Jhegaala

Jhegaala (2008) Steven Brust

First things first, I love Steven Brust, and I love the Vlad Taltos books.

That said, this is not anywhere close to being one of my favorite books in the series.

Jhegalla is set between the events of Phoenix and Athyra. We learn some of what happened to Vlad after he and Cawti divorced, and he went East to hide from the Jhereg. We know something bad happened, because those events are alluded to in later books, but we never knew precisely what happened, until now.

Despite my love of all things Vlad, this books feels much like Teckla (one of my least favorite Vlad books) did. It doesn’t feel like a Vlad story as much as it feels like Steven Brust working through his own issues through Vlad.

That doesn’t mean this was a horrible book, after all Steven Brust remains a master of dialogue and story telling, but it didn’t draw me in the way other books in the series have. I wanted to know what happened to Vlad, and I enjoy the banter between Vlad and Liosh, but this is not a book I would recommend to someone interested in starting the series.

Of course Vlad fans will want to learn what happened to him during those missing years, but if you’ve heard good things about the Vlad Taltos series, begin at Jhereg. You’ll eventually want to read Jhegaala to fill in the missing pieces, but if you begin here I fear you won’t want to read more of the series.
Rating: 7/10

Characters: Vlad, Liosh, Spellbreaker, Count Saekeresh, Barash Orbahn

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