Teckla
Sunday, February 5, 2006
Teckla (1987) Steven Brust
In case you were thinking that I love absolutely everything that Steven Brust has written, this book is the proof that I don’t.
Back to the continuing time-line, the book follows immediately after the events of Jhereg. Unlike previous books, this story involves on the Jhereg, the jhereg, Cawti, Vlad, and various Easterners and Teckla. For me, the addition of Vlad’s grandfather, Niosh-pa, whom I like a lot, doesn’t make up for the fact that we spend no time with Morrolan and Aliera and Sethra in this book. In fact, we don’t even get to see Kiera.
Additionally, this book is about Vlad and Cawti’s marriage starting to fall apart. Cawti is at loose ends. Her partnership with Norathar ended with Norathar was reinstated to the Dragon house, became the Dragon heir, so Cawti has been looking for something to do while Vlad runs his business.
The problem is that Cawti become involved in a group seeking to end the oppression of Easterners and Teckla. This places Vlad and Cawti at odds, as the group attracts the attention of the Jhereg who run that area, and the Jhereg attempt to deal with this problem in the way they know best.
This is not a fun book. It’s a dark, angry, and unpleasant book. This doesn’t mean that it isn’t a good book, it is just not the book that I particularly want to read. Unfortunately, you must read this book to understand the events of later books. Skipping this book would be a serious mistake, however skipping this book as you reread the series, is perfectly fine. The writing and dialog remains excellent, as does the plotting. This is simply not a story that I enjoy reading.
In fact, I did a good deal of skimming, because the book is simply far darker and uglier than I want to deal with. As I said about Jhereg, the Vlad series is comfort reading for me, but this book is not comforting. In fact, Teckla reminds me of may least favorite Spenser book, A Catskill Eagle. In both books, the main character’s partner goes off the deep end, and takes the main character with her. Although I find less to dislike about Cawti than I do about Susan, I still find them both irritating in their respective books. I realize that we are supposed to find sympathy for Cawti, but I just don’t.
Though it was fun, seeing Khaavren for the first time, even if at the end of his career.
If you are reading the Vlad Taltos series for the first time, you must read this book to understand later books. And it is a well-written book. However, if you are expecting the light, fun romp of the previous two books, get used to disappointment.
Rating: 5/10
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