I was not a fan of the first two novels in this compendium, but then they get bogged down in plotting and a ton of characters with weird names that are easy to lose track of. In all of the novels, the hero, Vlad Taltos, pulls off some byzantine scheme to win the day. In the third novel, Brust does something different and it is more of a character study, with the amoral assassin coming to grips with who he is against the backdrop of a socialist uprising in the fantasy world. I am intrigued enough to want to pursue this world in the subsequent novels. ( )

This is an imaginary world in a more or less medieval setting, with magic and 14 ancient clans. Our hero has come from a peasant background and has risen by succeeding as a contract assassin. In the three stories in this compendium he’s a criminal boss running prostitution, gambling and organized crime in a specific part of the city. In the first two stories this is portrayed as fairly glamorous, fighting against anti heroes who bring general mayhem across society, but in the final story his wife’s embrace of a revolutionary movement of the massive underclass forces him to face up to the evil in his criminal business. Mostly well characterized and convincingly written. ( )

A collection of 3 novellas(about 170 pages each) The setting is a fantasy world, but honestly, it almost feels like a '60s flick movie at times. The first 2 stories are a nice "who done 'it" type of story. The 3rd one, I found to be pretty weak though. It's nice to see a "hero" that is actually afraid he'll die, and to see him truly vulnerable(he got killed by his own to-be-wife after all)

The humorous lines with his jereg could be better. Lots of missed opportunities with it.

All in all, it was a nice read, nothing great, but not bad either. There are alot more books in the series from what I saw, maybe one day I'll read them. ( )

This is an omnibus collection of the first three books -- by publication date, not by internal chronology -- in Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series. Vlad is a human living in a society controlled by the vaguely elf-like Dragaerans. Opportunities in that society are limited for people like him, but he's managed to do well for himself as an assassin and a crime lord. (Well, I'm not sure "crime lord" is how he would think of it. But that's basically what he is.)

This was actually a re-read for me. I first read these about ten years ago, enjoyed them, and had every intention of continuing on with the series, but for some reason I never did. Well, I've decided to go back to it now, and I figured a refresher on the first three books was in order. Although it may not have been strictly necessary, as they're largely designed to all stand alone.

The three short novels included here are:

Jhereg: In this one, Vlad is hired to kill a very important target on a very strict time schedule, but the person has holed up somewhere where he can't be taken out without dire consequences. The plot is rather slight, and I'm not sure the gimmick used to resolve things is set up quite as well as it could be. But it's entertaining enough. And it does a good job of introducing the series. Both the character and the world are decently interesting, and right from the beginning it feel like they both have a full-fledged history behind them. Brust also uses some common fantasy tropes in ways that don't feel at all cliched, and makes a character who could be very flat and/or unlikable quite sympathetic and human.

Yendi: This is a prequel to the first book, and features a mob war that turns out to have connections to something bigger, as well as the story of how Vlad met his wife. Again, it's an entertaining enough read, although the plot (convoluted as it is) didn't hold my attention quite as well as I might have hoped. I think that might be an artifact of it being a re-read for me, though, meaning that even if I didn't remember any of the details, it still felt a little too familiar. Although maybe it's more because it is a prequel, so you kind of know how things are going to come out for Vlad in the end. I also found the love story part of things a little annoying; it's one of those cases where it feels like the characters fall for each other solely because the author pointed at them and ordered them to. Which is especially disappointing because the characters have enough in common that it would have been easy to believe in their relationship if they'd, y'know, been allowed to have an actual conversation before falling in love. Despite all that, it's not bad, but I think it's the weakest of the three.

Teckla: And this one goes back and picks up shortly after the first book left off. This time, Vlad's wife has gotten involved with a group of revolutionaries, and Vlad is not happy about it. This was definitely my favorite of the three. There's a lot of political discussions, which I'm sure is not for everybody, but I was impressed with the nuanced way Brust handles it all. Plus, it's nice to see a fantasy series that doesn't act like only the aristocrats exist or matter, but rather is willing to acknowledge that there's a lot of exploited underclasses making all those aristocratic doings possible. And the complexity of the political situation is reflected in the complexity of Vlad's character, as he's forced to question his own identity and actions a little, in a way that feels very realistic. There are no instantly life-changing personal epiphanies here, just a lot of thoughts and doubts that get stirred up but not resolved. All of which is perhaps a bit of a surprise in the third book of a series which, up to this point, could probably be fairly described as simple escapist fun. But I think it works. ( )

Excellent series. Each story is stand alone, but the more you read, the more the background of the world and the recurring characters develops. Well written, funny and highly recommended ( )