Status
Available
Call number
Series
Genres
Publication
Ace Books (New York, 1993). 1st edition, 1st printing. 243 pages. $4.99.
Description
Steven Brust is the author of numerous fantasy novels, including Jhereg, Yendi, Teckla, and Orca. He lives in Minneapolis.
User reviews
LibraryThing member hrissliss
Vlad Taltos--sorceror, sometimes witch, and former assassin--and his faithful jhereg take on the biggest hitters of the House of the Jhereg.
Written from the eyes of a Teckla peasant, this is the first story following Vlad after he escapes Adrilankha. Getting an outside view of Vlad is interesting.
Written from the eyes of a Teckla peasant, this is the first story following Vlad after he escapes Adrilankha. Getting an outside view of Vlad is interesting.
Show More
It brought back one of the older villians, too, so despite the fact that everything is different, there's still the thread coming from the previous books. I didn't enjoy it as much as I did the first books - the dialogue/themes are less light, and since we're just getting the interpretation of someone who isn't too experienced with the assassin's art, there's a lot of the book that feels somewhat muddled. Better on the reread. 6/10 Show Less
LibraryThing member emmelisa
This seems to be the Vlad Taltos book that many readers have trouble absorbing, since it is so very unlike the other books in the series. Written in the third person and entirely from the perspective of Savn, a young Dragaeran of the House of the Teckla, this is our first chance to see Vlad more or
Show More
less as other characters in his world may see him. Whereas the other novels have all been filtered through Vlad's own consciousness, here the narrator can't make the sort of excuses or justifications for Vlad's actions that all of us make when we tell our own stories. The book deals with many themes, among them the way in which our actions now can shape what happens to us later in ways we don't expect. One of the ripples from something Vlad did years ago has spread forward to the present, and has become large enough to drown him unless he's lucky. Brust also gives us a look at the effects of Vlad's actions on other people, especially on innocent bystanders whose lives are forever altered simply because Vlad was where he was and did what he did. The picture isn't pretty, even though this is easily Vlad's most heroic action to this point in the series: this is one assassination that really does need to happen, that does remove a genuine menace and not just a Jhereg who's inconveniencing other Jheregs. As well as writing a damned fine story, Brust seems to be using this novel to make the point that all heroism is more or less tragic. For Savn, and for Vlad, the results are real, and they are painful, and they can't ever be made wholly right. A writer whose character is faced with this understanding must either allow that character to grow and become more fully realized, or make him reject the knowledge and become a puppet figure for the author to pose as he wishes. By the end of the novel, Brust's choice for Vlad is clear. Show Less
LibraryThing member silentq
Brust plays with the format of this novel as well, telling it all from the perspective of a young man named Savn. It was actually a bit of a shock to hear Vlad refer to Savn as a Teckla, the boy's a farmer learning to heal going about his life until Vlad upsets his mental equilibrium. Savn spots
Show More
Vlad as the latter comes into town, and is drawn to him. The two jhereg are more mysterious in this book, the peasants don't connect them to Vlad until near the end, but we get a short bit from the female's perspective in each chapter. Liosh's name isn't used until near the end, nor is Vlad's title; one of the novel's themes is understanding, and it highlights how set in my mind I can become when I have a label or name to place on a character. With Vlad previously defining himself as an assassin, I saw all his actions through that filter, expecting him to be killing people left right and center. Seeing him as a mysterious stranger, an Easterner, a witch, someone holding strange views of the local lord, gave a new perspective on his character. Show Less
LibraryThing member TadAD
Not good...unfortunately, a necessary read to keep going with the story line. The use of a third-party narrator causes the book to lose a lot of the interest of its predecessors. Vlad is a total mess emotionally. I almost quit the series here.
I find myself wondering how much is due to the reported
Just bull through and on to Orca.
I find myself wondering how much is due to the reported
Show More
fact that Brust had intended to end the series with Phoenix but popular demand forced a Holmesian return.Just bull through and on to Orca.
Show Less
LibraryThing member hannah.aviva
I really enjoyed reading a Vlad novel narrated by someone else. Throughout the climax, I kept wondering when Savn would remember to try to make psionic contact. It's strange to me that this book was not called Teckla, as it seemed to show more about their life then that of the Athyra. I liked the
Show More
balance between emotion and logic in Savn's character. It was also very interesting to see things from Rocza's perspective. Although I would have expected her to have a closer relationship to Vlad. I also enjoyed the rural outdoors setting as a nice change from Adrilankha. Show Less
LibraryThing member iayork
Medicine and Killing by Trial-and-Error: Fans of the somewhat self-mocking, ironic Vlad Taltos, his mental gymnastics and impossible feats of working his way out of tight corners, will, I'm afraid, be somewhat disappointed with this book. Unlike all the previous books in this series, this one is
Beyond these interesting side-lights, the story itself is a pretty straight-forward tale of Vlad planning and executing a revenge against the local undead sorcerer lord. But since we don't get to see inside Vlad's head, the picture of the action is fuzzy, and worse yet, lacking in the humor that suffuses the earlier books in this series, most especially the ironic back-and-forth between Vald and his jhereg familiar Loiosh. Instead we get some looks inside the thought processes of Loiosh's mate Rocza. As she is basically a wild jhereg, not familiar with the ways of man, this view of the happenings is also fuzzy. We do get to see, to a degree, just how Vlad appears to the average person of this world, but it is not a very illuminating view.
Thus, other than some interesting background material about this world and its ways, I found none of the things that made the earlier books an engrossing and entertaining read. As this story is not important to later books, other than the introduction of Savn, who plays a minor role in the next book, Orca, this one can safely be skipped.
--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Show More
not told from Vlad's viewpoint, but rather instead is done in third person and mainly from the viewpoint of Savn, a young (70 year old) Teckla lad. Savn, apprenticed to the local physicker, gets caught up into Vlad's orbit by a chance meeting on the road, and is soon called upon to determine the cause of death of a traveling distributor that Vlad knows. This section is interesting, showing how much can be learned about such things merely by close observation and careful thinking, somewhat in the mode of Sherlock Holmes. But it also points up a major failing of Brust's imagined world - although the various denizens of this world (except for the Easteners like Vlad) live for a very long time, I found it very hard to believe that someone who has already lived for 70 years would display the level of naivete and ignorance of basic human interactions displayed by Savn. Savn later gets a chance to use his medical skills to save the life of Vlad - and once more there are some interesting points brought forward about how knowledge is accumulated in this world. Use the scientific method? That might be difficult in a world where sorcery, witchcraft, telepathy, and walking undead are real - how can you believe your results? An older method is assumed here - if a particular procedure works once, that result is passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation, although it is quite possible that the method may have extra steps that have no relevance to its actual success. Beyond these interesting side-lights, the story itself is a pretty straight-forward tale of Vlad planning and executing a revenge against the local undead sorcerer lord. But since we don't get to see inside Vlad's head, the picture of the action is fuzzy, and worse yet, lacking in the humor that suffuses the earlier books in this series, most especially the ironic back-and-forth between Vald and his jhereg familiar Loiosh. Instead we get some looks inside the thought processes of Loiosh's mate Rocza. As she is basically a wild jhereg, not familiar with the ways of man, this view of the happenings is also fuzzy. We do get to see, to a degree, just how Vlad appears to the average person of this world, but it is not a very illuminating view.
Thus, other than some interesting background material about this world and its ways, I found none of the things that made the earlier books an engrossing and entertaining read. As this story is not important to later books, other than the introduction of Savn, who plays a minor role in the next book, Orca, this one can safely be skipped.
--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Show Less
LibraryThing member Herenya
I was expecting that Athyra would be a book I just had to get through to reach the rest of the series on the other side. I was not expecting to like it so much.
(I'm not sure now of all the reasons I was so reluctant to read this. I certainly wasn't enthusiastic about a third-person narrative, from
Athyra is about Savn, a young Teckla (young by Dragearan standards, not human ones) who finds himself at odds with his community after he helps an outsider (Vlad). It's a really solid coming-of-age story, and focusing on Savn rather than Vlad makes a lot of sense - Savn is more of an active player, especially after Vlad is injured.
There's an interesting tension, too, in realising that what is best for Vlad is not necessarily what is best for Savn - and wanting what is best for both of them, simultaneously.
The ending of Athyra is a punch in the gut that I did not see coming… and it meant I had to read Orca immediately.
Why am I doing this? he wondered, and the answer came as quickly as he’d formed the question.
If he ignored Vlad, he’d never learn anything more, and what he’d learned felt like a door that had opened just enough to let him see that on the other side was a place he desperately wanted to visit, maybe even to live. And he knew he would always berate himself for cowardice if he let himself be driven away from the Easterner.
(I'm not sure now of all the reasons I was so reluctant to read this. I certainly wasn't enthusiastic about a third-person narrative, from
Show More
the perspective of a new character - half the appeal of these books is Vlad's first-person narration, and if you lose that, you also lose his sense of humour and his psionic conversation with his Jhereg familiar, Loiosh. And because Vlad had to leave the city of Adrilankha at the end of Phoenix, the chances of many, if any, of his friends turning up in Athyra, were remote. Possibly I'd also read a less-than-glowing review or two.)Athyra is about Savn, a young Teckla (young by Dragearan standards, not human ones) who finds himself at odds with his community after he helps an outsider (Vlad). It's a really solid coming-of-age story, and focusing on Savn rather than Vlad makes a lot of sense - Savn is more of an active player, especially after Vlad is injured.
There's an interesting tension, too, in realising that what is best for Vlad is not necessarily what is best for Savn - and wanting what is best for both of them, simultaneously.
The ending of Athyra is a punch in the gut that I did not see coming… and it meant I had to read Orca immediately.
Why am I doing this? he wondered, and the answer came as quickly as he’d formed the question.
If he ignored Vlad, he’d never learn anything more, and what he’d learned felt like a door that had opened just enough to let him see that on the other side was a place he desperately wanted to visit, maybe even to live. And he knew he would always berate himself for cowardice if he let himself be driven away from the Easterner.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jrg1316
My least favorite of the series so far. Much of the story is told from a Teckla named Savn's point of view, and he isn't all that interesting. Overall disappointing.
LibraryThing member TheDivineOomba
I'm doing a re-read of all the novels in Steven Brust's Dragaeran Universe. This one so far is the most different of the books featuring Vlad Taltos. Written more of an actual fantasy novel, and in the point of view of a young Teckla, Sven, we see Vlad in a completely different light - a man of a
This is also the most heartbreaking of the novels. I'm not going to ruin the ending, but its the first book in this series where the horrors of the death and violence affected me personally.
Show More
different species, full of mystery and wonder, with an odd sense of honor that isn't quite trustworthy.This is also the most heartbreaking of the novels. I'm not going to ruin the ending, but its the first book in this series where the horrors of the death and violence affected me personally.
Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1993-04
Physical description
243 p.; 7 inches
ISBN
9780441033423
Similar in this library
Orca by Steven Brust