal of weapons concealed on his person. One of Vlad’s favorite mottoes is “No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style.”

Vlad also knows some sorcery and witchcraft. He travels with a familiar, a wisecracking jhereg named Loiosh with whom he communicates “psionically,” or psychically. A jhereg is a small, poisonous, winged, lizardlike creature. Loiosh often perches on Vlad’s shoulder. Loiosh has a humanlike intelligence and stays ever on the lookout for danger, which always seems to be near.

Vlad is married to a fellow Easterner named Cawti. She is also a professional assassin and is known as the Dagger of the Jhereg. Vlad and Cawti met when she was hired to kill him—and succeeded in her task. As Vlad aptly put it, “Some couples fall in love and end up trying to kill each other. We’d done it the other way around.” In this world of sorcery and witchcraft, however, death may or may not be permanent. Fortunately, Vlad was revivifiable. The possibility of revivification depends on the manner in which one dies. Even if death is permanent, one’s soul may survive to go on to the afterlife, if it is not destroyed by a magical “Morganti” weapon.

The first book in the series, Jhereg, introduces Vlad Taltos, his profession, and his world. It centers on his being hired by the Demon, one of five members of the council of House Jhereg, to kill another member of the council, Mellar, who has absconded with council funds. Mellar, however, is no simple thief: He has set in motion a complicated and diabolical revenge plot that Vlad must foil. The next book in the series, Yendi, is a prequel to Jhereg. Yendi relates the story of Vlad and Cawti’s first meeting, when she assassinated him and he was revivified, and how they later teamed with two lords of the House of the Dragon, Morrolan and Morrolan’s cousin Aliera, to defeat an enemy of Vlad.

The third book, Teckla, picks up where Jhereg left off. Cawti joins a revolutionary band of Easterners and Teckla—the peasant class of Dragaerans—whose goal is to overthrow the oppressive Dragaeran Empire. Vlad is opposed to the revolt and does everything in his power to extricate his wife from this group, to the detriment of his marriage. The fourth book, Taltos, is chronologically the first. It relates Vlad’s early life, how he met and befriended the reticent Lord Morrolan, and how they came to walk the Paths of the Dead. The fifth book, Phoenix, follows Teckla chronologically. Vlad and Cawti are still suffering from marital problems, as Cawti has become more deeply involved with the band of rebels. His marital problems prompt Vlad to question his life and the direction it has taken. In the end, events conspire to force Vlad into a self-imposed exile.

The sixth book in the series, Athyra, differs markedly in style and tone from the previous five. Rather than using Vlad as protagonist, Steven Brust chooses a young Dragaeran peasant named Savn. Set several years after the events in Phoenix, this novel centers on Savn and the rural village of Smallcliff, where he lives with his parents and his sister, Polyi. When Vlad appears in Smallcliff, Savn befriends the stranger. Unfortunately for Savn, Vlad’s dangerous past catches up with him, forcing Savn to defy his parents and ultimately to commit murder.