Reviews

Tiassa by Steven Brust

mary_soon_lee's review

4.0

This is the thirteenth book in the Vlad Taltos fantasy series by Steven Brust, a series I’ve been enjoying greatly. Though the series stays centered on the eponymous Vlad Taltos, a human assassin in a society dominated by far longer-lived Dragaerans, there is considerable variety in how individual books are told. This thirteenth book breaks into sections that take place years apart, moving adeptly through various point of view characters, with only about one third of the book being narrated by Vlad himself. As per usual, I enjoyed it very much. I’m very attached to Vlad. I like Brust’s various storytelling styles. Significant spoiler warning:

Spoiler

I liked how this time Cawti gets to help Vlad, and I especially liked the way this book connects to an earlier arc about Savn.

Since I’m currently away from my computer and typing this one-fingered while on vacation, I’ll leave it at that. Four out of five adroit stars.

About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).

suzemo's review

4.0

I quite liked this book. It jumps through different timelines, and instead of Vlad being the plucky random mystery solver, we get Khaavren pulling a Vlad in the second half of the book (different timeline, tho).

You *almost* don't have to have read previous books, though I think it is for the best. I appreciated Vlad taking a side role for a good portion of the book.

Some of the dialogue is tedious to read through, but the book doesn't suffer too much from it.

mehitabels's review

2.0

A mixture of Paarfi (??) and Vlad, didn't carry as well as I could like, although some long missing characters made a sweet appearance.

aleffert's review

4.0

This was a great time. Lots of excitement, a nice little mystery, the conjunction of characters from different groups of books. Excellent Brust book.

mikehex's review

5.0

Re-read getting ready to read Hawk.

I enjoyed this MUCH more than what I remember of the first time. I think I hadn't gotten through all the Paarfi novels, so the Khaavren/Daro scenes make much more sense. But, I just loved the Cawti developments. I don't remember any of that.

This book, even more than Athrya, is about what does Vlad look like from outside his own head. I found it fascinating.

stephanlv's review

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

waclements7's review

2.0

I really didn’t like the style of the third story. I think I will avoid the Khaavren romances.

jensbrede's review

3.0

Some of my general thoughts on the Taltos series can be found here.

avery_switch's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

composed's review

4.0

I really enjoyed the section written from the perspective of a Draegaran historian. I just found that approach to time and politeness deeply funny this many books in. It doesn’t always work to break up a long series and make it more interesting with different perspectives, but I thought this book did that effectively.