Taltos

Vlad Taltos, Book 4

By: Steven Brust

Narrated by: Bernard Setaro Clark

Lord Vlad Taltos returns in the prequel to Jhereg, Yendi and Teckla. In this fantastic adventure, listeners learn what really happened when Vlad found himself walking the Paths of the Dead.

Set in the earliest days of Vlad's career in the Organization, Vlad receives a job from the Dragonlord Morrolan. A second timeline chronicles the details of Vlad's development through childhood and into his early career in the Organization.

©1988 Steven K. Z. Brust (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

One of the Greats

Brust is my Favorite author and this book is one of his best. beautiful world building, fun, engaging characters and an interesting writing style that will keep you turning the pages, so to speak. I cannot recommend this enough

Vlad's begining in the Organization

In the 4th installment of Vlad's adventures he finds himself on the Paths of the Dead. We also find out how Vlad got a hold of Spell Breaker (the chain he carry's that will dispel magic that is thrown at it). As we all know every assassin must have a first job and we get to see how Vlad began his carrier.

boring narrative

monotone narration but delightful story. kept me guessing and wondering how they were going to resolve their problem. very fun read.

Walk the path again?

This is my second go through and this time I'm doing it by publication date not timeline. If you read in order od publication this is confusing. That being said you know the characters and it is nice to see their original adventure.
Wonderful look of how an Easterner handles the Elves in their own setting.

Lots of backstory about Vlad

3.5 stars. Originally posted at Fantasy Literature.

Taltos is the fourth novel in Steven Brust’s series about Vlad Taltos, a human crime boss in the fantasy world of Dragaera, where humans are short of stature and lifespan compared to the species that rule the world. Taltos is actually a prequel to the previous novels (Jhereg, Yendi, Teckla) in which Vlad tells us about an incident that happened years ago while he was solidifying his reputation as a new crime lord. One of his lackeys tried to cheat him, so Vlad went after him instead of letting the guy get away because he didn’t want to seem weak to his rivals. The man fled to Castle Black, an elusive floating castle owned by the Dragonlord Morrolan. Vlad followed. This is how he met some of the main characters who we already know from the previous novels, including Morrolan, the powerful sorceress Sethra Lavode, and the Dragon Heir Aliera. Together they have a grand adventure which involves stealing magical artifacts, walking the Paths of the Dead, and performing a dangerous bit of witchcraft.

While Vlad is telling us about this adventure, he also provides flashbacks which describe his childhood with his family, how he eventually left home to begin a career as another crime lord’s minion, and how he rose in the organization by being clever and daring. We learn a lot about Vlad’s father and grandfather, and the fact that Vlad doesn’t know who his mother is (which is bound to be important later). In this timeline we also witness when Vlad met, for the first time, Kiera, the thief who is Vlad’s friend, and Kragar, his current partner in crime.

Brust does a great job of interweaving these separate plot lines and giving us a lot of backstory about Vlad as well as much of the information about Dragaera that I felt like I had been missing so far. Also, the story gives us further hints about why Vlad, who’s merely an Easterner human, may be important to the Dragaeran society.

Vlad Taltos has a great voice and he’s a fun character, as is his familiar Loiosh, the jhereg. They make a great team and it’s fun to listen to them banter with each other. Brust’s prose is easily readable and each book I’ve read so far (the first four) are quick action-packed reads. I’m listening to the audio versions produced by Audible Studios. I love Bernard Setaro Clark in this role. He’s got just the right voice and pace. The audiobook is 6.25 hours long.

You could easily read Taltos before reading the other novels. If you’re the type of reader who would rather go in internal chronological order, I’d suggest picking this up first. Taltos is a must-read for fans of the VLAD TALTOS series because it gives us a lot of backstory while being just as much fun as the previous books.

Yay! WAY better than book 3 was...

WHEW! After the disappointment in book three, I was hesitant to read this one, but since I had already bought it, and was looking for something different to read, I picked it up. Turns out I didn't need to worry. It is somewhere between very good like book one and pretty good like book 2. It is nothing like the waste of time book 3 was.

No big surprises... the main character has a 'problem' to solve, he teams up with another character and they go solve it. Little bit of fighting, little bit of suspense, little bit of world development, quite a bit of character development...

All in all? Well, I will read the next book in the series.

Best book so far in series, in my opinion

Loved books one and two, I disliked 3 so much, I returned it. This fourth book was great my favorite so far in the series. Great quest, excellent background on my favorite characters.

Another great book!

Steven does a fantastic job of spreading out hints and clues about all of his characters that are spread out in his books. So you get the ahh effect when you put everything together.

Redemption for author Steven Brust! 😱

If you've seen my reviews there was a general decline, in my opinion, in the quality of Mr. Brust's work books 1 thru 3. But this second prequel is well written, nicely paced, and interesting. 😱

one of my favorites!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I have read this series in print and recommended it to many people I enjoyed it equally in Audio format.