Scan barcode
A review by mafiabadgers
Vallista by Steven Brust
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
First read 12/2024
I wanted something light and fun to read, but it turns out this is Vlad book that gets into the details of time and space in this fictional multiverse. Lucky me. Brust is doing a Gothic mystery thing, centred around a big, weird house. Great direction to take the series. Unfortunately, it means Vlad isn't interacting with any of his usual friends, aside from a few scattered lines exchanged with Devera. It also means that everything is very mysterious, right up until the end, when it gets explained. Scooby-Doo can get away with not solving anything until the end, because it's twenty minutes long. This book is 350 pages. That's too much. It would have been much more satisfying to see certain bits of it solved along the way. I was enjoying it by the end, but it took far too long for me to reach that happy state. There were also times when Vlad's voice felt a bit, like, overdone, but I also burst out laughing at a few points, so.
It begins with a Jane Austen reference (Pride and Prejudice rather than Northanger Abbey, but ah well), and ends with Brontë. Each chapter title is a play on the name of some famous Gothic novel. I got just about all the ones I could reasonably be expected to get, so I'm quite happy with that. You can find a full list, along with some fairly comprehensive spoilers, here.
My Vlad Taltos reviews
Athyra
Orca
Dragon
Issola
Dzur
Jhegaala
Iorich
Tiassa
Hawk
Vallista
Tsalmoth
Lyorn
I wanted something light and fun to read, but it turns out this is Vlad book that gets into the details of time and space in this fictional multiverse. Lucky me. Brust is doing a Gothic mystery thing, centred around a big, weird house. Great direction to take the series. Unfortunately, it means Vlad isn't interacting with any of his usual friends, aside from a few scattered lines exchanged with Devera. It also means that everything is very mysterious, right up until the end, when it gets explained. Scooby-Doo can get away with not solving anything until the end, because it's twenty minutes long. This book is 350 pages. That's too much. It would have been much more satisfying to see certain bits of it solved along the way. I was enjoying it by the end, but it took far too long for me to reach that happy state. There were also times when Vlad's voice felt a bit, like, overdone, but I also burst out laughing at a few points, so.
It begins with a Jane Austen reference (Pride and Prejudice rather than Northanger Abbey, but ah well), and ends with Brontë. Each chapter title is a play on the name of some famous Gothic novel. I got just about all the ones I could reasonably be expected to get, so I'm quite happy with that. You can find a full list, along with some fairly comprehensive spoilers, here.
My Vlad Taltos reviews
Athyra
Orca
Dragon
Issola
Dzur
Jhegaala
Iorich
Tiassa
Hawk
Vallista
Tsalmoth
Lyorn