Vlad
5 primary works • 10 total works
Book 8
As a human and an Easterner, Vlad Taltos has survived in the decadent, sinister city of Adrilankha by practicing the trade he knows best - killing people for a living. His skill as an assassin, and the timely intervention of his telepathic winged-lizard companion, Loiosh, have won him a relatively safe post in House Jhereg, running the rackets for a section of the great city. But when a powerful Dragaeran Dragonlord commands him to track down an enchanted weapon of great power - before it has even been stolen - Vlad finds himself inexorably drawn to the last place he wants to be, a total war on an apocalyptic scale between two sorcerous armies, where he must play a crucial role without a clue as to what is expected of him. Only his cunning wit and well-earned distrust of all things magical stand between Vlad and a most unpleasant demise.
Book 10
Vlad Taltos, short-statured, short-lived human in an Empire of tall, long-lived Dragaerans, has always had to keep his wits about him. Long ago, he made a place for himself as a captain of the Jhereg, the noble house that runs the rackets in the great imperial city of Adrilankha. But love, revolution, betrayal, and revenge ensued, and for years now Vlad has been a man on the run, struggling to stay a step ahead of the Jhereg who would kill him without hesitation. Now Vlad's back in Adrilankha. The rackets he used to run are now under the control of the mysterious "Left Hand of the Jhereg" -a secretive cabal of women who report to no man. His ex-wife needs his help. His old enemies aren't sure whether they want to kill him, or talk to him and then kill him. A goddess may be playing tricks with his memory. And the Great Weapon he's carrying seems to have plans of its own. Picking up directly where "Issola" left off, "Dzuris" is Vlad Taltos at his best-crackling, swashbuckling adventure fantasy with edge.
Book 14
Years ago, Vlad Taltos came from the East, to make his way as a human amidst the impossibly tall, fantastically long-lived natives of the Dragaeran Empire. He joined the Jhereg, the Dragaeran House (of which there are seventeen) that handles the Empire's vices: gambling, rackets, organized crime. He became a professional assassin. He was good at it. But that was then, before Vlad and the Jhereg became mortal enemies. For years, Vlad has run from one end of the Empire to the other, avoiding the Jhereg assassins who pursue him. Now, finally, he's back in the imperial capital where his family and friends are. He means to stay there this time. Whatever happens. And whatever it takes.
Book 16
First comes love. Then comes marriage…
Vlad Taltos is in love. With a former assassin who may just be better than he is at the Game. Women like this don’t come along every day and no way is he passing up a sure bet.
So a wedding is being planned. Along with a shady deal gone wrong and a dead man who owes Vlad money. Setting up the first and trying to deal with the second is bad enough. And then bigger powers decide that Vlad is the perfect patsy to shake the power structure of the kingdom.
More's the pity that his soul is sent walkabout to do it.
How might Vlad get his soul back and have any shot at a happy ending? Well, there’s the tale…
Vlad Taltos is in love. With a former assassin who may just be better than he is at the Game. Women like this don’t come along every day and no way is he passing up a sure bet.
So a wedding is being planned. Along with a shady deal gone wrong and a dead man who owes Vlad money. Setting up the first and trying to deal with the second is bad enough. And then bigger powers decide that Vlad is the perfect patsy to shake the power structure of the kingdom.
More's the pity that his soul is sent walkabout to do it.
How might Vlad get his soul back and have any shot at a happy ending? Well, there’s the tale…
Book 17
Another Opening…Another Cataclysm?
Vlad Taltos is on the run. Again. This time from one of the most powerful forces in his world, the Left Hand, who are intent on ending his very lucrative career. Permanently.
He finds a hidey-hole in a theatre where the players are putting on a show that was banned centuries ago…and is trying to be shut down by the House that once literally killed to keep it from being played.
Vlad will take on a number of roles to save his own skin. And the skins of those he loves.
And along the way, he might find a part that was tailor-made for him.
One that he might not want…but was always his destiny.
Vlad Taltos is on the run. Again. This time from one of the most powerful forces in his world, the Left Hand, who are intent on ending his very lucrative career. Permanently.
He finds a hidey-hole in a theatre where the players are putting on a show that was banned centuries ago…and is trying to be shut down by the House that once literally killed to keep it from being played.
Vlad will take on a number of roles to save his own skin. And the skins of those he loves.
And along the way, he might find a part that was tailor-made for him.
One that he might not want…but was always his destiny.
Once, Vlad Taltos knew his trade: he killed people for a living. That skill got him his foothold in House Jhereg, running the rackets for a chunk of urban Adrilankha. Later things happened, leaving Vlad a changed man, on the run from the Jhereg, and frequently involved in the affairs of Dragonlords, Empresses, and even Jenoine. Far more involved than the average short-lived human. Meanwhile in the very distant past, one of the gods fashioned an artefact - a silver tiassa. To Devera the Wanderer, it's a pretty toy to play with. To Vlad, it's a handy prop for a con he's running. To the Empire, it's a tool to be used against the Jenoine. And to the Jhereg, it's a trap to kill Vlad. As it happens, however, the silver tiassa has it's own agenda.
The first seven of "Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos" novels have long been in print from Ace Books in a set of three trade paperback omnibuses. Now Tor, publisher of the series from book eight on, continues the series of omnibuses by putting Dragon and Issola into print in that format. In "Dragon", Vlad finds himself in the last place any self-respecting assassin wants to be: the army. Worse, he's in the middle of an apocalyptic battle between two sorcerous armies, and everyone expects him to perform a role that they won't explain. Vlad may kill people for a living, but this is ridiculous. All he's got to rely on are his wits...and a smart-mouthed winged lizard. In "Issola", Vlad's aristocratic friends Morrolan and Aliera have disappeared, and according to the eldritch (but affable) Sethra Lavode, they may be in the hands of the Jenoine - the mysterious beings who made the world of the Dragaera Empire and its surroundings, and who may have come from somewhere else. Oh, well, what's life without the occasional cosmic battle with beings who control time and space?
NO. 11 OF
Fresh from the collapse of his marriage, and with the criminal Jhereg organization out to eliminate him, Vlad decides to hide out among his relatives in faraway Fenario. All he knows about them is that their family name is Merss and that they live in a papermaking industrial town called Burz.At first Burz isn't such a bad place, though the paper mill reeks to high heaven. But the longer he stays there, the stranger it becomes. No one will tell him where to find his relatives. Even stranger, when he mentions the name Merss, people think he's threatening them. The witches' coven that every Fenarian town and city should have is nowhere in evidence. And the Guild, which should be protecting the city's craftsmen and traders, is an oppressive, all-powerful organization, into which no tradesman would ever be admitted.Then a terrible thing happens. In its wake, far from Draegara, without his usual organization working for him, Vlad is going to have to do his sleuthing amidst an alien people: his own.
NO. 9 OF 1
In 1998, Steven Brust's hugely popular "Vlad Taltos" fantasy adventure series, the previous volumes of which had all appeared as paperback originals, finally moved to hardcover with the publication of Dragon, which went on to be Brust's bestselling hardcover. Now Brust returns to the world of Vlad for a swashbuckling tale that sheds long-delayed light on the very fundamentals of Dragaera and its origins. Vlad Taltos, a sometimes assassin currently on the run from his former associates, is tracked down in his jungle hideout by a most improbable party: Lady Teldra, the infinitely charming chatelaine of Castle Black. Teldra has come to enlist Vlad's help. His friends Morrolan e'Drien and Aliera e'Kieron have vanished, and neither sorcery nor telepathy can find them. Vlad once rescued Morrolan and Aliera from the realm of the Gods. That was hard enough. But now it looks like Morrolan and Aliera are in the hands of the Jenoine: those inscrutable and immeasurably powerful beings who long ago were the makers of Dragaers and the masters of its gods.
NO. 12 OF
House Jhereg, Dragaera's organized-crime syndicate, is still hunting Vlad Taltos. There's a big price on his head in Dragaera City. Then he hears disturbing news. Aliera - long time friend, sometime ally - has been arrested by the Empire on a charge of practicing elder sorcery, a capital crime. It doesn't make sense. Everybody knows Aliera's been dabbling in elder sorcery for ages. Why is the Empire down on her now? Why aren't her powerful friends - Morrolan, Sethra, the Empress Zerika - coming to her rescue? And more to the point, why has she utterly refused to do anything about her own defense? It would be idiotic of Vlad to jump into this situation. He's a former Jhereg who betrayed the House. He's an Easterner - small, weak, short-lived. He's being sought by the most remorseless killers in the world. Naturally, that's exactly why he's going to get completely involved...